Page 11 of Undertow

She thought about the gap between what Derek was telling her and what he wasn’t.

“I’m not making any promises,” she said. “We need to verify everything you’ve told us, and there are things we’ll need to look into before we decide whether we can help. But we’ll look into it.”

The sound Derek made was relief. “Thank you. You won’t regret it.”

“I’m not saying we can help.” She held his gaze. “I’ll need a way to reach you. And I’ll need you to understand something: if we take this on, we do it our way. We verify independently. We don’t report to you on a schedule. If we find something you don’t like, you’ll hear it straight.”

“That’s fair.”

“It’s not negotiable.”

He stood, then pulled out his wallet, handing over a thick business card. He looked at Reagan, then back at Cara. “I know how this looks. A stranger showing up in the rain with a story and money. I know you have no reason to trust me.”

“You’re right,” Cara said. “I don’t.”

He walked out into the rain.

The door closed behind him. The diner settled back into its Tuesday-night quiet.

Reagan looked at Cara across the table. “Well?”

“His story holds together.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

Cara watched Derek’s silhouette disappear past the diner windows. “He’s hiding something.”

Reagan tapped her pen against the notebook. “Could be anything. Could be nothing. And it doesn’t mean there’s not still a woman missing.”

“Exactly.” Cara pulled out her phone. “And it sounds like nobody’s looking for her.”

She typed a group message. Tom. Wade. Reagan was already here. And Gabe.

Cara: We’ve got a case.

Reagan read the text on her own phone and raised an eyebrow. “You sure?”

Cara looked at the rain streaking down the window. Thought about the woman in the storm. Thought about the gap in Derek’s story, the thing he wasn’t saying, the performance underneath the desperation.

“I’ve got a feeling she’s out there. The least we can do is make sure she’s all right,” Cara said. “Him, we verify.”

Reagan smiled. It was the smile of a woman who’d been waiting six months for exactly this. “That’s my girl.”

Cara didn’t smile back. Derek’s story could be exactly what it sounded like: a desperate man trying to find someone.

But desperation came in more flavors than people admitted. And she’d just agreed to find out which one was sitting across that table.

Either way, the quiet was over.

Reagan waggled her phone at Cara. “You added Mr. Gorgeous. Something you want to tell me?”

Cara waved her friend off. “This is strictly business. Gabe’s FBI mindset could help us brainstorm, that’s all.”

Reagan rolled her eyes. “And that’s it?”

“Yup.”

Her friend snorted. “For a woman with a shady background, you’re a seriously bad liar, Ms. Sweet.”