Page 9 of One Second After Another

Having already discarded the burner phone she used to contact Carson, she went ahead and picked a new phone from the pile on the dresser along with one of the cards to activate it. If the man followed her directions—and she knew he did—then each card and phone had been purchased from different locations. Despite burners being incredibly hard to track, it wasn’t actually impossible given enough time and the right hacker to do it.

Penny didn’t want to take chances.

Every single time she used one of the phones, it would be destroyed after. Including this time.

From the pocket of her black jeans, she produced a folded piece of paper that had barely made it through the day’s rain. The edges tore at her rough handling, but she didn’t care because she didn’t plan to use the number written inside again after today.

The thing about politicians?

Anything could be found with little effort. Including their addresses, home phone numbers, and even the names of the schools where their children attended.

Penny only cared about one of those—the phone number to the home where her mother had apparently moved in with her soon-to-be husband, the New Jersey senator, Gilles Tracey. Though they apparently lived in Jersey with the senator’s two daughters, they also kept a home in New York and frequently traveled between the two states.

Or, so Penny learned through her searches of the internet. Anything could be found ... if someone looked hard enough.

Activating the phone and minutes on the card took little time, and before long, Penny had punched in the number. She put the phone on speaker and held it in front of her as she paced the short length of the motel room while the call rang through.

Once.

Then twice.

A third time.

She honestly didn’t know what she expected—getting the number had been a last-minute decision, and not one she really thought out entirely. So much about her mother and the last several years of her life hunting the woman and anyone connected to her had been carefully planned events. Nothing was left to chance.

The thing was ...

Penny wanted Allegra to see her coming, now. Nothing else would do.

“Tracey residence—Joesph speaking,” came a male voice through the speaker.

Penny almost hung up.

Almost.

She didn’t think her mother would actually pick up the phone. She bet the senator had a whole house full of employees to handle every aspect of his daily business. That was before Penny factored in the people her mother probably had on hand.

Nothing about this would be easy.

She already knew it.

“Is Allegra home?” Penny asked opting to just ... see.

“Ms. Hatheway is upstairs in her sitting room. Give me a moment—I’ll put you through. Who am I speaking to?”

“An old friend.”

The man didn’t even question it.

A click sounded on the phone before a ringing started again. This time, it only rang twice before the call was picked up.

The feminine voice that answered the call was unconcerned and blasé in tone, but the sound of her mother saying hello still felt like a knife raking down Penny’s spine.

“Hello,” Allegra greeted.

Penny dragged in a slow breath.

Allegra waited one second, and then another before saying again, “Is anyone there?”