Murray Hill || A Superhuman Tale - 1

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The next day was busy but largely unproductive.

Detective Thomas sent an early text notifying Tommy that she and Mueller had "something," but was otherwise vague. Tommy didn't press the issue. It likely was something the detectives wanted to share only in person.

While Sam was off getting coffee and donuts, Tommy tended to something that he'd put off for the last week. A 30-minute Internet search indicated that his old acquaintance Maxine Seifert was, in fact, still with the DoD, where she worked for the Inspector General's office. He managed to find a short bio of her that included a phone number and office address at a complex near the Pentagon. She once had owned a home in Alexandria, but another search showed that she'd parted with it several years before. He hesitated to call her at the office. There was no telling who might be listening. It would take a bit of time to figure out how to approach her, but seeing her was high on his list.

He could find nothing of Elliot Langford. There were two or three others with whom he'd worked, minor characters all, and Tommy decided to trouble himself with those folks only if Maxine and Elliot proved to be unapproachable or uncooperative.

At just past 7:00 in the morning, after eating, Sam dropped Tommy at the location where Amy's SUV had been recovered. The younger-looking man would spend the day searching for people who might have seen their friend.

***

Much to Sam's delight, the Effingham police were efficient and cordial. He stopped by headquarters after leaving Tommy and filed a detailed report about Amy.

The forensics team that they'd hired reached the storage shed at 10:30 and found Sam already there. He unlocked the door, allowed himself to be printed for elimination purposes, and left them to their duty, which they said would take about five hours.

From the storage unit, Sam drove to the offices of the local newspaper. There, the staff helped him place an advertisement in their local paper and in several papers from surrounding communities. The ad, which contained Amy's picture, details of her disappearance, and Sam's phone number, promised a substantial reward for information leading to her whereabouts.

Sam's last task of the day, before he joined Tommy in the search, was to arrange for the transport of Amy's vehicle and other belongings back to Flagstaff. The SUV was still in good working order, and both men had wanted to deliver it home, but there were other things to which they needed to apply themselves. A local trucking service agreed to move the vehicle at a reasonable rate. Sam then joined Tommy in the search, travelling to various places throughout town that Amy might have patronized.

***

About an hour after dark, the two men met at a local diner to eat and to compare notes.

There was not much immediate good news. No one had seen Amy, no one at all. It was disconcerting for both to come so close to their friend, to touch something that she had held, just to have things go cold so quickly. Still, they shouldn't have been surprised. If she'd been abducted by government agents, as they imagined she had been, then it was likely she'd been spirited away from Effingham many months before.

There was cause for optimism.

Philly was working to find surveillance footage from that time, so it helped that they'd been able to narrow the window in which Amy likely had been in Effingham to about 24 hours. They didn't expect too much from the newspaper ads, but those would run for three months. And local police were now on notice that a woman was missing.

Neither of them felt good about leaving Effingham after only a day, but there seemed little to do there now. After an hour's discussion, they decided that Sam would stay on another few days, first to oversee the shipment of Amy's vehicle and effects, and then to spend some more time searching the city for possible witnesses. The drive between Chicago and Effingham was only about three hours. He afterward could return quickly if anything promising arose from the police report or newspaper advertisements.

Tommy would leave Effingham right after dinner, return to New York, and meet with the detectives the following day. Both he and Sam would be ready to respond to any information Philly might dig up, but Tommy would seek his first opportunity to gain access to Maxine Seifert.

A quiet conversation continued between the friends for another hour. As they prepared to go, Sam announced he was throwing his new cellphone away.

"You told me Philly said that's how they track us. I've known that for ages," he argued.

Tommy thought. His friend did have a strong point. Then he decided differently.

"Look, maybe Uncle Sam is tracking us. But you've said it yourself, you're not a hard man to find. Having cell phones is an enormous benefit. It helps us to keep in touch. I think what Philly is worried about is us sharing any sensitive information over the phone."

Sam got his sour-grape look.

"Look. Keep the phone," Tommy continued. "If you're worried about people knowing where you are, leave it at home. I'll get a few more phones through my lawyers and send them to you. They're virtually untraceable. I'll send a couple to Philly, too. If we have even an inkling those numbers are being tracked, we dump them and get new ones."

Tommy was beginning to realize his friend was not being completely paranoid. "I think, maybe, that's what Amy was doing. She did get a new phone not long before she vanished. Linda said she took the old phone with her, but it wasn't in her car. According to Philly, the service on the old phone is still active. The phone just isn't on or isn't working."

"You're thinking she was just trying to throw somebody off?"

"Maybe. I ... I wish I knew."

The two men sat for a moment.

"Okay," Sam finally said. "Let's do that. New phones. You can never be too careful."

"But keep that phone for the time being. I may need to get in touch with you."

Silently they got up, paid, and went out to Sam's vehicle.

"Hey, Sam, take a look at Amy's sketch book when you get back to the hotel room. I don't think she'd mind. There are some very nice drawings of you and some lifelike ones of me."

Sam laughed his laugh. "Okay, give that girl of yours my love."

They hugged, briefly, before Tommy walked off into the dark behind the café, and Sam got in his SUV and returned to the hotel.