The Hunted Read Online Free PDF Page B

trip in Colorado and was supposed to be home day before yesterday. When he didn’t show up, I called here to report it. They told me I had to wait forty-eight hours before he was considered missing.”
    Vork looked down at the form and scanned Lauren’s answers. “Six-one, one-ninety, brown hair, and hazel eyes. Thirty-eight years old?”
    “Thirty-nine in two weeks.”
    “Uh-huh, yup. Got that right here.” He turned the form over and hiked his eyebrows. “You’re a doctor?”
    “Psychologist.”
    Vork nodded, then put the form down and looked at Lauren. “So ... Colorado, you said?”
    “An old college frat buddy of his was starting some kind of cross-country-skiing tour company somewhere near Vail. This was supposed to be their first big trip, and he invited a bunch of his buddies to help him out, kind of like the maiden voyage or something.”
    The deputy nodded. “Then you knew—”
    “Excuse me, sir,” a young man said, poking his head through the door. “We’ve got a Channel Ten reporter here, he wants to ask you some questions about the Ellis case.”
    “Tell him I’ll be out as soon as I can.” Vork turned back to Lauren. “It’s a big case, people are all bent out of shape over that computer tycoon’s murder. Sorry about the interruption, ma’am.” The deputy reached over and picked up a pad and pen from the desk. “So you know where he went, then.”
    “Somewhere near Vail, that’s all I remember. They were going to be camping in the back country.”
    Vork nodded. “Okay. Did you know these people, these frat buddies he was going with?”
    “I never met them. And I don’t remember Michael talking about them much.”
    “Do you know which fraternity it was?”
    Lauren shook her head. “All I remember is that it was one I’d never heard of.”
    “What college did your husband go to? We can get a list of their fraternities and take it from there.”
    “It was some place back east. New York or New Jersey, I think.”
    “You don’t know where your husband went to college?”
    Lauren shifted in her chair. “We talked about it when we first met. It came up a couple other times when he told me how much he hated the humid summers. We’ve had a lot going on in our lives. The school he went to twenty years ago just wasn’t that important.”
    “What about the names of the people he went skiing with? Maybe a phone number?”
    “Michael said he was leaving me a note with everything on it. He called my office and said there was an accident on the freeway; and that he needed to leave right away so he didn’t miss his flight. He said he was writing it all down—his friend’s name and number, the flight number, everything. But I can’t find where he left it.”
    “So he never actually told you where he was going?”
    “He did, he gave me all the details, but when he called, I was rushing to go into an appointment with a patient who was late. I had patients scheduled back-to-back so I had to get the session started. I scribbled his information down somewhere, but I can’t remember where.” She looked down at her lap. “I must sound like a complete idiot.”
    “Not at all, Doctor. I’m sure if it was something you felt was important at the time, you’d remember where you wrote it. But he said he was leaving you all the information, right?”
    Lauren nodded, then looked at Vork. “I got home late that night and was exhausted. I looked for his note, but I couldn’t find it. I figured he’d be home in a few days, I never thought—” She put a hand up to her mouth and stifled a cry.
    “Here,” Vork said, handing her a tissue. “Take a minute to get yourself together.”
    Lauren wiped her eyes. “I’m fine. I’m sorry.”
    “That’s okay, I understand.” The deputy scratched at his ear for a second. “I have to be honest with you, though. A lot of these missing husband cases are just some straying from the hive, if you follow my meaning...”
    “Straying ... you mean