Page 50 of Dark Secrets

“Yeah, yeah. That’s me.”

He shoved bills at the gangly kid in his ugly orange and black uniform and slammed the door in his face. Shutting his laptop with a frustrated snap, he set the pizza box on top and bent to retrieve a can of Coke from the fridge. He popped the top and took a long pull.

Propping his legs up on the edge of the bed, he turned on the TV and fished a slice of pizza out of the box. He flipped through the limited channels while he chewed. Not even a football game on in this dump. Not that there’d be a good game to watch in this neck of the woods anyway, but anything would be better thanI Love Lucyreruns.

He left it on a local news station and listened to the sexy weather girl report that tomorrow’s weather was going to be more of the same. Cold as fuck and windy. Christ, how did anyone survive up here?

His phone rang, and he grabbed it from on top of the dresser, swallowing the rest of his slice with a swig of Coke.

“Hello.”

He strummed his fingers on the arm of his chair while he listened to the angry squawking on the other end. Clients really had very little patience for this part of the process. They somehow all thought just because they wrote a big check, they’d get every answer to their burning questions in a blink. Investigations took time. They took skill. They couldn’t be rushed.

“I’ve tracked her to Indiana. Indianapolis,” he said in response to the next question. “I’m still determining where she went next.”

A pause. “Well, in my estimation, she likely stayed for a bit and got a job.” He rubbed his temple. “I can appreciate that you think she was a lazy bitch, but she wouldn’t have lasted this long without some cash, so she would have had to get it from somewhere.” He rolled his eyes and sucked his teeth. “Even if she was spreading her legs for it.”

He clenched his jaw and barely managed to keep his cool at the shouted insinuation that he was incompetent because he hadn’t found her in a city with a population of nearly a million people. Correction. Hadn’t found heryet.

He interrupted the long-winded rant by loudly clearing his throat. “I assure you I am doing everything I can to find her. I’ve started a canvass of local businesses and should have access to more digital records shortly.” More screaming. “I’m doing everything I can. I’ll call you when I know mo—”

The call ended with a series of monotonous beeps, and he tossed his phone onto the bed. Fucker. He was beginning to remember why he so rarely took jobs like this. People with this much money made his teeth ache. Entitled little shits too lazy or too privileged to do their own goddamn dirty work but didn’t mind telling him how to do it.

It wasn’t as if he wasn’t looking. If he had to stay and show her picture to every goddamn business in Indianapolis, he would. Because that’s what the client was paying him to do.

When his phone rang again, he scowled. If the prick was calling him back to yell some more, he wouldn’t hold his tongue this time. He swiped his phone off the edge of the bed when he saw the readout and pressed the button to accept.

“That was faster than I expected.”

“I used it as an excuse to get out of some dumb party the old lady wanted to drag me to.”

He chuckled, grateful he’d never tied himself down with a woman. He liked to fuck them and leave them. Even better if he left them black and blue. “Well? Did you get me what I needed?”

“Yeah. I sent it to your secure email.”

He pulled up his inbox and clicked the link his contact had sent him. It brought up pages of Amy Parkers, but it was easy to filter them out by age, race, and other identifying factors he could use to narrow it down. Perfect. If she’d worked on the books in Indiana, he’d be able to find her here. If she hadn’t, well, that was a different story.

“I really appreciate this. Can anyone tell if I’ve been using this thing?”

“No. It’s untraceable. But the more specific you can be, the better results you’ll get. It’s not a magic bullet.”

“I’ll start broad and go from there.”

“You do that. If you can’t find whoever you’re looking for in there, then what?”

“Then they either worked for cash under the table or that fucker in Michigan gave me bad information.”

His contact chuckled in his ear. “For that guy’s sake, I hope he didn’t.”

He disconnected the call and started keying in broad filter parameters. He’d already wasted too much time in Indiana searching for this bitch. If the barman had given him bad intel, he’d take his happy ass back to Michigan for a little chat. The man would be lucky if anyone found him still breathing.

ChapterTwenty-Two

“Ihate football,” Addy grumbled, sliding the last burger of the night on top of a second patty and adding another slice of cheese. She shoved it under the broiler to melt and turned to plate up the remaining fries.

“I could live forever and never watch another game again and not be mad about it,” Clara agreed.

“At least they all finally left,” Delaney pointed out, munching on a now cold mozzarella stick. “I’m surprised James left us to fend for ourselves on a night this insanely busy.”

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