Page 110 of Red Marked

“That’s if he’s still all there…and if we can find him. And if it’s him in the first place.” Flint shakes his head. “That’s a lot of ifs, Star.”

“I still think we have to try. It’s looking more and more like we aren’t going to solve this before going back.”

“We’ll talk about it, but only as a last resort.”

“Why is this all so complicated?” I groan.

“It isn’t. I’m pretty sure that it was ultimately the Mainland trying to cover up what they were doing. That there is a powerful Mistveil individual who is about to become very afraid of being outed for his part in the cover-up. It’s a matter of finding him before that happens. Finding him before he panics and tries to tie up more loose ends.”

“Yes, but how do we find him?”

“Between Red Gate Holdings, the policemen who may have buried the case, and your ex-boss, we’ll uncover the next clue or clues and then work those.”

I laugh. It sounds a little shrill.

“What?” Flint asks, smiling.

I shake my head. “You make it sound so easy.” I laugh some more.

“It is simple. It isn’t easy.”

I scrape the last of the ice cream from the bottom of the cup.

Not easy.

No, it is not.

I’m beginning to think that finding those responsible might be a pipe dream. This guy seems to have done a pretty good job of covering his ass.

34

Star

My eyes are scratchy. I rub them, and when I open them, the screen seems to blink. It’s another company registry. And another list of directors, which leads to another company registered to a post office box on the Mainland.

We’ve been at this for hours. Red Gate Holdings first, until we ran out of ways to search for it.

We found all of nothing under that name.

Not a thing that makes any kind of sense. Nothing we can use.

We’ve looked into Halleron and found nothing at all.

Then the two officers who signed off on the Halleron accident. One retired, and the other one is still on the job. Both look squeaky clean.

Flint is at the desk, and I’m on the corner of the bed at his shoulder, close enough to read the screen. Close enough to smell him.

He smells really good.

He clicks, and the page loads. There’s nothing there that helps us.

“It feels like we’re shooting in the dark,” I mumble.

Flint closes the laptop. “That’s it.” He shakes his head. “We’ve done enough for today. Jim’s Shop & Save is a bust. Trying to find anything on Red Gate ourselves is a bust. We probably should have gone swimming in the ocean instead of wasting our time on this stupid computer. We’ll have to wait to see what this tech guru on Reed’s payroll comes up with on Red Gate. Aside from your boss, it’s the only lead we have left.”

I look over at the window. The drapes are open, and it’s dark out. Where did the time go?

“I’m starving,” I announce.