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Jack walked over, stopped me from closing the door. “Don’t go.”
“You want my information, but you don’t want to share. I have my own contacts, my own resources, I don’t need you.”
“Okay, I’ll tell you,” he said.
Tess didn’t argue with him, but she didn’t look happy about it.
“Something is going on with Monroe and White. It might not be an affair, and it might not be corporate espionage,” Jack said.
“How did you track her to Monroe’s house?”
“She had a confirmation of the rental,” he said, “but it was under a business name, not her name, sent to her email.”
“Monroe owns the house, but it’s in the name of one of his LLCs,” I said.
“Yeah, I learned that today.”
I wanted to ask why they didn’t check property ownership before jumping to conclusions, but I didn’t. Not my place.
“Money laundering?” Tess offered, then shook her head. “No, that’s small potatoes. And how did someone know they would be there and why kill them?”
“No one tried to kill them,” I said, my thoughts running in a completely different direction. “Whatever they were dosed with knocked them out, that’s it. But I think I have more information than you.”
“Right,” Tess said. “In an hour, you learned so much.”
“Drop the fucking attitude,” I snapped. “I’ve been doing this a hell of a lot longer than you, Tess.”
Jack put his hands up, one palm toward Tess, one toward me. “Truce. What do you know?”
I almost walked away, but knew that my anger was about everything that happened three years ago. I didn’t know if I’d ever come to peace with it.
Yet, I’d promised Jack, and my word meant something. Besides, I’d been skeptical about the whole affair angle after tracking Monroe for the last ten days and finding zero proof of infidelity.
“Logan Monroe originally founded Desert West Financial with Gavin O’Keefe. Together they’d started several businesses over the years, built them up, sold them off. This time he sold his half to O’Keefe and walked away.”
From the look on her face, Tess was in shock. I smiled, added a bit of snark, “Researching your target is good, but researching who you work for? Better.” I turned the ignition and was about to close the door but Jack put his hand between the door and the frame of the Jeep.
“Come to the office.”
“No.”
“Please. We’ll share everything, you share everything, and maybe between the three of us we’ll figure out what the hell is going on.”
I didn’t want to. This felt like Jack’s way of sucking me into the family business. Every few months, he’d try to sell me on the benefits of Angelhart Investigations. I’d happily drink the free beer and listen and then tell him no, not interested.
But this was a puzzle, and I loved puzzles. Why had Jennifer White disappeared from the hospital? What was she up to? What did Monroe have to do with it?
You were hired to prove whether Logan Monroe was having an affair. He’s not. Case closed.
“Tomorrow morning,” I said. “If I help you, I’m billing you.”
“We don’t need your help,” Tess said.
“I don’t really care. I have plenty of work.” Not.
“Tomorrow morning,” Jack repeated. “Eight.”
I looked at my brother. God, I loved him. He was a true big brother in all the best ways. Sure, he loved to tease us and he could be downright mean when Tess and I hogged the bathroom in high school. But he defended everyone in the family without question. He was the first to help in a crisis. Jack was the most honorable person I knew. Loyal. Honest.
