Page 31 of The Fix

Rex saw the number on the screen and pulled his truck to the curb as he was answering the call. “Joaquin.”

“Well, this is a surprise. Aren’t you supposed to be selling a house somewhere?”

“Yeah, I am. But something more pressing came up.”

“Oh boy. I don’t like the sound of that.”

Joaquin Andazola had never been accused of being slow on the uptake. “How’s the shoulder?”

“Healing too damn slow and pissing me off.”

“Don’t rush it or you’ll be right back where you started.”

“Yeah, yeah, you sound like my wife,” he grumbled. “What do you need?”

He glanced out his window at the coffee shop next to where his truck was idling. “That app you were telling me about, how accurate is it without a horizon in sight?”

Joaquin only paused for a moment. “Depends. What other data points do you have?”

“I have a crystal-clear view of the stars with a time stamp, and I have the position of the sun time-stamped as well.”

“What time for the sun?”

“Morning.”

“Morning is good. It would make things a lot easier if you had an idea of geographical location.”

“California. Likely the northern part of the state.”

“Okay, okay. That narrows it. We’ve got something to work with.

The system still has quite a few bugs in it, though.

I’ve been working on it, but it’s far from perfect.

And with the limited information you have, it makes it more of a challenge.

I might be able to get you close, but no exact location, or guarantee. ”

“Any information you can provide would be helpful.”

“No problem, buddy. It’ll give me something to do. Shoot over the pictures, and I’ll give it a go.”

“I owe you.”

“Hell yeah, you do. But I owe you, too, and I’ve pretty much lost track of who’s up, so let’s figure we’re even by now.”

Rex smiled. “Thanks, man. The photos will be in your inbox momentarily. Call me when you know anything.”

Rex brought up the photos Cami had texted him and then forwarded them to Joaquin.

Then he set his phone aside and took a minute to think.

He trusted Joaquin would get back to him with something.

How specific that something was, he couldn’t guess because he hadn’t given his friend a lot to go on.

But Rex knew if anyone could get them close to their target, it was Joaquin.

He’d been doing exactly that for the US government for a decade, and he was among the best. He’d tracked drug traffickers to a hut in the middle of a jungle, and lots of other bad guys to holes in the ground—sometimes literally—all over the map.

Cami had done well to come to him, not because of Rex’s skills necessarily, though he did possess quite a few, but because of his array of contacts and friends.

He felt honored by her trust, but he also wondered if he should be more wary.

She’d decimated his life once before. He understood how their shared past had unfolded.

And even when he’d made it clear they had no need to speak ever again when she’d blindsided him, he still hadn’t blamed her for what happened in the aftermath of the crime that took her mother and sister.

She’d been a traumatized teenager, and she hadn’t accused him falsely.

She just hadn’t stepped up to bat for him .

.. but why should she have? After what happened to her, she had to have been deeply confused and suspicious of everyone.

Especially a classmate who’d been following her around like a puppy dog for years.

He winced with remembered embarrassment at how he’d worshipped her.

Yeah, I guess ... it could have been him. Rex Lowe.

The way those words echoed in his head. The way the memory still scalded.

His love for Cami had been ridiculous and mostly based on fantasy.

And even at the time, he’d known it. But he wasn’t obsessed or delusional like they’d suggested.

He’d loved her—99 percent the idea of her, sure, but 1 percent the actuality.

He’d noticed so much, anything and everything she’d offered, knowingly or not.

Her laugh, so filled with sincerity. The way she held doors open for people, even when they were so far back, they had to run to show appreciation for the gesture.

The way her lip quivered so very slightly when she’d read her poem aloud in English class.

Her writing hadn’t been good, in fact, it’d been somewhat terrible, but he’d thought it beautiful because it gave him another glimpse inside of her.

And that 1 percent, ah , he would have slayed dragons for that tiny slice of Cami.

Teenage boys were dumbass fools. And he’d definitely been one of them.

What concerned him was that he was a man now, and he still felt that ardent pull of longing when he looked at Camille Cortlandt.

And more than that, he still ... believed in her.

That was the best way he could describe it.

He wasn’t even sure what that meant other than he had this feeling that she was a good person with good intentions, the same way he had when he was no more than a kid.

And though Rex had still been learning to trust himself when he was a teenager, he’d grown to rely on his instincts as a man.

So, okay, he’d go with his gut and continue to help Cami with this strange, disturbing situation she’d been pulled into.

Because of whom he believed her to be, deep down where it mattered.

But also because, aside from her or his feelings about who she was as an individual, there was a child in trouble.

Rex pulled away from the curb and headed back to Cami’s place and then parked down the street from her condo when he got there. Before he could even raise his hand to knock, she was pulling open the door, obviously having been watching for his arrival.

“His name is Cyrus.”

“What?”

“The little boy, my little boy. His name is Cyrus.”

He stepped inside, and she closed the door behind him. “How do you know?”

She engaged the lock and reset the security system on the wall next to the door.

“I’ll show you.” Then she turned and hurried to the living room, and he followed, taking a seat on the couch next to her where the laptop had been placed on the coffee table.

The little boy was sitting cross-legged on the floor, playing cards laid out in front of him.

It looked like he was playing solitaire.

“See that,” Cami said, pointing at a lower portion of the wall directly next to where he was sitting. Rex squinted and leaned in.

“Here,” she said, and handed him her phone.

She’d obviously taken a photo and zoomed in.

“I watched him do that with a spoon from food that same man brought in.” Rex turned the picture over, and sure enough, the phrase Cyrus was here was scratched upside down into the finish on the wood-planked wall.

