Page 96 of The Lie Maker

“Didn’t sound like either of them were going to be there much longer.”

“You should have been watching.”

“There’s just one of me, in case you hadn’t noticed. But I got another idea how to find out who she is, anyway.”

“Do it.”

The line went dead. He entered another number into the phone.

“Yes?”

“Earl?”

“Yes?”

“It’s me, Earl.”

A pause at the other end.

“Oh,” Earl said resignedly. “What do you want?”

“That little bug you planted paid off.”

“That’s... that’s great,” Earl said.

“But there’s something I need to know. This lady friend of your stepson. Who is she?”

“Why? Why do you have to know something like that?”

Cayden sighed. “Earl.”

It was all he needed to say. After a long pause, Earl cleared his throat and spoke. “Her name’s Lana. She’s a reporter.”

“A reporter for who?”

“The Star. Lana Wilshire. What do you want with her?”

“She knows something.”

“Knows what?”

“Not your concern, Earl. You know where she lives?”

“No. I swear.”

No problem, Cayden thought. He would find her.

Fifty-One

Lana saw Jack to her car and watched as he drove off around the corner. Just before they locked up the apartment she had ordered an Uber to take her back to her place, and within half an hour she was perched on a stool at her kitchen island, looking on her laptop for more information about Kyle Gartner, son of Abel, brother of Valerie.

She reread the article Valerie had written about her addiction struggles, then the piece that came out after she had died. The stories she’d found earlier on Kyle explored the challenges he had faced in assuming the top position at the company his father had run before his murder.

She went looking for contact information for him, starting with online white page directories for Chicago and environs. Took her about ten minutes to find a Kyle Gartner in Highland Park.

There was the phone number. All she had to do was pick up the cell sitting next to the laptop and call the man.

But what the hell was she going to say?

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