Page 4 of The Last Promise You Made

The CSI who was bent over her turned to look up at me. “Not sure what happened here.” He waved over the blood on her chest. “Looks like something was dragged over her after she died.”

“Any ID?” I asked.

He shook his head. “And good luck getting a solid one based on facial recognition. She’s had work done, specifically to the nose-bridge area.”

The region where the nose, eyes, and forehead intersected was key to facial recognition software. I scanned her again, noticing the long strands of purple in her otherwise nearly black hair and the way it had been styled to cover at least one eye. She was also wearing a harsh concealer that contrasted with her skin tone. These were all things known to confuse the software.

“Okay if I move this?” I asked, leaning down and waving a gloved hand over the purple strand sticking to her lips. He nodded, and I pushed it aside. Her face was frozen in a look that was hard to identify. Fear. Regret. Worry.

I snapped a picture of the woman, wondering if this was truly the elusive Anna Smith we’d been tracking through several countries or just some sad woman with the same name. Anna had been nothing more than a name—a ghostlike apparition—for three years, disappearing every time we caught up to her. Even her name had been an alias we could only track back eight years. Before today, there’d been no image of her anywhere, leaving her a question mark on the board in the conference room of the multi-agency task force in D.C. Maybe now that we had prints and a face, we’d come up with something more.

Rory might be able to manipulate Anna’s image enough for us to see what she’d looked like before the cosmetic work, and once we had that, our new analyst would scour every nook and cranny of the internet for Anna’s deconstructed face. Rory was better at hacking and pulling puzzle pieces together than just about anyone I’d ever encountered. If she couldn’t turn over a hidden rock and discover the truth of Anna, no one could.

Rory may not be the Q to my James Bond, but I’d come to count on her more than the fictional character ever had on his head of research and development—and definitely more than the loner Jason Bourne had ever counted on anyone. If my life were really a novel, like Jack Reacher or Jane Blond or any of the four J-spy heroes who’d influenced my life and my career, Rory might have played the traitorous villain. Except, I’d witnessed her being the exact opposite of a villain last November.

I stood, dragging my eyes around the room, noting there was no computer. No electronic equipment at all. Not even a phone. An open suitcase full of clothes looked like it had been ransacked in the closet, but other than that, the room was empty.

My gaze returned to the victim lying on the floor with her hand extended toward the bed skirt where the white sole of a shoe was just barely visible. As I bent to reach for it, the shoe disappeared. My lungs froze, my body stilled, and my mind went into overdrive.

Local police had been the first on the scene. Sitting in the chief of police’s office, I’d been explaining about our multi-agency task force and trying to convince him to lend me some of his patrols to scour the streets for a woman we didn’t even have a picture of when he’d gotten the call about the murder. As soon as Anna’s name had left his lips, I’d jumped into the agency’s Escalade and headed for the motel room she’d rented. CSI had already been processing the scene when I’d arrived.

I slowly turned, tapping the tech on the shoulder. When his eyes met mine, I tipped my head toward the bed.

“Room was cleared, right?” I asked.

His gaze widened, but he nodded.

I pointed at the bed and then back at the cop standing watch at the door. He didn’t hesitate, bounding to his feet and whispering something to the officer as I pulled my Glock from the waistband at my back.

I reached for the bed skirt, saying calmly, “Come out nice and slow.”

Nothing. Not even a hint of movement. Had I imagined it? The space between the bed frame and the floor was mere inches. I wasn’t sure a person could actually slide under it, which was probably why the officers clearing the room hadn’t thought to check.

I pantomimed flipping the mattress to the two men and aimed my gun as they lifted it and flung it toward the back wall.

Underneath was a tangled detritus of garbage and dust balls, and in the middle of it lay a little girl. She was curled up in the fetal position, eyes wide with fear, and cheeks tear-stained. She ducked her face into her arms protectively.

What in the actual hell?

My heart skittered around in my chest, and chills coasted up my spine. We had a witness. A witness to a Lovato assassination. If we could find whoever did this and tie them to the cartel, it would be another huge win. Another chunk in the cartel’s shell.

But what had she actually seen? Would she be able to help us at all? My stomach fell… What would happen to her if the Lovatos found out she’d seen their assassin?

I put my gun away and stepped over the bed frame into the debris surrounding her. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re safe.”

My words made her flinch, and she drew her legs and arms impossibly closer to her body, as if willing herself to disappear. She was trembling. I could almost smell the fear radiating from her.

Cautiously, I eased closer. “My name is Gia. I’m an…officer. I promise you’re safe now. No one is going to hurt you. I won’t let them.”

The little girl’s eyes peeked out from beneath strands of long black hair. She had the same warm brown eyes as the dead woman. Except, the anguish and terror in the child’s eyes weren’t frozen in death.

I swallowed hard, squatting so I was closer to her level.

“What’s your name?”

She shook her head violently. The CSI tech shifted, and the child’s eyes darted to him. Seeing both men hovering, she jerked into action, scurrying backward toward the wall. Once she hit it, she wrapped her arms around her legs again, her gaze shifting between us in fear.

“They’re with the police,” I told her gently. “They’re the good guys. No one here is going to hurt you.”

---