Theo was waiting outside the gate of Aspen Reach when I got there. I activated it, and it swung open slowly.
I passed through, with Theo on my tail, and drove to my building. I parked in front of the lobby, and Theo parked behind me.
“I don’t have much time,” I told him as I ran a keycard through the swipe lock and opened the lobby door.
“That’s fine. You haven’t heard anything else, have you?”
“No, but I know someone who knows someone on the CIA set. I’m going to call him as soon as I get to LA.” I waited for Theo to ask why I wasn’t calling him now, but he was still too close to his rent boy years to question me. We took the stairs up to the third floor, walked down the corridor to my condo, and I unlocked the door. “Come on in.”
“I have to say we did a great job on this place,” he murmured as he looked around. “It’s so much less… pink.”
“Yeah, it is, isn’t it? Pita!”
“That’s your cat’s name?”
“It’s temporary. I’m giving her to a friend’s mother for Mother’s Day.” I whistled shrilly.
“That isn’t the way to call a cat!”
“No?” I couldn’t help grinning as Pita came strolling down the hallway, her tail waving like a plume.
Theo shook his head. “Okay, I should have known you’d have your own way with cats. Do you have a carrier?”
“Yeah. It’s in my closet.” A thought occurred to me. “Look, is there going to be a problem with your cat?”
“Miss Su? Nah, she’s a sweetheart. I’ll introduce them gradually, but if they don’t get along, would it be all right if I asked the ladies downstairs to mind Pita?”
“No, that’ll be fine. She has to get used to women.” Who won’t run out on her. “Her food’s in the pantry as well, and she has toys scattered throughout the condo. Take whatever you think you’ll need. I’ll go get her bed and the carrier.”
“Sounds good. Don’t worry about a litter pan.”
Within ten minutes we had Theo’s Corvair stocked with the kitten’s belongings. She stared at me through the mesh on one end of the carrier.
“I won’t be gone long, cat.” I hoped. “Be a good girl and don’t make me look like a bad dad.”
Theo suddenly flushed. “Uh… Wills and I are talking about starting a family once we’re married.”
“Yeah?” So Matheson had gone ahead and brought up the topic.
“The thing is… do you think I’ll be a good dad?”
“Why wouldn’t you?”
“Well… the only thing my own father ever taught me was how to throw out a son who was gay.”
“Jesus, Theo!” I didn’t have time for this. “What do you think you were to all the boys who were in your family?”
“Huh? I only have a sister.”
“All the rent boys you looked out for over the years?”
“They were part of our stable.”
“They were your family. You did good by them, and you’ll do great by any kid you have. What does Matheson have to say about it?”
“Um… pretty much what you said, except about the boys. He… uh… he doesn’t really know about those years.”
“He doesn’t? He struck me as more clued-in than that.”
“Ass.” Theo poked my shoulder. “Of course he knows what I did, but I never really talked about Bud and Mick or Paul and Spike or Tangerine or the Kid or even Connor.”
“Well, that’s your call, but Matheson obviously has confidence in you.”
“But—”
“Look, Theo, this hypothetical child isn’t in your lives yet. Worry about it then. I’ve got to get going or I’ll miss my flight.”
“Okay, Vince. Keep me posted, okay?”
“You bet. Bye, Pita.” I stepped back.
“I always knew you were a big softie!” Theo grinned out the window.
“Excuse me?”
Still grinning, he put the little car in gear and drove off.
I checked my watch. Jesus, I’d really have to hustle. I got in the Dodge and headed for Dulles.
After parking in the long term lot—I had no idea how long I’d be in LA—I got my boarding pass, went through security, and found the gate I’d be leaving from.
The airline representative got on the address system. “Flight 873 nonstop to LA is now boarding passengers needing assistance and those with small children.”
I looked across as passengers who’d be flying out to LA with me rose and began lining up. They’d have to wait; it would still be some time before they could board, but they wanted to be ready.
That meant I probably had about fifteen minutes before my row was called. The gate across the way had no flight scheduled, so the seats were all empty. I crossed over to it and placed the duffel on a seat, then pulled out my cell phone and hit one on speed dial.
The phone rang three times and then four, and I wondered if it was going to go to voice mail. Maybe this wasn’t a good time for Quinn? I was mentally composing the message I planned to leave, but before his greeting... Mann. Go. ... came on, he picked up.
“Quinn—”
“Good evening, Mark,” he said.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, it’s nine o’clock where you are.”
“Actually it’s almost nine-fifteen. And how are you?”
“I’ve got a—uh… I’m good. How are you?”
“I’m quite well. Mother and I are having dinner with Lord Creighton.”
“Shit. This is a bad time.”
“It’s never a bad time.”
“Isn’t it kind of late for dinner? Or are you gonna tell me different strokes for different folks?”
“Jack prefers to dine at eight, but the conversation has gotten... interesting.” He laughed, but quickly became serious. “What’s going on, Mark?”
“A friend of mine has been missing since some time yesterday. None of his friends or coworkers has seen him, and he’s not in any of the hospitals or the morgue, so I’m figuring someone’s snatched him.”
