Page 49 of Fallen Creed

“My wife will kill me if she finds out how much red meat I’ve been eating.”

“Not to mention fries,” Maggie added.

“People seem to really like our buffalo chicken sandwich,” the waitress offered.

“Deal. Add a salad with that, so I can tell the wife had veggies.”

“And what would you like to drink?”

He glanced at Maggie’s and Lucy’s glasses. “I’ll have what the ladies are drinking.”

Maggie waited for the waitress to be swallowed up in the crowd before she asked, “So, are you still thinking this is related to human trafficking?”

Pakula shrugged as he added ketchup to the corner of Maggie’s plate. Then he dipped the fries in, two at a time. “I’d like to believe it was that easy.”

Maggie felt her cell phone vibrate in her pocket. She plucked it out quickly. She didn’t bother to constrain her sigh of disappointment.

Still not Ryder. A text from Agent Alonzo. He’d arranged for her to look at the Menard’s security video tomorrow morning.

“Everything okay?” Lucy asked.

“I keep hoping to hear from Ryder.”

“About that,” Pakula said, wiping his mouth with a napkin. “I guess Nora has been contacting neighbors, asking if anyone’s seen Ryder or Libby. Having them check their outbuildings. Ted tried to get down an old irrigation road, but he said it’s already drifted over.”

Maggie had only taken one bite of her burger and didn’t want any more. She grabbed for the whisky instead and took another sip.

“This doesn’t feel right,” she told them. “Last night when Ryder and I were at the Spencers’, I bagged some items from Libby Holmes’ bathroom.” She paused to see if either of them would question her tactics. I overnighted them to my team at Quantico.”

Lucy leaned in closer, interested. “Is that how you know she isn’t who she claims to be? Isn’t that what you said earlier?”

Maggie nodded. “They were able to pull prints and got a match from a shoplifting charge. She’s a seventeen-year-old from Virginia. Her name’s Emma Hobbs. She’s wanted for questioning as a person of interest in a murder investigation.”

“You’re kidding. Murder?” Pakula asked.

“Her fingerprints were found at the crime scene.”

“How sure are they that this is the same person?” Lucy asked.

“Photos match. Fingerprints match.”

“That’s why you think she’s involved in this murder?” Pakula asked.

Maggie nodded. “Alonzo is still getting me details about the case in Virginia, but he said it was brutal. Two teenaged girls drugged another, then beat her to death with a hammer.”

“Whoa!” Pakula leaned in. “You said this Libby was only a suspect. She wasn’t arrested?”

“Right. And she disappeared before they could question her.”

“The Spencers must not know about this,” Pakula said.

“I’m not so sure Nora doesn’t,” Maggie told him. “Last night, when Ryder and Grace started their search, they found a grave behind the barn. Nora admitted Libby miscarried when she first arrived. Ted knew nothing about it.”

“And you’re worried Ryder and Grace are searching for someone who may be dangerous?” Lucy asked.

“Or she’s led him to someone who is,” Maggie suggested.

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