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He seems only slightly less shell-shocked now, but I can see the beginnings of understanding in those beautiful blue eyes. His posture softens. Then he sighs and...kisses me.
"You are the genius, mo chridhe. This is a bloody brilliant plan."
I can't stop myself from grinning. "You like it?"
"Aye, lass, I do. Naturally, I should be the face of the distillery, and it should be named after me." He scrunches up his face and scratches the back of his neck. "I hope my mates and my family won't think that's too pretentious."
"They'll love it. Trust me."
"What about the other two whiskies? You didn't like the Triple Threat version, and I never did name the third one."
"Let me think about those two for a while."
Thane rises and heads for a desk in the corner of the spacious living room. It's an old-fashioned roll-top desk, and the top is down right now. I watch as Thane pulls out the chair that was tucked up against the desk and takes his time getting settled in. Finally, he rolls up the top, revealing a number of drawers as well as a computer monitor.
"Where's the computer?" I ask. "Don't see anything."
"It's a small model that fits under the desk, up against the wall."
"Oh. That's a big monitor you've got."
He glances at me over his shoulder and smirks. "Everything I have is big, lass."
"Not your chickens."
"Come over here and sit on my lap." He pats his thigh. "You can help me with the hunt for Holden De Boer."
I hop off the sofa and trot over to him. When he spreads his arms, I climb onto his lap. "What am I going to do? I know nothing about geospatial stuff."
"You have eyes. Your vision is good, aye?"
"Uh-huh."
"So, you can help me search. Geospatial analysis is a visual task." He turns the monitor on and navigates to...a maps app. "You seem skeptical. Dinnae trust my skills after all, eh?"
"No, I trust you. But this is a public app, and I don't think it has up-to-the-minute data."
"That's true. But right now, I'm simply going to navigate to the spot where we last saw Holden. Then I'll expand the search area gradually and make note of locations where he might possibly have been." He hooks an arm around my waist. "Let's both study the map. I'll use the mouse to move around on the screen. If anything jumps out at you, speak up."
We both scrutinize the images, beginning on that side street where we'd run into Holden after our lunch at the café. No matter how hard I squint at the images, I can't see anything that might give us a clue to where Holden went after he ran off. I suck at geospatial analysis.
Thane rubs his eyes. "This isn't working. We need real-time data."
"Can't any of your friends help? Some of them are computer wizards, right?"
"Aye. But I can't explain to them why I'm searching for Holden."
"Maybe they won't care. Why don't you call one of them and find out?"
He scrunches up his face again. Thane often does that when he doesn't like one of my ideas. In this case, I think he's embarrassed to ask for help. But finally, he sighs and nods. "If you can get my mobile out of my pocket, I'll ring someone."
I wriggle around until I find his phone in his jeans pocket, then offer it to him. "Here's what you wanted."
Thane is wincing.
"What's wrong now?"
"You were rubbing your erse into my slat."
