California, huh?”
“That’s the plan. We decided to get the whole meet-each-other’s-family thing out of the way before she’s too far along in the pregnancy. That, and she figures she can get a semester of school down and finished before the baby arrives—her classes start in two weeks. She gets to meet my family, I get to meet hers, and then back to normal.”
“How do you feel about meeting her parents?”
“I don’t know. I’m sure it will be fine.”
“You and her parents will probably have a lot in common—you know, being close to the same age and all.” Hank smiled ear to ear, pleased with his zinger.
“Good one.”
“Thanks, I’ve been saving that one. Anyway, you said you had dinner reservations tonight, hey?”
I nodded. “Mulberry Chop House at seven thirty was the plan.” I glanced at the clock—it read twenty after five. “Which isn’t going to happen now. I’ll have to call Callie and see if we can get our reservations pushed back.”
“You’re not trying to hunt down this ex-boyfriend tonight, are you?”
“I at least need to make contact and get his whereabouts.”
“Let me get the ex-boyfriend’s name. I’ll shake the guy’s tree.”
“I got it, Hank.”
“Don’t worry about it. You go have your dinner with the missus. Karen is still in Virginia, so I have nothing going on.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Positive.” Hank gestured for me to give him the guy’s information.
I ripped the page from my notebook and slid it over.
Hank snatched it from me and rocked back in his chair. “Ah, these things are nice,” he said.
“Yeah, great Christmas present. You buy me new guest chairs for my office, that only you sit in.”
“Well, Christmas is the season of giving. Plus, I think they add to the room.”
“Oh yeah, they really tie the file boxes together nicely. I noticed you took the old chairs. What did you do with them?”
“I took them to the range.”
I smirked.
“Did you talk with the forensics guys?” he asked.
“I haven’t heard anything yet. I was going to walk downstairs before I left and see what they came up with.”
“What time are you coming in tomorrow morning?” Hank asked.
“Probably eight.”
“Okay.” Hank stood. “I’ll call you tonight and let you know what I get on the ex-boyfriend.”
“Sounds good. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Hank left my office.
I looked over my notes and dialed Nick Waterman, my contact at the airport. He answered in a couple rings.
“Nick Waterman.”
“Hi, Nick. It’s Kane.”
“Yeah, Kane. What’s up?”
“I need two things. First, if I was in Atlanta right now and needed an immediate flight back to Tampa, how am I looking?”
“Well, let’s have a look-see.”
I heard him clicking away at the computer.
“Hmm. You’d be up a creek right now. The next flight out leaves in a half hour, but wouldn’t get you into the TPA here until tomorrow at four p.m.”
“Four? Really?” I asked.
“Yup.”
I ran my hand across the couple-day-old stubble on the top of my head. “Is there a way you could check a little earlier today by a few hours?”
“Sure.”
I heard keys being clicked again.
“The last direct flight was a little after noon. There was one at twelve thirty-six p.m. that would have got you here this evening after a stop in Miami, but that’s it,” Waterman said.
I checked it off on my notepad. “Okay. What can you get me on rental cars?”
“What do you mean?”
“The guy I’m looking into said he already had a rental car. My guess is that he got it from the Atlanta airport.”
“Um, I can make a few calls and see what I can find. What exactly do you need to know?”
“I need to know the company it gets returned to in Tampa so I can get the mileage. Also, check and see if they GPS track their vehicles.”
“I’ll check it out and let you know.”
“Thanks, Nick.”
“No problem.”
I gave him Charles Riaola’s information and hung