Betty looked around on Daniel's desk, moving papers gingerly, as she noticed his familiar piles. When they worked at Mode together, and she was his assistant, she was always giving him grief about not being more organized.
She recognized that the next to his laptop contained the notes most important to him, the ones he was using as references from his research notes for the last chapter he had been working on.
She picked up one file he had tried to keep separate from his other random papers, by placing it in a manilla folder and hand labeling it, "RF/Butterfly notes"
She quickly skimmed through what appeared to be a blog about the poet Robert Frost, and specifically gave insights about his poem, "My Butterfly Elegy", seeing several parts that Daniel had highlighted, scribbling notes on the side. Then, she quietly read the portion of the butterfly poem he had highlighted.
.
Alexis had followed Betty over to her brother's desk and saw the file she was going through. Betty handed it to her, chewing on her bottom lip, "I know he told me he liked Robert Frost and a few other poets.
He didn't always "get" some poetry. He showed me one Molly wrote…
about him once…." she hesitated. Now wasn't the time to mention a racy poem his dead wife had written.
She looked back at the file, "He must have been using this poem about the butterfly and there's also some notes he has about "The Road Not Taken". She couldn't help but wonder...was SHE the butterfly?
Claire saw them and took the file, smiling, "Daniel didn't always love poetry. But I know he did like Robert Frost. You're right, Betty.
When he was having a hard time at Harvard and thinking of dropping out, he had enrolled in a literature course and read that Frost had grown up in Lawrence, Massachusetts and taught at Harvard. It inspired him to keep at it and graduate.
He kept me up all night about a month ago, telling me how he realized that both he and Frost were first published at the age of thirty-eight. He seemed not only excited about that coincidence but like he had come to some kind of epiphany that was going to finally get him to the end of his new novel. He said as soon as he was done, he was going to celebrate "
"Celebrate? Did he say what he was planning to do to celebrate? Like… maybe somewhere in particular he might go?" At Betty's question, everyone gathered around the Meade matriarch to hear her answer.
Claire's eyes lit up with amazement as she nodded, tears in her eyes, "YES! Betty, that's it! Of course! I should have thought of that. You're a genius, dear! He told me when he finished his book he was planning a pilgrimage back to Harvard."
Alexis looked skeptical, but motioned one of the detectives over, "I thought they had already checked the roads between here and Boston in case he was trying to get to his editor, didn't you? Cambridge is in between here and Boston. Excuse me, officer, my mother thinks that perhaps Daniel was heading to Harvard. You guys checked all the roads between here and Boston, right?"
"Yes, Miss Meade."
"It's Mrs. Troussard, actually."
"Oh, of course. Sorry!" Oh, and it's...detective."
"Right. Sorry, Detective. Are there any side roads off the major highways, maybe that he could have gotten lost on and...I don't know, broke down or something?"
The detective looked at Alexis skeptically, shaking his head, "It's possible, Ma'am. We can certainly put out another APB for his vehicle and send out a patrol car to check out the less traveled roads."
Betty, Alexis, and Claire all exchanged glances at his particular choice of words, "YES! Do that, please!"
Bobby, Hilda, and Ignacio walked over to Betty. Bobby spoke up, "Hey, Chipmunk, we can go check some of the roads he might have taken in my car. Tyler, maybe you and your sister and her husband can go in your car and split up. The more of us out there, the more likely we are to find the road he took, right?"
"What about Claire and me?"
Claire waved towards the driveway, "My driver is here. He can take us wherever we want to go. Let's look at this map and then we can each decide on a different possible route to try."
Justin and DJ had been working with Daniel's laptop and DJ called out, "Hey, everybody! Uh...old people, come check this out! I found the file of Uncle Daniel's final draft of his novel."
Alexis rolled her eyes as she walked over to the second desk by a window, where the two young men had been trying to bypass Daniel's security on his laptop for some time. She swatted at his head, "Old people? DJ! Don't be so rude!"
