"I've been an idiot," he said.

"What?"

He went outside. I followed, in my pajamas, noticing that it was 7:00 am.

"Four tapes," he said, striding to the car. I had to hop on the hot parking lot gravel to keep up with him. "45 minutes per side, 90 minutes per tape. 360 minutes total."

"6 hours of listening pleasure," I agreed. "Inspector Hawkins, right?"

"Correct. What can you tell me about Michael's driving?"

At the car, Richard unlocked the doors and I got in. "He's pretty careful."

"Wouldn't you say he is a consistent driver?"

"Yeah. He always drives the speed limit or pretty close."

"Yeah," said a voice. "Real boring."

I turned to see Steve beside the car, wearing boxer shorts and a smile. "Didn't wanna miss the Great Brain in action," he explained, climbing into the back seat.

Richard continued. "Michael is, we agree, a predictable, consistent driver. Unlike those who would deride him, Michael's acceleration is not directly proportional to the volume of the radio."

"Who derode Mike?" Steve demanded. "I'll punch his lights out."

"Three tapes had been opened. We may assume he had listened to the entirety of the first two tapes, since they had been neatly returned to their cases. The third tape was still in the player. But the tape player had been tossed in a cavalier manner into the back floorboard. That was unlike Mike, who is also predictably neat. I suggest that Michael was abducted during the playing of the third tape."

"How do you know..."

"David, it's been more than a day. I'll grant that Michael could have taken an hour to visit some unknown girlfriend. But he would not have put his parents through this ordeal. As for the tapes... given a predictable, average driving speed of 55 miles an hour or so and a known playing time of audio tapes, what can we discover?"

"Too many unknowns," I protested. "He could have turned off the tapes for awhile. Or rewound to hear a part again."

"Let me back up. There are two possibilities I have ruled out. One is that Michael sojourned at a rest stop and his car was stolen. This is not likely. He would simply have called for help. The other is that he was killed, his car stolen, his body abandoned. But there were no signs of this and his body has not been discovered. I believe he and his car were abducted together. Picture yourself in Michael's position. You are driving and have been ordered against your will to take an exit you don't wish to take. You want to leave some indication as to its location, but can't write a note --"

"So he stopped the tape!"

Richard paused. "Yes. I confess, this thread is so slim as to be nearly intangible."

"You've already worked it out. What exit did he take?"

"He was 27 minutes into side 2 of the third tape. With an acceptable margin for error, that puts Michael leaving the highway at exit 171. At Cygnet, Ohio." He frowned. "The entire process of deduction rests on a trail of assumptions so slippery I cannot insist we pursue it. Thus I leave the matter to your better judgments."

Right, I thought. That'll be the day you let Steve drive your dad's Buick. "Okay. Let's call the Hudsons and let 'em know where we're going."

But I couldn't help but wonder: were we leaving Mike behind?

© Copyright David T. Jarvis 1997, 1998, 1999

All Rights Reserved.