Chapter 29
“Louis Theodore Miller,age forty-two. Single, no dependents. Files his taxes early every year. Made over $400K last year and is looking to make at least that this year.” Diego crunched into the phone later that afternoon.
At her desk at the office, Jane winced and pulled the phone away while he finished chewing. “What the heck are you eating? Pop Rocks?”
“Corn Nuts. My weakness. Wait. You can get your hands on Pop Rocks? Where? Tell me.”
“How are you even still alive with your diet?”
“A great mystery of the universe, Jane.”
She chuckled. To be honest, she missed working with him on the special task force she’d once been assigned. Not that she disliked her current job. She loved being an FBI agent and enjoyed SSA Grimshaw as her boss. But the autonomy on the task force under Lionel Gambol’s loose guidance had been so hands-off as to feel like independent contracting.
Jane liked reporting to someone else so long as they let her lead the hunt.
The case. Not hunt, thecase.Bah. She was letting her uncleinfluence her again. Just being around him turned her into a die-hard wannabe mercenary.
He’d called her last night to go over safety protocols and to remind her that Kaminski was a slippery SOB. Which was supposed to make Jane afraid of her own shadow, she guessed.
She’d told Uncle Chris she’d be careful,like always,then promised to meet him and Raine for dinner later in the week.
With any luck, she’d be too busy and have to cancel. She loved her uncle dearly, but when he and her cousin got together, Jane was usually too busy playing referee to enjoy herself.
She tucked her cellphone against her shoulder, typing on her keyboard as she made notes. “So our guy is worth a lot of money and clean on paper.”
“The IRS loves him. So does the media. He’s got a bunch of awards from several different charities and even the governor, who he worked for before switching over to the good senator.”
“By all accounts, do Louis and his boss get along?”
“Like twenty peas in a pod.”
“Er, okay.”
“My knowledge of peas is limited.” Diego crunched again. “So the guy is missing. It’s been how many days now?”
Jane checked her calendar. “Four. Well, more like three.”
“And no one’s reported him. I say that, not asking that, because I’ve searched for any mention of him being missing and can’t find anything.”
“Hmm. It’s been enough time that his absence should have been mentioned.”
“Yet the guy’s boss has said nothing. Why do you think that is?”
“Because he’s up to his eyeballs in this mess.”
“This mess? What mess exactly? Because you’ve been a little sparse on the deets.”
“Forget I mentioned it.” Jane paused in her typing. She had nothing to tie a missing senator’s aide to the Kaminski/Rook connection. For all she knew, the guy was on a bender. He’d been kidnappedby some rando in the city. Maybe he was shacked up with some girlfriend or boyfriend no one knew about.
What made her think Louis Miller’s absence had anything to do with Rook?
Yet she couldn’t ignore her gut feeling. Or Matthew’s.
“You get any hits on that name I gave you before?” She lowered her voice and looked around, pleased to be alone at her desk. Jenn and Sandy, who normally sat near her, were absent. “The chess piece?”
Meaning Rook, of course.
“Yeah, oddly enough. Only in spots on the dark web, though. It’s been pinging all over the place. Like a pinball in an old timey machine.”
