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“Be right there.”
When I arrived at his store, I walked to the back and through a door with a black and white metal plate that read Stockroom. His office was set up in a back corner behind several shelves of old computer monitors and various tech equipment. He apparently wanted to stay well hidden, probably due to some of his tactics. Sometimes what he did wasn’t exactly legal.
Zephyr was sitting behind his enormous desk and multiple screens with a headset over his ears. I waved to get his attention.
“Hey. That was fast.” He pulled the headset off and set it on the desk. “Take a seat.”
I slid a metal chair closer to his desk, took a seat, and leaned forward, wringing my hands. “I assume you have some news. What did you find out about Liza?”
“Well….” Zephyr began. “It’s what I didn’t find that’s more of the problem.”
Of course, we had a problem. It was that kind of day.
“What didn’t you find?”
Zephyr tapped a pen on the desk. “I didn’t find anything. At all. Whatsoever. There’s nothing on Liza anywhere.”
I didn’t get the sense that he was trying to gouge me for a pay rise, but how was it possible that he hadn’t found anything? Zephyr was the best hacker around. How could there be nothing?
I stared at him in disbelief.
He held up a hand. “I know, it’s shocking. I’ve had subjects with very little information, but never with nothing. Everybody leaves a trace somewhere, except this woman. Anything prior to registering her company with the state doesn’t exist.” He sighed. “This has never happened to me, not in all my years as a computer professional.”
“She was adopted, though.” I stood and rubbed my face. “Surely there would be records of that.”
“Nope.” He shook his head. “There’s no record of Liza ever being in an orphanage or a foster home of any kind. No birth certificate for a baby with her birthdate in the country that is unexplained, either by adoption, death, or parental custody. I have no fucking clue how her parents got her, but I don’t think it was done legally.”
“An illegal adoption? What the hell?” I paced Zephyr’s office, trying to make sense of what he was saying.
“The Mims did retain legal custody of Liza, but I have no idea where they got her. I did a search for missing persons, but nothing came up.”
“What does that mean?” I stopped pacing and faced him. “What exactly are you trying to tell me?”
Zephyr sighed. “I don’t believe Liza was kidnapped, but there’s definitely something fishy about how she ended up here in Presley Acres.”
“So, what now?” I had no idea why I was asking him. He’d done his part. I cracked my knuckles. “Is that it?”
“No.” Zephyr stood and walked around his desk. “I’ll keep digging. But I’ll be honest with you, Ty, I have a bad feeling that somebody wants to keep her past hidden. They might not be too happy with me digging into it.”
Nothing I could do about that. Now, more than before, I needed the information. We shook hands. “Let me know what you find. Send me a bill.”
I trudged to my car; my mind heavy with thoughts of Liza’s past. She was a mystery, and that didn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
How was I supposed to pursue a relationship with a woman whose past was a complete mystery? She might be mixed up in some nefarious conspiracy.
I drove straight to her house, resolved to wait on her porch until she got home. The minutes ticked off, one into the next, and I checked my watch a thousand times, reminding myself how important this was. I had to see her. A while later—one hell of a long while—she finally pulled into her driveway.
Liza got out of her car and stopped at the edge of the walk. She met my gaze, her eyes narrowing to slits. I held up my hand like it would do something to shift her anger into something else. She walked the rest of the way to the porch, then stopped and stared wordlessly. I didn’t blame her. I’d royally screwed up and deserved to bear the brunt of whatever she had to say.
But I needed to say something first. “Liza, I’m so sorry.”
She narrowed her eyes further, so narrow I thought they might have been closed. And then she looked away, refusing to meet my gaze.
“Liza.” I kept my voice soft, but still, she didn’t turn her head.
If she wasn’t going to look at me, I was determined for her to hear me out. “I can explain. I promise it wasn’t intentional. I would never stand you up that way.”
Liza lifted her gaze and studied my face a moment. Finally, she cleared her throat. “I have some leftover food in the backseat. Can you grab it and bring it inside?”
