Page 245 of Deep Cover

33

Cole

"When did this come out?"

Standing in the communications room again, I waved a sheaf of reports at the assembled techs. There were only four of them now, which meant they all looked like they wanted to hide behind each other.

"That's mine," a mousy heavy set girl said finally. "Did I – "

"You traced where Annie had been." I said it flatly. I wanted to understand what she'd found and do it fast.

"Yes, I – " She looked at me. "Yes."

"So this report is an eyes-on report from -- ?"

She named the date. Annie had been in Paris then. In the house where Kie was. Because Kie was featured prominently in the report. And I wanted to be certain.

You saw the body. You saw the scars on the face.

Yes, I had. But the further we were from Paris, the more I questioned what I had seen. A dead Asian woman with Kie's long dark hair and Kie's scarring, fresh cuts on her cheeks.

Slight and small like Kie.

The top part of her head blown off, a mangled mess like a close encounter with a big handgun would make.

"What did you do this trace for?" I still clutched the sheaf of papers. They were wrinkling under my fingers. I was sweating. I rarely got this nervous.

There was no reason to. Annie was with her family. They'd keep her safe. Probably she was in some form of "real" rehab.

But –

"Because the two of them were seen together, running. This woman and the girl you were tracing." The tech was almost cool now.

"And you stopped to concentrate on Annie?"

She looked like she was hedging her bets.

"Just tell me the truth," I said.

She nodded. "I was tracking the Asian because I thought she was probably still in Paris and it was possible Annie had been taken back there to the same place."

I shut my eyes. It was possible, except that everyone there of consequence was dead and everyone else had run.

But you don't get to be the billionaire owner of a pharmaceutical company by ignoring what people have to say even when you know better than what they're saying.

Or you hope you do.

"Tell me what you found."

She looked startled, like she'd expected me to draw my own conclusions. "She's not there," she said, and at my look, flailed names into place. "Annie. Miss Knox. She's not in Paris or anywhere near the property there."

I frowned. "The property is either boarded-up or on the market, isn't it?"

It was the tech's turn to look surprised. "Not at all. The Asian woman is there. There's no sign of Annie, but the other woman is there."

Kie was alive.

I'd seen what they wanted me to see. I'd made the untenable assumption that even Kie and Vincent wouldn't go so far as to leave a body to be found so that it was believed Kie was dead.

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