The Single Staircase (3 page)

The president of Black Door Advertising was Mr. Dennison. He wasn’t there. Playing golf, on a jet, sitting
in
on a board meeting, something. Just not there. Off doing the things agency presidents do.
Monica
Peterson, director of brand management
,
came out to meet them.

“Can I help you?” she said.

Monica
was tall, dressed in grays and blacks, trendy framed glasses she probably didn’t ne
ed, hair dyed a rich chocolate.

Raccoon was taller and she gravitated to him, a tall woman finding a taller man, that rare taller man who could make her feel like a girl.

So Raccoon talked.
Monica
was sexy. Raccoon tried to sound like Owl sounded all the time. “You know David and
Daphne
Grey, yes?”

“Very well. I know David very well. But he isn’t here.”

“We know. He’s with us.”

“He’s with you? Here?”

“He’s at the station. We need to talk to someone who knew him. Him and his wife.”

“Do… Um… Do you want to come in and sit down?”

“Does
David
have an office we could use?”

“Yes. Of course he does.”

Monica
Peterson led the men back through the agency. Art on the walls. Frosted glass. Guys in flannel shirts, designer jeans and tennis shoes who didn’t even look up from their monitors as the detectives passed by.

One frosted glass door led to the office of David Grey. His name wasn’t on the door but it was a big office. A couch and two plush chairs. A third chair behind a desk, silky and black. A framed picture of a baby – little newborn Sophia Grey, looking up at nothing especially, but with big pretty eyes, wearing a little pink onesie.

Monica
was used to taking control. “So why are you gentlemen here? David’s not in trouble, is he? I can’t imagine that.”

Owl was used to ignoring people who thought they were in control. He said, “Grey does pretty well for himself.”

“He’s the account director on most of our bigger pieces of business.”

“And he reports to you?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I guess technically. Dennison does David’s review himself. We’re pretty lateral.”

“His condo, though, it’s nothing special.”

“Oh, that place he has now, it’s the place he lived in since before he met
Daphne
. His swinging bachelor pad. I think they want to move to a bigger place, a house. I think he was looking at houses, but, you know, they’re busy. They just never got around to it.”

“They’re busy?” Raccoon said. “But they’re not, right? She stays at home, right?”

Owl smiled and thought, “Raccoon, you’re still so young.” Out loud he said, “With a new baby.”

“Mm, you have kids,”
Monica
said to Owl.

Owl nodded. “Two.”

“I guess it’s a lot of work. I don’t have any myself.”

Owl glanced at
Monica
’s hands. Lots of rings, but nothing on her left ring finger. He kept going. “
And Daphne
? What about her?”

“Is she in trouble?”

“No.
Monica
, Sophia Grey is missing.”

“Sophia? Oh…my god.”

“We’re going to find her. But we need your help.”

“Well, David didn’t have, like,
enemies. He wasn’t like that. Oh my god. Someone has that little girl.”

“What about
Daphne
? What was she like?”

Monica
still
seemed
shaken, but she was used to composure. It was her default. She found it, tried to smile. “I didn’t know her that well. She was an intern when she started. About three years ago. She was an intern, we needed to fill a position suddenly and she was there. It was a bad decision. She was just
a
kid. Wasn’t ready for a job.”

“How did she and David hook up?”

“Young girl, liked to have fun, has a scary new job. He’s older, making money, able to take her out and buy her wine. You know, things happen.”

“Was Sophia an accident, then?”

“Oh no. No, no. They got married.
Daphne
quit and they were married for a year before she got p
regnant. They wanted that baby.”

“You sure?”

“Oh my god, yes.
David talked about Sophia
nonstop
.
Daphne
used to drop by the office with her all the time
. Every few days. T
hey’d go to lunch together.”

Chap. 19

As they left
David’s
office, Owl tapped Raccoon and then pointed at the picture of Sophia.
He said,
“No picture of mom, though.”

Chap. 20

Janie was an account coordin
ator. She was 27 and looked 23.
She had on heels and a skirt and a jacket. She was petrified of Raccoon and Owl.

They tried to set her at ease. They told her that Sophia was missing and tha
t they were trying to find out i
f anybody had anything against the Greys. And after Janie said no enough times, Owl started to dig deeper. He acted like the real questions were done and he was just making small talk.

“So how is it, working for David?”

“Oh, David is great. He’s the best boss I’
ve ever had.”

“Was it weird, him marrying one of the girls? You and
Daphne
are right about the same age.”

“
Oh yeah. Well, s
he’s younger than me. She actually worked with me
a lot
.”

“How was she to work with?”

“Um.” Janie laughed. “She was fun. She liked to go out after work. We’d go to the bars all the time. She kept up a pretty good pace.” Janie laughed again.

“Yeah?”

Janie just laughed again. She’d gone from being scared to being nervous. She said, “She got moved off my account because she, uh, she kissed a client one night when we were out. It was at a wrap party for a shoot and they were making out.”

“Huh. I mean, isn’t it one of those unspoken rules? ‘Don’t date people you work with?’”

