“Where did it come from?” Zane asked the question, but his tone indicated that he was making conversation to pass the time, not because he really cared about the answer.
“Hedera, Inc.”
Zane’s head appeared over the top of the cubicle wall they shared. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope.”
“No way she’s running counterfeit bills.”
“I agree.”
“When are you going to see her?”
“This afternoon. I thought I’d swing by her office first since the cash came from a business deposit.”
“What’s a company like Hedera doing depositing cash anyway?” Zane’s question was the same one Gil had been pondering since the case hit his desk.
“No idea.” Hedera’s accounts should have been almost entirely digital. The deposit had been for a little over two thousand dollars in cash, only two hundred of which were fake. “That’s the reason I want to talk to Dr. Collins.”
One reason, but not the only reason.
Hedera, Inc. was owned by Dr. Ivy Collins. Gil only knew her by reputation, but he’d chatted with her assistant briefly a few months earlier when she was helping them with a case.
Was that before or after he’d been shot? Before. No. After.
He’d volunteered to follow up with her, in part because he wanted to hear her voice. As if that would tell him what he wanted to know. But she hadn’t been in the office, and her assistant had answered the question. There’d been no reason to insist on meeting in person just to satisfy his curiosity. Staying alive had been the priority that week, but in the months since, he hadn’t been able to stop the wondering.
He’d known an Ivy once upon a time. Was it possible that the eight-year-old Ivy from his memory had grown into the delicately boned woman with intense eyes that sparkled from the home page of Hedera, Inc., the company she’d founded four years earlier?
If it was her, she’d been his best friend. They’d had their whole life planned. School, college, marriage. It had all been so simple. Next to Emily, his twin sister, Ivy was his favorite person in theworld, so it only made sense that he would spend the rest of his life with her.
It never occurred to either of them that anything could tear them apart . . . until the day she’d said goodbye and climbed into her mom’s sedan.
He’d scampered up a tree and watched until the car disappeared from view and his nine-year-old heart had broken.
He never saw her again.
Ivy Collins. The last name was wrong, but that was easily explained. She might be married. Or divorced.
Or more likely, not the same Ivy at all.
He’d thought about tracking her down before, but he’d never followed through. What would he say if he found her? “I missed you?” or “Can we be friends?” or “Marry me?” He had no idea what might fly out of his mouth. Hopefully it wouldn’t be anything too stupid.
Regardless, he needed to put the wondering to rest. What was the worst thing that could happen?
Six hours later, he and Zane pulled into an empty Hedera parking lot. Zane waved a hand to indicate the empty spaces. “It’s only four thirty. Why isn’t anyone here?”
Gil parked in a visitor space and dialed the Hedera number. A recorded feminine voice with the barest hint of Southern drawl told him that Hedera’s business hours were 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and encouraged him to leave a message, assuring him that he would be contacted during normal business hours.
“These people work seven to four? I wonder if they’re hiring?” Zane glanced at his watch. “What now?”
Gil wasn’t ready to let this go. Not yet. “Do you have time to swing by her house?”
“What else do I have to do?” Zane laughed, but there was a bitein the words. Zane was usually a fun guy, but he’d grown somber and withdrawn over the last few months. Most people assumed it was because of the trauma they’d all been through in the spring. Zane had been shot, then he’d lost his car, his home, and almost everything he owned. And if that hadn’t been bad enough, his transition to the protective detail had been delayed indefinitely. All solid reasons for a guy to be in a funk.
But their other fellow agent Luke Powell was convinced it had more to do with Zane’s tense relationship with the only female agent in the office, Tessa Reed, and Gil was increasingly sure he was right.
This wasn’t the time to pry, but the time was coming. For now, he let it go. “She lives about five minutes from here. Let’s see if she’s home.”
