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Theo climbed into his car—a practical Honda that just didn’t quite fit the kid—and I followed him out of the neighborhood. He turned left, toward my office. I went straight, toward the Biltmore area.
I wasn’t lying when I said I had a lead on Jennifer, but it was a thin lead. One that I had to follow myself.
Miriam Endicott wasn’t expecting me, but I walked right in anyway. She wasn’t going to like what I had to say, but I didn’t care.
She was in a meeting with a client, but Sherry alerted her and she was leaving her office as I approached. She closed the door. “Next time you walk past my receptionist without an appointment, I will have you arrested.”
“Vincent Bonetti.”
She flinched and I knew I was right. She scowled. “Out.”
“He hired you to find his daughter, who is presumed dead.”
Miriam grabbed my arm and pulled me into an empty office, closed the door. I stared at her hand gripping my bicep. “Three, two...”
She dropped it. “Stay out of my business,” Miriam said.
“There’s a reason Virginia faked her death,” I said. “Leading her father to her isn’t right.”
“You don’t know anything about this case,” Miriam said through clenched teeth.
“Enlighten me.”
“I’m under no obligation to enlighten you about anything.”
“You’re on the wrong side this time.”
Miriam crossed her arms. “Perhaps you are.” She paused, looked at me, her nose tilted up at an angle so sharp I wanted to break it. “You know, Margo,” she said conversationally, “it might not be such a coincidence we’re on opposite sides of this.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
I’d thought a lot last night about who Jennifer/Virginia really was—why she faked her death, why she was on the run, whether she was in danger...or if she was dangerous.
I wouldn’t have the answers until I talked to her.
“If you think about it, you’ll figure it out. You should be asking yourself, why now? Why was my firm—the largest, most successful, most professional in the state—hired to find a woman presumed dead?”
“See you around,” I said and turned to leave.
Miriam grabbed me again and this time I did slap her hand. She winced. I hadn’t meant to hit her so hard, but I don’t like being grabbed, so I didn’t apologize. “Margo, let this go.”
“You know me better than that.”
I walked out.
I knew what Miriam had meant. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to read between the lines. Why now?
Because Angelhart Investigations had been hired by Desert West and started running a background on Jennifer White. That background check took them to Florida. Poking around may have alerted her father that his daughter was still alive, though I wasn’t quite sure how since she was using a different identity. Being out-of-state and a wealthy businessman, he would hire a company that catered to wealthy businesses.
I didn’t know why Jennifer had faked her death—if she was the threat or her father—but Jennifer was the one with answers. I had to find her before Miriam.
Thirty-Eight
Theo Washington
Theo unlocked the door to Margo’s office near the corner of Cave Creek and East Hatcher. Her narrow space was wedged between a barbershop and a take-out pizza place. One end was a mini-mart, the other a drive-through liquor store. There were a few other small businesses—including a Mexican diner owned by one of Margo’s cousins. He couldn’t keep her family straight. He thought the Orozcos were her grandfather’s sister’s family, and there were more of them than there were Morales and Angelhart combined.
He had his grandma and an uncle who lived in Colorado who he hadn’t seen in years. His dad had been in and out of jail for years, but Theo barely remembered him. Didn’t even know if he was dead or alive. His mom, an addict, walked out when he was ten. He didn’t know if she was dead or alive, either. His grams had never left. She gave him a home, had rules he mostly followed (at least the important ones), and she loved him. She could be a bear at times, but he never doubted that she would be there for him no matter what.
