Page 44 of No Lies No Promises

After another moment, the scratching on paper stops, and her mouth drops open. “That’s what I needed to tell you. The man beside Lillian last night was arguing with Roger the day I visited.”

“Are you sure?” My mind races through possibilities.

She points her colored pencil, a poor substitute for the wooden spoon. “I may be old, but my memory is sharp, young man.”

I tamp down my hopes. “Could you hear what was said?” Perhaps this is the break we’ve needed.

“No. They clammed up the moment they saw me.”

Holy fuck. Daddy-dearest and Jeffy. What are the odds?

“Thanks, Grams.” Standing, I kiss her head. “Don’t worry. I’ll straighten out Roger. Okay? Do me a favor. Stay here. And no weird candle smoke shit.”

Anxious to share my news, I say goodbye, then take the stairs two at a time. Passing the conference room, I run into the office and skid to a stop at the desk where Mace and Dante stare at a computer screen.

My boss motions me in, then replays a file dated last night. “You need to hear this. The audio cleaned up well.”

After he clicks the play button, the small laptop speaker vibrates with Lillian’s voice. “Mine and Sean’s stupid little joke. Our moment. Not hers.”

“You mean nondenominational holiday balls?” Jeff asks her.

“Stop right there.” My heart races. “Play that section again.”

After listening twice more, I explain my excitement. “Lillian set him up. She said demonical, and Pearson corrected her. He couldn’t have known… unless he was there, or—”

“Someone told him about it.” Dante finishes my thought.

“But no one knew our inside joke, except close friends, certainly not him.” As my mind buzzes with possibilities, Daedalus’s head pops up on the screen.

“Let’s not forget your lady bomber.” His comment sparks another thought.

“Did we ever learn her identity?” With everything going on, I’d forgotten all about her.

“Give me a moment.”

Seconds later, he flashes a driver’s license on screen. “Simone Hart. Forensics found metal pins from a childhood wrist fracture.”

“What else did they learn?” I press. Surely, there’s some connection to our case.

As a police report pops up on the computer, Daed says, “She was reported missing from the Serenity Rose Psych Care Facility in Roseland, NJ early March… Wealthy family with no ties to Parkhaven or Pearson, or Liam Boyle or you… nothing.”

Dammit. It can’t be. I wander to the window. Below on the street, traffic honks at a trailer truck backing into a warehouse. The driver missed his mark. Stuck, he inches back and forth.

I know the feeling.

“Any chance Hart frequented Club Concrete? Perhaps she’s a leftover from my last case.” My fingertips drum the sill while somewhere out west, the data analyst taps his keyboard.

“FBI confiscated the recordings,” he says. “I’ll see if I can get access. Most would’ve been scrubbed by now except for crime footage. I have AI scanning social media posts for her face. She’ll show up somewhere.”

Frowning, I return to the desk. “How about Lilly and I take a field trip to this Psych facility? Talk to the staff?”

After a long pause, Dante nods as he pushes his hair out of his face.

“You’ll want to be careful,” Daedalus adds. “The place reeks of old money. The kind that buys just about anything.”

“Including looking the other way if someone disappears?” My question, more rhetorical than not, hangs in the air. When no one answers, a new thought cuts in.

“I almost forgot.” Wandering back to the wall of glass, I pause. “My grandmother added one more turd to this pile of shit. Might want to put on your waders.”