The Fifteen Minute Novel is a novel written fifteen minutes at a time with each week day’s section starting with the sentence from the previous day. At least it is attempting to be a novel. For now I am just aiming at one continuous story, worked on for fifteen minutes each day. Started Friday January 1st, 2021 (in case you want to search for the beginning. I can’t wait to see where it ends up. It could be good, or it could be a mess. We’ll have to see. For now, here is today’s fifteen minutes.
Day 241: “After we went through so much trouble to make sure everyone thought you were dead?” Tucker asked.
“After we went through so much trouble to make sure everyone thought you were dead?” Tucker asked. “That wouldn’t be very smart.”
“But I don’t know anything about the situation,” James replied. He studied Tucker as he spoke. There was something off about the agent. He just didn’t know what.
Tusker smiled. Genuine amusement lit his eyes. “So you think that now you aren’t useful, well use you as bait to get to Cassie.?”
“Would she be more useful?”
“Maybe, but maybe not,” Tucker said. “It is still your family company that was in the thick of it. Cassie and her family were only on the outer edges. She might know something more that could help us or she could just know a little that wouldn’t help us much at all.”
“Why would she be hiding if she didn’t know anything?” James asked.
Tucker shrugged. “Could be someone thinks she knows something.”
The response sounded false to James. He suspected the Agent knew she held a vital piece of information. ‘Otherwise, why go to all of the trouble to ask me about it so many times?’ James tried to recall if this was the second or third time that Tucker asked about Cassie. He couldn’t recall, but it seemed like a lot.
“What are you thinking?” Tucker asked, when the silence stretched.
James shook his head. “I was thinking that I would have thought Cassie was too high profile to just go after for just a possibility.” He sighed. “She spends a lot of time in the spotlight. Her disappearing isn’t going to pass without notice.”
“No one seemed to pay too much attention to your step brothers, or you for that matter,” Tucker said. He smiled at James. “No offense.”
“None taken,” James said. “We were corporate suits. Eric especially wanted to be more but any real notice he got beyond business was by association with someone like Cassie. We always linked our business back to the business, we didn’t have a corporate face exactly. Even if we were know. Cassie used social media not just for social but to create a more personal presence for the company. She is the face of the company. It suits her family company more than ours. Our business wouldn’t benefit from that kind of branding the way hers was.” James smiled and shook his head. “It was an argument I had with Eric more than once. He wanted the spot light. Yet every time he tried for it, he was always someone’s plus one.”
“So her going missing will be noticed,” Tucker said. He frowned at the thought, the humor leaking out if his eyes.
“I would have thought she’d be missed already. She used her phone to keep everything updated and you said she left that behind.”
“That is true,” Tucker replied. The thought seemed to lighten him slightly.
“Wouldn’t it be beneficial if she is missed?” James asked. “More people on the lookout for her?” The more he spoke with Tucker the more the pool of disquiet seemed to grow in his belly.
Ten til Midnight 