“On the other hand,” Kent said, “there must have been something nice about people not being able to reach you 24/7.”

Becky nodded in agreement as she dialed her friend Alexis. They came from completely different backgrounds but had hit it off freshman year of college. Alexis was wealthy, had yet to work a day in her life, and could be a little snobbish. An only child, she’d had to endure her parents’ divorce when her father left her mother for a younger woman. Becky was a scholarship student from a large family who always had some kind of part-time job to pay for her books.

Alexis answered her phone with a youthful urgency in her voice, as though every phone call had the potential to be something wonderful or exciting. “Becky, hi! Can you believe this blackout?” she yelled. There was lots of background noise.

“Hi! I was working, and they closed the club. Where are you?”

“We’re at that bar on the corner of Eighty-eighth and Second that we were at last week. I called my dad to come pick me up, but he probably won’t be here for at least an hour. Come on over!”

“You called your dad?” Becky asked, astonishment in her voice.

“Yes. He wants to get back in my good graces, so I knew he’d come get me. He has a generator at his house which means air-conditioning! Yes!”

“Lucky you!”

“Get over here now! There are so many cute guys. You can come with me to my dad’s house if you want. It’ll probably be a little weird for me to be alone with him after all this time. It’s still awkward for us.”

“Are you sure it’d be okay?”

“Totally.”

“Thanks. Maybe I will. It’d be creepy going back to that apartment by myself in the dark. I just have to get back for work tomorrow night if the blackout is over. You won’t believe what happened at the club tonight.”

“What?”

“I’ll tell you when I get there.”

“Cool. See you soon.” Alexis hung up, then turned to her friend Dodie whose eyes were glued to the front door of the bar.

“Oh good!” Dodie cried. “That cute guy, Phil, I had just started talking to is coming back inside. When he took that phone call from the reporter, I thought we might not see him again.”

“He is cute,” Alexis agreed. “I wonder if he has any cute friends…”

29

W hen Jack and Keith got back to the office, there were no leads on Chip Jones. Jack gave the stun gun to one of his detectives, then sat down at his desk and called Regan. “We have nothing yet on your guy. How’s it going?”

“We’re on our way to bars on the Upper East Side.” She filled him in on the pictures they had found and her talk with the detective from Atlanta.

“Our patrol cars are on the lookout for them, especially in isolated areas. Keep me posted, Regan. Be careful.”