I checked the time on my phone world clock. 5:14 p.m. in London, 9:14 a.m. in LA, 2:14 a.m. in Abiko. Perfect. I hit call back and cleared my throat.
“Hello?”
“Mr. Blackmore? I’m Hana Walker. I’m sorry I missed your call, there was something I couldn’t get out of…”
“That’s all right.”
“Could we just meet now instead of waiting until later this morning? It’s a little crazy but I have a lot of questions.”
“Now? I’m wide awake anyway. It’s not crazy at all, Miss Walker. I’m here to find my daughter. Any news?”
“Daughter. I had a look on Twitter and her name’s Emi Blackmore, right? She’s 14. And she’s in Japan?”
“That’s the hundred-thousand-dollar question, miss.”
“A hundred thousand dollars?”
“That’s what we agreed, right, that I will be paying you? $100,000 for Emi.”
“Oh, OK. Let’s meet in person to talk more. Can you call a taxi?”
“My Japanese doesn’t stretch that far, miss. But there’s a Japanese guy at the front desk with nothing better to do.”
“Great. Tell him to order a taxi to Abiko. Grande Palace Abiko, off Route 356.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can. Sounds fancy.”
“Yes, it is.”
***
Start the novel from Chapter 1 here or use the next/previous arrow keys to flip through the book.
That was a chapter of Half Life: A Hana Walker Mystery. I’m publishing a chapter a day in sequence on this blog to promote the book. You can buy HALF LIFE as a paperback from Create Space here or as a Kindle download from any Amazon site including links to the book here at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.co.jp.
The sequel, Prime Life, is coming out in the New Year.
Patrick Sherriff 