Page 125 of Exposé

"Hi." She smiled, her eyes darting across the walkway. "What are you doing here?"

I shrugged. "Thought I'd drop by and see how you were. You've been MIA for a while."

Ava's eyes narrowed. "It's only been a few days."

Shifting, I raised a brow and leaned on the doorway. "Ava, it's been almost three weeks since... you know..."

"Yeah, but I saw you a few days ago."

She saw me?

When?

"Unless I'm the one having a memory issue, I haven't seen you since we left the Mayor's officethree weeks ago."

"You were helping Mrs. Fontaine to her car."

"On Monday?"Jesus."Why haven't you been answering your phone?"

She pulled the door closer behind her, disallowing my view into her apartment. "I've been busy."

Very busy, my recluse.

"Can I come in? You can catch me up on what you've found."

Her head turned slightly to the side as though suspicion ran through her veins. "What do you mean, what I've found?"

The paranoia is growing.

"From the photos. Have you figured anything out yet?"

A shine hit her eyes as though she'd hit the lottery.

Will she let me in?

"I think..." She took another look down the walkway, grabbed my forearm, and yanked me inside, slamming the door behind us. "I think I might have found something huge."

Looking around, I whistled as I peered at the growing board I'd stared at for weeks. "Wow, you did this?"

Nodding, she walked to the right side of the board and pointed. "It's all connected."

"Come again?"

"All of it." Her hands hovered over the evidence board as she spread them wide. "It's some wild internetworking scheme. I don't know why they are doing it, but it's huge, Nate."

I sat down on the couch, my elbows on my knees, hands clasped. "Alright, break it down for me."

She stuck the edge of her pen into her mouth and chewed, the detail more intricate in person than from the camera hovering above her.

"First, I found this." She pointed to a piece of paper. "It's a header of a transfer slip. Elara Holdings. I recognized it, but for some reason, I couldn't place it, but then I remembered. A while ago, I read a piece about corporate veils being used for laundering. Elara Holdings was at the center of the controversy, but they cleared their name. For the public, at least. So I dove into it."

Elara Holdings... Doesn't ring a bell.

"And what did you find?"

“This,” she gestured toward the board, “is how I figured out who Keith Brentwood is and what he’s tied to.”

My stomach flipped. "One person? I thought this was big?"

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