Page 29 of Every Which Way

Lines of text followed each other down the page—what looked like a back-and-forth conversation. A transcript, or an internet-based chat, something like orders given and received. Instructions. She folded it and slipped it into her pocket, leaving the restroom at a walk since the contents of the note hadn’t been information about a terror threat or someone’s life in danger. Unless it was in code. But it could wait—she needed to let Maizie know everything was fine. That was her first priority.

Her phone buzzed with a message from Stairns.

Didn’t find anyone outside.

Kenna went back to the main dining room. Had that actually been her mom or just a trick of the light? Memory from a photo that had given her a sense of something familiar about the woman.

All for a note that wasn’t even a note.

The photo she’d been given at the US Embassy in London months ago had said,Don’t believe anything they tell you. It was written on the back of a photo of Kenna and the woman she’d believed for most of her life was her mother—Amara.

So, was the novelThe Constantine Initiativefull of truth or lies?

Or was it something else entirely?

ChapterEight

Kenna stood by the sink in her RV because, aside from being closest to the coffee pot, it was the one place not occupied by another person. Ramon, Bruce, and Stairns sat around her table, located between the kitchen and the two front seats. Maizie was back in the bedroom, sitting up on the bed with a tray table desk over her lap and her laptop on it. Cabot, the mutt Kenna had rescued years ago, lay beside her favorite person on the bed.

“Okay, someone start.” She took a sip of her drink. “What do we have?”

Bruce shifted in his seat, blocked in by Ramon. The former spy said, “Stairns and I spoke with the restaurant management company. What footage they have is useless. She never looked at the camera.”

“She doesn’t want to be ID’d.” Or found.

Kenna wasn’t looking for her, even if she was the woman Kenna considered her mother. If she’d ever wanted to be a part of Kenna’s life for the long term, she could have been. At any point.

Kenna hadn’t yet written the whole thing off as being too late, but it was close.

She’d had nothing and no one. Now, why would she need a family when this RV was already full of people?

Ramon sat on the edge of the seat beside Bruce, his legs stretched across the aisle. “The asset is getting orders. Doesn’t look like CIA stuff to me. They only speak in code. So, are we thinking this is that company? They’re telling their asset what to do? She might be part of the resistance, but she’s not going to let on to them that she’s some kind of double agent.”

Across the other side of the table, Stairns lifted one knee onto the seat and leaned back against the window. “That’s what I’d guess. If it is her. Could be someone else talking to them. If it isn’t the victim, then it might be the lady you met at the wedding show.” He raised his voice and called down the aisle, “Maze, did you confirm with the resistance whether they sent that Roxanne woman?”

The teen called back, “They said no one was sent here. They don’t currently have any assets in the US that are anywhere near us.”

Kenna glanced at Maizie, then back at the guys. “So she’s with the company and came to me specifically because I’ll want to find this woman. Find herforthem.”

And if the missing woman wasn’t Amara—because she’d been at the restaurant—then who was it?

“Maybe they figure you know the terrain,” Ramon said. “This is what you do, so you’re the fastest route to locating this woman they need to find.”

“And she’s one of them? Or an enemy I’m going to locate so they can take her for themselves or kill her?” Her stomach turned at the idea of any of those things happening.

“So, you’re gonna let her be a victim?” Maizie asked.

Kenna knew that tone. “If she is one of them, I have no reason to want to find her. Except that she’s family by DNA. But for all I know, they could’ve manipulated that to get me to help them.”

As far as she was concerned, her family was here. Plus, she was marrying into another family. None of them were related to her by genetics. Kind of like the man she’d grown up believing was her father, the only one who’d taken care of her.

“We’re not taking the case?” Bruce asked.

“Of course we’re taking the case.” Kenna wasn’t walking away from this mystery. “I want to know if there have been any similar cases. Everything Roxanne told me needs to be confirmed. The company doesn’t want the police looking into this, so they’ve stalled the whole investigation and given the detectives little to work with.”

Bruce said, “Maybe your girl Roxanne is the one who did it, and it’s a cover-up. A way to string you along so you’re distracted investigating this case that’ll go nowhere, and they can do whatever they want in the meantime.”

Ramon glanced at him. “You’re a very suspicious person.”

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