Faceless (Sinister Secrets Book 2), Candle Sutton [dar e dil novel online reading txt] 📗

taken it upon himself to grab the woman without talking it over with Tio first.

Tio shoved his laptop away and gestured for Zane to have a seat. “Where is she? And why the heck would you grab her without clearing it with me?”

“I didn’t.” Zane dropped into the chair. “But we found her. Found calls to a PI in Mitch’s phone. Told the dude I work for Mitch and Mitch asked me to get a recap of the work he’d done so far. He told me all ‘bout how Mitch had hired him to find this hot blonde chick.”

So. Mitch had been lying about dating the woman.

No surprise there.

The bigger question was who the woman was and why Mitch would go to so much trouble and expense to find her.

“Did the PI give you her name?”

“Nope.” Zane laced his fingers together across his muscular six-pack. “Dude started getting suspicious at that point and clammed up. Asked me why Mitch wasn’t tellin’ me all this, if I worked for him.”

That was the problem with cover stories. They only went so far.

“You want me to pay him a visit in person and convince him to talk?” Zane cracked his knuckles.

It would be effective, but did he want to draw extra attention to something that might not pay off? “Did he give you any indication of where you might find her?”

A single nod responded. “He mentioned that she goes to a coffee shop almost every day. Figured it’s gotta be that one we followed Mitch to, huh?”

Seemed likely. “What time were they there?”

“‘Bout 1:30.”

Tio checked the clock on the wall. If he left in the next half hour, he could be to the coffee shop by a little after one. Maybe catch her, if she truly was a creature of habit.

“You want me to head down there?” Zane’s question pulled Tio’s attention from the clock.

“No. I think today is a good day for me to get out of the office.”

And hopefully figure out what the heck Mitch was up to.

Eleven

“I found it.”

Dak’s attention jerked from the computer screen.

A flush colored Kevyn’s cheeks and her eyes sparkled like shiny emeralds as she stood in front of his desk.

He hadn’t seen her this excited since before her father showed up. “What?”

“You know that thing that was bothering me? It wasn’t with the Cummings abduction at all. It’s the Orson abduction. It doesn’t fit.” Kevyn pulled in a deep breath. “She’s lying. I knew she was, but now I can prove it.”

Dak rose. “Show me.”

She led the way back to the conference room. “You need to watch all four abductions back to back. Then you’ll see it.”

As many times as he’d watched each one, he didn’t see what he could have possibly missed, but he nodded anyway.

Several minutes of silence passed as he watched the Boggess abduction, followed by the Andrews abduction. Kevyn cued up the Orson abduction and glanced at him as she started the video.

The van pulled into the frame and a guy jumped out.

He frowned.

Noelle Orson was the smallest of their victims. As big as the guys were who abducted both Boggess and Andrews, the abductor should have looked like a giant compared to her.

Yet he looked average.

“It’s not the same guy.”

She paused the video. “I already compared the file from the Cummings abduction and I think he matches, but this guy,” she pointed at the man on the screen, “definitely does not.”

Why did he still feel like he was missing something that she knew? “How does this prove Noelle Orson was lying?”

“Keep watching.” She resumed the video.

He watched. Orson being grabbed and shoved into the back of the van. The van peeling away in a cloud of burning rubber and noxious exhaust.

Nothing new.

Yet somehow he felt he was missing something critical.

She laughed. “It took me a while to see it, too.”

“How about you tell me.” He didn’t have time to figure out the secret she obviously knew.

She backed up the tape and slowed the playback speed, then moved closer to the monitor. “See right here?”

On the screen, Orson approached the driver’s door, but her attention kept shifting to her right. Nothing was there, so it must be something off screen.

“That’s the direction the van came from. I think she knew they were coming.” Kevyn pointed to Orson’s face. “That looks like dread to me.”

He froze the frame and stared at Orson’s face. The picture was so small and grainy he could hardly tell it was Noelle Orson, much less see dread. “How can you tell?”

“See the way her shoulders are curled forward? And her body is angled away from whatever she’s looking at? Start the video again, okay?”

He did.

“Okay, freeze it again.” Kevyn pointed to Orson’s hands. “She wiped her palms on her pants for the third time since exiting the building.”

“How did you notice all that?”

Kevyn’s smile grew. “Well, first I noticed something that’s coming up in the next few seconds. Then I went back and examined her every movement. It’s all very telling when you put it together.”

“I guess I should watch the rest of this then.” Rather than unfreezing the video, he looked up at Kevyn. “Care to provide narration?”

“Sure thing.”

He started the video again, slowing it down even further.

“Right there.” Kevyn pointed as Orson faced her attacker. “She told us she didn’t get a good look at her attacker, but here…”

“She’s looking right at him.” It was only for a second or two, but how had he missed that?

“It’s hard to see when watching the video at normal speed.” Kevyn pointed to something else. “Then see this here? Doesn’t it look like she’s hardly fighting him at all? In