Page 80 of A Step You Shouldn't Take

The tattoo. We had to find out which of the embassy staff had a tattoo on his arm, but how did I explain that to Wyatt when our latest witness had been dead for the last four years?

I read out the names, and Kim wrote them on the whiteboard. Seeing them listed in her neat handwriting made this case seem all the more real. My sister had been just one victim among many, and each had a family out there who missed them. Could we get closure for the surviving relatives who were still suffering?

“So many,” Kim murmured.

Wyatt was focused on Emma’s name. I still hadn’t forgiven him for what he’d done, and maybe I never would, but I knew he’d loved Emma and from the expression on his face, he still did.

A moment passed, and he visibly pulled himself together.

“We need to talk about evidence. If this is what you think it is, I’ll need to get my superiors involved, and they’ll laugh me out of the room with what we’ve got so far.”

“Yeah, about the evidence…”

Kim stood up, her smile shaky. “I’ll just clear away some of these plates.”

Thanks, sweetheart.

“Kim came to me a few weeks back, right after our suspect spiked her drink and tried to abduct her in his car. I believe you’re familiar with that incident?” I couldn’t help a bit of snark creeping into my voice after the way Wyatt had given Kim the brush-off.

“Yes, I did the follow-up. But at the time, we had no reason—”

“Save it, okay?” I ran Wyatt through the way I’d found the footage of Kim in the car, my shitshow of a visit to Brittney, and how I’d seen the diplomatic plate in her friend’s picture. The dead end I’d reached after that. “Then we happened to find a witness who placed Georgette Riley and Jacqueline Springer in the same car.”

“What? The same witness?”

Shit. “Yeah, the same girl.”

“Why didn’t she come forward before? Georgette disappeared years ago. Didn’t she know that?”

“The circumstances were difficult for her.”

“Can I talk to her? Get an official statement?”

Not unless he did it through a medium. “That might be tricky.”

“Buddy, we need more than this. So far, everything’s hearsay and coincidence.”

“What about Emma? We’ve got the Mercedes on tape.”

“No, we’ve gotaMercedes. We can’t read the licence plate.”

“Can’t the computer geeks enhance it or something?”

“I can ask, but again, I need to have a good reason to make that request. Right now, there’s nothing to show she didn’t just leave of her own accord like we originally thought.”

“Someone’s using her debit card. A guy.”

“You gonna give me the name of the witness who sawthat?”

“He wanted to remain anonymous.”

Wyatt turned away and huffed. I didn’t entirely blame him, but at the same time, I couldn’t spill Kim’s secrets. I was just trying to come up with an explanation that sounded vaguely plausible when he spoke again.

“Kimberly? What’s up?”

I twisted in my seat and saw her standing in the doorway, chewing that lip again. Nervous. “What’s wrong?”

“You guys need to see this.”

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