“You don’t know that.”
“I do know. I monitor the FBI dispatch and federal databases. There are no alerts, no flags. Nothing.”
“It’s been...” She checks her wrist, realizing her watch is gone. She looks at the clock on the wall. “It’s been eight hours. Maybe they’re keeping it quiet to protect the investigation.”
“Maybe,” I say. “Or maybe he hasn’t called it in.”
“Why wouldn’t he?”
“Because a missing daughter is messy,” I say brutally. “Men like William Hale don’t survive scandals. They manage them.”
She flinches like I slapped her.
“He wouldn’t,” she whispers. “He wouldn’t prioritize his job over my life.”
“I hope you’re right,” I say, and for the first time, I mean it. “But until the Feds kick down my door, the silence speaks for itself.”
I set the glass down on the bar with a sharp clink.
I walk toward her. She holds her ground this time, though I catch the tremble in her hands.
“You’re a liability,” I say. “You saw a murder, and you can identify me.”
“Then let me go!” she pleads. “I won’t talk! I swear! I’ll tell my father I ran away. I’ll tell him I went to Europe. I’ll disappear!”
“You can’t disappear,” I say. “You’re a Hale. You’re visible by default.”
I stop in front of her, looming over her and letting the silence stretch until it’s uncomfortable.
“I can’t let you go,” I say. “You know my face. You know my voice.”
“So you’re going to kill me?”
She asks it plainly. The fear is there, but there is a strange acceptance in it, too. Like she has run the math and arrived at the same conclusion I did.
“I should,” I say.
She goes perfectly still.
“You saw my face,” I say. “The truth is, you’re a problem. The smart play is a bullet in your head and a drop in the Atlantic.”
She squeezes her eyes shut. A single tear tracks down her cheek.
“But I’m not going to do that,” I say.
Her eyes fly open. “Why?”
“Because you can’t bargain with a corpse.”
She blinks. “Money? You want a ransom?”
“Not money,” I say. “Leverage.”
I reach out and pick up the driver’s license from the table. I tap the edge of it against my palm.
“Your father is a powerful man,” I say. “He’s got influence. He’s got reach. And right now, he thinks he’s untouchable.”
I look at her.
