He glanced around, leaning forwards a little. “And you checkedeverywhere?”
“Yes, all clear. After she stepped into the diner, I have nothing.”
“You’ve been to her house? Physically checked she’s not there.”
I pulled my phone from my pocket, clicking on an app and turning it to face him. He stared at the camera that gave me a view of the inside of Hana’s house, which was empty. Nothing was out of place, and she wasn’t there.
Thomas lifted his eyes to mine. “Doesn’t look like you stuck to the clear parameters I set out about where you were allowed to point those things.” He nodded at my phone, meaning the cameras. “But you didn’t answer my question. Have you been to her place in person?”
I shook my head, and he let out a sigh of what sounded like disappointment.
“Margot,” Thomas called across the busy diner, “can we get those coffees to go, please?”
“See, empty,”I said as I pointed around the house that looked like Hana had just stepped out for work. Nothing was out of place, nothing appeared as if she’d been made to leave or was in any sort of danger.
Thomas hummed as he looked around before reaching up into the light fitting I’d hidden a camera in and removing it. My expression hardened, and he tutted. “The woman is allowed some privacy, Roman. You don’t need to watch her sleep.”
“I can’t watch her do anything because she’s fucking vanished. How is that even possible? I should be able to track her no matter where she goes. Otherwise, what’s the point of all this?” I waved my arm up and down in front of me as if my entire existence depended on me watching Hana, and I heard how ridiculous I sounded. I had a whole list of people I should be watching; I had my job with Thomas now. Hana was not and had never been my sole focus, but right now, she was the only person I cared about. “She walked into the diner like normal this morning and then, poof, gone. I can’t even track her phone.”
Thomas sucked in a breath before placing his hand on my shoulder like a father delivering bad news to his kid. “You have a problem, Roman. A big one.” And I wasn’t sure if he was talking about my obsession or the reason Hana had vanished without a trace. Either way, I felt sick, and I knew I’d be unable to think about anything else until she was back where I could watch her.
32
ROMAN
“Thank you for coming in.”I ran my fingers through my beard, wondering if I looked as bad as I felt. The only good thing about Hana going missing the other day was that I’d thrown myself into work. I’d barely slept, was living on coffee and protein bars, and had split my time between searching for Hana and looking into this flash drive, which was why I’d asked Sean and Jarrid to come into my office this morning.
“When did you last sleep?” Sean asked as he pressed his hand to my shoulder as he passed my chair. I didn’t bother answering, pointing my pen to the screens on the wall in front of where I was sitting. Sean perched himself on the edge of my desk while Jarrid took one of the empty seats at the conference table.
“The stuff on the flash drive is all real,” I started.
“You sure?” Sean asked, and I replied with a tut.
“You pay me for my expertise, Sean. I can fuck off back to working for myself, you know.”
He crossed his legs at the ankles. “Good luck with that. Anyway, you signed a twelve-month contract, and we’ll sue you if you try to break it.” My head turned sideways as I scowled at his far too happy face.
“Really?” I scoffed.
His wink was full of humour, but I wasn’t in the mood.
“Shall we get back to this? Larson apparently killed someone. Hit and run. I’m guessing he was drunk, given that it was the early hours of the morning. But the accident was never reported, the body never found, no one reported missing.”
Sean’s face was stoic as he stared at the images on the screen. “But someone took photos of it?” he asked.
“Yep. Looks like Larson had some high-powered friends who liked a little leverage with their cover-ups. They took photos and then made the problem vanish. Literally.”
Sean tipped his head, so he was looking down at me. “Meaning?”
“Wren did some searching.” A picture of a high-rise appeared. “This place was owned by Larson and was currently under construction at the time. Strange that the concrete booked to be poured in the foundation the following week was brought forwards to the day after the hit and run.”
“You think they tipped the foundation over the body?” Sean’s eyes widened.
I tapped my fingers on the desk as my attention drifted to the image of the multistory office block that sat in the heart of the city.
“It would be a perfect place to hide a body, right?”
“But what about the other files on there?” he asked.
