Page 24 of Shadow Operative

“I told Rob I’d think about what we discussed and that I’d get back with him soon.”

Duncan stared at her. “That was it?”

“That was it,” Nia confirmed.

Detective Duncan leaned toward her. “Did anything seem to be bothering Mr. Lesner when you spoke? Did he seem agitated? Distracted?”

Nia thought about his question before shaking her head. “Not really. I mean, nothing was bothering him other than the fact he’d changed his mind about a contract that had already been signed.”

Had she missed some kind of clue during their conversation?

She didn’t know.

Clearly, something had happened between the time they’d met at her office—when Rob had seemed okay with the contract—and the time he’d called her around four to request dinner.

But what could have happened for him to do a one-eighty? Maybe Cormac would know. She needed to track him down.

chapter

eleven

Gage’s thoughtscontinued to race.

Was the detective suspicious of Nia? Did Duncan think she was guilty?

Gage wasn’t sure. But there was definitely more to her story.

Duncan turned toward him, focusing his efforts on questioning Gage now. “When did you say you arrived in town?”

“Last night.” Gage shifted in his molded plastic seat. “Rob called me around four-thirty yesterday afternoon and said he needed to talk—in person. Asked if I could come right away. He said it was urgent, so I flew in from Kansas. I talked to him last at six-thirty, right before the first leg of my flight took off.”

Duncan grunted and wrote something else in his notebook. “It sounds as if something was going on with him. Mr. Lesner didn’t hint about what that might be?”

Gage shook his head. “He said we’d talk when I gothere. It was ‘safer’ that way. I arrived around three a.m.—my flight was late—and tried to call Rob. He didn’t answer. I went to his apartment, knocked on his door. He didn’t answer that either. That’s when I remembered him mentioning a meeting with Nia, so I waited until a reasonable hour and tracked her down. It was all I knew to do.”

Duncan’s gaze flickered to Nia again, and he frowned.

The man wasn’t a fan. But why? What was the history there?

Maybe Gage would ask her sometime.

But he had bigger worries right now.

“You two are free to go.” Detective Duncan closed his notebook. “But I may have more follow-up questions, so stay in town.”

“Of course.” Nia stood. “Anything you need.”

Gage doubted she meant that. She wasdefinitelyhiding something.

He paused and turned back to Duncan before leaving. “What about surveillance footage here at the apartment building? Did it pick up on anything?”

Detective Duncan shook his head. “No, nothing. In fact, the footage doesn’t even show Rob coming home last night—and he clearly returned home.”

“Bizarre . . .” Gage squinted.

He’d deleted the footage of himself coming in.

But not the footage of Nia and Rob returning to the apartment building. He’d seen the images himself. So what had happened to that video?

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