“She implied to me that she had stumbled on something illegal going on at Nano,” Paul continued in an even, calm tone. “I know you’re obliged to act if there is evidence that the person was abducted or is in danger, and I believe she is in great danger. The last time she saw me in the wee hours of Monday morning, after she had made the disturbing discovery, which she said she would explain later, she told me she would be coming directly back to my apartment. Sometime later she texted she was on her way but never showed up.”

“You’re essentially saying she got into the Nano complex illegally?” said Gomez. “This is the same Nano Institute up in the foothills that makes such effort on security to avoid, should we say, industrial espionage?”

“Yes,” said George, answering the question that had been directed at Paul.

“Wait here!” said Gomez, who got up and left.

“Great, George. You were supposed to let me do the talking. Now Pia’s gone from a missing-person’s case to a fleeing fugitive.”

“So what?” said George. “Which do you think they’d spend more time looking for?”

Thirty minutes later, Gomez reemerged, accompanied by a man in a suit who looked every inch the veteran detective that he was, with an outdated haircut, gray mustache, overweight, and an old-fashioned suit.

“Detective Samuels,” he said, shaking Paul’s hand and then George’s. “Okay, we called your friend’s place of employment, and they say she’s on paid leave and as far as they are concerned, there have been no irregularities or problems with unauthorized visitations. I also talked with Nano security who corroborated that there have been no reports of any break-ins or lost IDs that could be used to gain illegal entry. They did say you two gentlemen showed up there yesterday trying to get in and were turned away.”

Paul snuck a quick look at George.

“We’re worried about our friend,” said Paul. “She was very upset by something she found at work.”

“Did she say what it was?”

“No, as I mentioned to Officer Gomez, but I could guess it had something to do with a Chinese runner . . .”

“A Chinese runner? Okay,” said Samuels skeptically, “Officer Gomez filled me in on what you gentlemen have told her. Seems that your stories, or at least your interpretation of the situation, is somewhat different. You, Dr. Caldwell, feel that she was very upset and failed to come to your apartment in the wee hours of the morning after having illegally broken into the Nano facility. And you, Mr. Wilson, are convinced that this woman, who is on medical leave, was kidnapped?”

“I know she was,” said George.

“You went to her apartment,” said Samuels, reading from Gomez’s notes, “and you found a Web page with driving directions to a place in New Jersey . . .”