Page 40 of A Billionaire Dom

“Mr. Kichner, I presume.” I put out my hand and appreciated that he shook it without giving me even a hint that he thought poorly of my appearance. “Cecile Charles.”

No way was I going to give him my real name. If he really wanted to figure out who I was, it wouldn’t be difficult for him, but I wasn’t going to just give it to him.

“Please, sit, Ms. Charles.” He waited until I took a seat before sitting as well. “How can I help you today?”

“I have some questions about the work you do.” I studied his face as I spoke but tried not to be too obvious about it. “For example, if I wanted you to find someone, how would you go about doing that?”

“Do you have someone you’d like me to find, or are you thinking about becoming a PI?”

Yeah, he was as sharp as I’d thought.

“A little of both,” I admitted. “But I’m not fishing for tips. I was thinking more along the lines of helping me find the best way to determine if someone had disappeared voluntarily…or if someone had disappeared them against their will.”

He shifted in his chair, and I could almost see the wheels turning in his head. “Well, despite what fiction likes to tell us, most of the time, we work on finding the person.”

“But if someone was going to, say,disappearsomeone else, where would I start looking?” I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees. “I mean, would it be the money trail? A payment made to a legitimate business under the guise of an overtime bonus or something like that?”

His eyes narrowed. “That’s pretty specific, Ms. Charles.”

I shrugged. “I mean, I guess it would take some overtime to cover for a murder so thoroughly that a body would stay missing even after more than twenty-five years.”

“I have the feeling you’re not being very honest with me about why you’re here.” His voice hardened.

It wasn’t going to take much more for him to figure out where I was going with this, if he hadn’t already. I needed to push a little harder, figure out if he was being defensive because he was guilty, or because he was pissed that I’d accused him of something he hadn’t done.

“You’ve done a lot of work for the Holden family, haven’t you?” I asked. “Jude Holden, right? I mean, you’ve worked for the real estate company a few times, but you’ve also done personal work for him too.”

He stood up, his face and eyes blank, but I could sense the anger underneath the mast. “You need to leave.”

“You did work for him, right?” I stood up too. “Did he have you work on something with Heidi Titan?”

I wasn’t stupid enough to think he’d suddenly confess something, but I did hope he’d slip and reveal something I could use, even if it was just that he hadn’t had anything to do with Heidi’s disappearance.

“I don’t talk about my clients,” Royd said. “Get out.”

I didn’t argue. Even if he did say something incriminating, it wasn’t like I could take his confession to the cops as evidence. Information found through a hack was one thing. Anything he told me without corroboration would be hearsay.

Despite the lack of helpful responses, I wasn’t disappointed. Without saying it, Royd had admitted that Jude was a client, and one he was willing to protect. I didn’t think it was only because Jude was a client either. Either Royd and Jude were really good friends…or Jude was a hell of a lot more dangerous than I’d ever thought.

Ireallyhoped it wasn’t the latter.

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