“She has a doctor and takes medication, but every once in a while she goes off of it. That’s disastrous when it happens. A complete disaster.” Hawkins lifted his head, his expression stormy. “She can get taken advantage of very easily. I assigned her a bodyguard. I thought he was someone I could trust. He came with the highest of recommendations.”
Again, there was a long silence while he began pacing behind his desk, his hands locked behind his back as if to keep from strangling someone. Neither Meiling nor Gedeon interrupted him. They simply observed him as he seemed to use up his restless, angry energy before getting to his point. Finally, he turned back to them, once more gripping the back of his chair.
“Her bodyguard ran off with her instead of doing the responsible thing, which was what he was hired for. He was to protect her from herself. The two of them have disappeared. She can be very self-destructive. Manic and then self-destructive. Once she’s out of her manic phase, she becomes suicidal, realizing what she’s done, and she feels hopeless. It loops in her head that she’s worthless and has ruined everything. Our marriage, her career, that I would be better off with her dead. She must be found quickly. I called you as soon as I found them gone.”
“Did you give us all the details we need on both individuals?” Meiling asked, standing to indicate they would be leaving.
Gedeon was relieved they were at the end of the interview. Holding Slayer back was exhausting.
Hawkins nodded his head. “I’ll send the file to your business address immediately. You’ll have everything you need. If anything comes up, my private number is in that file, and I gave it to Mr. Volkov when I asked to see him.”
“Thank you,” Meiling said as Gedeon put one hand on her shoulder to pull her back toward him.
Hawkins didn’t bother to walk them to the door now that he had what he wanted. Gedeon thought his expression was rather smug. He didn’t speak until they were in the car and heading back to their house.
“Give me your honest impression of Hawkins.” He handled the sleek Audi through traffic easily. Now that they were alone and close to Meiling, Slayer was calm again.
Meiling pulled one of the sticks from her hair and a long thick swath of silky strands slithered down her shoulder. “He was being very dramatic on purpose. I don’t know him, so I don’t know if that’s his personality or if he was acting for our benefit. The idea of acting doesn’t fit. Why would he have to if his beloved wife is missing and he’s racing the clock to get her back? I read the media coverage on him and then on the two of them. There’s quite a lot. They seemed, on the surface, to be in love.”
“I wasn’t buying his act.” His voice was gruffer than he would have liked. It wasn’t Meiling’s fault that he was so edgy or that Slayer was. He didn’t know what it was exactly about Hawkins. He couldn’t put his finger on it. The man was a legend in his field, yet Gedeon couldn’t quite believe him.
“It was an act, yet quite a lot of what he said was true,” Meiling stated.
He glanced at her. “You agree that he mixed lies with truth.”
“He did, but I couldn’t tell what was true and was the lie. I tried to follow a strand of truth, but the lie was woven through it or vice versa. He made it difficult to tell which was which.”
“She’s missing for certain,” Gedeon said.
“Yes,” Meiling agreed. “And he wants to know where she is. That much is true.”
“The bipolar?” Gedeon asked.
Meiling took her time thinking it over. He could tell she was replaying the way Hawkins had told them about his wife’s illness. Weighing his words. Trying to discern the truth amid his lies.
“I believe she is bipolar,” Meiling finally concluded. “I’m not certain I believe everything else he said. Or that things happened the way he said. Certainly a manic cycle can drop into a suicidal one. I’ve tried to analyze his voice and decide whether he was telling the truth when he told us about that part of her cycle, but honestly, I couldn’t.”
“I know we don’t have to like a client to take the work,” Gedeon ventured aloud. “I just have this feeling he’s up to something shady.”
“I have that same feeling, Gedeon. We can find Laverne and make certain she’s fine.”
“I don’t like being used,” Gedeon objected. “He’s got an ulterior motive.”
“We don’t have to tell Hawkins we found her. Not at first, not until we figure out what he wants.”
Soft music flooded the car as they made their way back to his house. He easily drove the car into the garage. He turned off the ignition and they sat listening to the insects rather than the soft strains of instruments.
“He isn’t in love with her,” Gedeon announced abruptly, turning toward her in the close confines of the car. “He was all over you. A man who is desperately worried about his missing wife, the one he loves more than life itself, doesn’t stare with lust at another woman.”
Meiling drew little circles on top of her thigh. “Gedeon, the truth is, neither one of us knows that much about love. How do you know whether a man can love one woman and lust after another? We don’t.”
“That’s not true, Meiling. You don’t remember your family, but I do. I remember my parents. I remember my siblings. My mother. The beauty of her. The softness inher eyes when she looked at me. The softness in my heart when I looked at her. I know what love is.”
Her dark eyes went liquid—that melting chocolate that turned his insides to mush. She shook her head. “Honey, that’s the love for family. It isn’t the same as love for your woman. You haven’t experienced that. For all you know, Hawkins can love his wife and still crave other women. Look at all the men who have affairs. Do you think that none of them love their wives?”
“No, I don’t think they do. I think they love themselves,” Gedeon replied. “It’s an ego thing, at least when I’ve worked cases involving cheaters. That’s been the case every time whether it’s been a man or a woman doing the cheating.”
“Maybe they aren’t cut out for a relationship,” she ventured.
