Page 34 of Desolation

I glare at him and use my mom voice. “Probably nothing? I haven’t seen that man in seven years. He quit out of nowhere and then disappeared. So don’t tell me it’s probably nothing.”

“Does Michael still talk to him?”

I clench my jaw. “No. He just disappeared. I haven’t heard from him. I tried reaching out to his family to invite him to some events but none of them had his address. It’s like he ghosted everyone.”

“Okay.”

“Why are you asking?”

He sighs as he sets his sandwich down. “I was scanning through the documents you gave me. I broke down some of the code. There is a phone number that’s popped up multiple times. I traced it back to a Martha Weber.”

“Who’s Martha?”

“Dylan’s dead grandmother.”

I rest my hand on my chin as I lean forward over the counter. “How did you connect her to Dylan?”

“You honestly think your husband has something to do with all of this?”

I nod, not sure where he is going.

“I have software I created years ago. I’ve been tweaking it and used information from the documents. It cross-checks all resources I load into the software. Your NPOs, your foundation, Waters & Smith, your phone records, your husband’s. It’s not exactly legal. But it scrapes data. It scraped employee files at Waters & Smith. It—never mind. I won’t go into detail. But it connected the number and last name. Did some digging. And Dylan Weber popped up.”

“Who you think is using his dead grandma’s name?”

“Oh, he is using more than that. I’m surprised the government hasn’t red flagged it yet. Her credit cards and social security are active. Hard for a dead woman.”

I look at him stunned. “But what does this have to do with Michael or that money in my accounts?”

“I’m not sure yet. But the fact that I was able to pull something from that file means I am close to finding out more.”

I am more confused now than ever.

“Well, I need to head back to the office.”

“I thought you said you were taking a half day.”

“Nah. Just needed lunch. And I wanted to see if that name meant anything. Wanted to make sure it wasn’t a dead end.”

“Is it?”

“No Mar, this is just the beginning.”

* * *

I slept like shit last night. Whatever Dax found must have been a huge lead because he wasn’t home when I went to bed after midnight. I tossed and turned most of the night thinking about Dylan and Michael’s relationship. They were friends, they had a great work relationship. But when Dylan quit Michael never talked about him. It made sense at the time because Dylan said he got a job in New York but now I wonder if it’s weird he didn’t stay in touch.

It’s just after five in the afternoon and my head is still spinning. I know the only thing that will help is if I spend some time with Georgia and Henry. I just hope it’s late enough that I don’t run into Landon. I can’t handle one more thing on my mind.

Chapter Thirteen

Landon

“Stop looking at the door, boy. She ain’t comin’,” Henry says to me.

I’m not going to lie, I’ve been looking at the doorway most of the day, letting Henry beat me in almost every game of chess. For some reason I cannot let this woman go. Which is not like me. If a woman passes on me, I move on to the next. But there is something about Mari. She seems almost familiar in a way. Or maybe it’s her no holds barred attitude that she only seems to show around me.

Wendy never called me yesterday so I know she didn’t come by. I was going to wait for a call today but decided to show up without one. I play chess with Henry on Saturdays and I couldn’t let him down.

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