Page 8 of Intangible
“She’s not good, though. She looks thinner than the picture and she’s still wearing her pajamas. She’s being held underground in a cell inside a root cellar or something similar somewhere. She won’t last in the cold for too much longer.”
Memphis stood, walking over to a small desk in the corner near the kitchen. Sitting down, he began to sketch out a picture. Looking over his shoulder, Knox watched as he drew a diagram of the room Thayer was being held in.
“There is a tunnel of some kind, but I couldn’t get far enough away to follow it. There are no windows, but there is electricity.” Memphis went on to relay everything to Knox that Thayer had told him.
“Okay. Yeah, this is good,” Knox said, running his hand through his hair. “I’ll relay this information to my guys. The FBI will also need to hear this.”
“No!” Memphis says, spinning around to catch Knox’s arm before he could dial his phone. “They can’t know I helped you.” Panic must have shown on Memphis’ face, causing Knox to nod slowly at him.
“I’ll keep you out of it,” Knox said resolutely. “But just so you know, the agent I’ve been working with in the D.C. office seems like a stand-up guy. I won’t say anything about you though.”
When the senator opened the door, Murphy bolted drunkenly toward Memphis. While he pet the dog, he listened to Knox relay the information to the senator. True to his word, Knox informed the FBI without bringing attention to how they got their intel.
“Thank you,” the senator said sincerely, shaking Memphis’ hand. “We’ll leave you alone now. Hopefully we can use this information to find her.” He gathered up the pictures of Thayer, putting them back in his bag. When he picked up the bunny, Memphis found himself stopping him.
“Leave that here. I’ll try to see what else I can find out. Maybe she’ll remember something else.”
“We’ll be staying at the hotel in town tonight. Please let us know immediately if you get anything else?” Memphis nodded at the senator. Since there was only one hotel in town, Memphis knew he could find Knox if he had anything new.
After they cleared out of his cabin, he collapsed on the couch. He knew he had to formulate a better game plan tomorrow if he hoped to help find her. Sleep was going to be necessary, however, if he stood a chance of learning anything new. It always made him exhausted when he projected himself somewhere.
His last thought was of the woman in the picture asking him to return to her as his heavy eyelids slowly closed.
Chapter 3
Memphis groanedas he rolled over the next morning, trying to see the clock. Somehow, he had managed to make his way into the bedroom before passing out in bed.
“Fuck, that can’t be right.” Finally, hunting down the glasses sitting on the nightstand, he slid them on, looking at the clock again. “Shit!”
Jumping out of bed, he grabbed his jeans off the floor, pulling them on. He had forgotten to set the alarm and was already very late to feed the animals at the clinic. Choosing the closest Henley from the closet, he jerked it over his head, careful not to break his glasses.
He couldn’t remember taking his contacts out last night and said a quick prayer in the hope they would turn up shortly. With any luck, he took them out whenever he’d kicked his clothes off.
With a pair of socks in his hand, Memphis slid to an abrupt stop when he reached his living room. Sitting on the coffee table was the pink bunny.
“Shit!”
“You already said that,” a deep voice rumbled from the kitchen, making Memphis jump. “Can I have another four-letter word for four hundred, Alex?” Spinning around, Memphis found Knox standing in his kitchen with a cup of coffee in his hand.
“How the fuck do you keep getting in here?” Memphis asked, scowling.
“So that’s a no on the expanded vocabulary? If you’re not going to bother to lock your door, I assume that’s an open invitation. Coffee?” Pulling a cup from the open shelf, he filled it before offering it to Memphis.
“I have to get to the clinic.” Memphis sat down in his lounge chair, putting on his socks.
“I had the kid who works there feed everything. Told him you thought you had caught the flu.” Knox sat down on the couch, crossing his leg over his knee. “I assume that’s who I asked. He’s listed as ‘vet tech kid’ in your phone.”
“He didn’t ask who you were?”
“He did. I had to choose between an old college buddy or former lover. I thought the later had more flair,” Knox said with a smirk.
“Asshole,” Memphis growled, snatching up his phone. “How did you even get into my phone?” When Knox grinned, Memphis shook his head. “You know what, I don’t even want to know.”
Checking his texts, he found that his high school assistant, Jonathon, had indeed confirmed he would check on the handful of animals this morning and have the receptionist reschedule his farm visit when she got in. Knox had simply been jacking with him since he had texted in this morning, pretending to be Memphis. At least he didn’t have to worry about it getting done. Jon was more mature than most of the thirty-year-olds he knew.
“There we go. We’re up to three words now.” Memphis flipped the big man off. Obviously, his high school kid was more mature than Memphis was. Knox just laughed before nodding at the coffee table. “You going back to check on our girl? I thought I should be here to watch your back if you did.”
After a few minutes of glaring at an amused Knox, Memphis sighed. “Yeah, I promised her I would. I have to eat first though. Do you want some Cheerios?” he asked, crossing to the kitchen to fish the cereal out of the cabinet.
