Page 22 of In the Nick of Time
“You’re following up on the AWOL agents.” It wasn’t a question. “I guess I’m glad it’s you and not me.”
Something about his tone had Doug asking, “What have you heard?”
“They’ve found one of them, Mel Schoenhut. Dead.”
Doug felt a sharp pang of regret. Remorse for a life lost. Mel Schoenhut had been a nice guy. He’d transferred to SPAM after tiring of the life of a superhero much like Doug had. In fact, Mel had been involved with Doug’s last superhero mission, just like Wizard. What had Mel been doing in Vegas? April said it was on a need-to-know basis, but Doug suspected he did indeed need to know. Why hadn’t SPAM alerted him that Schoenhut had been in the area? How had Carroll ended up here too? Did they not know? Doug doubted that.
“Where?”
“Out of town, in the parking lot of an abandoned mall.”
“What do we know?”
Steven glanced up at him, apparently deciding how much information he was going to share. Doug resisted wrapping his fingers around the man’s neck by crossing his arms over his chest and waiting him out. They still needed to get into The Ace of Clubs VIP room and Steven knew how to make it happen.
“I heard he was laid out in a coffin, hands folded over his chest. The whole nine yards. They’re doing their best to keep a lid on this, but there were a couple witnesses. They may have to bring in whatshername, the one who makes people forget things.”
Doug couldn’t remember her name either, which was probably the point. And why was Steven Marks his point of contact anyway? Why was he being forced to deal with a partially mothballed agent Doug loathed and absolutely did not trust?
“Outside in a coffin?” Doug wanted to be sure he’d heard Marks right.
“Yep. No marks on him, but dead as a… well, dead.”
“No leads?”
“Not that I’ve heard. I guess the uppers are just hoping you find Agent Carroll and the others before they meet the same fate.”
“Unless they already have,” Doug pointed out.
Doug wanted to find all the agents, but he felt a greater responsibility toward Agent Carroll, even more than Schoenhut. Schoenhut had been a work connection. A decent guy, but not much more than an acquaintance. Esther Carroll was a friend. He didn’t like many people on sight, but she was one of them. She’d ended up becoming the sister he’d never had.
Steven nodded. “Unless they’re already dead.”
“What’s the address where Agent Schoenhut was found? Anything interesting out that way? And who do we talk to at the club?”
Wizard rattled off basic directions and the name of the mall. “Good luck finding much of anything out there, let alone something interesting.” Then, reaching into the pocket of his tracksuit, he pulled out a large silver token and held it out for Doug. “Show this to the bartender at the club. It’ll get you back there.”
Tucking the heavy coin into his own pocket, Doug strode back out to the main concourse, abruptly worried that someone might have snatched Nick while he hadn’t been watching over him.
Where had this desire to protect him come from?
Dismissing the thought, he heaved a sigh of relief when he spotted Nick where he’d left him. Nick was talking to a little boy wearing a Spider Man t-shirt and someone who was probably the kid’s older sister or mom.
“Hey,” Nick said as Doug approached.
“Thank you again,” said the woman. She was holding tight to the boy’s hand and he had streaks on his face as if he’d been crying.
“Of course, anytime. We can’t let Spider Man get lost, can we?” He held out his fist and the little boy bumped it with his own smaller one.
“Say thank you.”
“Thank you,” the boy lisped.
They walked away, disappearing into the crowd.
“What was that about?” Doug asked.
“Oh, nothing. Trevor got separated from his mom accidentally. I saw the whole thing. He stopped to look at the LEGO display over there, and she kept walking. It could have happened to anyone. He realized she was gone pretty quickly, but she was already way ahead of him. I talked to him a bit, calmed him down, told him about Tim. We hung out until a panicked woman came running back this direction.”
