Second Nature (His Chance 2)

“I’m not sure, although Gabriel could have just hopped on a bus and gone anywhere in the city.”

“That’s true. Sawyer’s messaging everyone he can think of, but would you have any names that he doesn’t?”

“No. We know all the same people,” Roger said. Then he asked, “Are you in a car?”

“A cab. I have a theory about where he might be, and God do I hope I’m wrong.”

“Where are you headed?”

I told him about Simeck and our unexpected encounter, and then I said, “Actually, it’s good that someone knows where I’m going, in case I don’t come back. The address is 464 Gephardt. If you don’t hear from me in a couple of hours, call the police. I don’t know why Simeck walked away without incident last night, but maybe it was just too public to do anything to me. That won’t be the case when I’m at his house.”

Roger exclaimed, “Hang on a minute! It’s not going to help Gabriel if you go bursting into a potentially dangerous situation and get yourself taken prisoner, or worse.”

“But now you know where I’m going, so you can call for help if something happens to me.”

“A lot of good that’ll do if you’ve already ended up with a bullet in your noggin.”

“Simeck’s not going to shoot me,” I said. “He’ll enjoy it so much more if he makes me suffer.”

Roger muttered, “Well, this bloke sounds fan-fucking-tastic.”

“Yeah, he’s great.”

“Let’s just slow down and think this through, alright? What are the chances Simeck actually abducted Gabriel? First of all, he’d have to stumble across him. The chances of that are slim, even if they were both in the same neighborhood last night. Then he’d have to get him into his vehicle. How’s he going to do that without a hundred people spotting him and reporting it? Next, there’s the motive. You said it yourself, he walked away last night without incident, so maybe he’s not holding a grudge like you think he is.”

“Or maybe he knows the way to really hurt me is through Gabriel,” I said. “Simeck saw how defensive I was last night when he brought him up, so it must be obvious I’m totally in love with him. You have to think like a sadistic criminal here. A man like Simeck would absolutely make someone suffer by going after their loved ones.”

“What type of criminal are we talking about here? That address you just gave me is in an extremely posh part of town. Something tells me this bloke’s not just robbing liquor stores.”

“Given the armed thugs guarding his house, I always assumed he was involved in organized crime, but that’s just a guess. And if you’re wondering why we’d have anything to do with a man like that, you have to look at that time in our lives and the choices we made through the filter of addiction. You don’t know what it feels like to be so strung out and desperate that nothing else matters but your next fix.”

Roger was silent for a long moment before saying, “Gabriel was quite upset last night. Do you think that might have caused him to fall off the wagon? What if we can’t find him because he’s using again and doesn’t want us to know?”

“I doubt it. He’s been doing so well with his recovery, and I can’t imagine him throwing that away just because we made him angry.” Although I had actually been tempted to take a drink last night…but I shook my head. “It’s only been about seventeen hours since the last time I saw him. Maybe he’s just with a friend he’s never mentioned before, or something. I really want to give him the benefit of the doubt here.”

“You’re right, it’s been less than a day,” he said. “Given that, should you really be making a beeline for the home of a known criminal?”

“While I’m willing to give Gabriel the benefit of the doubt, the same can’t be said for Mason Simeck. How can it be a coincidence, running into him right before Gabriel disappeared? They were even in the same neighborhood last night, you yourself just pointed that out.”

“I see what you’re saying, but we don’t actually know Gabriel’s disappeared or been abducted,” Roger pointed out. “In fact, we don’t know he’s in trouble at all. He could just be avoiding us. Isn’t it too soon to be jumping to all these conclusions?”

“Yeah, but I have a feeling in my gut that something’s wrong.”

“That’s a pretty flimsy reason to put yourself in danger,” Roger said. “How do you envision this going, anyway? Are you planning to knock on the door, then enquire politely if Simeck might possibly have abducted your boyfriend?”

“I don’t know. I’m making this up as I go along. Also, my phone’s almost out of charge, so I should go. Remember though, if you don’t hear from me in two hours, send the police to that address.” Roger was protesting loudly as I hung up on him.