“So he could have driven away somewhere.”
“That’s what the police think. They say they put out an all-points bulletin.”
“But nobody’s seen the car.”
“Correct.”
“You don’t think he could have just taken off for somewhere?”
“No. He would have told me.” She sighed. “That boy had a tough life. His mother died when he was born, and his father always blamed him. I guess I was the only person who cared about him, and his father never let me get really close.”
Gabe nodded. “Does he have a girlfriend? Did you try to contact his friends?”
“Travis has always been a loner. It’s his father’s fault as much as anyone's. I told Marian not to marry that man, but she wouldn’t listen to me. She was all excited about Rob Carson.” Travis’s aunt stopped and sighed. “He did have some good qualities. When she had trouble getting pregnant, he let her go to some big-deal fertility clinic in Louisiana, of all places. Of course, it all went to hell when she died. Rob was bitter, you know.”
“I can imagine.” Gabe had his own family issues, like his parents, who thought law enforcement wasn’t prestigious enough for their son. And a private detective was another notch down. They didn’t subscribe to the concept that work you loved was worth more than your job title.
“Where’s the father now?”
“Drank himself into an early grave—good riddance. The astonishing thing is that he had a fair amount of cash stashed away. Travis was able to trade up for a bigger boat than the one Rob left him.”
Gabe nodded, taking it in. “Could someone have killed Travis for his money and hidden the body?”
“That’s what I think. That boy kept his private business close to his chest, but someone could have known that he was a lot better off than met the eye.”
Gabe wondered if the money was still in his bank account. The aunt wouldn’t have been able to get that kind of information, but he could.
“Anything else you think is important to know about him?” he asked. “Was he in any kind of trouble, that you know of?”
“No, He was strictly on the up-and-up.”
Gabe figured that might be true, or it might not. Carson could be using his boat for smuggling, for all the aunt knew.
“Did he go off on long trips?”
“No. He stayed close to home base.”
Gabe asked more questions and got directions to the house as well as specific directions for locating the boat. Both were in St. Stephens.
In the early years, its economy had relied on crabbing and clamming. Now the residents made most of their money from tourists who crossed the Bay Bridge to take in the small town’s seaside atmosphere.
“I’m counting on you to find out what happened to him.”
Gabe might have said, “Let’s hope it’s not bad news.”
As he left Miss Wilder, he was thinking about which he should try first—the boat or the house.
CHAPTERSEVEN
Olivia’s throat was so clogged that she could barely speak, but she managed to say, “I want to know the rest of it.”
She knew Travis had been hoping she would tell him to forget about the rest, but she had toknow.
“All right.”
She watched as the chair Travis was strapped into slowly changed its shape so that he was lying down, still firmly restrained.
Smith went to one of the cabinets, got out a hypodermic needle and a small bottle of liquid. After filling the syringe, he found a vein in Travis’s arm and injected the stuff. Pretty quickly, he began to feel woozy and at the same time aroused.
