Chapter 10
The couple Annie and Trenton had been assigned to follow spent Sunday afternoon in a round of frenzied activity. They met friends and went bar hopping through the best clubs and bars Seattle had to offer. That led to a progressive dinner through a half dozen luxury mansions, and on to see a concert by one of the country's most in-demand pop artists. Annie was exhausted by the time the party broke up in the early hours of Monday morning. She joined Trenton in making a full report to their relief team, mumbled a goodnight and stumbled off to her hotel room. She didn't want to call Auggie at 3:00 a.m. and fell asleep with the intention of calling before he left for work.
When Joan went to look for Auggie at shortly after 9:00 a.m. on Monday morning, she found he wasn't at his desk or anywhere in the bull pen. Stu told her that he hadn't come in that morning. She was surprised, but not overly concerned. She went to her office and called him at home. She got the annoying 'Anderson's Awesome Electronics' message and was switched to voice mail. She tried again in a few minutes with the same result. By mid-morning her annoyance had mutated into worry. Was he ill, injured, unable to reach a phone for some reason? She was trying to decide what to do when she got a frantic call from Annie Walker.
"Joan," her voice was high and hurried. "Where is Auggie? Is he hurt? I can't reach him. Stu said he didn't come to work this morning. He didn't answer when I called Saturday night or all day yesterday. Something is wrong; I know it!"
Annie had slept longer than she intended, and had tried Auggie first at the office and then again at home. When she got the persistent 'leave a message' response each time, fear and anxiety made her feel almost physically ill. "I'm coming home, Joan. You need to send somebody to replace me. I have to find Auggie."
Joan submerged her own concern to deal with Annie's. "Easy, Annie. You need to stick with the mission there." The cool, professional tone brought Annie to some realization of her job responsibilities. "I've just learned in the last two hours that nobody seems able to reach Auggie. I'm going to send someone to the apartment to check on him. I'll let you know as soon as I have any solid information. Maybe he's visiting with family or friends, and just forgot to let us know." Even as she spoke the words, she knew how unlike August Anderson that possibility was.
Joan managed to calm Annie and get her refocused on the Seattle mission. Once that was settled she called Stu into her office. "Have you ever been to Auggie's apartment?" she asked.
"Yeah, they invited Barber and me over for dinner a couple of weeks ago, and I had been there once or twice before. Barber probably knows the place better than I do. I know he's with Jai now, but he did take Auggie home when he was so wrecked after he got Annie out of that cave in Mexico. I gather Eric spent some time there making sure the boss was okay."
"You'll do just fine," Joan told him. "I'm going to give you the security keys to his apartment. If he doesn't respond when you ring, let yourself in and make an assessment of the place. If he's ill or hurt call me, and I'll send an ambulance. If there's no one there, find out as much as you can about what might have happened. Get back to me as soon as possible. Any questions?"
"No ma'am. I'm on my way." Stu took the keys Joan offered and hurried out to collect his things. A long hour of waiting later, he called Joan.
"I'm in Auggie's apartment now. He's not here, but was here earlier. It's hard to be sure just when. Auggie's pretty neat. The bed's been made, but there's a used towel in the bathroom, and there are rinsed, but not washed, dishes in the dishwasher. The doorman says that Auggie went out Saturday afternoon, and no one has seen him since."
Joan thought for a moment. "This doorman, does he seem reliable?"
"His name is Beauford," Stu said. "He tells me he was working here when Auggie moved in. He thinks Auggie works for a private security outfit. I gather the man feels some responsibility for looking after Auggie and is plenty worried. Being blind, Auggie can have that effect on people – until you get to know how lethal he can be."
"Come on back," Joan told him. "I'm going to get someone started checking hospitals, morgues and the police, just in case he managed to get himself arrested."
There was no one who matched Auggie's description in any of the area's hospitals or morgues. The police had been swamped over the weekend with a march on the White House by disgruntled Occupy Wall Street members. They were still trying to deal with getting court dates scheduled and matching lawyers with their jailed clients. As the detective assigned to Evelyn's report of Auggie's abduction had not placed August Anderson on any watch list, they drew another blank there.