“You’d think. I googled him to see if there was maybe a social media profile, or author website I could reach him at, but there were little to no personal details at all online, just book stockists and reviews. If his clothes are that nice he must be pretty successful. So strange.”
Ally wrapped her hands around her warm coffee cup and savoured a few sips, waiting for the caffeine to activate the rest of her brain so she could think of a way to contact JT Walker.
Bad wifi or not though, she’d need to use Lara’s desktop computer, because thanks to that little spate of online research in the early hours to find out more about the author, her phone battery had finally given up the ghost.
Though at least she’d be able to secure a charger today. While Ally was confident her assistant would surely come up with the goods in the meantime, she was feeling a lot brighter about the prospect of getting her bag back.
Of all the things she did on a daily basis as a tech consultant, locating this J.T. Walker guy should be a piece of cake.
Chapter 10
Jake opened his eyes and was relieved to see the sun was finally up.
That meant he no longer had to force himself to try and sleep like he’d been doing for the last eight hours, while his mind continued to bombard him with different ways of potentially getting his bag back.
Usually, when he found himself unable to sleep, he’d use the time to write, so not having his notebook was adding injury to insult. Especially when he had a plot to outline - preferably by the end of holidays.
He’d make a stop at the general store in town for a new one though; one thing at least, that was easy to replace.
The evening before he and Meghan had racked their brains till the early hours to see if there was anything they could do to locate his bag, but to no avail.
He’d been waiting on the line for almost an hour to speak to somebody from the airline, and in the end they’d told him to lodge a lost property query and they’d get back to him.
The representative seemed bored and patently uninterested in his plight, but Jake thought, she had no real idea what was at stake here.
And it wasn’t as though he could tell her either - just in case it made things worse.
Though at least there had been one spark of hope.
“Maybe the person who owns the case you took by mistake, picked up yours?” Meghan had suggested much later, after a family dinner during which Jake spent much of the time fretting. “Did you check it out - see if there’s maybe any contact details in there?”
“Good idea.”
Telling the others he needed an early night after the day’s travel, Jake was finally able to examine the bag properly.
And mercifully, attached to the top handle, he spied that there was indeed one of those plastic inserts with a business card and - thank goodness - office phone number inside.
But having little choice but to call it a day given the late hour, he planned to call the number first thing, and with luck he’d have his bag (and it’s precious contents) back in no time.
Maybe the other person hadn’t even realised the mix-up yet?
But when earlier that morning he’d phoned the number for Walters Technology, the line rang out. Not especially surprising given it was so close to Christmas, but what was he going to do now?
“Morning,” he greeted Meghan dully, as he entered the kitchen, looking for coffee.
He was relieved she was the only one awake at this early hour. Unlike last night, when he’d no choice but to share the news about the business card in a hush, now they could strategise freely without being overheard.
“You look well rested,” she teased, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah, a bit too much on my mind to sleep.”
“Don’t worry. I have a lead.”
Jake almost dropped his cup.
“You do?”
“Yes, if you weren’t so behind the times you could have done this yourself last night. A quick google and I found Walters Tech on social media. It took like, thirty seconds.”
