Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

"Where is April's laptop now?" River asked, hoping Nathan still had access to it.

"I have it. I didn't want her father to take it. April didn't want him to know about her podcast. But he has her purse and her clothes. I went through her purse before he had time to take it, just in case there was something important in it."

"And was there?" Tony asked.

"I don't think so. It's just a purse."

Nathan took a deep breath. He was under a lot of stress. River felt badly for him.

"Besides the phone and her laptop, I also have her notebook. She had notes about her cases, along with phone numbers, contacts she'd made while investigating. I thought it might be important."

"You realize that her parents could accuse you of theft for taking her personal property, right?" Tony asked.

Nathan shrugged. "I don't care. April wouldn't want her dad to have them. In fact, she told me once that if anything ever happened to her, she wanted me to take anything that had to do with her podcast." He shook his head. "We were just ... talking, you know? Neither one of us actually thought that day would come. So, once she disappeared, I did what she'd requested. But I left her regular phone behind, as well as a second laptop that she used for other things besides the podcast. And it's just her father, by the way. Her mother died a long time ago."

"Where are April's things now?" Tony asked.

"In safekeeping at my place. I wanted to see if you'd take my case before giving them to you. As you can imagine, I don't want anything to happen to them."

"If you want us to proceed, we'll need them. As well as your phone and laptop."

Nathan's eyebrows shot up. "Mine? Why would..." His eyes widened. "I didn't hurt her."

"Actually, we believe you," Tony said. He brushed a lock of curly black hair from his forehead. "But we have to make certain there's nothing to tie you to her disappearance. If you don't have anything to hide..."

"But I need my phone and my laptop. I use them for work."

"What do you do?" River asked.

"I'm a graphic designer for an advertising firm in California. I work out of my apartment."

"Can we get them from you after work so we can go through them?" River asked. "We'll get them back to you in the morning. We may have some questions concerning what we find, but we can make notes and talk to you when we're done."

They could actually clone the cell phone onto another device, but since it could be tricky with certain models, going through it manually would probably be easier. They would copy the files on the laptop to a USB drive.

"I ... I guess that would be all right."

"A warning though, Nathan," Tony said solemnly, "if we find that you've deleted anything before you give them to us, we're done. Do you understand?"

The young man nodded. "Look, I have no plans to hide anything from you. I just want to find April. I pray with every fiber of my being that she's still alive. But even if she isn't, I need to know the truth. So does her father. Even though he believes she's alive, he's really upset. I've tried to stay in touch with him for April's sake, but he blames me for her disappearance."

He sighed. "Sometimes I've wondered if I should just walk away from him, but I feel like April would want me to help her father if I can. Even though they argued before she disappeared, they love each other." He hesitated a moment before saying, "There's something else. I'm not sure if I should share this. At the time I believed it was April's imagination, but I feel like I should tell you everything. April loved what she did, investigating cold cases. She thrived on interviewing family and friends of the victims and asking the public for help. She felt as if she was doing something good. Something noble." For the first time since he'd walked through the door, his smile was genuine. "Believe it or not, she actually helped solve two different cases since she started the podcast a couple of years ago. An arson and a murder. I was so proud of her." His smile slipped and his expression became serious again. "But sometimes she got spooked, you know, by the details of a crime, or by thinking the person behind the crime was after her. Thankfully, it was never real."

"So, was she spooked about one of her cases in particular before she disappeared?" River asked.

"Yeah."

"So, she believed she was in danger and then she went missing?" Tony said. "It didn't occur to you that the two things might be related?"

Tony's frustration was showing. River felt the same way, but alienating Nathan by making it seem they blamed him for April's situation wouldn't help anything.

"This wasn't the first time she'd felt that way down through the years," Nathan said, his tone somewhat defensive. "It never turned out to be real. I assumed this was the same thing."

"Can you tell us about the case?" River asked calmly. "It's possible her state of mind is important, even if there wasn't any real threat. How she acted in the days up to her disappearance could reveal something that might help us."

She frowned at Tony, who seemed to take the hint. He leaned back in his chair and nodded at her.

"I can't be certain which case was bothering her," Nathan said. "She wouldn't tell me. I'm not sure why, but since she'd been wrong before, she might not have felt confident enough to share her concerns. In the months before she went missing, she was trying hard to focus only on the facts. She wouldn't move on anything until she had solid leads. I think her mistakes in the beginning made her cautious. So, this is just a guess, but the case that was taking up most of her time was the Castlewood Casanova. Two teenagers—a guy and a girl—were reported missing. Their bodies were found in Castlewood Park in Ballwin, near the river. It was assumed that they went there to make out."

Tony frowned. "Why use the word Casanova?"

Nathan shrugged. "April named most of her cases, but this one had already been given a title by a newspaper reporter. I think it was because the young man involved had a bit of a reputation. I have no idea if it was deserved or if the reporter just wanted something that started with a C. You know, because of Castlewood Park."

