He’d even planned that to throw them off the scent. He didn’t care if they figured it out eventually, as long as he had time to get away. It wasn’t hard to hide in this big, bad world—at least not when you were willing to walk away from your former life completely.
And he was.
A few quick searches had given him the information he needed to make this happen tonight. A few hours of reconnaissance, a couple of phone calls, and he’d be ready.
Ivy Collins would give him everything he wanted.
He had no doubt.
32
HUNTING DOWN CRIMINALS on television was so much more interesting than it was in real life.
Gil spun his chair away from his computer, stood, and worked through the three-minute stretching routine he tried to do several times a day but usually only remembered to do a few times a week. At most.
His phone rang, and the caller ID told him he needed to answer.
“Dixon.”
“Got an ID on the body.”
That had been a lot faster than expected. “Care to share?”
“Oliver Teague. Thirty-four.”
“He looked twenty-five. Tops.”
“Yeah, but he’s a ginger. They always look younger than they are.” Morris said this like it personally offended him. “Family in South Georgia reported him missing a week ago. I’ll send you what I have. Check your email.”
Morris disconnected the call without any additional commentary.
Gil checked his email and then plugged in all known facts about Oliver Teague into the spreadsheet he’d created earlier that morning.He was looking for connections, and he was going to find them.
An hour later, he was once again staring at his computer. After this morning, he’d put Preston at the top of his suspect list. But Oliver Teague had served in the Marines with Abott Percy. Then he wound up very dead in Ivy’s bedroom. There was no way that could be a coincidence.
He called Morris.
Luke and Zane walked up while he was talking to Morris. He held up one finger and indicated that they should hang on, so they hovered in the entry to his cubicle. When he disconnected the call, Luke said, “Update. You first.”
Gil filled them in on what he’d found out earlier about Preston. And what he’d learned about Oliver Teague and Abott Percy.
“I still don’t see it.” Luke tapped his closed fist along the edge of the cubicle. “This Abott guy is in love with her.”
“Or his desire to keep Ivy close could be an act.” Zane loved to dissect a motive. “By being nice and charming, he can stay close to her, keep tabs, etc.”
“Maybe.” Gil could see a few holes in both of their theories.
“But what about her mom’s new husband? Where does he fit into this?” Luke asked.
“I’ve got Sabrina digging into it,” Gil said. “She knows how to run searches that will get us what we need without crossing any legal lines.”
“He doesn’t have to be in North Carolina to be masterminding the attacks. In fact”—Zane’s eyes lit as he shared his idea—“it would be genius to stay in Oregon. Makes it a lot harder to pin anything on him if he can claim he was on the opposite side of the country when she was taken.”
“True. But”—Luke dragged out the word—“the more peoplehe involves, the more likely someone will get caught. And besides, what’s the endgame?”
“It has to be the money.” Gil had a lot of questions, but this wasn’t one of them. “There’s no other explanation. There may be other motives we can’t see. Maybe Preston hates Ivy because she doesn’t like him. Maybe Ab never loved Ivy at all. Or maybe he loves her so much that he’s got some twisted notion that if he destroys her, she’ll come crawling back to him. And of course he’ll be magnanimous and welcome her back with open arms. Or maybe it’s pure jealousy. I don’t know.”
“Because it might not be any of them.” Gil didn’t hold back his glare, and Luke took a step back. “Don’t shoot the messenger.”
