No Way Back(Jack McNeal #1)(10)
Finks returned with a coffee just after five a.m.
McNeal sat sullenly, staring at a wall.
“Black okay?”
“Fine, thanks. You find anything?”
Finks slumped in a seat opposite. “We’re not enjoying this any more than you.”
McNeal nodded.
“We’ll give you a list of the items we removed.”
McNeal gulped some hot coffee. “It’s not a problem.”
“My colleague, who you spoke to earlier, is speaking with our superiors in DC. Just so you know, forensics have now copied all the data from your electronic devices found here in New York and in Westport. They’ll be analyzing everything over the next day or two, including your cell phone records. You know the drill.”
“Could take a while.”
Finks nodded. “Probably.”
McNeal rubbed his hands over his face, trying to wake himself up. It was like a bad dream. “I don’t understand Caroline’s disappearance. It’s so out of character. What’s freaking me out is her valuables—her cell phone, laptop, and notebooks, all taken.”
Finks leaned back in his seat. “I’m guessing there’s a possibility she might’ve just wanted some space from her high-pressure job. Maybe disappear for a while. Catch up on some reading. Writing. Can you think of any place where she might have gone? A retreat, that kind of thing? Second home?”
McNeal racked his brain. He remembered a place her family owned. “She has a place in Catoctin Mountain Park. If she needed peace and quiet or had a deadline for a book, she’d head there.”
“Where’s that?”
“Not far from Camp David. Her father had a cabin there. I don’t have the address.”
Finks scribbled in his notepad. “The parents are dead, I believe.”
McNeal nodded.
“So, she has no living family or relatives?”
“None. Apart from me. She was an only child.”
“I appreciate the heads-up about the cabin.”
“Don’t know if Caroline uses it much these days.”
Finks stared at McNeal. “I’ve got a sensitive question to raise with you. And I apologize if it sounds uncaring. Harsh, even.”
“Shoot.”
“So far, we’ve taken notes but have no taped recording. None of this is on the record. We thought it important to win your trust in difficult circumstances.”
McNeal had thought it strange they hadn’t recorded their talk. He let it slide. “What’s on your mind?”
“We checked your estranged wife’s finances. We found her will at her house in Georgetown. It leaves everything in her estate to one person.”
McNeal shrugged. “No idea.”
“The sole beneficiary. You.”
“What’s your point?”
“My point is, she has three and a half million dollars in her bank account from the sales of her last two books and also stocks and shares valued at fifteen million dollars in today’s prices, inherited from her father. It means you’re rich.”
McNeal saw where this was headed. “You think because I would benefit financially that I’m somehow responsible for her disappearance?”
“Just laying out the facts. You know as well as I do, Jack, that’s a solid motive. You have a lot to gain.”
“She’s my wife! I loved her.”
“Your estranged wife. You said it yourself. She left you.”
“You’re building a case against me.”
“You want an attorney?”
“First things first. I want to know that my wife has been found, safe and well. Christ, I’m worried sick.”
“Like I said, we’re keeping it as low-key as we can. From our side as well as yours. It’d be like a feeding frenzy in the press if any of this got out.”
“Has the FBI been informed of this investigation?”
“We’re leading on this. That’s all I know.”
“What about DC police? Surely they need to be informed.”
“They will be.”
Alarm bells went off in McNeal’s head. “Wait a minute. Are you saying the DC police and the FBI don’t know my wife is missing?”
“I’m saying we’re leading on this.”
“Surely it’s standard protocol for the local cops and the Feds to be involved.”
“There are national security concerns. We don’t want every cop telling Fox News and CNN that a prominent DC journalist has gone missing. We’ll be talking with the FBI. Eventually.”
“Why the hell aren’t you talking with them now?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Bullshit.”
Finks’s cell phone began to vibrate on the desk, stopping the exchange in its tracks. “I thought I said I wasn’t to be disturbed?” He went quiet for a few moments. “When?” A pause. “Are we sure?” Finks ended the call and sighed, fixing his gaze on McNeal. “We’re headed to DC, Jack.”
“Why?”
“There’s been a development.”
“What kind of development?”
“I can’t say any more.”
As the Gulfstream took off for DC, McNeal sat alone at a table. He knew in his bones his wife was gone. He just knew. But no one would tell him anything.