Page 44 of Recovering Ivy

“Negative. I’m heading over there to sit on the house so Declan can go home and get some rest.”

“Let me think on what to do about Forester and I’ll call you.”

“Sounds good. Jasmin wanted me to ask if you and Ivy would like to come over for dinner tonight.” Bullshit. I didn’t believe Jasmin asked; the question was Linc’s way of making a dig.

“Not now Linc,” I warned.

“Stop being rude. Thank you for the offer, Lincoln. Can we get back to you later?” Ivy answered.

Linc smiled at Ivy and winked. “Sure thing, darlin’. Just let Jasmin know if I’m not back yet.”

Darlin’? I’d never heard Linc call anyone Darlin’ before. What was his game?

“See ya tonight, big brother.” He laughed.

“Wouldn’t bet on it, asswipe,” I called out to his back.

He clicked the door closed behind him and Ivy immediately started in.

“Why do you always call your brother names?” she asked.

“So he knows I love him.”

“That makes no sense,” she protested.

“It does to him. How else will he know I care?”

“That really makes no sense.”

“Well, it must be one of those unexplainable wonders of the world.”

I sat behind my desk and fired up my laptop. I had to figure out what I was going to do with Forester Grant. The investigation into corporate espionage was complete. We had enough information the CEO could take it to the State’s Attorney and an official investigation would be opened. The government took allegations of economic spying and illegal intelligence gathering seriously. The problem remained that if Forester was behind bars we wouldn’t be able to collect the necessary information we needed to nail him on drug charges and possibly a murder rap. I wanted Ivy to see Forester pay for killing her sister, but I might not have a choice. If Forester looked like he was going to flee, leaving behind the criminal empire he was trying to establish.

The more I thought about it, I realized he wouldn’t flee. He was building something. He no longer needed his job at Techwatch, which meant his new business venture was now profitable. We had time. Not a lot of it, but hopefully enough to nail Forester.

“Tell me about what you saw when you were following Forester,” I asked Ivy.

“We’ve been over this.”

“Let’s go over it again, knowing what you know about Forester now. Does it shed light on anything you thought was strange or didn’t seem right?”

She sat in the seat in front of my desk and wrapped both hands around her coffee cup.

“I don’t know. I always thought it was weird he only met with the same three hookers. I don’t know why, I guess he could’ve had his favorites, but it was odd. They all kind of looked alike. I’d think if a man was paying for it, he’d want to change it up. But, then again, maybe he had a type. Nothing Forester did was normal. He’d leave work, go home, not change his clothes, leave and go to a hotel, meet a woman, then leave there. What signifies as strange?”

“If he didn’t change did he drop something off at home or pick something up?”

Ivy took a moment and thought about my question.

“Yeah. He’d always leave with a backpack,” she said.

“He took a backpack to his meetings? Did he ever leave the hotels with the backpack?”

I pulled up the pictures both Declan and Ivy had taken. Sure enough there was the backpack. I scrolled through the pictures and Ivy answered.

“No. That’s weird, right? I don’t ever remember him leaving the hotel with any bag.”

“So, he gave the women the backpack to take with them.”