He laughed, "Sorry, Mom. I was just kidding. I didn't know what else to say. He has a file on here with the novel labeled, but it's password-protected. I think...he might have saved it to a flash drive or something. It looks like he was having trouble with his printer just before the storm knocked out his power.
He may have been taking the flash drive to his publisher. We were able to get into his emails and there's one here to Trish that says he's done with his novel and he can't wait to see what she thinks about it. He sounds really excited to get her reaction, but he says his printer is messed up and sounds frustrated."
Alexis shook her head, "What an idiot! Sorry, but why in the hell would he think he had to take off like that in the middle of the storm? He couldn't wait until it passed? He had food and water here. He was safe.
But no, that little dumbass decides his novel is so damn important that he's got to go show it off to Patricia Badgley right that minute. I thought he was going to just email it to her. That's what she said when she spoke to him last."
Justin nodded, "Yeah. That's what he says in this last email, but he said his wifi kept lagging and the file wouldn't upload to the email. I think DJ's right; he may have been so anxious to get it to her that he grabbed his flash drive and took off."
Betty couldn't fault their logic. They all knew how impulsive the man could be. He was like a child sometimes, running off and doing things without thinking them through. Like...trying to burn her release form, and flying to London.
Still, something wasn't adding up. There was a nagging feeling at the back of her mind that they were missing some important piece of information. And it was driving her crazy trying to figure out what that might be. His publisher, Patricia's office was in Boston, which was just on the other side of Harvard. Surely if Daniel had taken either of those routes, it would have been fairly easy for the police to have found him by now.
"Mija?"
"Hmm? What, Papi?"
"You look...deep in thought. I can see that brain of yours churning. What are you thinking?"
She shook her head, then looked down, "I don't know. I just have this nagging feeling like we're missing something here. Something really important. And I'm worried that he's hurt or in trouble...and the clock is ticking. And I have to figure this out so we can get to him in time!"
He hugged his youngest daughter, patting her head, "Mija, everything is now always up to you. You can't take the world on your shoulders all the time. You tried to always "take care" of your family when your mami got sick, and then after she passed. You took care of Daniel for years. This isn't just your problem."
She nodded, tears forming in her eyes, "I know, Papi. Thank you for coming. It's so good to see you. I'm sorry I haven't been home in a while. I just get so busy…but I really do miss you all. How is Elena?"
He smiled, "She's fine. I'm fine. We're all doing okay, Mija. And I know how busy you are. I'm glad to hear you still think of New York as home."
"Always, Papi." She hugged him.
He smiled, patting her cheek, "Te Quiero, Mija."
"I love you, too, Papi."
Alexis and Bobby had been looking at the maps at some possible alternative roads Daniel might have taken, "Well, let's get this show on the road, shall we? Tyler, do you mind driving? Honey, if it's okay, I'll ride shotgun and navigate. DJ? Are you coming?"
After the others had left, Justin sat at the laptop, looking up at his aunt, "I'm riding in the limo with you and Claire. Hey, AB, do you have any idea what his password might be? I think there might be a clue to where he went in reading it."
Betty shrugged, "Maybe. It also could be a waste of time. I know you're a fast reader, Justin, but…"
"So are you!"
"I am. Fine, try...BrooklynBridge"
"You sure? All caps?"
"No. Here. Let me try." Justin got up and let his aunt sit at the desk as she quickly typed in the password and immediately the file opened. They raised their eyebrows as they saw the title.
"AB! Ohmygod! It WAS about you! This proves my theory beyond a doubt!"
Daniel tried to move his bruised leg and searing shards of pain went shooting up and down his ankle, "AHH SHIT! Damn, that hurts!"
"I'm sure it does. It looks...broken, I think. At least your ankle. I tried to set it for you, but I'm no doctor. And I'm afraid all I have is aspirin for your pain. Oh, and some old Whiskey."
"Sold!" Daniel eagerly grabbed the pills she handed him and gulped down from the bottle of whiskey. He looked around, trying to focus on something, anything other than the pain he felt.
This was almost as bad as when he woke up in the hospital after Alexis' failed attempt at having their father murdered caused them to wreck.
