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“I love you,” Nan said. A quick peck on Markie’s cheek and she was gone.

P
hoenix watched Beck and the man with the Mohawk emerge from Brooks Investigations, laughing as if they were old friends instead of meeting for the first time. She had been keeping an eye on him from a distance over the last three months. He was more focused than Malcolm and she didn’t want to be careless and get caught.

Beck was the taller of the two, more refined, looking handsome in his tailored suit. He was wearing a suit. He didn’t like suits. Monika said so. The only time he wore them was for business meetings and that depended on the client. He wore one to his wedding…the wedding that…

Phoenix shook her head and blinked. It didn’t matter anymore. That was in the past. There were more important things to worry about. With Sydney’s pictures now in circulation, she had to assume that Beck and Marklynn would meet to discuss them in an effort to find Sydney and she was right.

Phoenix thought about the woman she’d left unconscious on the floor. She couldn’t get a straight answer out of Sydney about the pictures or why she’d taken them. A call to the magazine she claimed to work for was unreturned.

The woman loved her sister and wanted to protect her. She would rather die than tell the truth about the pictures. Isn’t that what sisters were supposed to do? Protect each other with their lives.

Monika wouldn’t risk her life for her. She was the perfect one and Phoenix was born with problems. Her mother said so. That didn’t matter, for Monika had promised to take care of her, to protect her. Dalton Beck had made her break that promise. Now he’d moved on with his life and she was all alone, left with nothing.

She would not allow him to live happily ever after. Not with Marklynn Brooks. The way he held her last night after the accident that should have been her. He had never held her that way. Never cared about her that way. No need to be jealous she consoled herself. It was time to move on with the next phase of her plan.

•  •  •

“Go home,” Jamie said as he knocked on Markie’s door. He invited himself in and took the guest chair in front of the desk “Your grandmother said if you weren’t gone by early afternoon to send you home.”

“I thought as much.”

“But you’re still here.”

“I wanted to get some work done.”

Since everything possible was being done to find Syd, instead of worrying she thought her time would be better spent catching up on paper work. She’d just signed off on the expenses for the Miller file.

Child abduction cases she took once in a while. She hated handling them when they had to find the spouse who abducted the child. The Miller case did not have a happy ending.

“I’ll be packing up soon. I thought you were going to see Sara?”

Sara Miller was a lovely petite Asian woman who’d come to Brooks Investigations a few months ago when the police couldn’t find her ex-husband. He’d decided not to return their son after a weekend visit.

“I spoke to her sister a few minutes ago. Sara is still in the hospital under a suicide watch,” Jamie replied with a grim look on his face. “The police should’ve told Sara about her ex-husband killing the boy then turning the gun on himself, not you.”

The Miller case had rattled Jamie. He’d found both bodies in a roadside motel after tracing Mr. Miller’s credit card usage. A four-year-old child with a bullet in the head does something to you.

Markie had driven up the coast of Maine that weekend to get away. Jamie had disappeared for a week. It was his wife who had called to say he was fine. Markie never heard from him. Then he returned to work the following week and they never spoke about it.

Leaning her head back on the headrest of the chair she closed her eyes for a moment. She could still hear Sara’s wail of anguish when she’d told the woman about her son.

“Sara was our client. I couldn’t let the news of her son’s death come from strangers. The suicide note, I couldn’t handle. That’s why I had the police tell her about the note.”

“Bastard,” Jamie spat. “Just because he wasn’t given full custody of his son, he would rather kill the boy than have him live with his ex-wife.”

“The file is closed. Let’s not dwell on it. We can’t save everyone.”

Jamie grunted. “If only you believed that. Now you’ve taken on another cause.”

“What cause are you referring to, my sister or Beck? Either way I think you’re out of line.”

“I don’t think Beck is a
cause
. We had a nice chat when I walked him to the door,” Jamie smiled. A genuine smile she hadn’t seen since the Sara Miller case.

