1
THE STACK OF CASH on his desk was as close to genuine currency as squeeze cheese was to Brie.
US Secret Service Special Agent Gil Dixon turned one of the fraudulent twenties over and studied the back. There were a few similarities to the real thing, but not enough to confuse anyone paying attention.
“Free money?” Special Agent Zane Thacker asked as he passed Gil’s cubicle for his own.
“Hardly enough to fool with.” Gil glanced back at the file. Two hundred dollars in twenties. Even if the person who deposited it had been trying to do something illegal, no prosecutor would touch the case. It simply wasn’t worth it.
“Where did it come from?” Zane asked the question, but his tone indicated he was making conversation to pass the time, not because he cared about the answer.
“Hedera, Inc.”
Zane’s head appeared over the top of the cubicle wall they shared. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope.
“Why would she have counterfeit bills?”
“No idea.”
“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.
“Beats me.” 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 bills. “That’s the reason I want to talk to Dr. Collins.”
One reason, but not the only reason.
Everyone in the office knew that Hedera, Inc. was owned by Dr. Ivy Collins. But no one knew that Ivy Collins washisIvy.
No. Not his anymore. And she hadn’t been in a long time.
The Ivy from his memory had grown into a delicately boned woman with intense eyes that sparkled from the home page of Hedera, Inc., the company she’d founded four years earlier.
She’d been his best friend. They’d had their whole life planned. School, college, marriage. It was all so simple. Next to Emily, Gil’s twin sister, Ivy was his favorite person in the world, 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 said goodbye and climbed into her mom’s sedan. He scampered up a tree and watched until the car disappeared from view, his nine-year-old heart broken.
When he saw her again, she was sixteen. He was seventeen. And that summer, she stole his heart.
And then ... she was gone.
He’d thought before about confronting her, but he’d neverfollowed through. What would he say if he ran into her? “Why did you cut me out of your life?” or “What is wrong with you?” or “I missed you.” He had no idea what might fly out of his mouth. Their reunion was fifteen years overdue, but this certainly wasn’t how he’d expected it to happen. Would she be surprised? Did she even know he was in town? Did she ever think of him?
Not that it mattered. Or it shouldn’t matter.
Who was he kidding?
Ivy Collins was the girl who got away. The woman who had haunted him for years. The mystery he needed to solve.
It was time. He was going to get answers. Today.
SIX HOURS LATER,Gil and Zane pulled into an empty Hedera parking lot. Zane waved a hand to indicate the vacant 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 a Southern drawl told him Hedera’s business hours were 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and encouraged him to leave a message, assuring him he would be contacted during normal business hours.
