Page 68 of Devil
“Because we didn’t even know about Highborn until yesterday afternoon,” Darius pointed out. Although he was feeling as disgruntled about the newfound knowledge as Lily sounded.
Darius continued thumbing through the pages as Lily sat back. They now had a connection between the four women and a connection between Pritchard and Highborn, but nothing that tied them all together.
“Sandy,” Lily said. Both Darius and Chad looked at her. “It was one of the words Jennifer muttered when she was dying,” she continued. “I didn’t give it much thought, but Alex Highborn’s full name is Alexander.”
“And Sandy is a shortened version of that,” Darius finished. And as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he realized something else. “It wasn’t Highborn’s face that I first recognized when I saw him out on the street last night. I didn’t think about it until now, but something felt familiar about him before I saw who it was. It was his build and his movements that caught my attention first. Not his face,” Darius said.
“He’s the one you followed from Jennifer’s house,” Lily said. It wasn’t really a question, but he nodded.
“What the hell is he up to?” Chad muttered. He and Lily echoed the sentiment.
“Everything is going okay with the trade talks?” Lily asked, tapping her fingers on the table.
Chad nodded. “Stella’s getting regular updates from her brother, who obviously has a front-row seat.”
“We need the connection between—” Lily’s phone rang, cutting her off. She flashed the device at him, and Cyn’s name was on the screen.
“You’re on speaker,” Lily said, answering the phone. “Darius and Chad are here.”
“Oh, hey, Chad, when are you coming back up for a visit?”
“Fuck off,” he said, though he said it through a chuckle.
“You’ll be singing a different tune when you see what I found,” she countered. “Go open your computer, Devil, and take a look at the file I sent you.”
Lily did as told, and a few minutes later, she was opening up an email and clicking on the zipped file of images. When the first one popped up, Darius wasn’t the only one to suck in a breath. Slowly, Lily clicked through the series of twenty-two pictures. When she was done, she sat back and looked at first him, then Chad.
“I take it that the silence means I’m your favorite friend today?” Cyn asked.
“How did you find those?” Chad asked.
“I was curious about Alex Highborn’s relationship with his dad, so I started looking into him. Turns out he’s pretty active on social media for a man in his seventies.”
“Are you saying you found these on Facebook?” Darius asked.
“Mostly Instagram, but yeah, basically the same concept.”
Darius’s gaze went back to the image Lily had up on her screen. It was a New Year’s Eve party with a big countdown clock going in the background. Dozens of people filled the image, each carrying a drink of some sort, mostly champagne.
And right in the middle of it were Alex Highborn and Tina Lam.
Chad was the first to speak. “Alex is the hub of the wheel with the Lam sisters, Sonia, Nadia, and Dr. Pritchard all circling around him.”
“Can you get a timeline on the pictures?” Lily asked Cyn.
“Already done,” she said. “The first picture of Tina with Alex showed up at Thanksgiving last year and the last one was from a fundraiser in early February. There’s been nothing since. A short but, judging by how many pictures Highborn Senior had of them together, intense relationship.”
“Isn’t he more than fifteen years older than her?” Darius asked. Tina Lam was a beautiful woman, but a fifteen-year age gap seemed a bit much. Especially considering at least two of Highborn’s other girlfriends had both been within a few years of him. JJ had even been a couple of years older.
“What are you thinking?” Chad asked. “They break up and then suddenly he has her looped into a plot to kill the Chinese president? The connections are damning, I’ll give you that, but do you really see that happening?”
“Maybe the relationship isn’t over,” Lily suggested, drawing both men’s attention. “Maybe they are planning it together and feigned the breakup.”
Darius considered the idea. “Possible, I guess. Although in this day and age, their relationship was bound to come out. As Cyn proved.”
“I think we need to bring her in,” Lily said.
“Under what pretense?” Chad countered. “All we really have proof of is trespassing.”
