“Maybe he doesn’t know that yet?” Charlie said as he leaned forward and watched the CCTV.
“This makes no fucking sense to me,” I told them. “What are we missing?”
“Nothing,” Cooper said grimly. “We’re following everything he’s doing.”
“Why are we following?” I demanded suddenly. “Why aren’t weleading?”
“Because I can’t predict the future, can you?” Cooper snapped at me, his patience wearing thin.
When my cell rang, I answered it on Bluetooth. “Jer?”
“She’s gone.”
“What the fuck do you mean, she’s gone?” Charlie asked as I met Cooper’s look.
“She came running down the stairs like a bat out of hell, screamed she was sorry and that you were wrong.”
“Who’s wrong?” I asked him. “Me?”
“I dunno, man, she didn’t hang around for me to ask. Look, Owen just got here. Chrissy is panicking. What do you need?”
“For you to have kept her in my fucking house,” I snarled.
“Easy,” Cooper warned beside me.
“Shit.” I took a deep breath. “Stay with Chrissy, calm her down. We have this covered. Tell Owen to head to the office. Call me the minute she checks in. If she does.”
I hung up and shared a look with Charlie and Cooper. “What’s she doing?” Cooper asked.
“Saving a boy she thinks she failed,” I answered as my hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“She said you were wrong,” Cooper said as we idled at the side of the road. “About what?”
“The way we do things,” I told him. “She wanted to call the police.”
Cooper looked at Charlie, and Charlie spoke up. “Then you call the police; you don’t run out of the house.”
Cooper was looking at the tablet. “How old’s this boy again?”
“Nineteen,” I told him.
“Wearewrong,” he said as he showed me the tablet. “We’re looking at the wrong guy. This is Ronnie Christie.”
The face on the screen was of a thin, lanky guy with thick dark hair and thick glasses.
“Who the fuck is this?”
“Not the stalker,” Cooper said. “We’ve been played.”
“Wedon’t get played,” I growled. “He’s heading to the office. Run every single one of the staff again. Check for a Texas connection. I don’t give a fuck if it’s someone who stood beside someone at a funeral, run it.”
“I need help with that,” Cooper told me.
“Fine,” I said as I turned to Charlie. “C’mon, Miss Daisy, you’re driving.” We swapped places, and Coop handed me another tablet.
“I’m going to find this piece of shit,” I grumbled, and Cooper grunted in reply.
We were almost at the office when the call from her came in. “Angel, where the fuck are you?”