“If you said anything to embarrass me, I’ll fire—”

“Right.” He waved away her threat. “The man likes you. You should’ve seen the look of relief on his face when I told him you were free as a bird.”

“One of these days—” Her warning was cut off.

“Please. I see the way you look at him.”

“That doesn’t mean I—”

“What were the two of you doing when I left the boardroom? Shaking hands?”

That silenced any further protest from her. She didn’t have a leg to stand on. She knew it and he was just stating the obvious.

“Why did you leave the room?” She asked suddenly wanting to know. It was totally out of character even for him.

“Because you look like a train wreck and you needed someone. No need to thank me,” he said with a smug look on his face. “Anyway, I’m on board with helping Beck. What do you want me to do?”

Markie stared at him, shaking her head. There was no point. He had a thick skull and no amount of threats would get anywhere with him. The one thing she knew for sure was that he always had her back and for that she was grateful.

When Jamie had asked to join Brooks Investigations, Markie was concerned that he would be bored. She didn’t have the clients with computer security issues he was used to working with. He’d told her that it didn’t matter and took whatever cases were assigned to him. When the case with Beck was over, she would look into expanding that side of the business and have him manage it.

“Work with Beck and his team to see what you can come up with. The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced it has to be someone on the inside of his company. Get Carlos to run a full security check on all the employees.”

“Beck did that already,” Jamie said.

“I know, but maybe we’ll find something they missed. In the meantime, I want to give Sam O’Malley a call.”

“The detective assigned to Monika Beck’s accident four years ago?” His brows were drawn together. “Why? What are you looking for?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“I reckon when you know you’ll tell me. Not.” Jamie pushed himself up from the chair. “Go home. You’re no good to yourself or to Sydney if you don’t take care of yourself. You look like you’re about to drop.”

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.” Jamie frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me about last night? Beck said you were almost killed.”

“You’re right. I’m not fine, but I also don’t want to talk about it. Okay?”

“You’re not alone, Markie. Remember that. You have a team of highly skilled investigators who would do anything you ask. We all care about you.”

“I know.” It was the second time today she was reminded of that. “Do you think Syd’s okay? I mean if we lost her…”

A picture of her, Nan and Syd in a black wooden frame sat on her desk next to her laptop. Up until a few days ago, it was on the far corner of her desk behind a stack of file folders. Now it was within reach, clear from all obstacles.

The picture was taken when Sydney returned from one of her trips. Nan had insisted they all meet for dinner. They all had a good time and Syd had seemed happy. She had even talked about settling down.

Markie lifted her gaze from the picture to Jamie’s face, waiting for his answer. His eye was clear. Sharp. Sometimes she didn’t even notice the black patch over his left eye.

Jamie knew what she was asking. He knew what she wanted from him at that moment. It was assurance. He had never lied to her or kept anything from her. If he said Sydney was fine then she would believe him. Jamie moved beside her chair, laying a hand on her shoulder.

“If anything had happened to her I think your grandmother would’ve said something.”

“You believe in the supernatural?” She was surprised that he would bring up her grandmother. He always said her basket was a couple of eggs short of a dozen.

“I don’t disbelieve it. Right now it’s all we have.”

Jamie wasn’t one for showing affection so she was surprised when he leaned over and gave her a quick hug. It didn’t matter that her nose smashed into his broad shoulder. The fact that he’d done it made her feel better.

“Go home and get some rest. If we hear anything, we’ll let you know.”

“I’m heading out soon.”

Looking at a box of papers and files she’d taken from Sydney’s apartment beside her desk Jamie said, “Why don’t I believe you?”

•  •  •

When it rained it poured. It wasn’t just pouring. It was a monsoon. It hit Beck as soon as he’d stepped into his office. His assistant had been taking calls all morning and what she couldn’t handle was transferred to his voicemail. The result: Nineteen messages and counting.

He didn’t get the chance to take off his jacket before his phone started to ring. If it wasn’t his cell phone, it was the phone on his desk.

