“I’m sorry, Agent Kane is out of the office. He’s expected to return early next week. Would you like to leave a message?”
Allison’s first call to Kane had immediately gone to voice mail and now this. What was his partner’s name? Roswell? Rosewell? Rosewood.
“Can I speak to his partner, Daniel Rosewood?”
“Hello,” Danny answered a minute later.
“Umm, Danny, this is Allison Varner, Senator Denning’s niece. I saw you at the hospital. Do you remember? I was in the corridor with your fiancé. You waved to me.”
“You’re Agent . . . Greg’s friend. Diane told me that she talked with you. How I can I help you?”
“I’ve been trying to reach Greg but his phone just goes to voice mail. Do you have another number for him?”
“He’s on a break for a few days. He doesn’t want to be disturbed.”
“I understand but I really need to talk to him.”
“Have you left him a message?”
“I, umm, it’s not the sort of thing I want to talk about in a voice mail. I need to speak to him directly.”
“Gee, I’m sorry Ms. Varner. I’m under strict instructions not to give out the phone number of his hotel. I gave Agent Kane my word not to give it to anyone, not even our boss, but if you left him a message I bet he would call you back.”
“Thank you, Danny. I’ll work it out.” She hung up.
Now what? It had been so difficult to even make the call and now it was all for nothing. She stood at the window and looked out at the lengthening shadows then wandered from room to room. The apartment seemed different now, bigger, emptier. She picked up the phone then put it back down. She tried to imagine what she would have said if she had succeeded in getting Kane on the line. Hi, how are you? How have you been? Would you like to have dinner when you get back? Maybe we could have a drink?
Allison thought back to the first time they had been together. How odd it seemed, as if the Allison now and the Allison then were two different people. She picked up the phone and managed to catch Danny Rosewood before he went home.
“Danny, it’s Allison again. I know that you can’t give me Greg’s number but can you tell me where he went? It’s very important.”
What was it that Agent Kane had said? Don’t give anyone the hotel’s phone number. Of course that meant that he couldn’t tell anyone the hotel’s name either. But Greg hadn’t said he couldn’t tell people where he was going.
“He went to Symington, California,” Danny answered.
“Symington, California? I’ve never heard of it. What’s he doing there?”
Looked at one way, Agent Kane probably wouldn’t want him to say, but looked at another way Danny thought that maybe he should tell her. So he did.