AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What holy shit did you uncover?” he asked.
“Come look at this,” Rusty said. “I’m about to send this to Agent Howard, but I want your feedback to make sure I’m not reading too much into this.”
Cameron sat down on the sofa beside her and leaned over as she turned the laptop toward him. “Okay, what am I looking at?” he asked.
“These are the names and dates of the women who’ve gone missing from Jubilee in the past six months. The next date beside their names is when their credit cards are used again. See? All within a week of their disappearances, and then they’re never used again and the women have disappeared. And then here are all of the dates Emily Payne, the hostess from the Serenity Inn, went AWOL.”
Cameron frowned. “That can’t be coincidence. Not every time.”
“My feelings exactly,” Rusty said. “I don’t have enough to arrest her, and we don’t want to question her until we do for fear she’ll disappear for good. I’m sending all this to Jay Howard. They can investigate this in depth. They’ll need to pull security footage from the most recent places where the credit cards were used to see if the woman using them could be the same woman in different disguises. All it would take is a wig with the right hair color, sunglasses, and makeup to match the driver’s license photo, and the groundwork is laid to draw the authorities away from Jubilee.”
Cameron eyed her with renewed appreciation. “When your uncle mentioned his hostess’s habit of coming and going without notice, you suspected a connection. You’re pretty darn sharp, lady.”
Rusty smiled. “Dad used to say I was going to make one hell of a mother one day. My kids would never be able to lie to me and get away with it.”
Cameron went still. “You want babies.”
Rusty noticed it was a statement and not a question, then frowned.
“Well, yes. Don’t you?” she asked.
“I want everything with you,” Cameron said, and kissed her before reluctantly pulling back. “I’m ready to leave. Is there anything you need?”
“Just you, but we’ll save that for later,” she said.
“You have my number in your phone. Call if you remember something you want me to bring home. I’m taking Ghost by the vet’s office first in hopes his paw has healed enough to get the stitches out and his ratty bandage removed.”
She nodded, then put her laptop aside and leaned over to give Ghost a quick kiss between his ears.
“You are such a good boy,” she said, and got a lick on her cheek. Cameron stood up, prompting her to add, “Drive safe, you two. I’m about to light a new fire under Howard and Pickard, and then we’ll see where we go from there.”
Chapter 12
Jay Howard was at his desk going through morning email when Rusty’s call came through.
“Good morning, Agent Caldwell. Thank you for letting me know your relocation went smoothly. What’s up?”
“Maybe the missing hostess, Emily Payne, being a connection to the trafficking gang, or maybe not. But Cameron and I both agree this goes way beyond the percentage of coincidence. I’m sending you a spreadsheet you need to look at. All of the info will be included in the email. If you can find footage from security cameras to back this up, you might hit the jackpot. And regarding the new suspect, she’s about to get raked over the coals by my uncle today, but I asked him not to fire her. We need to be able to pick her up for questioning without having to put out a BOLO on her to do it.”
“Excellent work,” Howard said.
“I have a photo of Emily Payne from her personnel file. I’ll include it in the file I’m emailing to you. I’ll be in touch if we find anything else,” Rusty said.
“Caldwell.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Are you getting along okay with Pope?”
“Of course,” Rusty said. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“I hear he’s got a dog the size of a bear.”
“Yes. Ghost. He’s not quite that big, but I like dogs. We’re all one big happy family here, so butt out…sir.”
Howard laughed, and he was still laughing when she hung up in his ear.
Rusty rolled her eyes. They knew. They all knew. Whatever. If things went the way she hoped, this was going to be her last case. Finding Cameron had made her realize her life was worth more than the money they paid her to put it at risk. She gathered up the files she’d created, attached them to the email, and hit Send.
