| |
Max lay in the bed waiting to hear from Alex. He didn’t want to alarm anyone, and he didn’t want to call the police. Maybe she would wake him up with a kiss when she came in. But when the sun came flashing through the windows in the early morning, he woke and realized that he had been sleeping all day and into the night, and it was daylight again.
Looking around he still had on his suit. He had fallen asleep thinking about Alex and wondering why she wasn’t home. He thought of Charles St. John, but she wouldn’t have left to be with him. She hated him.
Opening his eyes and looking up at the chandelier, he thought of going to the police. The police was out. Too many things to explain. And no ransom notes.
Could this have something to do with Jonas? From what he knew, Jonas had taken a small portion of the money from the sale of his club, and gone to San Francisco. The rest of the money would be wired to his bank. But when he checked Jonas’s bank account, it wasn’t there.
He hadn’t wanted to talk to Jonas just yet, but now he needed him. Could he do anything to find Alex? Did he know anyone that would help locate her? It wasn’t like her to go off and not call and check on the children. Their baby was still a toddler.
Pulling himself up and propping the pillow behind him and looking at his feet, his head down, he took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and reached for his phone. He touched Jonas’s number.
“Pick up Jonas. Pick the fucking phone up.” Then he glanced at the clock—6 a.m. in New York. It was Pacific Standard Time and 3 a.m. in San Francisco. But someone picked up the phone.
“Crystal. Give Jonas the phone.”
“He isn’t here, Max,” Crystal said with a tired low voice.
“Where the hell is he?” Max’s voice was unusually harsh to Crystal.
“I don’t know, Max. He left last week...”
“Last week? Did he say anything?”
“Only that he needed to be alone. And he said he needed to go for a walk. Maybe the baby was making him nervous. You know how nervous he gets, and more now than ever. He’s like a time bomb. I asked you to get him some help.” Max never wanted to admit that Jonas needed help, but there was a lot on Jonas’s mind, and Max knew it.
“Crystal. I’ll look for him and when I find him, I’ll call you and I’ll get him the help he needs.”
“Thanks, Max. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Crystal’s voice lightened up, and she felt relieved when she hung up the phone.
Max didn’t know where to start, but he had to start somewhere. He would take a bath first and then he would call around. However it was too early for that. He had to call home first. Maybe Alex had called in to check on the children. He had too many maybes and not enough facts, so he made the call home. In the back of his mind he was terrified. That wasn’t an emotion he embraced. And it was an emotion that had been foreign to him until now.
After making the call, talking to his children, Max discovered that Alex never called to check on her children. She wouldn’t do that, he thought. Her life was her children. Dread settled over him. He looked down and saw his hands shaking.
This wasn’t Max. Nothing could have him unglued like this. He never showed emotion when his mother and father died. Why was this happening to him? he questioned. Alex was his life, and he couldn’t control the circumstances which had unfolded.
Before this he had control over everything in his life. His business, his children, and Alex. Somehow that had changed, and it affected Max in the most common way. However, he never thought of himself as a common man, and yet he found himself in that role.
He dressed, his hands still shaky. He tried putting on his tie, but his hands shook so much that he gave up in a panic, slid the tie from his shirt, threw it on the bed, and called for his limo.
Pacing and watching the clock, he would take the situation about Alex in his hands. What he needed to do was hire someone to search for her. Max picked up his world travel journal and out fell a card.
He picked up the card and reached for his wallet as he stepped into the elevator. He didn’t remember where or how he had gotten hold of the card. It didn’t matter for now. It was the number and address of a private detective. He didn’t want the police involved. That would be his last resort. On the card it said Sebastian Hunter. He liked the sound of the name.
When he stepped off the elevator and entered the lobby, the doorman said, “There’s this bum I had to run from in front of the building. Just warning you, Mr. Blackstone.”
“Thanks,” Max said, his mind full of thoughts of Alex. He didn’t fear for his life, he never did. He feared for the life of his family and his wife. Casually picking up the New York Times in its plastic wrapper, he tucked it under his arm, and walked outside. It was about 9 a.m. If he could get to the detective agency early, then maybe he could get started on the case.
Stepping out of the building and onto the sidewalk, halfway to the car, Max glanced over and saw the bum the doorman had referred to sitting on the curb. He stopped in his tracks, looked at the driver and said, “You don’t have to open the door, Dominic. I’ll be in shortly. His driver nodded and walked around and sat patiently behind the wheel as Max walked curiously over where the man sat on the curb, with his head falling forward and then backward, flopping up and down as if he was trying to get control over it, and finally gave up. It remained in the position of down almost between his legs.
Max thought he recognized something about him. He stood over him. His clothes. Where would a bum get an expensive suit like that? Max had one just like it. He looked closer. The man’s hair was dark, long, and matted, and his beard untidy. The derelict’s hands were propped on each knee. At one time he had a manicure. A wedding band on his left hand. At first glance it could be a silver band but it was platinum.
“No. It can’t be,” Max murmured. He bent down and carefully took a handful of the man’s hair and raised his face.
“Jonas? Jonas? What the hell are you doing here?”
Jonas mumbled something. Max had to lean in to hear him. “I was looking for you. I wanted to apologize to Alex and you for...” He stopped, and his head fell forward. Max walked to his limo and said to the driver, “Help me with my brother.”
The driver, a burly man with thick arms and hands, had worked for Max in New York for a number of years. He was part driver and part security for Max. He picked up Jonas and placed him over his shoulder like a side of beef and headed to the apartment door with Max behind him.
The doorman didn’t see Max behind the six-feet stocky man. He just saw a man carrying what he thought to be a bum on his shoulder and said, “You can’t bring him in here.”
“Move out of the way. That’s Jonas Blackstone, my brother,” Max said to the doorman.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Blackstone, I didn’t recognize him.”
“That’s okay, I didn’t recognize him either,” Max said as the bodyguard hauled Jonas to the elevator and to Max’s apartment.
“Where do you want me to put him, Mr. Blackstone?”
“Follow me.” Max led him to a bedroom on the same floor as his.” The bodyguard laid him across the bed.
“He smells. Do you want me to take him to the shower?” Dominic asked.
“That’s a good idea.” The bodyguard picked up Jonas as if he was a small puppy and placed him on the seat in the shower. Then he turned it on. The cold water revived him.
Jonas looked up at Max and smiled. “I found you, Max.”
“Don’t talk.” Max walked into the shower with it on and took off Jonas’s clothes and shoes. Then he turned it off and took Jonas’s hand and led him out where the bodyguard handed Max a robe for Jonas.
“Call my doctor and tell him I need his help with my brother,” Max said, looking at Dominic, who appeared to be the same height as Max. “I need to change before the doctor comes.” Max walked to his room, took a deep breath, and took off his wet suit and changed into a new set of clothes. When he was dressed and ready, the doorman was announcing that the doctor was on his way up. Max stood waiting. He opened the door, and the doctor had a nurse with him.
Max nodded at the doctor, and waved to the bodyguard, who had discarded his black suit coat to follow. He turned to the doctor, “I’m leaving my brother in your hands.”
“Don’t worry, Mr. Blackstone. We will take care of him.”
“I’m expecting a call from my wife. Please, answer the phone and tell her about Jonas.”
Max looked over at the nurse and she looked up at him. The doctor didn’t introduce her, and Max didn’t inquire. He had more important things to do.
Max left immediately to see the detective, in hopes that he wouldn’t need him.