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I closed my eyes and exhaled. It didn’t matter. I had to put Shayna’s safety first. I couldn’t go chasing dragons when another’s security depended on me leaving them alone. I’d make another call to the LAPD when I got off the phone.
“I won’t look into it right now,” I assured her. “Please don’t worry. It will be okay.”
“Thanks for listening to me. Really. I’m so freaked out.”
“I’m here for you.”
“I have to go. Bye.” The phone clicked dead.
I let out a breath of air. Now what? Before I could think what to do, my phone buzzed.
Of course. Dear old Dad. He’d called the last time Shayna had contacted me. I answered without looking at the number. “What is it?” I said through gritted teeth.
“Ruby?”
Shit. It was my boss. “Sorry. I thought you were someone else. What’s up?” I tried to sound nonchalant.
“Come down to my office. We have a lead in the Jordan Hayes case.”
* * *
Jordan Hayes had been a young woman working as a receptionist at Tejon Preparatory High School, where my father and the others had been students. She was the one who had gotten Jonah and Melanie access to the yearbooks they needed. Those books had allowed the Steels to uncover their father’s involvement with the future lawmakers club. The books in question had been deleted from the online archives and stolen from the school library. Jordan Hayes had gotten them from an off-site facility and given them to Jonah Steel. She had paid for that indiscretion with her life.
I couldn’t help but think of all the people who had paid with their lives for coming into contact with my father. As I sat across from my boss, Mark Wilson, several faces emerged in my mind’s eye. Luke Walker, a blur because I hadn’t known him personally. Gina Cates, my beautiful cousin. Talon Steel. At least my father hadn’t taken his life.
“So you see what I mean?” Mark said.
I widened my eyes. “Sorry?”
“You’re a million miles away, Ruby.”
“I apologize. What have you got?”
“A business card. Tucked under the carpeting in Jordan Hayes’s apartment.”
Tucked under the carpet? Why did that sound so familiar to me?
“And you’ll never guess whose business card it is. Jonah Steel’s.”
I fought the tightening in my throat. “Jonah Steel?”
“Yeah.”
My mind raced. “I remember. Jonah Steel’s wife, Melanie, said he gave Jordan his business card when they first went to the school looking for information.”
“It could be the same card,” Mark said. “But I don’t buy it.”
“Why not?” My blood chilled. Surely Mark wasn’t thinking Jonah had anything to do with Jordan’s death.
“Number one, it was lodged under the carpeting. It’s doubtful Ms. Hayes would have taken the time to hide the card under her carpeting.”
“Right. I know that.” And that’s why it sounded so familiar to me. I remembered now. The Steels’ private investigators, Trevor Mills and Johnny Johnson, had found a business card lodged under the carpeting in one of Talon’s guest rooms. This couldn’t be a coincidence.
“Number two, you say Steel handed Ms. Hayes the card?”
“As far as I know. That’s what Melanie told me, anyway.”
“Funny thing, then. The card we found has no fingerprints on it. Not a one.”
