Luke walked into the empty house with Jimmy and John. He stood at the entrance and just listened to the silence for a moment. The last time he had been here everything had been almost perfect. Almost.
He walked upstairs and fired up his computer. Logging onto Facebook, he navigated to Quentin Jenson’s page and clicked on his friends list. His uncle Bodey was number thirty two. He clicked on Bodey Jenson’s face and it took him to his page. Clicking on the info button, he saw he had a website and e-mail listed and surprisingly, a phone number. Jackpot.
“Who’s Bodey Jenson?” Jimmy asked.
“It’s Q’s uncle. He’s the one who gave Q the program to decrypt the website that makes a cell phone number anonymous. That’s how we got Worthington’s cell phone number.”
Luke dialed Bodey Jenson’s number and it started to ring. It was answered on the sixth ring.
“I don’t know you,” the voice said, “You’d better not be selling something because I will make your life miserable. If you hang up now, we’re good.”
“Bodey Jenson?” Luke asked.
“You know me,” Bodey said. “Who is this?”
“My name is Luke Harrison and I’m a friend of Q’s”
Silence on the other line and then Bodey sighed. “Q’s dead.”
“I know sir. It’s probably my fault. I got him to help me and this maniac killed him for it. I’m sorry.”
“My brother, Q’s father, was into all kinds of bad shit,” Bodey said. “I doubt you had anything to do with it. I tried to get Q away from him, but he wouldn’t leave his family. It’s not your fault.”
“You don’t know the whole story,” Luke said.
“Enlighten me.”
Luke spent the next ten minutes explaining everything to him and when he was done Bodey sat quietly for a moment.
“Are you still there?” Luke asked.
“Just in awe my brother. Just in awe. That kid was always willing to help anyone. I told him to be careful who he messed with, but he wouldn’t listen. I can tell you have a lot of guilt over this, but Q was able to make decisions on his own. He made a bad one.”
“He saved a kid’s life that night,” Luke said. “Because of him, we were able to scare Worthington off.”
“I appreciate you telling me all this, Luke, but I don’t think that’s the whole reason your calling. Am I right?”
“Yes sir. I need your help.”
“Is it going to get me killed?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Not too convincing are you. What do you need and I’ll decide if it’s worth the risk.”
Luke told him.
“So your woman, Ellie is it…?”
“Yes.”
“Ellie has been kidnapped by this same guy who killed my brother and his family and you want me to help you find him? Do I have this right?”
“Yes.”
“You’re psycho, dude,” and he chuckled. “Why aren’t the police handling this?”
“Because they suck.”
“Yes-I imagine they do in your eyes. What does this Ellie mean to you?”
“Everything.”
“That epic, huh? You do know you could get yourself killed over this? I don’t think I can live with that.”
“He’s after me anyway. If you want to look at it as self preservation, you can add that to the fact I’d rather be dead than live without Ellie.”
“You’re kind of young to be this into one girl.”
“You don’t know her.”
“You’re right,” Bodey said. “I don’t. You know, you sound a little older than your real age.”
“I’ve had to grow up a lot in the past few days.”
“True that,” Bodey said. “Double true. Give me your e-mail and I’ll walk you through it.”
Luke sighed. “Thank you, Mr. Jenson. You don’t know what this means.”
“It’s Bodey, since we’re so intimate now, and I think I know all too well what this means. Don’t get yourself killed kid.”
“I’ve got help.”
“I think you’re going to need it. E-mail?”
Luke gave it to him and a few minutes later he had the program installed on his computer. Bodey walked him through how to work it. It took a few minutes because it was not very user friendly, but he eventually got the hang of it.
“How are you going to get him to call you?” Bodey asked.
“I’ll send him a message on Facebook he can’t ignore. He has a huge ego and I’m going to bruise it. He’ll respond.”
“Got it. If you can’t get it to work right, call me back. I give tech support.”
Luke actually laughed. “Thank you, sir-uh-Bodey. You’re awesome!”
“Luke?”
“Yeah?”
“Be careful.”
“I will.” He hung up.