“Cyrus,” he murmured. It didn’t necessarily do them any good as far as locating him, but it might serve them at some point, and it was good to be able to refer to him by name. Thanks, kid. “Did you do another search online for missing—”

“Yes. And I searched his first name, too, to see if anything came up in relation to missing kids or online posts, and didn’t find anything.” She showed him the photos of the frog and the bird, though, and went through her search for the two creatures she’d spotted outside the window.

He gave her a wry tip of his lips. “The military could use you.”

Her answering smile was fleeting. “Cyrus is still in danger, though, and we’re not much closer.”

“We might be soon. That celestial navigation expert I mentioned has been designing a program that uses the stars—either in real time or from a photograph—to pinpoint locations. Depending on the input, he’s able to get very close.

Unfortunately, the horizon isn’t visible in the photo we have of the night sky outside that window.

” He nodded to the computer. “But he’s going to do his calculations and see what he can come up with.

We also have a photo of the sun, which is helpful. ”

She chewed at her lip, and he suddenly noticed how absolutely exhausted she looked. The red around her eyes was even more pronounced, and a small muscle twitched in the right corner under her lashes. “A photo of the stars can really do that?” she asked.

“Yes. It’s called celestial navigation, and marine and aircraft navigators have used it for centuries.

” The science necessary was extremely complex, involving spherical trigonometry and other advanced mathematics, but Joaquin was building a program that would—in theory—allow someone to input a photograph of the overhead stars and come up with an exact location. Or even an inexact location.

Its uses were myriad and plenty.

She rubbed her eye as she nodded. “Thank you for reaching out to him. He didn’t ask—”

“No. Not a single question.”

She turned back to the computer. “One more thing.” She pointed near the door where a fast-food bag sat, what he assumed was the trash from the meal she’d mentioned had been delivered.

Next to it was a folded-over plastic bag that had the portion of a red letter showing on the front.

“That logo. I’ve been trying to determine what it might be, and it doesn’t seem like anything from a chain.

The man had the playing cards in it and so maybe it’s a local store that if we could figure out the name, we could look up the location. ”

Great thinking. He picked the computer up and set it on his knees as he looked more closely at it. But it was such a partial view that he couldn’t make anything out. “Maybe when the man comes back to pick up the trash, he’ll turn it so that we can make it out more clearly.”

She suppressed a yawn. “That’s what I’m hoping.”

“Listen, Cami, I’ve been thinking.”

She raised her tired eyes to his, and he saw the flash of anxiety—she thought he was going to drop bad news on her. Maybe about his involvement, or the limited time he was willing to give. But he’d already decided he was in this, come what may. “I think we should go there.”

She blinked. “Go where?”

“To Northern California. If we can get a more accurate location—either through my buddy or another means—that leads us close to where Cyrus is, we’ll need to be able to hop in the car right away.”

She looked away as she grasped her hands in her lap and lifted her shoulders.

“The person on the phone did say I was invited to locate Cyrus, so travel can’t be off limits, even if the device is being monitored.

” When she looked back at him, she tipped her chin.

“Okay. Yes. But where? Where in Northern California should we go?”

Rex rubbed his jaw for a moment before taking his phone from his pocket and looking up a map of the area.

“How about we fly into San Francisco and then rent a car and start driving up the coast? If we’re right about the cabin Cyrus is being kept in being located near the ocean, then he’ll be somewhere just beyond those cliffs. ”

Cami nodded and picked up her laptop, making the video of Cyrus playing cards smaller and opening a browser tab. She went to the site of an airline and began inputting dates and locations.

“I can buy my—”

“Absolutely not,” she said. “I dragged you into this. I’m buying these tickets.” She paused for a moment and raised her head to look at him. “Are you sure you have the time to travel? You didn’t bank on anything like this when you said you’d help me.”

“I have a couple of months off.”

“Yeah, but you’re here to settle your grandfather’s estate.”

He couldn’t help smiling. “That description sounds far more involved than the reality. I needed to whack some weeds, toss some junk, and list the place. The only thing left to do is list it, and I can do that when we get back.” Or maybe even from the road.

He’d already taken photographs of the front and the rooms he’d cleared.

No one was going to buy the place because it was their dream home.

Any buyer was most likely going to rehaul the house.

He’d just wanted to make sure it didn’t appear that it needed so much work it wouldn’t be worthwhile.

She released a breath. “Again, thank you. But I’ll buy the tickets.”

“I’ll rent the car.” She opened her mouth as if to argue, but then apparently decided against it as she turned back to the screen to purchase their tickets. “We leave at five thirty tonight.”

He checked the time. “That gives you at least an hour to take a nap. I’ll stay and watch Cyrus while you sleep, and then I’ll go home and throw some items in a bag and meet you back here.”

But she shook her head. “It’s an almost five-hour flight.

I’ll sleep on the plane. You go home and pack a few things, and so will I.

I also need to call my work and let them know .

..” She trailed off, obviously not having formed a plan about what she’d tell them.

“Well, I’ll tell them something came up.

” She picked up the laptop and stood. “And I’ll take this with me as I do what I need to do here. ”

He stood as well. “Okay. I’ll pick you up at three. We can park my truck at the airport.”

She gave a distracted nod. “See you then.”

She let him out, and he heard her lock the door behind him and the soft beeps of the alarm being reset.

He turned and walked to his truck, got inside, and took a moment to recalibrate his mind, the same way he’d gotten used to doing in his profession, where plans and missions tended to change on a dime.