“He was always glad to see me. Of course, I stayed away during the tax season,” she said. “He worked full time at a local library, but he made extra money doing bookkeeping. Every January, he hired on part time at the local tax place.”
“Any visitors during that time?”
She shrugged. “A few. But I met only one man. He was new in the neighborhood. Seemed like he and my dad were buddies.”
“What about the others who came by?”
“They came late at night or early, early morning when I was asleep.”
Mitch hated to ask, but without questions he might miss out on the answers to save their lives. “Any sign of the safe room?”
“No.” Only a tiny tremble gave any clue he’d hit a chord. That and the way she suddenly looked at the floor then gulped down a couple swallows of lemonade. “In fact, he’d turned it into a wine room.”
“Wine?”
“Yeah. He had a lot of bottles with fancy foreign labels. Said he’d gotten a deal on TV. In fact, I got the impression he’d been watching a lot of television. Plus, spent a lot of time online.”
Mitch thought about a few of the things she’d said. How they might tie together. By themselves, there was nothing overly odd. People changed as they aged. Did different things. For now, he’d store the highlights in his brain and work a connection template later. The most unusual item was the fact he’d turned the safe room into a wine room. Of course, he might figure anyone he needed to protect from CT was gone.
“What was he doing online?” Mitch asked.
She laughed. “He’d been shopping.”
“For what?”
“Like a fake gold and diamond bracelet I saw when he asked me to grab him a clean shirt from his room. A gigantic television. Knockoff sculptures and paintings.”
“How’d you know the stuff was fake?”
She laughed again. “Had to be. There’s no way my dad could afford something like that. I’d say he bought it to impress the ladies on the singles trips he said he’d been taking.” She raised her eyebrows. “He’d even gone to Europe. And China.”
“Without you knowing?”
She nodded, a little sad. “Guess he didn’t want to travel with me to any of those places.”
And there it was. If you listened long enough, there was usually something that could be of benefit in tracking down a person’s profile. If her dad had gone on singles trips, then there had to be a trail of his passport and credit cards. Seemed a little strange to risk being seen by CT, but maybe he changed his appearance when he traveled. Could be he got some tips from Drake.
Mitch planned to speak with Josh tonight, and he’d have him do a check on her father’s travels and online shopping. Like the cost of the so-called fake gold and diamond bracelet.
He could tell Liz loved her dad, and he’d do whatever he could to find him for her. Losing your parents could leave a scar, a huge honking scar that didn’t heal.
Maybe he should share his past with her. She’d understand…maybe. Then again, that wasn’t something he needed to burden her with—she had enough to worry about already.
The longer they sat there, the hotter it got. Even with the cooling misting fans positioned around the atrium, the glare of the sun, along with the heat, became more than uncomfortable. Felt like his past assignment in the jungles of South America. He walked over to the control panel and closed the overhead louvers. The moment they blocked the sun, the temperature felt more bearable.
“I think I’ll see about making us something for dinner.” She removed her sunglasses and sat back up into her cross-legged position. “Would you like to help me?”
“Later.”
An overpowering urge dug into his chest as he went back to the chaise and sat down. He couldn’t let this afternoon end this way. Dinner wasn’t what he wanted. Dinner wasn’t what he needed.
“I own this place free and clear,” he blurted out. “There’s no way to track me, except through my corporation. Which, from what I’ve heard, would be a damn hard thing to find.” Mitch hated talking about his personal business. Especially when he didn’t quite understand how this house fit into his good luck quotient in life. “It’s important to me that you understand I didn’t do anything illegal.”
“I believe you,” she said. “There’s no need to explain.”
Now or never. Yes or no. His whole future depended on the next words that came out of his mouth. This decision was huge, but now or never came around very few times in a man’s life.
“A few years back, I had an unusual OPAQUE assignment.” Mitch pulled up his knees and braced his forearms on top, his fingers clasped together, all the time keeping eye contact with her. He wanted her to know this was the truth. “One I can’t talk about. One I can’t even explain to myself. But I got the job done. A few days after I got back, Drake called me into his office. Gave me an envelope that contained a short note and a key to this house. Said it was a bonus.”
