Page 3 of Bad Seed

Unaware of the danger on her trail, Harley was already on her way to catch a flight. She’d checked out of the hotel when she left this morning. Her luggage was in the rental car, and she would return the car when she got to the airport. But her drive was hampered by the weather, and by the time she got her luggage checked and her rental car returned, she was running to the gate to catch her flight. She made it with minutes to spare and didn’t relax until she was in her seat, on the way home to Chicago.

***

It was past noon by the time Ollie’s Uber dropped him off at the hotel, but he’d done his homework. While he was riding, he’d texted the wife of a friend, who was a maid at the hotel, and after some coaxing and the promise of a hundred dollars, she reluctantly gave him Harley Banks’s room number.

Ollie finally reached the hotel, jumped out, and entered behind a party of five getting out of a shuttle. He went straight to the elevators and up to the sixth floor, then headed down a long hallway, looking for Room 645. But when he got there, the door was propped open, and there was a cleaning crew inside. His heart sank.

“The woman who was in this room. Where did she go?” he asked.

One of the maids shrugged. “She checked out this morning.”

His gut knotted. Berlin wasn’t going to like this. Ollie headed back to the elevators and, as soon as he was inside, sent a text.

She checked out before the raid. No idea where she’s gone.

His phone rang within minutes. He answered as he was walking across the lobby.

“Hello?”

“What the hell happened?”

“Snow happened. For all I know, she’d already checked out of here and went straight to the airport.”

“Then make it your business to find her,” Berlin said, and ended the call.

Ollie frowned. The boss was a cold bastard, but he paid good. As long as he didn’t get on the wrong side of him, he’d be okay.

***

It was late afternoon by the time Harley got back to her apartment. She paid the cab driver, grabbed her suitcase, and hurried into the building.

The security guard on duty in the lobby recognizedher and smiled. “Welcome back, Miss Banks. Travel is pretty nasty right now.”

“It sure is, but it’s home sweet home for now, right, Danny?”

He grinned. “Yes, ma’am. Welcome home.”

Harley ignored the moment of loneliness as she headed for the elevator. It didn’t say much for her personal life that her only welcome home was from the building security guard.

A short while later, she had stripped down to her lingerie and was putting her travel clothes into the washing machine. As soon as she had it running, she headed for the shower. It was part of her homecoming routine—washing away the negativity of where she’d been.

Later, she downed a bowl of cereal, then headed for her bedroom. Throwing aside her bathrobe, she crawled between the sheets, rolled over onto her side, and closed her eyes.

***

It was just past eight o’clock the next morning when Harley woke. The last thing she wanted to do was get out of her warm, comfy bed, but she had things to do. After a quick wash in the bathroom, she wadded her long curly hair up into a topknot and fastened it with a banana clip, then dressed in an old cable-knit sweater and a pair of sweatpants and headed to the kitchen with her phone.

Two cups of coffee and another bowl of cereal later, she was curled up on her sofa, going through missed messages. One from the federal agents who’d debriefed her. Most of them were things she’d respond to later, except the ones from her mother. That she wanted to get over with. They weren’t exactly estranged, but neither of her parents approved of her chosen career and prodded at her constantly for the decisions she made.

Her father, Jason Banks, was a NASA scientist, and her mother, Judith, was an accomplished screenwriter and playwright. They had a penthouse in New York City, a villa in the south of France, and owned a small vineyard in Calabria, Italy.

Harley was a genius with technology and numbers, but that was of no importance to her parents. It wasn’t a showy career. It garnered her no fame. Harley also had no significant other in her life, and had chosen to live in an apartment in Chicago. They had nothing against Chicago, but it wasn’t New York City. She knew they didn’t approve of her adult life, but she’d mostly gotten over letting it bother her.

She wasn’t callous enough to ignore her mother’s calls, but talking to them did require fortification, so she peeled the wrapper off a piece of chocolate and popped it in her mouth. It was melting on her tongue as she picked up her phone, scrolled through her contact list to her mother’s name, and punched the call icon. Judith Banks answered just as Harley’s chocolate was melting down to the chewy caramel center.

“So, you finally found time for me,” Judith snapped.

Harley sighed. “I’ve been on a job for the last three weeks. I flew out in a snowstorm, came home in a snowstorm, and went straight to bed. I just woke up. I will not apologize for the need to rest. I just finished a successful case in which I discovered where my client’s missing funds had gone, uncovered a human trafficking ring, and was responsible for finding the location of forty-four females who were being held by human traffickers readying to ship them all off somewhere overseas. I found out from one of the agents this morning that they were all on the national missing persons list, and eleven of them were under the age of twelve.”

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