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“Seems doubtful he’ll bother.”
“No crap.” Kaden had already reconciled himself to the fact that the local law enforcement was going to be zero help. “Which means it’s up to us.”
She nodded. “Agreed.”
“I read through the files last night, and it seems to me that most of my brother’s notes are detailed accounts of whatdidn’thappen to Vanna,” Kaden admitted, ticking a finger for each dead end. “No one fitting her description was taken to a hospital in the area. No Jane Doe was found in the nearby morgues. No one touched her bank accounts after the day she disappeared. There was no record of her buying tickets for an airplane or train or bus. And her passport was left in my brother’s condo, along with her clothes and engagement ring.” He quit when he reached the end of his fingers.
“What about her car?”
“Gone.”
Lia looked grim. They both knew a woman didn’t disappear for fifteen years without some trace she was still alive. A text to a friend. A withdrawal of cash from her account. A picture on social media. She at last shook her head, returning her attention to the files stacked on the table between them.
“Well, the files at least revealed that Pike was in the district Vanna investigated in her regular duties for the EPA,” she pointed out. “And her official travel logs have a record of her visiting the town several times during the month before she died.”
“There was also this.”
Kaden reached into the side pocket of the satchel to pull out the folded paper that had been kept in a locked drawer in his brother’s office at the condo. He assumed it meant it was important. Or at least Darren had thought it was important. Smoothing out the paper, he handed it to Lia.
She studied it in confusion. “A map of Wisconsin?”
Kaden leaned forward to point toward the heavy outline that included several counties in the middle of the state. “Vanna was responsible for this district. I don’t know exactly what she did, but my brother marked five spots in red.”
“Pike is one of them.”
“Yes.” His finger moved to the corner of the map. “And in the margin he scribbled the words ‘water pollution.’ I don’t know which location he meant. Maybe all of them.”
“Were there any other notes that mentioned this map?”
Kaden shook his head. After finding the map, he’d searched through the files, but he hadn’t found anything that might connect to the five towns circled or the mention of water pollution.
“Nothing, but he wrote something on the back.”
Lia turned over the paper and read the first line out loud. “‘TXT. DO 18 BAGR 05119016912453611324. Seventy-five thousand dollars. ’” Her brows drew together as she glanced up at him. “What is this?”
Kaden shrugged. It’d been difficult to try to decipher the strange list. Not only because he had no idea what the hell any of it meant but his brother’s handwriting was so painfully familiar. It was a stark reminder of all the years he’d stayed away from Madison and the brother who’d so desperately needed him.
He flinched at the sharp-edged guilt that sliced through him. Then, with fierce determination, he shoved aside his futile regret. He couldn’t change the past. But he could make damned sure his brother could finally rest in peace.
“If I have to guess, I’d say they were a list of fines for EPA violations.”
“It’s possible.” She tapped her finger against the paper. “But why would he have these routing numbers?”
“What do you mean?”
“These look like international bank routing numbers. Specifically, from the Dominican Republic.” She sent him a puzzled glance. “Was Vanna a forensic accountant for the EPA?”
“I don’t think so.” Kaden shifted through his memories of the woman who’d become such an important part of his brother’s life. “I’m sure Darren told me she had a degree in chemistry. And I know she spent most of her time working outdoors, not behind a desk. I heard her complaining that she could never have a decent manicure with her job. And that’s why she didn’t wear her engagement ring when she was working.”
Lia shook her head. “Strange.”
Itwasstrange. When Kaden decided to open a business in Vegas, he’d been wise enough to bring in his old buddy, Dom. Not only because he knew everything about running a pawn shop but because he was a genius with numbers. Kaden might have bankrolled Money Maker, but it was a success because Dom had taken over the accounts.
Unfortunately, that meant he knew very little about international banking or routing numbers. Or why his brother would have written them on the back of the map.
“Are the letters at the start of each line a part of the routing number?”
She shook her head. “It could be an abbreviation for the company.” She ran her finger over the top line. “The company. Followed by their IBAN number. And the amount they had to pay.”
