Page 88 of Talk Birdie to Me

“I’ll call back later,” Cody shouted over the speaker.

The call ended abruptly, and Geena navigated the storm, trying her best to focus on the road and not this new potential clue as she headed to work.

It required all of Geena’s attention to run through the rain and enter the building without slipping in the puddles scattered around her firm’s parking lot. Once she sat at her desk, her focus wasn’t much better. Every calculation took twice as long, and she found herself making the simplest of mistakes. Mistakes that could cost her clients dearly.

Just before noon, she took an early break, but she wasn’t hungry for the microwavable rice bowl she’d brought. She was sitting alone at a table in the break room when James walked in.

He looked as if he hadn’t slept in days. Probably up all night still stressing about wedding expenses.

He froze just inside the doorway, and his weary expression shifted to concern.

“Jeez, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He frowned. “Or maybe a ghost of exes past?”

“How’d you guess?” she said with a hint of snark in her tone. “The jerk strikes again. Maybe worse this time.”

“Is he still trying to screw you out of money?”

She’d been open with James about all of her troubles with Ricky. He was the only one who understood the numbers game they were playing. Taylor, Cody, and the shelter staff had been supportive, but they didn’t really understand the details. James had. And he’d been her second set of eyes along the way.

“Sort of. Same as always,” she said. “But I think he might have stolen the parrot I’ve been taking care of.”

James inhaled sharply with that information.

Besides her dealings with Ricky, James had also been her confidant about Gary. Honestly, she wasn’t sure how she would have made it through the last couple of weeks without him.

The only thing she’d held back on was her unfolding relationship with Cody. Not that she was hiding it from James. It was more that she wanted to decide how she felt about it all before taking in anyone else’s opinions on the matter.

She was having enough trouble keeping her sister from digging too deep into her and Cody’s relationship. She didn’t need more voices in her head. Not yet, at least.

“When did this happen? Why would he do that?”

His words came out as rapid-fire questions, sharp and shocked.

“This past weekend. And the same reason he does anything,” she said. “Money.”

“And I’m just now hearing about this?” James frowned. “Have you called the police?”

“Yeah. I don’t think they’re interested in a missing bird.” She perked up as new information hit her brain. “But maybe they’ll develop interest if they find out how much money might be connected to his disappearance.”

James’s expression turned flat, with a hint of that weariness just below the surface. “How much do you think we’re talking about here? How much is enough to get the police more involved?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t even know if Ricky knows for sure. I don’t think he had direct access to Anthony’s accounts. He just?—”

Geena stopped short as she realized what she’d just said.

Ricky didn’t have access to or know how much money would be in Anthony’s accounts.

But someone else did.

She held up her phone. “I’m gonna go outside to call Cody while there’s a break in the weather. He tried to reach me earlier, but the rain was too loud.”

Geena struggled to keep her tone light and breezy, like she was just about to chat with the guy she was dating, instead of sharing vital information about a kidnapping and potential robbery.

“I don’t think so.” James’s voice remained flat and weary, but there was a darkness to his words now.

“What?” It was all she could figure out to say. She needed to keep him in the dark to her realization. “Why?”

Part of her was getting the sinking suspicion that he was already on to her.

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