“Oh
god, well
, I guess. I mean, it happens all the time.”

“All the time?”

“People here work all the time. They have to travel together, you know. They’re together all the time.” Janie giggled. Janie shrugged. Janie giggled again. “I think maybe even
Monica
and David… You know.”

“I don’t.”

“They were a thing. I think they tried to keep it quiet. But that was before
Daphne
got here.”

“How long before her and David started up?”

“Not long. She was pretty in love. She loved going out with him after work, he’d pick up everybody’s tab. She loved that. She kind of threw herself at him.”

“Was he into it?”

“Wouldn’t you be?”

Owl and Raccoon had seen
Daphne
Grey. They stopped prying.

Chap. 21

A large room
in a police station
. Tile floors. Beige walls. Filled with cops with their feet up on faux wood tabletops.

It was seven p.m.
More than
12 hours after Owl and Raccoon had walked into the Grey’s home for the first time. It was already an eter
nity in missing-persons time, b
ut there was no urgency in the room. Raccoon knew why. Everyone there was sure Sophia Grey was dead. The ten men in the room were just hunting for a body so the case could be transferred to Homicide.

Four of the other men were in plain cloth
e
s. Men in their 40s and 50s. K
hakis,
moustaches and shirtsleeves. Revolvers in leather holsters.
Two of them, Jefferson and Mateo,
were
detectives from the
department. The other two
men
were evidence collection,
in
from the state bureau. Their
names were Atrex and Samuelson.

There were four officers in uniform,
hats on the tables, department-i
ssued Glocks
on their hips
.

T
her
e was also a white
board. And on the white board, Owl made a list.

Attic.

House.

Dump.

3125 Abraysia.

Geraldine Park.

Computer.

Amber Alert.

Phones.

Greys.

“Ok,” Owl said. “What do we got?” He pointed to the first item on the list.

One of the officers spoke. “It’s done, Owl. There’s nothing up there.”

Owl pointed to the second item. “Bloodstains, chlorine, chloroform, anything?”

Samuelson
said, “Nope. We pulled prints around the girl’s room. Nobody but
mom
and
dad
. The parents say they tore the house apart looking for the little girl and that accounts for the state of disarray.
No dishes in the sink.
We scoured the hell out of the bathtubs for blood and bleach and got shampoo and soap.
Outside. Atrex, that’s you.”

Atrex nodded. “Yeah.
There were no footprints around the
house, no duct tape or rope
. No signs of forced entry on the nursery window, for whatever that’s worth. We got some of the girl’s DNA off her pacifier, so we have that in CODIS for when we need it.”

Everyone took a deep breath.

“Keep going, guys,” Owl said. “The dump?”

“That’s done, Owl. Nothing there.”

“The new construction?”

Again, the uniformed officer. “We did that one, too. Checked the crawlspace, the walls, got nothing. Workmen onsite said it didn’t look like anything had been tampered with overnight.”

“Geraldine?”

“That’s just barely started. It’s ongoing.”

“Keep it going. Overnight. I want all night, overnight, dogs, everything until it’s done. Do it twice. It’s a lot of ground. New parents go to parks. They spend lots of time there. They know it inside and out.”

“Copy that.”

Owl looked at his white board. “What’s next? The Grey’s computer. What about that?”

One of the
bureau guy
s
. “We collected it and all the hard drives in the house. Pulling the search history now. It’ll take a few hours to get that back.”

Owl didn’t even bother to say Amber Alert. He just pointed at the white board. No one said anything. In his head Owl thought. “How the fuck do you identify a baby?” He went on. “Next. Phones?”

One of the plainclothes detectives
answered
. Jefferson. His shirt was untucked, his pants
were
rumpled, he slouched and his eyes were slow. It was all an act. He’d been undercover for years in narcotics. He
was smart,
worked hard and nothing scared him. “Yup. We have a warrant with the carrier now. Should have the location data by morning.”

“How about the Greys? Any records pop up in AFIS?”

Samuelson shook his head no. “Nope. No record on either of them. And no hits from any print we pulled from their house.”

“Anything else?”

“Yes,
The Matrix.
”

The voice belonged to one of the patrolmen. Someone Owl and Raccoon didn
’t recognize. His nametag said
Viggio. And his sentence was so small, it almost sounded like a question
.

After a moment, Owl said,
“Excuse me, Officer Viggio?”

“It wasn’t on last night, was it?
The Matrix
?”

Owl said, “You read the brief. Nice. Are you sure?”

The patrolman shook his head. “No. But I know that movie. And I was watching TV. I didn’t see it on.”

“OK, then. Call the cable provider, Officer Viggio. Get a warrant if you have to.”

“On it.”

Owl nodded and then turned to
Jefferson and his partner, Mateo. “Mom and dad were released after we talked to them this morning. The house is closed off, no
body but us in or out. The Grey
s are staying in a suite at the Marriott. That’s you two. Get surveillance running. Round the clock, anytime they move. Call me anytime for any reason. If they split up. Anything.”