Page 43 of Insidious Threats
She let that comment pass without a response. “That’s where he went after he resigned. He headed up to Light on the River, I think it’s called. But he was supposed to come home for the new year and didn’t. And Ellie and Gillian haven’t heard from him.”
“Wait. Ellie asked you to find her father, and you offered her a job?”
“Nope. Marcus, DeAngeles, and Porter asked me to find Ellie’s father, and I told them to bugger off.”
Will choked on his drink but managed not to do a spit take. “Not in so many words, I hope?”
“Eh … Anyway, I texted Ellie, and she invited me to come out to the house this morning. She thinks his vanishing act has something to do with Landon Lewis.”
“Of course, she does,” he muttered. He did that thing where he pinched his index finger on the outer corner of one eye and his thumb on the outer corner of the other and scrunched up his face like he was in pain. Caroline, who’d worked with Will since the dawn of time, called it his ‘Calgon, take me away’ face.
“Why do you say that?”
He took his hand away from his eyes and sighed. “Haven’t you noticed that Landon’s like a bad penny? He keeps turning up. First, he unleashes his diabolical program on the community, and you get it shut down. Then, he agrees to testify for you at trial and gets himself murdered.”
“That one probably wasn’t his fault,” she pointed out.
“Perhaps not. But, here you are again, about to go off on a wild goose chase because of Landon Lewis.”
“We don’t know that it’s a wild goose chase,” she protested.
“We do know that’s not the practice of law, Sasha. If Cinco’s missing, his wife should call the authorities. Or Prescott & Talbot could do it if the powers-to-be are so concerned. You’re not a private investigator. You’re a litigator.”
Although his tone was mild, this was as close as Will Volmer came to ranting. And his scolding was fair. So she didn’t react to being chastised. Instead, she nodded.
“I hear you, Will. I do. And believe me, I don’t care how worked up P&T’s Top Three are about Cinco’s disappearance—”
“I hear abutcoming.”
“But, let’s just say, I forced Cinco’s hand to resign. And I owe Ellie a favor.”
“So you hired her?”
“No, I hired her because you’re right. She’ll be an asset. She’s a damn good lawyer.”
He took a breath. When he spoke, his voice was heavy with resignation. “But because you owe her a favor, you’re traipsing off to the Hudson Valley to look for her father.”
“Exactly. And I’m bringing her with me.” She smiled brightly.
One down, one to go. Now she just had to tell her husband.
22
Leo commandeered a table from an empty conference room and dragged it into the storage room to use as a work surface. He began paging through Landon’s documents, giving the contents of each box a quick once-over to get a sense of the universe of information. Once he understood the scope of what he had to work with, he’d go through each set of papers more methodically.
He was most of the way through his first pass when the door opened and Maisy strolled into the small room, a champagne flute in hand. Jordana was half a step behind her, munching on a pumpernickel bagel as if it were an apple.
“Sasha told us we’d find you in here,” Maisy informed him.
“She said you wouldn’t mind.”
“We don’t,” Jordana said immediately around a mouthful of bagel. She swallowed. “Sorry, shouldn’t talk with my mouth full. Are you kidding? There are a billion documents in here. Not only do we have the stuff Landon’s ex-wife gave us, Sasha gave us copies of all the Milltown files that relate in any way to Landon. We need all the help we can get.”
Maisy took the last sip of her mimosa and nodded her agreement. “If there’s a clue as to who killed Landon buried in all this stuff, we haven’t found it. Maybe your fresh eyes will see something we missed.”
“Have you? Found anything, I mean?” Jordana asked.
He grinned, relieved that he wasn’t going to have to pull rank on them. He’d been prepared to invent an issue of national security if they’d put up a fuss, but he really hadn’t wanted to. This way was much easier. And better. Three sets of hands were better than one.
