Steve Demaree - Dekker 09 - Murder on a Blind Date Read Online Free PDF

got off
the phone and let Sam go to work. There wasn't anything for me to do except
read, watch movies, or worry. I thought about calling Lou back to see if his
kidnapper let him take a book along, and if so which one. Instead I set a
little time aside to worry, hoped that Lou had found a way out of that house,
and that it wasn't far to the next house. An hour later I had decided that Lou
was being held in the only house on an island. He hadn't called me back to tell
me he had successfully escaped. I wondered if the kidnapper returned before Lou
found a way out. I wondered if the kidnapper would be willing to call me if he
arrived before Lou got away. After all, it's only common courtesy to do so. And
then I wondered if the kidnapper was a man. Then my vision changed to Lou,
stumbling through the snow, having already lost one shoe, frostbite setting in,
with some deranged person throwing ears of corn at him, provided someone didn't
eat all of their corn before winter.
    The photo
Lou sent me wasn't of a bloody guy, partially beheaded. If I hadn't known he
was dead, he could just as well have been sleeping. So, I called Heather, asked
her if she knew what the missing guy looked like. She told me "no,"
but I sent her the picture and asked her to send it on to her cousin, who would
keep sending it on until someone could tell if the dead guy was the missing guy
or not. I knew he was a missing guy, but was he Heather's missing guy.
    We came
to a temporary dead-end. Heather's cousin's friend didn't have a Smart phone.
But that was only a temporary setback. Heather's cousin drove to her friend's
house, and showed her the picture. The guy she knew was still missing, and
maybe dead, but he wasn't this dead guy. At least that was a small victory.
Maybe our luck was about to change. But then it wouldn't change a lot as far as
I was concerned until Lou called to let me know that he was all right.
     
     

7
     
     
    The night
passed slowly. All of it. I tossed and turned all night long, wishing I had
some way of locating my friend. I decided to kill him if he was back at his
place and had forgotten to call me, but I wasn't willing to drive over there in
the middle of the night to find out. Maybe I should have called George and made
him go.  
    Monday
morning, as I was making a mess trying to fix breakfast, the phone rang. I was
hoping it was Lou, but I was willing to settle for anyone who could make my day
better. It turned out to be Heather, who could certainly make my day better on
a normal day. She informed me that the police in Lexington had another man who had turned up missing after going on
a blind date. They were in the process of seeing if there was any connection
between the two missing men. I asked Heather if she had names for the two men.
She did. She shared them with me and I wrote their names down.
    A few
minutes after I'd finished eating breakfast without dropping too much of it on
my shirt, the phone rang again. I was becoming a popular guy. All it took was
for a couple of guys to be missing.
    "Cy,
do retired guys get up this early?"
    "I've
been up for hours. So, do you have some news for me, Sam?"
    "Have
you ever found me to be lacking in solving your cases for you?"
    "Yes,
but sometimes you're able to stumble upon something helpful."
    "I'm
wondering if I should keep this to myself, but since Lou is a friend of mine
too, and I want to see the two of you reunited as soon as possible, I will tell
you what I've found out. I was finally able to zero in on Lou's phone. I can't
give you an exact location, but I've tracked him to somewhere in the Smoky Mountains ."
    "You're
kidding?"
    "You're
right. Actually, I tracked him to a conference with the Maharishi in Nepal , but I didn't think you'd believe
that story. Besides, it turns out neither of them wanted to be disturbed. Lou
was enlightening the Maharishi."
    "You
mean Yogi?"
    "Yes,
but not Bear or Berra."
    "So,
where is he really?"
    "Yogi's
dead. Died a few years ago, but he's