Page 82 of Charmed Forces

When he hung up, I read the text that pinged: Angelica invited us to a party at Tom Victor’s house.

Chapter Seventeen

As soon as I entered the agency from the parking lot, Solomon sent a text message telling me he was delayed but would join me as soon as he could. There were a bunch of things I wanted to do instead of going to my office: see Daniel, terrorize Maddox into revealing what he knew, find out why Detective Wayne’s body wasn’t listed for autopsy, and pick a dress for the party Angelica was throwing for Louise.

Before all that though, I opened the filing cabinet where I’d stuck Louise Milton’s file. Taking the slim file back to my desk, I plonked in my chair and put my feet up on the desk surface, relaxing to read. Sure, I knew the information already. I was the one who surveilled her and her fiancé, Callum. I’d also taken the photos and felt sure I’d seen nothing that suggested she was a criminal in any way. Now, in this new context, knowing who Louise’s cousin was involved with, could I be so sure Louise was as innocent as she seemed?

Perhaps I was being presumptuous, allowing Louise’s name to be sullied by association with Tom Victor but I couldn’t be too sure. What if I’d missed something?

Now I’d properly met Louise, I still didn’t see her as a criminal operative. Yes, she was a lot more sedate than her cousin, in both her dress and manners, but that didn’t really mean anything. There were plenty of people who appeared perfectly nice until you crossed them. Not that I thought Louise was violent, but could she have been up to something?

I spread out the photos and took my time going through them. I’d identified all the addresses. None of the people pictured were Tom Victor, but Angelica Randall was missing too. Could it be that I’d missed something simply because it wasn’t on Louise’s schedule? If I’d still been surveilling her now, I would have followed her to the salon and seen Tom Victor drive up to collect her.

Another thought crossed my mind. Could she have inadvertently done something to make her fall foul of Markham Hardy’s company? Perhaps she wasn’t selling information to a competitor but simply had a conversation that revealed too much. Could she have been prompted with innocent sounding questions to divulge sensitive company information? It was possible. There was a long history of spies who received their information as pillow talk, not that I thought Louise was having an affair with him, but a casual dinner table topic wouldn’t raise any red flags.

I could see Tom Victor as just the kind of man who would guide a conversation towards unveiling key pieces of information that a person wouldn’t know they were leaking. Or even instruct Angelica to do so. It would be easy to ask his lover what projects her cousin worked on, if she could visit the office, maybe take a peek at a file. Or simply get Louise talking about work, ask a few key questions, note a few details. Louise was clearly close to Angelica; of course they would talk about work, and possibly with a level of trust she would afford a family member over a friend, thus revealing things she might not otherwise.

As I flicked through Louise’s file with Tom Victor in mind, I wondered how the two companies possibly intersected. Markham Hardy was in real estate but Louise had nothing to do with the sites they developed. Instead, she worked in an office downtown. I checked the firm’s address against Tom Victor’s home address and they were nowhere near drop-in distance but that didn’t rule out meeting elsewhere. Or not at all.

There was no need for old-fashioned dead drops anymore. Secrets could easily be passed through burner phones or the internet.

Plus, what could Tom Victor possibly want from Louise?

I wondered what Solomon discovered about Tom Victor’s businesses beyond their publicly known offering and the behind-the-scenes smuggling operation. I couldn’t see a connection with the Victors’ shipping business. I pursed my lips, thinking harder, then a lightbulb flashed in my head. The shipping business wasn’t the only pie Tom Victor had his finger in; there was a property arm in his solo ventures too. Solomon said he’d been buying up chunks of land. What kinds of properties did Tom Victor develop?

I placed a call to Solomon.

“Hey,” he said, “how’re your nails? You didn’t say.”

“So pretty,” I told him, “but I have a question about the information you got from Duncan O’Malley.”

“Go on.”

“It’s about Tom Victor’s construction arm. Do you know what it’s called?”

“Victory Construction. Why?”

“Just a hunch.”

“Lucas can run down the full business information if you need more. I got the impression it’s fully legit but unconnected to the shipping arm with the exception of its owner. Victor might not have it listed in his name, or he might have funneled it through a series of shell companies, but Lucas will find it either way. There’s some more information on my desk from my research if you want to grab the file.”

“Thanks.”

“What’s it got to do with Daniel?”

“Potentially nothing. Did Jeff Denney work in the construction biz too?”

“I don’t know.”

“Can Lucas find that out too?”

“Sure. Someone will have filed a tax return.”

“Where are you?” I asked, checking my watch. I expected him to walk through the door long ago.

“At Daniel’s house. The lock’s repaired and Delgado and I are going through the scene. The police left just as we arrived, except for a marked car sitting out front in full view of the news vans.”

“The scene?”

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