Silent City Read Online Free PDF Page B

dad,” Chaz said, his eyes on his drink. “We don’t have a great relationship. Sometimes it’s close to normal; other times, she acts like she wants me dead. I…I wasn’t much of a father to her when I was with her mom. I feel like it’s too late for me to go back and fix that. I just want to make sure she’s OK. Alive. Somewhere.”
    “OK, fair enough,” Pete turned his barstool to face Chaz. “Why me, though? Kathy and I aren’t friends. I mean, we’ve hung out from time to time. She used to be friendly with some friends of mine, but that’s it.”
    “Kathy has had some trouble fitting in at the Times,” Chaz said. “It’s hard to come in and not be considered some kind of golden child when your dad’s worked at the paper for years, so that made it hard for her to make friends.”
    Chaz took a quick sip from his beer. It was kicking in, Pete thought.
    “You know my daughter, and you’re smart,” Chaz said. “Before you came here, you had a pretty solid rep as reporter. A reporter known for finding things out, digging for information. You were good journalism. It’s not like I can afford a private eye. Not on my salary.”
    Pete tried to not let the compliment go to his head. He reminded himself that the Chaz Bentley sitting next to him was not the same one he’d read as a kid with his breakfast each morning.
    “There isn’t much to it,” Chaz said, looking at him. Pete could see that Chaz’s eyes were already bloodshot. “Everyone in that place resented her. You were nice and chatty a few times. She said you guys had some good conversations when you all went out. Whether you were trying to get her into bed, I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. What matters is you didn’t just hate her because she had my last name.”
    Pete paused for a second before responding, both of his hands on his pint.
    “I don’t know—I don’t buy it.”
    “What?”
    “Kathy’s a nice girl,” Pete said. “I like her. But I know she has friends, I know some of them myself. Just because I was nice to her at work and over a few drinks in the last year or so doesn’t qualify me to find her—if she’s actually missing, and not just avoiding you.”
    “You don’t think you can?”
    “That’s not what I’m saying,” Pete said. He felt himself beginning to ramble slightly. “I feel bad for you, and I want to help, I just don’t know why you’d come to me.”
    Chaz sighed and finished his beer. The bartender had lowered the music slightly and put on CNN.
    The usual mix of bad news and puff pieces was creating a buzz of background noise Pete was finding hard to avoid.
    “I don’t know anyone else,” Chaz said. “I don’t know who my daughter hangs out with. I barely know her boyfriend. You know both of them, might know some other people in their circles. You’re not a novice. You know how to follow logic and formulate theories—maybe for a newspaper article, but it’s the same ballpark. You could probably check her files—see if she was working on anything that might be worth reading or is alarming. That gives you more of a head start. I’m really just looking for someone to make a few calls and find out she’s fine. If after that, you’ve got nothing, I’ll have more reason to pressure the police. It’s not complicated.”
    “Fine,” Pete said.
    “What?”
    Nick the bartender walked over and refilled Pete’s glass. Chaz declined another beer with a quick nod as he waited for Pete to respond. He was tired of this conversation. Tired of talking to Chaz. Tired of the memories that it dredged up. Of a friend left behind, his father’s disappointment, his youth growing smaller in the rearview mirror. Maybe this was a chance to reconnect with a friend he’d thought lost forever. Or, the very least, a chance to do something, anything again. He thought about Kathy, her flirty smile over a few drinks, when their eyes would meet across a crowded table. What was the harm in helping this sad, old