After he handed the woman back the whiskey, and she gave him a bottled water, he glanced around, rubbing his head, "Thank you. I'm Daniel. What's your name? Where did you… find me? What happened? How did I get here? Sorry...that's...a lot of questions, I guess. Let's start with what's your name?"
"I'm Diana. Diana….Prince."
He laughed, "Diana Prince? Seriously? That's really your name? So...I've gotta ask, where is your invisible plane?"
The woman narrowed her eyes, taking off her jacket and throwing the wood she had brought in while he was sleeping on the fire, "Very amusing, young man. Can I help it if my parents had an interesting sense of humor? It's no worse than those crazy celebrities who name their children after fruit! Or…animals, or planets!"
He nodded, smiling as much as he could, in spite of the excruciating pain felt, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. Um….uh…." he blew out a breath, trying to speak.
Diana rushed to him, sitting gently on the well-worn sofa in her parent's cabin. "Don't try to talk. I was just giving you a hard time. I know it's a silly name, believe me. I've heard all the jokes my whole life. It sucks to be stuck with a name you have to live up to sometimes."
He smiled, nodding, as she wiped his forehead, "Yeah, I guess I can relate to that. So...do you know how I ended up like this? All I remember is...well, sort of driving…"
She nodded her head, "You swerved, then went over the bridge, and turned over in that fancy car of yours. You're lucky as hell it didn't keep going into the lake. I saw you wreck, but it took me a while to figure out how to use the picnic blanket you had in the back as a stretcher so I could get you here."
He looked around, "How far off the road is this place?"
She got up and went to the kitchen to get a plate to bring back to him, "Not that far. Less than a half mile. The road you were on was actually... private."
"Private? So...I was trespassing on your property?"
"My parents', well...technically, I guess it is mine now since they're gone.
But this is the first time I've been here in years, to go through things in this cabin so I can try and sell it. I think you must have gotten turned around and lost."
"I don't suppose...you have a landline? Or...internet...a cell phone?"
She shook her head, "Internet? No, sorry. This is an old vacation cabin. It was always just a step above camping. My folks never had internet or electricity here. Running water, a working kitchen, and bathroom is considered "high tech" in this area, I'm afraid."
"How about you? Do you have a cell phone?"
"Of course I do. And I have a charger in my truck. But out here...I don't get a signal I'm afraid. I would have driven into the city to get help, but I didn't want to leave you by yourself. You've been in and out and running a temperature. I think you probably had an infection."
Daniel tried to get up, which was a huge mistake, since he immediately sat back down, yelling out, "SHIT!" After the pain had subsided enough for him to finally talk he asked, "How….long have I been here? What day is it?"
"It's the twenty-fifth."
"Of what month? What...year?" he rubbed his temple, trying not to be panicked at the thought of not getting the medical attention he obviously needed.
This kind woman had saved his life and done all she could to take care of him, but she had no medical knowledge or supplies. He knew he at least needed a cast, since his ankle was still swollen after all this time. He had multiple bruises and was pretty sure a broken rib or two, judging from the pain in his chest.
She sounded like his mother as she tried to get him to calm down, which made him even more concerned at how worried she must be about him if it had been a very long time since he disappeared, "Try to relax, Daniel. It's not that bad. You wrecked on the ninth of September and today is the twenty-fifth. It's been a few weeks.
You have to try and eat something. All I could get you to eat was soup. I still have enough canned food to last another few weeks if necessary. But since the weather is good, and you're awake, I was thinking...maybe we should try and get you to my truck. You're going to need a doctor."
He looked down at his ankle, "A half mile from here?"
She shook her head, "No, not nearly that far. I was able to drive it up the hill, closer to the cabin. We'd only have to walk maybe four or five city blocks."
"City blocks?"
She smiled, handing him his wallet, "I saw you're from New York originally, even though you have a Massachusetts address on your insurance card. I didn't mean to snoop, Mr. Meade, but I thought I might need to contact…"
"My next of kin?" he tried to smile, although he wasn't really kidding.