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being, she seemed to surrender. “How about sending the link to that page to Clark,” I said to her. “He’s going to do some checking for us. He can add that to the list.” She put down her coffee and got right on it. She was really quite good at this kind of stuff, which was both surprising and worrisome.
    I got up but didn’t head for the table. Instead, I retrieved my phone and dialed Clark. “Hi, it’s me,” I said when he answered. I went back into our bedroom to talk to him.
    “So the display says, sis. What’s up?”
    “Mom is going to send you a link to a website in a minute. It’s something she found about a Zach Finch. We think it’s the same Zach Finch that was found in the trunk of my car today.”
    “So is he some wanted criminal or something?” Clark asked. “His name is really setting off bells in my head.”
    “More of a something,” I answered, “if it’s the same Zach Finch.” I paused and closed my eyes, knowing this was not going to be a simple matter. No dead body was, but this had the potential of blowing up into an epic problem. “His father is some big mucky-muck. When he was fifteen, Zach was kidnapped and held for ransom. According to the article, the ransom was paid but neither Zach nor his abductors were ever found.”
    “Geez,” Clark said and was silent for a very long time. Then he added, “That’s why the name sounded familiar. I remember when that all happened.”
    “Me too now, sort of. It was in the news back then, wasn’t it?”
    “Yeah. As I recall now, it was kept quiet until after the ransom disappeared and Zach wasn’t recovered,” Clark explained. “Then it was in the news constantly. So what does this have to do with you or anyone you know?”
    “That’s the fifty-million-dollar question, Clark. This kid’s been missing for more than eight years. And this doesn’t sound like anything connected to either Willie or Elaine, does it?”
    “No, it doesn’t,” he agreed, “but you never know. Was Elaine ever involved in kidnapping for cash?”
    I didn’t have to scratch my memory very deep to answer. “She kidnapped Mike Steele a few years back for someone. That’s how we met.” I let that tidbit of information sink into Clark’s skull for a moment. It had happened before I’d found Mom and met Clark. “Still,” I added, “as strange as it sounds, Elaine does have a moral code. It’s not the same as ours, but she does have one. I don’t think she’d involve me in one of her jobs like this.”
    Clark took a deep breath. “I’ll do some snooping and hopefully will have something to tell you tomorrow. In the meantime, keep your head down, you hear? This is going to involve the feds, and that’s way out of your league. They won’t be as accommodating as your local cops.”
    “Um, the feds are already involved,” I told Clark. I held my breath for a heartbeat before continuing. “There was an FBI agent questioning us along with Andrea Fehring.”
    “Then they already know who this guy is,” Clark said. “The local cops probably called the feds after they ran his prints. Like I said, you’re out of your league, but at least you have some sense of what’s appropriate.” Clark groaned. “Mom’s another story. I don’t like the idea of her running wild on the Internet with this information. It could bring the bad guys out of hiding sooner than later.”
    “Don’t worry,” I assured my brother. “Several of us have already told Mom to keep all this to herself. Greg even threatened to lock her up if she blogged about it.”
    Clark laughed. “I’ve always liked your husband, sis. From day one I liked him. He would have made a damn fine cop.”
    “By the way, Mom is leaving tomorrow for some old geezer bus trip to one of the Indian casinos. She’ll be gone for two days. She forgot to tell you.”
    “She just did,” Clark told me. “I just received the email with the link about Finch. It included the news that she’s going