Page 44 of The Vigilant

“What did you find out?” I worked to keep my voice calm even though I wanted to shake the information out of him, knowing how all this waiting was killing Sutton.

“Mara Chan. Twenty-one. Parents deceased. Misdemeanors on her criminal record,” he monotonously rattled off facts. “I went to her apartment. No sign of a struggle, but no indication that she left voluntarily either. Clothes were still in the dresser. Suitcase in the closet. Phone charger on the nightstand.”

I lifted my eyebrow. Where in all of that did he get she hadn’t left voluntarily?

He made a low noise that was probably the closest he ever came to a laugh. “What twenty-one-year-old goes somewhere without her phone charger? Colby won’t even go one night without charging hers.”

Colby. Colby was the youngest Stone and the only girl. Based on his comment, I figured she had to be around Mara’s age.

“I reviewed some of the building security footage,” he went on, and I didn’t bother to ask how he managed to get ahold of that. “After what you learned about her leaving with Jack Kang, I was able to confirm on the feed that’s true.” He paused and opened up his phone. “Looks like they were headed out for the night.”

I stared at the familiar faces of the man Sutton had skewered in the alley and her best friend, the image capturing them leaving the lobby of the building. Creed was right. Mara had on a short dress and heels, and that tracked with what Kang had told Sutton.

“The White Pearl.”

Creed nodded. “I went there and showed her picture around, but no one was talking.”

“I’m not surprised.” People didn’t tend to live long after talking about anything that might be gang business.

“I have footage of Kang leaving the club, but not Mara.”

My gut clenched. “That’s what he told Sutton. That he and Mara argued in the club and then she left without him.”

Creed frowned. “Well, he lied.”

I stiffened.

“If she left the club, it wasn’t on her own two feet. I’ve got footage from street cameras on the front of the club,” he began and swiped through more stills of Mara and Kang entering the White Pearl. “But no sign of her leaving.”

“There’s a back exit in the club that leads?—”

“Into an alleyway,” Creed confirmed with a nod. “There’s no street camera back there, but there is one out front of the Asian grocery store across the street. That’s where I found footage of Kang leaving later that night.”

My heart started to thud heavy in my chest, like a hammer bent on nailing the truth to my chest.

“Tynan—”

“There has to be another exit from inside the club. Underground maybe,” I said, barreling through the curiosity on his face.

“That’s what I’m thinking. It makes sense. No way the local Triad is bringing in drugs or weapons or any kind of contraband through the front or back doors.”

“Can I see the footage you have of Kang leaving?”

Creed jerked his chin and swiped through his phone once more, handing it to me when he reached the final set of photos.

Yeah, definitely Kang.

He was leaving the club, but instead of the alley being empty, there was a black Benz parked right outside the door.

I squinted and then zoomed on the image. “You run this plate?”

“Of course,” Creed said flatly. “Company car belonging to a large biochemical company. Probably one of their big wigs stopping by for some blow to take the stress off?—”

I’d stopped listening at biochemical. “GrowTech?”

Creed’s expression darkened. “How did you know?”

“Gut feeling.”A bad one.

---