Page 18 of A Step You Shouldn't Take

Prim. That was the word to describe her. Prim and a little frosty. Matched the decor.

“Because right now, we only know of two places for certain that this asshole, sorry, this guy—Tim?”

“Yes, Tim.”

“The invisible man.”

“Huh?”

“T.I.M. The invisible man. Wonder if he picked that name for a reason? Did you ever read the novel by H.G. Wells?”

“What? No.”

I liked to read, the classics mainly. Better than watching TV. The whole planet was falling apart with wars and famines and politicians pitting one side of the country against the other. Ever read Orwell’s1984? Because that’s what the world felt like these days.

“Never mind. As I was saying, we only know of two places where this guy’s been. The hotel, where nobody except your friend has admitted to seeing him, and the place you got out of his car.”

“Somebody must know where that was.”

“Who’s dealing with the case? Did Leopold pass it on to someone in the Investigative Services Bureau?”

“Wyatt Banks. Sergeant Wyatt Banks.”

Shit. The one person in the department I didn’t want to speak to, and even if I did ask him for help, he wouldn’t go out of his way to provide it. I’d have to channel my request through Leopold and hope he could get me some information.

“Okay.”

“Officer Leopold mentioned you had personal problems with Banks?”

Officer Leopold had a big fucking mouth.

“It’s in the past.”

“Will it cause a problem?”

Yes. “No, no problems.”

“Then you’ll take the job?”

“Forty-five bucks an hour plus expenses.” That was on the low side, but I couldn’t afford for her to go elsewhere. If she balked, I’d go down to forty. “And I’d need an up-front retainer.”

“How much?”

“A thousand bucks.”

“Will you take a cheque?”

She wasn’t going to negotiate?

“A cheque works for me. You realise this could get expensive if you want to see it through to the end? Finding a person who doesn’t want to be found takes time.”

A truth I knew all too well from my experiences with Emma. If she’d just phone me and have a proper conversation, I could convince her to come back, but she’d more or less cut me off. Was she embarrassed? Guilty? I’d tried to tell her that I’d paid her debts off and Bethesda was safe for her again, but she refused to talk about the difficult stuff. Other than that single call right after she left, I hadn’t heard her voice at all. She’d texted, telling me she’d got a job and not to worry, but after what happened with Wyatt, I worried about her every damn day. Often, the only way I knew she was alive was because she still spent money from her bank account. Not much, just some groceries every few months, and occasionally she’d visit a mall to buy clothes. Emma always had preferred cash. Didn’t trust banks or the internet after she watched some program on identity theft when she was a teenager, but I still deposited money for her whenever I had any to spare. I’d even left messages for her in the reference field.Call me. We need to talk.But she never did.

Still, Kimberly Jennings didn’t seem to care about the difficulties in tracking a person down.

“Yes, I understand it might be difficult. Could you just keep me updated on the billing?”

“Always do. Where should I send the contract?”

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