Page 54 of Every Which Way

The call ended.

“What’s going on?” Maizie called through the screen door. “You look like you got bad news.”

“Jax is a cat person.”

Maizie laughed, moving out of sight and groaning. “Ouch, my face hurts. Cabot needs to pee. When she’s done, I have information.”

Kenna clicked her fingers and gave her dog a hand signal she’d trained a long time ago. The dog still remembered. Cabot walked with her, and they found some grass. Kenna scanned the RV park, spotting an older man out walking a tiny dog over by the entrance office.

Was Roxanne out there somewhere watching her?

That would be better than her closing in on Zeyla. If Amara found her daughter, then Roxanne would never be able to. Kenna figured Roxanne—and the company—considered both Amara and Zeyla a threat to them.

As much as she wanted to jump in her car, which was busted right now anyway, and go find her sister, that could be the thing that led Roxanne to her. And besides, Kenna’s efforts were better spent taking down the whole operation than focusing on one person.

She had to keep working this thing one lead at a time rather than focusing so hard on one person that she lost sight of the main issue—this “company” couldn’t be allowed to prosper. They couldn’t continue thinking they had all the power and could do whatever they wanted.

Cabot trotted back over to her.

The dog hadn’t alerted to anything, which gave her enough peace of mind to turn her back and head over to the RV.

Maizie came out with her laptop and two mugs, holding the door so Cabot could go inside. Kenna took both mugs and set them on the table. “Your face looks better.”

“Bruce had a cream, but I think he might’ve mixed it himself. I have no idea what was in it, and I didn’t ask. But my face feels better today.”

“It’s bruised but not as swollen.”

“Thanks. The forensic analyst Jax found us just emailed me.”

Kenna sat across from her at the picnic table. “Anything good?”

Maizie nodded, tapping keys on her laptop and staring at the screen. “The highlight of what is a fifteen-page report is that the financial company we infiltrated really only has one client. They hide everything in subsidiaries, foundations, and other corporations, but if you trace them all back as far as they go, then they start to connect. Basically, every single “customer” the company has is exactly one organization.”

“The company.” Kenna took a sip of her coffee.

“Exactly.”

“What about where Hadley and Zeyla might have been taken? Anything about that?”

Maizie said, “Based on what he said about where he was, I ran the county records on all the land in that area.”

“That’s a huge area.” He’d effectively said anything west of Denver. “Who knows how long he was in the truck when he got a ride? He could’ve been in Utah, for all we know.”

Maize said, “Sure…butthere’s a stretch of land owned by one of these companies, and it’s west of Denver. Rural, the plans list only a few buildings. Looks like it used to be a hospital, but it was shut down after the Second World War, and it’s been empty ever since. The company has owned the land all that time.”

“We need to go check it out.” Kenna took her coffee and went to the outside wall of the Class C in the space beside hers. She pounded the flat of her hand on the window and called out, “Rise and shine!”

Two hours later, she pulled off the highway in a rental car, Maizie in the passenger’s seat and Cabot in the back. Ramon, Stairns, and Bruce were in Ramon’s truck behind them.

The two-lane blacktop led them to a turnoff with a broken-down sign for St. Dymphna’s Psychiatric Hospital. Two brick towers topped with a light flanked the road. She drove between them, working around a downed tree that must have fallen during a storm. A breeze in the air caused the trees to sway back and forth.

As the expansive building came into view, she glanced at Maizie.

“I don’t recognize it.”

Kenna said, “That’s good.”

“Sure, because it means everything in there is going to be a surprise instead.”

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