“This was his first time away from home,” Mrs. Apusenja said. “He was a good boy. He was not one of those good-?for-?nothing wanderers. He came here to make money for his family in India.”
Ranger returned the passport to the drawer and continued his search. He abandoned the desk and went to the closet. “What's missing from the room?” Ranger asked Mrs. Apusenja. “What did Singh take with him?”
“So far as I know, just the clothes he was wearing. And his backpack, of course.”
Ranger turned to look at her. “Do you know what he carried in his backpack?”
“His computer. He was never without his computer. It was a laptop. It always went to work with him. Samuel was very smart. That's how he got such a good job. He said he got his job over the Internet.”
“Do you know his email address?” I asked.
“No. I don't know anything about that. We don't own a computer. We have no need for such a thing.”
“How did Samuel get to work?” Ranger asked.
“He drove himself.”
“Has his car been found?”
“No. He just drove away in the car and that was the last we saw of him and the car. It was a gray Nissan Sentra ... an older model.”
Ranger did a quick search of the bathroom and Nonnie's room and we all moved downstairs to search the kitchen.
We were still in the kitchen when Nonnie came home.
“Have you found Boo?” Nonnie asked.
“Not yet,” I said. “Sorry.”
“It's difficult to concentrate on my work with him missing like this,” Nonnie said.
“Nonnie is a manicurist at Classy Nails in the mall,” Mrs. Apusenja said. “She is one of their most popular girls.”
“I never skimp on the top coat,” Nonnie said. “That's the secret to a superior manicure.”
It was a few minutes after six when Ranger and I left the Apusenjas. There was still time to make dinner at my parents' house, but I was losing enthusiasm for the experience. I was thinking I'd had enough chaos for one day. I was thinking maybe what I wanted to do was get take-?out pizza and go home and watch a bad movie.
Ranger lounged against my car, arms crossed over his chest. “What do you think?”
“Nonnie never asked about Singh. She only asked about Boo.”
“Not exactly the distraught fiancee,” Ranger said.
“If we believe everything we hear, we've got a nice geeky guy who got himself engaged and disappeared along with the dog.”
“The dog could be a coincidence.”
“I don't think so. My Spidey Sense tells me the disappearances are related.”
Ranger grinned at me. “Your Spidey Sense tell you anything else?”
“Is that a mocking grin?”
“It's the grin of a man who loves you, babe.”
My heart skipped around a little and I got warm in places only Morelli should be warming. “Love?”
“There's all kinds of love,” Ranger said. “This kind doesn't come with a ring attached.”