"And they never found a suspect?"

"They interviewed several people, ruled them all out. But April felt there was one man who could have done it. She also suspected that he'd killed before. She didn't talk much about it, but I could tell those murders really bothered her."

"Are there any notes on her laptop about that particular case?" River asked.

"Yes, some. But she kept most of her notes in her notebook. She was kind of old school when it came to that. She'd take that notebook with her wherever she went so she could write down things that occurred to her when she wasn't home. Look, she was working on seven cases when she disappeared." Nathan frowned. "I don't want to steer you in the wrong direction. The Casanova case might not have been the one she was concentrating on when she disappeared. April was ... is ... the kind of person who doesn't know how to let go of something. She could have been super focused on any one of her cases."

"We need to go through the items we asked for," River said. "If we have questions about them, we'll let you know when we see you. After we're through, we'll talk about our next steps. Is that okay?"

He nodded. "I'll do anything I can to help. I need to go home and get back to work. Where can I meet you to give you everything?"

"What time do you quit working today?" Tony asked.

"Around six."

River looked at Tony. "Why don't we come by your place? We'll pick up your phone, April's phone, both laptops, and the notebook."

Nathan nodded. "That's fine. Then you'll bring my phone and laptop back in the morning?"

Tony nodded. "Around eight?"

"That's perfect. I never get calls from my boss before nine." Nathan recited his address and River wrote it down on the notepad on her desk.

"Can we find April's podcast by searching for Hot Coffee and Cold Cases ?" River asked.

"Yes, but here's a card with the URL." He stood up and reached into his back pocket, taking out his billfold. He opened it, took out a card, and handed it to River.

"Okay. We'll see you around six," Tony said.

"Do I need to give you a retainer or something?"

"Why don't we take a look at April's things first?" Tony said. "Then we'll tell you if we think we can help you."

Since their past cases hadn't made them much money, River decided to tell Nathan the amount of their retainer and how much they would charge each day the case extended beyond the initial amount if they took his case.

"That's fine," Nathan said, not reacting at all when River mentioned the totals.

Rather than walk toward the door, he stood where he was, shifting from one foot to the other. Something else was bothering him, but River had no idea what it was. Had she read him wrong? Was he actually concerned about the retainer? "Are you certain our fee isn't a problem for you?"

He shook his head. "I earn quite a bit, and I inherited some money when my father passed away. Like I said, I have money."

He was pretty young to have lost his dad. "I'm sorry about your father."

"Thank you. We were shocked when he died. A sudden heart attack."

"That's rough," Tony said. "My condolences."

"I miss him every day. I wish he were here to give me advice now." He blinked away tears. River felt empathy for Nathan. First he lost his father, and then the woman he loves disappeared? Compassion made her really want to help him, but would they be able to? This case really was cold. When it came to a missing person, those in law enforcement believed the first forty-eight hours were crucial. After that, it was likely they would only recover a body. The note had brought April's disappearance back to life, but was it real? If April's podcast had a lot of followers, could one of them have sent it for their own reasons? People did strange things. As behavioral analysts, she and Tony had seen individuals take actions that were hard to explain—even with their training. Was there actually a reason to hope they could find the answers Nathan was looking for?

"Is there anything else?" Since their fee didn't seem to bother him, why was his body language telling her that something was on his mind?

"Look, I hadn't planned to bring this up. I love April. With all my heart. But loving someone doesn't mean you think they don't have flaws. April wasn't perfect. I'm not perfect. Even though she had her ... problems, she was..." He sighed. "Is ... the best person I've ever known."

He was trying hard to keep April in the present tense, but it was obviously difficult even though Nathan desperately wanted to believe she was alive.

"What are you trying to tell us?" Although Tony was attempting to be patient with the young man, it was clear he was exasperated with the way Nathan was dispensing information in dribs and drabs.

Nathan didn't respond. He just stared down at the floor.

"Nathan, you have to be completely honest with us if you want us to help you," River said sternly. "No hiding anything. Even if something doesn't seem important to you, it might be vital to us. If you don't trust us, this isn't going to work."

"All right, all right," he said, shaking his head. "I don't want you to think April was unbalanced—or paranoid. She was ... is..."

"I realize you're struggling to believe she's still alive," Tony said. "We understand that. Don't worry about how to talk to us about her. We get it, okay?"

"Thank you. I want to believe I'll see her again. Life without her is so ... nothing." He looked up at them, his eyes shiny with tears. "Please ... please don't give up on her, okay?"

"Tell us what you don't want to tell us," Tony said. "Trust us."

Nathan took a deep breath. "Before she disappeared, she told me that ... she wondered if she might be putting me in danger. She talked about leaving so she could be certain I was safe."