“Zachary, you’re looking pretty rough,” Pat observed. “Is it time for you to take another painkiller?”
Zachary’s head pounded and every part of his body throbbed or protested when he moved. “Yeah.” Zachary blinked his eyes. His lids were getting heavy and the pages in his notebook were starting to blur. “And I think I’d better be heading to bed.”
“The doctor told you to take it easy. This isn’t exactly taking it easy,” Pat chided. He got up and went into the kitchen, returning with a glass of juice and one of Zachary’s pills.
“Have you had any more contact with Dimitri?” Dougan asked, ignoring the fact that Zachary had said he was ready to go to bed.
Zachary rubbed his temples. Dimitri? Then he remembered the younger man who had been with Teddy at The Night Scene. Teddy, the big teddy bear and Dimitri, his date, who had wanted to talk to Zachary about Jose. About their broken date and the cell phone that went to voicemail.
“Oh, yeah. Dimitri. With Teddy. No, I haven’t heard anything else from him.”
“He did have a number of phone exchanges with Jose’s number before Jose’s phone went offline.”
“You got his phone logs.” Zachary tried to smother a yawn. “So that helps pinpoint when he disappeared. Or when his phone stopped taking calls.”
Dougan nodded. “It verifies what we already knew. So who is Teddy? Where does he fall into all of this?”
“I don’t really know. Ran into him at The Night Scene. He was kind of hitting on me at the bar, but then he had a date there.” Zachary shook his head. “I don’t really understand the rules in a place like that. Or maybe I’m just seeing men’s behavior from a different perspective than I ever have before.”
“Teddy Archuro? He’s been a fixture at The Night Scene for a long time,” Pat contributed. “I know him from way back.”
“You wouldn’t have any concerns about him?”
“No.” Pat looked at Mr. Peterson and they both shook their heads. “He’s been around for a long time and I’ve never heard anyone complain about him. Other than maybe to say that he’s too friendly.” Pat made a gesture to indicate Zachary and what he had just contributed. “But no, he’s harmless.”
“He’s not harmless unless I say he is,” Dougan said sharply. He closed his notepad and sat up. “If you have more contact with Dimitri, encourage him to talk to me. With half the witnesses disappearing and the other half refusing to make a statement, it’s difficult to conduct an investigation.”
Zachary nodded tiredly. “I’ll do what I can.”
Before going to bed, Zachary took one of the prescription painkillers and a sleeping pill. In spite of how exhausted he was, he knew that he wasn’t going to be able to shut off his brain and stop analyzing the case and the discussion with Dougan if he didn’t. Having a case debrief right before bed wasn’t the best idea. But Dougan was there at his own initiative and Zachary couldn’t very well brush him off.
He checked the security alarm settings before going to bed. Twice. There was no one visible outside when he looked out the window, other than one police car that had stayed to keep an eye on things for a few hours. Zachary knew what it was like to sit surveillance in a cold, dark car at night, and considered taking a cup of coffee out to the officer, but in the end he decided not to. To do so would mean disabling the door alarm and then re-enabling it when he returned to the house. Chances were, the cop already had a thermos of coffee in the car with him, which he would have to ration strictly to avoid inconvenient interruptions.
Zachary looked once more at the settings on the security system. There were footsteps in the hall and he looked up to see Mr. Peterson taking a last run to the bathroom before bed. When he returned, he gave Zachary a knowing smile.
“Everything is properly armed. Between you and Pat, it’s probably been checked a dozen times. You want a warm milk before bed?”
“No. I’m fine.”
“You need your sleep. You look like a zombie.”
Zachary nodded and headed back to the guest bedroom. “I’m sorry to still be underfoot. Depending on what happens tomorrow, maybe I’ll go home for a few days. Keep up by phone and email.”
It was a good thing he had kept an emergency bag with clothes and necessities in the car, since he hadn’t initially been planning to stay overnight, let alone for several days. But he needed to get fresh clothes or launder what he had, and he longed for his own space.
“It sounds like Dougan and his men are talking to people. You probably don’t want to get in his way. But don’t feel like you have to go home on our accounts. We’re happy to have you here.”
“You guys don’t need me kicking around here. If I can get the rest of the interviews done that I want to tomorrow… I’ll leave it to Dougan to check out these other places where Jose might have hung out. I wish Philippe would respond. I know he’s just gone quiet because he and the others don’t want any attention, but it still bothers me.” Zachary sighed. He knew his attention was bouncing from one piece of the case to another, and if he let himself, he would just keep babbling on.
“Maybe he’ll call you tomorrow. Or maybe by the weekend, he’ll decide that they’re safe and he can respond to calls. I’m sure the media attention just has him spooked. But that will die down as they don’t find anything new to report on.”
“Yeah. Okay, I’m going to bed for real now.”
“Get a good rest. You won’t make any progress on the case if you’re too tired to think straight. You’ll do better after a solid night’s sleep.”
Zachary nodded. He went back to his room, swallowed a couple of pills, one for anxiety and one to help him sleep. He stripped down and slid into bed, waiting for sleep to come.