Free Finder's Fee by Alton Gansky Page A

began to cry.

twelve
    J udith struggled to focus. Terri’s startled scream still resonated in her mind. Luke had printed several documents: the boy’s picture, the Word document, an Internet-generated map of the house they planned to visit in Fresno, and the photos of themselves from years before.
    â€œThere has to be something we’re not seeing.” Luke shifted the papers on the small desk as if by rearranging them he would see them with new insight.
    â€œI can’t get past his eyes. Surely someone has been playing with the photo in the computer.” Judith picked up the color print of the boy named Abel Palek and saw the same dark hair, the same fair complexion, the same serious look, and the same lavender eyes.
    Lavender eyes. It made no sense. Judith had nothing more than high school biology but she was pretty sure purple eyes were unnatural. She had read novels where the author had described a character, usually the beautiful protagonist, as having violet eyes, but these were as purple as lilacs. “Maybe he’s wearing contacts?”
    â€œMaybe. I don’t think it’s possible for a human to have purple irises.”
    â€œWhy would someone fit a boy with colored contact lenses?”
    â€œMaybe he has a vision problem and the purple tint protects his retina. Maybe … maybe … I got nothing.” Luke leaned back and rubbed his eyes. “We’ll be landing soon and I hoped to have more info than we do.”
    â€œIf the Puppeteer wants us to find the boy, then why give us so little information?” Something else about the photo puzzled her.
    â€œPerhaps it’s all he has.”
    Judith didn’t agree. “He has too many resources. If he knows so much about us that he knows the secrets that would make us his marionettes, then how can he be so ignorant about this?”
    â€œI don’t have a clue.”
    Clue? Was that it?
    Judith shoved the photo across the table. “Can you zoom in on this?”
    â€œYou mean zoom in on some part of it? I can with the computer, but looking closer at his eyes isn’t going to help.”
    â€œI don’t want to see his eyes. I want to see the floor.”
    â€œYou’re not serious.”
    â€œI am. Just show me some of your computer kung-fu or whatever it is you do and give me a close-up of the floor.”
    Luke leaned over the table again and started tapping keys. In a few moments he had the picture on the screen displayed by photo soft ware. He turned it so Judith could see. He moved the cursor to the toolbar and tapped the icon of a magnifying glass. “Say when.” He tapped the icon again and the picture grew larger.
    Judith leaned in. “There’s something familiar about the floor.”
    â€œIt just looks like a wood floor; maybe one of those laminate jobs — ”
    â€œThat’s it!” Judith pulled the computer closer and took over the keyboard. She worked with computers every day. This wasn’t complicated. She zoomed in closer and closer. “This photo is unusually clear.”
    â€œIt’s a big file. Almost two megabytes.”
    â€œI don’t believe it.” Judith raised a hand to her mouth. “What are the odds?”
    â€œWhat do you see that I don’t?”
    Judith turned the laptop so Luke could see it. “You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned laminate.”
    â€œI don’t follow.”
    â€œHow do I explain this? There are different types of wood flooring and different ways of installing them. For example, a true wood floor is a series of narrow planks connected by a tongue and groove edge. The wood is glued if it’s being installed over a concrete substrate or toenailed if placed over a subfloor. Because the planks are true wood all the way through, it’s an expensive way to go but the floor usually lasts longer and is easier to repair.
    â€œMost laminate flooring consists of a thin layer