As soon as he ended one call he was pulled into another. Clients were concerned with their security system. These were people he knew. Shook hands with. They all wanted reassurance from him, no one else, that when it came down to it their alarm system would not fail. All he could promise was a reassessment and even that wasn’t good enough. There were also a handful of messages on his desk that he didn’t even attempt to look at. He would respond to those after his meeting.

He’d left Marklynn’s office just after the lunch hour with renewed hope about two things. One, he wanted to get to know her; the real Marklynn Brooks not the tough front she showed the world. Two, with Jamie on his team they would find
Shadoe
a lot faster and he couldfocus on business again.

Progress.

That was what he would call today. For the first time in three months he was seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. That put a smile on his face as he left his office for his second meeting of the day in the executive boardroom with his team.

From the sleek custom-made wooden cabinets and oval mahogany table, the boardroom was all about luxury that catered to their clients. Swivel comfortable brown leather chairs could be turned in any direction to enjoy a wall of windows showing off a spectacular view across the downtown core.

As he entered the boardroom and sat down across from Malcolm, Mona Rogers and Peta Ann Taylor, the progress he thought he’d made seemed insignificant. All conversation ceased and all eyes focused on him. It was the dark cloud before the storm.

“How are we going to spin this?” Mona sprang on him. A thin blonde with a pageboy haircut, dressed in a white Ralph Lauren suit and Jimmy Choo shoes, she was all business. A moment ago when he’d entered the boardroom she was in the middle of telling Peta Ann about how her shoe had cost her a mint.

“I understand that a communication message needs to be considered, but we need to look at the legal implication before trying to spin anything,” Peta Ann said, tapping her pen upside down on the legal pad in front of her. She was a petite dark-skinned woman with short reddish brown curls dressed in a simple gray suit.

“Don’t you think that’s a little premature,” Malcolm said looking down at his Blackberry when it vibrated then pushed it to one side on the table.

“The Franklin’s are not going to go quietly into the night,” Peta Ann replied. “Their lawyer contacted me this morning to set up a meeting. I’ll put off the meeting until we receive the official report as to the cause of the fire.”

“That’s why we need to put messaging together for our customer service reps. “This should have been done from the first incident in anticipation of this, but you wanted to wait. Now the cat is out of the bag. We need to move now,” Mona said waiting for direction from Beck.

Some progress… One step forward, three steps back. What was there to tell the clients? ‘Your house burned down, sorry.’ Or, ‘Your installed system may or may not work, but trust us? We’ll keep you safe.’

Beck didn’t know how the communication team was going to do it, but Mona was right. Something had to be done.

“Okay,” Beck said exhausted. His sleepless night had caught up to him. “Since I’ve been told that I’m a one-man show…”

“I told him that,” Malcolm said with a laugh.

“Here is what I propose. Mona, craft your wording and run it by Peta Ann. If you are both in agreement proceed.”

“I can live with that,” Peta Ann said looking at Mona who nodded her head in agreement. “Our stance on this should be clear with the Franklin’s. We’re not responsible for what happened to their house.”

“I’m with you,” Malcolm agreed. “The security system was in perfect working order.”

“I’m sure they’re going to want to talk settlement,” Peta Ann said. “We have to at least—”

“If you’re talking settlement then we’re admitting fault and that’s not good for business,” Malcolm said. “If we are going to take the company public then we need to be careful in our wording. Never assume blame. We’re not responsible.”

“We’re not responsible?” Beck asked.

He listened to them arguing about blame, taking the company public. What about the clients? The company had a responsibility to the people who trusted them with their personal possessions. As hard as that pill was to swallow, they needed to see that. And because they couldn’t see beyond the almighty dollar it made him angry.

“The damn house burnt down!”

The room fell quiet. Mona’s mouth dropped open. Her eyes widened as she sunk back in her chair. Peta Ann straightened in her chair looking at Malcolm.

Voices from outside the hall filtered into the quite conference room. Beck rubbed his forehead taking a deep steadying breath trying to calm himself before he spoke again.