Love Bats Last

  Alex drove past the hospital and pulled up next to a green and white police car parked near the sea lion pens. Park police. A uniformed deputy was speaking with Gage. Alex could see from Gage’s stance that it wasn’t going well.

  The deputy waved to Alex.

  “Great game last week. You’ve got Garrett’s number.”

  Alex nodded.

  “I told Dr. Esmond here that Dr. Brandon might’ve just gone off somewhere.”

  “She always tells me when she’s off-site—we split on-call,” Gage said.

  “Well,” the deputy said, eyeing Gage, “maybe you’re just not as important as you think you are.” He turned to Alex. “We’ll check back later today, Mr. Tavonesi. Even six hours isn’t long enough to start a formal search, not without something to go on. I’m sure you understand.”

  He didn’t. To Alex, six hours seemed like a lifetime.

  “Did Dr. Esmond tell you the circumstances?”

  Gage nodded.

  “I think those facts are enough to start a search,” Alex insisted, trying to temper the impatience in his voice.

  “Those aren’t what we’d call facts, Mr. Tavonesi. We can’t go running after hearsay. But we can put a bulletin out about her truck.” He eyed Gage, then Alex. “She’s not going to be a happy woman if the highway patrol pulls her over.”

  The officer smiled, apparently pleased with his joke. “As I said, it’s nothing to be concerned about. No one’s going to do anything drastic because of a few dead seals. And nobody chases down scientists, at least not in my thirty years on the force.”

  “I am concerned,” Alex said. He moved to stand between the deputy and the patrol car. “We’re talking radon here. Radioactivity. Possible illegal dumping. The people involved might know she’s onto something.”

  The deputy was unmoved.

  “They could be acting irrationally,” Alex said, running his hand through his hair, trying a different tack. “Her life could be in jeopardy—can’t you cut around protocol?”

  The deputy stepped around Alex and into his patrol car. “We have our orders,” he said out the open window. “Like I said, we’ll put out a bulletin about the truck.”

  The radio in the car barked out a message that sounded like gibberish.

  “Copy,” the deputy answered into his hand-held mike. “Be there in ten.” He laid the microphone onto the seat beside him, grabbed his sunglasses from the dash and slid them on.

  “Look, I understand that you’re worried, Mr. Tavonesi. But if I had a dollar for every guy concerned about a girlfriend who’s not where she’s supposed to be, I’d be a very rich man.” He tapped his fingers on the dash and tilted his head. “Don’t you have a pivotal game today?”

  It wasn’t a pivotal game. Not for the team. But it was for Alex, a fact that the man smiling at him probably didn’t know. After all these years, it still irritated him when members of the public acted like they knew more than the players.

  “You take care of your business”—Alex tried to keep the irritation out of his voice—“and I’ll do mine.”

  The deputy smiled, but not a friendly one this time. Hell, no badge liked to have his authority challenged.

  But Alex would challenge any man and any badge if it meant seeing Jackie safe.