Page 94 of Forged in Steele

“I think it best if you stop by so we can talk about it in person.”

He didn’t want to waste time, but he would be glad to get out of the room where Adair kept looking at him, disappointment on his face.

“I can be there in thirty minutes.” Jared headed for the door.

“Good,” Sierra said. “I’ll tell the night guard to expect you.”

He hung up, told Reed about the call, and jogged out the back of the building to his car. He cranked the engine, the sound lifting into the night with only the slight hum of traffic in the distance. Could one of those cars be Bristol heading back to the hospital? Should he call her? Maybe check to see how she was getting along?

He didn’t want to seem like he was an overprotective person, and he wasn’t worried about her. He just missed having her at his side. He could tell her about the call from Sierra but not knowing what she’d found, he didn’t want to tell Bristol about it yet.

He navigated traffic and pulled into the Veritas Center parking lot in twenty-six minutes. Four minutes ahead of the predicted time. Two six-story towers connected by a building on the ground floor and a skybridge on the top were lit from outside as beacons in the night. Many of the interior lights were on too. Quite a posh place for a lab. With the high prices they commanded for their services, they could likely afford such a building.

Nearing midnight, the parking lot was deserted but well-lit by street lights. He parked close to the building and could see the uniformed guard standing right inside the door. Jared stepped up and held his ID out so the guard could see it through the glass door.

The burly but short guy unlocked the door and held out his hand. “Pete Vincent. Welcome, Agent Wolfe.”

Jared took Pete’s hand, not at all surprised by the man’s firm grip.

Pete held the door. “You been here before?”

Jared shook his head and took in the lobby decorated more like a spa than a lab. The only thing that gave away the lab’s job of processing evidence was the evidence lockers filling the back wall. Or at least Jared assumed they were evidence lockers.

“Follow me and we’ll get you signed in.” Pete strode ahead of Jared to a reception desk in the large lobby. Pete tipped his head at an iPad on the counter. “Fill in the visitor’s form, and I’ll let Sierra know you’re here.”

Jared tapped the screen to enter his details, impressed so far with the lab’s security.

Pete telephoned Sierra to tell her that Jared had arrived. After Pete hung up, he created a security badge that he connected to a blue lanyard. “Wear this at all times, and turn it in when you leave. Also, don’t go anywhere in the building without being accompanied by a Veritas staff member.”

“Top-notch security,” Jared said. Everyone vouched for the place, but it was good to see in person that the evidence Sierra collected was being handled safely.

“Can’t be too careful with evidence.” Pete firmed his stance. “Also, we’ve had issues in the past with DNA customers getting violent when they weren’t happy with their results. Threatening the staff. Our partners are very special people, and we aim to keep them safe.”

Jared liked how much this guy seemed to care for the workers. “You work for the lab then. Not contracted.”

Pete puffed up his chest. “Been working here almost since opening day. They didn’t have security guards at first, but then like I said, a customer went off on one of our staff, and they didn’t waste time in hiring guards.”

Jared slipped the lanyard over his neck. “You’re former law enforcement.”

“You can tell.” His face beamed with pride.

“Hard not to spot with the way you carry yourself.” Jared didn’t mention the guy’s buzz cut gave him away too.

Pete gave a sharp nod, and his phone rang. He turned his attention to answering it.

Jared didn’t know if Sierra would come down the stairs or out the glass door in the back, so he went to stand at the base of the open staircase, seeming to float above a seating area. The center’s logo—Connecting Loved Ones Around the World, in bold red letters circling a black globe—was painted on the wall. Pictures of smiling people filled the wall below. Jared suspected they were private clients the lab helped reunite through DNA testing.

Those clients probably didn’t even know about the criminal work handled by the lab. Either way, it was all about finding truth here. The center’s name—Veritas—meant truth in Latin. Fitting for sure.

The glass door opened on the far wall, and Sierra waved to him. “This way.”

He hurried across the lobby. “So what’s this anomaly you found?”

“We’ll want to wait until we get to the lab.” She led him down a hall to an elevator and summoned the car by using a fingerprint reader mounted on the wall. “Is this your first time here?”

He nodded, wishing she’d skip the small talk and get to the business at hand.

In the car, she selected the fourth floor button. “All the labs are in this tower and most of the partners still live in condos in the other tower. Also my brothers have an investigative agency on the sixth floor—Nighthawk Security—and they live in the condo tower too.”

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