Page 33 of Being Lost

“So what you’re saying, Token, is that there’s another seventy Jims around?” Salem asks.

Token nods. The enforcer’s eyes meet mine and I know he’s also thinking, finding her wasn’t anifbut awhen.

That bell’s still ringing in my head. Now it jangles something loose. “You said the focus was on finding Patsy. What about Connor? What mention was there of finding him?” I press the computer guy for more.

“None.” Token shakes his head. “The focus is on the woman. Connor isn’t given a mention at all.”

“That makes no sense.” Reboot voices my thoughts. “If that’s who he’s after and he’s got this army of addicts, why not get them looking out for the man himself? If Alder thinks Connor is alive, that’s what I’d expect him to do. If he accepts he’s dead, there’s no reason to go after the woman. If Connor’s dead, then the information he had died with him. A dead man can’t testify or give away anything to hurt him.”

That right there is the niggling thought that had been trying to come to the front of my mind, maybe tardy as I didn’t want to even think it. That even if Dan disappeared out of state, she’d remain in danger. But what the hell can she have that Alder wants?

Could Alder be so deranged as to want his revenge on Connor’s mother? At the time of his ‘death’, they’d been estranged. It doesn’t make sense, unless he wants her for another reason. Unless I’ve been working on the wrong assumption all along, and there’s someone else gunning for her and not Alder. Wouldn’t be the first time I’d made a costly mistake.

“It may not be Alder who’s after her.” If so, it’s imperative I have that conversation with her. But who else would have a team of addicts at his fingertips?

“It is,” Token states. “His name was mentioned in the chain of messages. There’s no doubt, it was ‘find her for Alder.’”

Well, it’s somewhat of a relief that the tree I was barking up did indeed hold the squirrel. But why?

“She’s an attractive woman,” I find myself saying, resulting in dubious looks being sent my way, everyone having seen the photo that Jim had carried around. Well, except from Smoker, Snips and Grumbler who are in the same age bracket as myself, and who, I notice, are nodding appreciatively. With the clean out of the club when Snake was dispatched to meet Satan, we lost a lot of the older members, the remainder all being in their early thirties or less. Reboot, now he’s only twenty. I’ve no doubt most of them don’t view Patsy the same way I do, to them she’s probably maternal. To me, she’s a mature woman, pretty, nice figure, but doesn’t pretend to be more or less than she is. But I’ll be first to admit, she’s not someone you’d expect to be on the arm of a boy toy.

“To an old man like you, I s’pect she looks fit, maybe even to this Alder. But, Prez, I find it hard to believe someone would go to all this trouble just to fuck her.”

I have to concede Brakes has got a point. Mind you, running our strip club he’s quite a connoisseur of women’s bodies and what appeals to men of various ages.

I’m not the only one to think it, as Dusty says with a wink toward his brother, “You would know.”

“It’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you do with it,” Kink offers. “Maybe she’s into shit we don’t know about. Older women can be fun to top, or bottom for if that’s your taste.”

And that’s where I’m going to draw a line under this particular part of the discussion. With a glare toward Kink—whether she’s into the kind of shit he is or not, I’m determined he’ll never know—I move this on. Tapping my head, I attempt to put my thoughts into words. “If it’s not her body, it’s either revenge, which doesn’t make sense, or info she could have that Alder doesn’t want to get out.”

“Take us back a bit, Prez.” Salem waggles his hand. “As I understand it, Connor, or Dan as he should be known, is dead and buried. He was moved under WitSec, so no one accidentally saw his face, and kept under wraps in case he was needed to testify when the feds finally catch up with Alder. His mother, Patsy, moved with him at the same time, as she wanted to be with her son.”

“Because she wanted to make sure he kept on the straight and narrow,” I explain. “So yes, she came too.”

“And,” the enforcer continues, “Token says this druggie squad isn’t on the lookout for Dan, which means we’re wrong to assume Alder knows his death was a sham.” He waits for Token’s chin lift, then resumes, “Patsy’s disappearance was straight after her son was buried. What if Alder thinks that wasn’t a coincidence? Could he think Patsy knows something, maybe some message Connor left, and that she was moved by WitSec on her own merits? What if she either does, or he just thinks she has something to tell?”

I don’t immediately reject that notion, but I don’t buy it. I give it a moment’s thought, then shake my head. “I don’t see how she could know anything. The story as I know it is Connor was trying to hide ten kilos of drugs. He was living with his dad and wanted nothing to do with Patsy at the time, but unbeknownst to her, he stored the drugs in her house. When it came to light, she was pretty shocked by all accounts.”

“She was married to Connor’s dad. Maybe she’s got information from when they were together? Something that could bring Alder down.”

I stare at Grumbler, then, again, dismiss it. “But if he knows the feds moved her, he would expect her already to have told everything she knew.”

“Unless as Salem said, he thinks she’ll appear as a witness, or, it’s knowledge she doesn’t know she possesses,” Pennywise says enigmatically. “It could also be he thinks she’s helping them build a case against him, pinning the murder of her son on him.”

It’s a good point. I’d been focused on what everyone else was thinking, that Alder believed Connor was still alive and wanted revenge, using Patsy only to find him. Was Patsy the target herself? It’s certainly starting to look like it.

Could Pennywise have a point? Could Salem?

“Does Alder know the feds moved her?” Dart’s frowning now. “How could he? She had no contact with them as far as he knew, but she has gone into hiding. Could he just be worried as to the reason she’s gone? He may think as Connor is dead, it’s fuckin’ strange Patsy rode off into the sunset and left her only remaining family, her daughter, behind.”

It was when Patsy had to reassure herself Beth was happy and alive that kicked off Alder’s search for her, or as far as we know.

I stare at my VP while thinking we have nothing to go on. “All we know is that Alder is pretty desperate to find her. I need to talk to them both,” I decide. “Look, I know you’ve all got better things to do, so I’ll cut to the chase now. If they stay and we have their backs, it could bring Alder down on us, and right now I can’t give a measure as to how much danger we could be exposed to. He’s got spies, for want of a better word—any addict or dealer. They could be anywhere for all we know.”

“Not in the club,” Grumbler puts in fast, looking at each man around this table.

“Definitely not,” I agree. It’s taken a long time for the club to fully come together and trust one another again. You don’t have nine of your brothers betray you without keeping an eye on the ones who are left. But we’ve got there now. Nonetheless, drugs and dealing are dirty words around this table.

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