“Your former landlord?”
“Theo? No, he’s okay. He volunteered to watch Pita for me.”
“Who?”
“The kitten I’m giving Portia for Mother’s Day. Oh, shit, is she near? Did she hear that? You don’t have your phone on speaker, do you? Fuck it, I wanted to surprise her!”
“That’s quite all right. I’ve stepped away from the table. Although she would never stoop to eavesdropping.”
“No, she wouldn’t. Sorry, Quinn.”
“No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t tease, especially when you have a serious situation going on.”
“Y’know something, babe? I like when you do.”
“No one else….”
Just like no one else saw the heat below his Ice Man exterior? They were all fools.
“Well, I apologize.”
“And I forgive you.”
“You’re too kind.” He chuckled wryly, and if he’d been here, I would have jumped him. “How bad is it? Do you need me?”
“Always, babe. But I’ve got this. Or I will once I get out to LA and get it sorted out. I’ll need to talk to your uncle.”
“Tony or Bryan?”
“Bryan.” He was the consultant for the show. “Spike was working on a scene for an episode of CIA, and it sounds like that was the last time anyone can remember seeing him.”
“I’ll call Bryan right now. What else can you tell me about the young man?”
“Acting name, Spike, real name—”
“Just a second. No last name?”
“No. According to Paul—”
“Who?”
“Sorry. I don’t think I’ve mentioned him. He’s a good friend, and he and Spike have been together for a couple of years.”
“Ah. I understand. Sorry, please continue.”
“Okay, Spike’s real name is Val Duchesne—”
“Of the Philadelphia Duchesnes?” He was chuckling.
“Yeah. You know them?” I wasn’t surprised. Quinn was royalty in the intelligence community, but he was also as close to a blue-blooded aristocrat as this country had. His family pretty much knew everyone who was anyone.
“I wasn’t serious!”
“I am.”
“I know of them. Mrs. Duchesne was on a number of Mother’s committees.”
“Bunch of supercilious assholes.” Some people just shouldn’t be allowed to breed. The only thing that mattered to them was their perfect one point eight-six kids. “They freaked the fuck out when they realized he was gay and when praying the gay out of him didn’t work, they sent him to one of those facilities that do aversion therapy. Only Spike decided he wasn’t having any of it, so he ran. He was sixteen, and he wound up in DC. He found a lot of men there who liked boys, so he did what he had to in order to survive.”
“Jesus.” There was a rough note to Quinn’s voice. He was an honorable man, and I could picture how he’d react to something like that. “What happened?”
“Paul found him, which was a good thing.” I wasn’t going to tell Quinn that at the time, Paul had been a rent boy himself, going by the name of Pretty Boy. “Although he always says Spike followed him home and he decided to keep him.”
“He sounds like a good man.”
“He is.”
The address system crackled, and the representative announced, “Flight 873, nonstop to L.A. is now boarding rows twenty to twenty-five.”
“Let me make this fast. Our boy is almost nineteen but looks maybe fifteen. He’s five foot seven, one thirty-five or one forty, red hair, and the biggest gray eyes you’ve ever seen.”
“Oh? Should I be worried?”
“Ass. You know I prefer hazel eyes, and before you ask, the only hazel eyes I prefer are yours.”
“Thank you.”
Was something going on that was making him insecure? He had to know how I felt…. “We’ll talk more about this when we get together.”
“Which won’t be this Friday.”
“No. And let me tell you... I don’t begrudge the time you spend with your mother, but when I get my hands on the son of a bitch who’s got Spike….”
“You’re certain he’s been kidnapped? Sometimes people…”
“Walk away? I know. But if you ever saw those two together, you wouldn’t buy it. As I said, Paul’s called every hospital as well as the morgue. And maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree...”
“But you don’t think so.”
“No. Spike isn’t like that. He’s a smart kid, and he knows what he’s got with Paul.”
“In that case, give the son of a bitch a punch for me as well.”
“Flight 873 is now boarding rows fifteen and higher,” the rep announced.
“I’ve gotta go, babe.”
“Go, Mark,” Quinn murmured. “Have a safe flight. I’ll call Bryan as soon as I get off the line. If he needs to contact you…?”
“Give him my cell number, but let him know I’ll call him myself. I’m scheduled to get in to LAX a little after seven, Pacific Time.”
“All right. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”
“I will. Thanks. Quinn…” I wanted to tell him how I felt and opened my mouth to say… something.
Quinn must have been a mind reader. “I know,” he said. “Me too.”
“Good. Bye, babe.”
“Bye.”
And then there was just dead air, and my row was called. I turned off my phone, hoisted the duffel over my shoulder, and crossed to the Jetway to board my flight.
The flight was sold out. People shuffled in the aisle, looking for space in the overhead compartments. Ms. Parker had had to book me a window seat, which wasn’t something I was happy with, but I sucked it up. I stashed the duffel, and took my seat.
And I waited for the jet to take off.