The Tomorrow Heist by Jack Soren

coffees, Lew was up and waiting for him. Most ­people would have been out cold for another half day.
    â€œHow’s the head?” Jonathan asked.
    â€œI’ll tell you once the paramedics bring me back to life,” Lew said, rubbing his temples. Jonathan handed him a coffee before taking a long drink of his own. “Where have you been?”
    â€œGetting this,” Jonathan said, pulling a few stapled pages out of his jacket pocket. “Preliminary forensic report.”
    â€œFrom Emily’s?” Lew asked, the bleariness seeming to almost completely fade from his eyes.
    â€œYep.”
    Jonathan had pulled some strings from his old life in the intelligence community to get an early copy of the forensic report from Emily’s loft. A lot of ­people owed him favors, especially in the UK, where his agency had run joint missions back in the day. His contacts had gotten him the report in under an hour. Which had surprised even him.
    â€œWhat’s the verdict?” Lew said.
    â€œThere was a lot of blood at the scene,” Jonathan said, wishing he’d started somewhere else when he saw Lew’s face fall. “The good news is that while there was some blood at the scene that belonged to a female, it was only trace amounts. Most of the blood was male. Enough for a ­couple of corpses.”
    â€œCorpses? She killed them?” Lew asked, hope obvious in his wide eyes.
    â€œNo idea. And it was enough blood for a ­couple of corpses, but no bodies were found at the scene. And while the place was riddled with bullet holes, most of the brass and slugs had been cleaned up. But they were in a hurry and missed a few. Looks to be P90 fire. From the bullet trajectories, at least two shooters.”
    â€œWhat the hell did she get herself into?” Lew said. “Wait, the good news? What’s the bad news?”
    â€œWell, just like the corpses, Emily was nowhere to be found when the locals got there. I’m guessing whoever took out the attackers and cleaned up must have taken her with them when they Casey Jones’d out of there.”
    â€œShit. What else?”
    â€œThey found a cell phone and a computer tablet at the scene. Both have already been sent to computer forensics for analysis. It’s a good guess that the phone is Emily’s. Did she have a tablet?”
    â€œNo idea,” Lew said. “I guess we better make that call now.”
    Jonathan knew he was talking about Natalie. “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that. I’m not sure we should. I mean—­”
    Lew marched over to Jonathan, reached in his pocket, and pulled out his phone. He took Jonathan’s hand and slapped the phone in it.
    â€œCall her, or I’m going to make you look like I feel,” Lew said. Jonathan thought about saying something clever like “oh yeah?” but gave in and dialed his daughter’s cell phone. He wasn’t as worried about endangering her now as having to face her anger for not calling sooner. When it started to ring, he pushed the speaker button and put the phone down on the table between him and Lew.
    Jonathan took a deep breath and was getting ready to say “Hi, Baby,” when she picked up the line and immediately took a strip off him. For the first minute, she cursed more than Lew on a bad day, but even as her boil seemed to slow, he could feel her wrath coming through the line.
    â€œIf it wasn’t for Emily and Lew, I don’t know that I’d ever talk to you again, Dad. I’m serious. I mean, a year? Don’t you care about me at all anymore?” That last was punctuated with a crack in her voice. It hurt, but it was also the best thing Jonathan had ever heard. She was hurt more than mad. He was starting to think about ways he could fix things between them but remembered that that would have to come later. There were other priorities right now.
    â€œI’m sorry, Natalie, I really am, but