A Killing Sky Read Online Free Page A

Paitley?”
    She shook her head.
    “I already made one call. This case was never solved. I can check into it further, but that'll take time. By then, if you still haven't heard from your sister, you'll need to go to the police.”
    “But what about Dad?”
    “Look, you're hiring me to try to find your sister.
    This is the way we need to do it. One step at a time. We'll worry about your father, if we even need to, when the time comes.”
    “My father is a very influential man, Mr. Pavlicek.”
    “That's okay. I've dealt with a few. What other information can you give me? Didn't you say your sister was driving a rental car?”
    “Yes. We picked one up at the airport to use for a couple of weeks. Mom and Dad are going to buy us both new ones for our birthday later this month.”
    “Happy birthday,” I said. “I need to know the make and license of the car, if you have that information, or at least the name of the rental company and the approximate time you picked up the vehicle.”
    She pulled out a piece of paper. “I thought you might want that. The paperwork's with the car. But here's the name of the company. We picked it up at Dulles.”
    “Good.” Her handwriting was flowery and elliptical. “You also said you've tried calling your sister's cell phone number several times?”
    “Yes.”
    “She always have that phone with her?”
    “Yes. We both have them.”
    “Do you know if Cartwright has her charger with her?”
    “No. The charge usually lasts a couple of days.”
    “Does she have an adapter for the car?”
    “I don't know. I can check her bags again.”
    “Okay. I'll need that phone number.”
    “All right. How do I pay you?”
    “A five-hundred-dollar retainer to start. I'll either bill you for any additional charges or refund the difference.”
    She pulled a small camel-colored purse from her jacket pocket. She took out a checkbook and an expensive-looking pen and wrote out a check, then tore it off and handed it to me.
    “Anything else you can tell me?” I folded the check into my pocket without looking at it. “If this thing ends up going to the police, you and your family will have to answer a lot of questions. You might as well try to think of everything you can right now.”
    She pressed her lips together for a few moments. “I suppose there might be something.”
    I waited.
    “You remember I told you about my sister's boyfriend Jed sending her some crazy E-mails while we were in Japan?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “He signed most of them. You could tell they came from his college mail address. But some of them were signed differently, poems and stuff, and they came from a different address. They were just so crazy. Wright didn't even tell me about them until recently. I guess she assumed they were from Jed. She said she'd been getting a few of them off and on since the school year started.”
    “Which is about when she started dating Jed.”
    “Right.”
    “You said Jed's agitated and possessive. Why would your sister want to go out with someone like that?”
    “He might become famous, for one thing,” she said.
    Like we need more of that, I thought, but said nothing.
    “Plus he looks like Brad Pitt with a body like Patrick Swayze. I think Wright thought she could tame him. Turns out he's just a jerk.”
    “Did you and your sister communicate a lot via E-mail when you were overseas?”
    “Sure. We both have laptops. It was just like being at home. We'd E-mail each other sometimes three or four times a day.”
    “Did Cartwright take her laptop with her last night?”
    “No. She left it. I saw it when I went through her bag.”
    “All right. We may need to check on that later. What time did you say your father was leaving?”
    “In a couple of hours.”
    I took one of my business cards out of my wallet and gave it to her.
    “Anything else you can think of right now?”
    “No, I don't think so.”
    “If something else occurs to you, or if you hear from your sister, my cell number's