Free THE LAST BOY by ROBERT H. LIEBERMAN Page A

in on this thing.” He held his hands out and slowly brought them together as though narrowing a gap.
    “What exactly does that mean?”
    “I got ahold of Bea Bruce—”
    Molly perked up.“And?”
    Tripoli shook his head.“She didn’t know anything. Neither did her girl. I got ahold of the Ruzickas. But you already talked to them, so I hear.”
    “Okay, so what do we do now?”
    “Sit tight.”
    “That's what everybody keeps saying. Sit tight. Hang in there. Wait.” She could feel herself getting angry, and fought to stifle the bitterness.
    “I’ve got three investigators out canvassing the whole town and questioning everybody—including the other kids from the daycare,” he said. Then he turned quietly thoughtful.“Look, do you have any idea of where your boy might go if he wanted to leave home?”
    “ Danny? Hell, you couldn’t pry him away from me.”
    “Is there some place he might have talked about wanting to go—you know, kids get all kinds of ideas.”
    “He kept going on about fishing this morning. But he’d never…”
    “Fishing where?”
    “We always go to the reservoir.”
    Tripoli lifted an eyebrow.“Reservoir?”
    “Not a chance. Anyway, he was tired of that and wanted to go fishing in the lake.” For an instant she was assaulted by the vivid image of Danny in a row boat drifting out on the dark, snowy lake. “Come on, there's no way he could get down to the lake. He's justa little boy.” She could hear the element of uncertainty creeping into her own voice. Tripoli said nothing for a few moments.
    “The boy's father—” he began.
    “Chuck? Chuck? ” She gave a loud laugh.“My ex-husband? You think he took Danny?”
    “I don’t know,” said Tripoli.
    “Let me tell you about Chuck. He took off the day Danny was born. We’re talking almost five years now, and I’ve never heard from him since—that's how much he cared about Danny! I couldn’t even find him to serve the papers for a divorce. Do you really think he's going to come back to claim a kid he's never even seen?”
    “Anything's possible. I’ve got to explore every lead.”
    “You got a cigarette?” she asked.
    He reached into his breast pocket, then caught himself. “No. I don’t smoke anymore. If you want, I could get—”
    “Naw. Forget it. Gave it up myself. I just don’t know what to do with my hands.” She threw them up in the air and let them fall back into her lap.
    “Do you at least have any idea where Chuck might have gone?”
    “Not a clue.”
    He took out his pad.“What's his last name?”
    “Halliday. I used to be Halliday, too, but…well…”
    “Chuck Halliday. Hey, I know who that is,” said Tripoli. “He used to run that contracting business—”
    “Out of the back of his truck. Yup, that's the winner.”
    “Just took off, huh?”
    “Disappeared. Didn’t even leave a note. It was like aliens came in and plucked him up into outer space.”
    “Did you report him missing?”
    “Missing? Nobody was missing him! That jerk was still stretching rubber on our checking account and running up charges on our plastic.”
    “Any relatives?”
    “A mother in Cleveland. I tried calling her when I realized that he had taken off, but she didn’t know where he was—they hadn’t been talking for years. Nor had his uncle in Dallas. Or his cousin in Milwaukee. I’m telling you, the guy simply vanished into thin air.”
    Tripoli was hastily jotting notes. He looked up from his pad. “Left you high and dry?”
    “But not exactly empty handed.”
    A lot of guys could give you a baby, thought Tripoli, though he didn’t say anything.
    “And Danny's no ordinary kid. He's smart as a whip. He knows what he wants and he can wait for it. Plan for it.” She picked up his photo. Whenever she gazed at Danny's face, she couldn’t help seeing Chuck—whether she wanted to or not. Those dreamy eyes and long, long lashes—bedroom eyes, she used to call them when she still loved him.
    Tripoli