Free Chase Baker and the God Boy: (A Chase Baker Thriller Series Book No. 3) by Vincent Zandri Page A

Rajesh.”
    I nod. “It’s not all that different
for me. If I were to allow my imagination to take over and truly get used to
the idea of Elizabeth being alive…the possibilities…it could be heartbreaking
in the end.”
    “Yes, because what if she is alive,
and she rejects you once more?”
    “Like I said. I’d rather not think
about it.”
    She gently fingers the bronze key
hanging from my neck. “What’s this? Or am I not supposed to ask?”
    I explain its presence and the
letter that arrived along with it only last month.
    “Proof at last that Elizabeth
lives,” she adds.
    “Possibly. But if Elizabeth happens
to be alive and we do find her, it will be strictly business. After all, what
kind of woman doesn’t contact you for years, even if she did send me a key that
quite possibly unlocks the secrets to one of the most sought out statues in the
world? What kind of person does something like that?”
    Squeezing my hand again. “Perhaps a
selfish woman who doesn’t love you any longer. But also a woman who, at the
same time, still trusts you. Obviously, she doesn’t want the key getting into
Kashmiri’s hands and there’s only one person in the world who can make sure of
that.”
    Her words make my stomach hurt. Or
perhaps it’s all the Nepalese delights. But then, she’s right. If Elizabeth truly
loved me, she would not have allowed me to go on believing she was dead for as
long as she did. That’s cruel. It’s one thing to put one’s career over one’s
love life, but it’s another thing altogether to compound the pain of separation
by feigning death. But then, did she really feign death? Or did I just want to
believe she was dead?
    “If she’s out there, Chase,” Anjali
goes on, “we need to find her. She’s our direct link to the Kali Statue, the
location of the diamond deposit, Kashmiri and, most importantly, Rajesh.”
    “It’s likely we’ll find all of the
above at the same time. But, you’re right. For now, the most logical person to
seek out is Elizabeth. If I were Kashmiri, I’d keep the boy hidden inside a
cell or a box or somewhere no one can get to him. He is precious cargo. More
precious than the diamonds. Elizabeth, on the other hand, she will be found out
in the open, digging, searching, proving her usefulness to Kashmiri until she
can prove it no longer. But where to start looking? That’s the ten million
dollar question.”
    Coming from outside, loud
rapid-fire explosions. My senses perk up.
    “What’s that?” Anjali poses, panic
in her voice. “It sounds like gunfire.”
    “Calm down.” Slipping out of bed, I
head for the window in my birthday suit. “That’s not gunfire. That’s a sound
I’ve been listening to all my life. It’s a ninety-pound jackhammer.” Pulling
back the curtain on the picture window. Outside in the Kathmandu Guest House courtyard,
a crew of construction workers are chewing up the existing concrete sidewalk
with a jackhammer and a JVC excavator. That’s when it hits me over head.
    “Excavators,” I say.
    “Excuse me?”
    Turning.
    “Excavators. It’s possible we might
find Elizabeth’s location from an excavator….a digger. They’re an essential
part of any archeological dig. I should know. I used to be one of them. Only we
didn’t call ourselves excavators. We called ourselves sandhogs.”
    “Sandhogs,” she repeats like I’ve
just said something entirely foreign. “But there must be a thousand diggers and
excavators and sandhogs , as you call them, in Nepal. What are the
chances of us finding the one man who knows where Elizabeth Flynn is presently
unearthing the Golden Kali Statue?”
    Returning to the bed, I sit down on
the mattress, start putting on my clothes.
    “I think I know a man who can
help.”
    “You don’t sound very encouraged—or
enthused—by the thought.”
    “That’s because I’m not very
enthused by the idea of contacting him. But he’s our best bet