The Ilium Obligation (A Matt Savage Adventure) Chapter 46

[seymoure]

Plans and Schemes

 

“No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.”
-Colin Powell

 

“Connie Cho, at least, is in Kansas City,” I announced to Hugo and Rayleen as we sat in the parking lot. We had just spoken to Gerald, but I wanted to talk to them before I confronted him.

I trusted Gerald, but we did have cultural differences that might make what I was to propose more insulting than I ever wanted to do.

“How do you think that?” Hugo asked.

“Here are pictures of Connie’s car. One is from her wall and the other is from the photographs taken by the police.” I handed them over, “Tell me the difference.”

“Well,” Hugo advanced, “They’re taken at least a year apart. Her hair is a different style, and not as long as the last time we saw her.”

“Not about her,” I corrected. “Check the car.”

“She uses one of those things you sit on,” Rayleen said.

Hugo noticed and said, “Yeah, the one with the lines of little wooden balls.”

“It’s supposed to massage your back as you drive, but it’s not on the seat in the second picture,” was my statement.

“She might have been trying it and found it didn’t work,” Rayleen deduced. “Might have just given up on it.”

“Possibly,” I agreed, “But it got me thinking. That was when we checked out the rental cars.”

“From D.C. to Kansas City?” Hugo asked.

“There wasn’t one rented in her name,” I concluded, “but there was one set to arrive in Kansas City after the drive all the way from Washington. Here’s the receipt.”

I handed it back to Rayleen in the back seat and she inspected it closely.

“The rental receipt is in the name ‘Constance Ng!’ She used Gerald’s name!” She was surprised. “But her check to pay for it is in her real name.”

“She was in a hurry,” was my surmise. “Her cousin, who she is close to, was the first name that came to her.”

Hugo got it. He almost gasped.

“You think Gerald might be hiding her?” he said.

“No, I don’t,” was my defense, “but I don’t know if he might know more than he has told us and is holding back out of loyalty. I would hate to insult him if that is something Korean that I don’t understand.”

“He told me he was born in Omaha,” Hugo remembered. “He’s never been out of the U.S.”

“Doesn’t matter,” I countered. “Family is family and for a lot of heritages, that is more important than country.”

“We’ve got to ask him,” Rayleen said. “If he knows anything, he may be in danger.”

“Yeah,” Hugo added. “Just because Sentalia is out of the game doesn’t mean there aren’t players out there we don’t know about.”

“Okay,” I opened my car door, “but I better do this alone. No reason for him to be pissed at all of us.”

As I walked in, they crept up beside me.

When I looked at them, Rayleen said, “Family is family. If we’re going to have a feud, we need to be on the right side.”

Have I mentioned that I love these two?

© C. Wayne Owens
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