When he finally pulled back, he rested his forehead briefly against mine. “Try not to get taken hostage again today.”
“No promises,” I joked.
Ian laughed quietly, gave me one last quick kiss, then headed for the door.
I watched him go, still thinking about something he’d said earlier.
Someone knows how to hide.
The words echoed in my head.
And then something clicked.
CHAPTER 29
The thought was still settling in my mind when my phone rang.
Sherman.
“Don’t tell me you have info on Lola already,” I said when I answered.
“I do,” he said eagerly.
“I’m impressed. That was really fast.”
“Not when you know where to look, or you have friends that can get into places you can’t.”
I smiled to myself. Hiring Sherman had been one of the better decisions I’d made lately.
“Tell me what you found.”
“Oh, I found plenty,” he said. “Though not under the name Lola.”
That got my full attention.
“She’s used a few variations of her name over the past several years. Different hair colors as well. She’s stuck to mostly smaller towns where people seem more trusting, thus vulnerable.”
“Sounds convenient,” I said.
“For someone running scams, very.”
My stomach tightened.
“Two years ago, she showed up in North Carolina connected to a real estate investment seminar. One of those get-rich-in-real-estate seminars. Promised big returns, fast profits.”
“That already sounds suspicious.”
“It was,” Sherman said. “A few months later it was exposed as a scam. The main organizers disappeared before anyone could catch up with them or find the money.”
“And Lola?”
“Gone as well. Though she wasn’t listed as one of the organizers. More like background help. But she may have been more involved, just not listed anywhere or accused by anyone of anything. Though most men, old or young, wouldn’t want to admit a woman conned them out of money.
Burke had said she remained in the background, but who knows how friendly she made herself with some of those potential investors.
“There are also a few credit accounts tied to small businesses in her name that never got off the ground.”
“Don’t tell me—the credit for those businesses were held by various men,” I said.
