Page 31 of Holding His Hostage
A video file was attached. “Fuck,” he whispered, hitting play.
“What’s the matter?” asked Lucas, crossing to his side.
“I shouldn’t have said that. Didn’t see you there.” A woman entered the picture, but it was too far away to see her face clearly.
“Mom’s screaming at April. I’m staying away. What are you watching?”
“A surveillance video. Just take a sec.”
Lucas leaned over the screen. “That a bank?”
“Yeah.”
“Who is she?”
“I don’t know.”
The camera angle switched to a shot from the teller’s point of view, the woman’s face now clearly visible. It wasn’t Jo, and Sloan released a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He’d been afraid she had been lying to him, and it was a relief to realize she was not. He flicked off the video.
Lucas’s expression was dark, his stare boring into Sloan’s.
“What’s wrong, kiddo?” Sloan asked.
“That’s her.”
He furrowed his brow. “Who?”
“The woman my dad was kissing.”
16
Joanne dug a roll of antacids from her purse. “I don’t like getting this close to Richard Bannon on purpose.”
“It’s his wife’s office, not his.”
“That’s still too close.” She bit down on the chalky tablet. She was cranky, having gotten little sleep last night after April’s escapades and Sloan sharing the video of McKenzie at the bank. Jo’s mind had been full of questions and possible scenarios that could explain why David’s former lover would be withdrawing large sums of money after he died.
If he’d died at all.
Bannon had claimed to have killed him, but what if that was a lie to make her believe he was capable of hurting her kids? The thought had begun to percolate the moment she’d seen the video, regardless of the body in the casket they had buried. Someone had died in that hunting cabin, and she’d assumed it had been David. But what if she’d been wrong? What if they were all wrong?
David was having an affair with Bannon’s wife, and if he wasn’t really dead, that gave them both an entirely different motivation. Maybe he was alive and well and living on the beach with McKenzie somewhere.
According to Moto at HERO Force, David had several joint bank accounts with his former secretary, which was why she was able to withdraw the money. McKenzie was the key, the answer to this riddle that had turned Jo’s world upside down, and she wasn’t sure if she was hoping to find the other woman at work or not. “What if he’s alive?”
Sloan sighed heavily. “I was wondering the same thing. Between the money and the mistress, it’s looking like he had plenty of reason to fake his own death.”
“But there’s a body. If David’s alive, who died in that fire?”
“Impossible to say.”
“This is unbelievable. And we’re running out of time.”
“Don’t panic. We’re working on it. HERO Force is doing all they can to find out more about McKenzie’s financial records.” They drove to the opposite side of the city and exited the expressway in an expensive suburb. “How well did you know her?”
Jo shrugged. “Not well. She came over to the house a few times to work on projects with David on weekends. He had a home office.” How foolish she’d been then. She glanced over her shoulder to be sure the kids couldn’t hear their conversation, finding them engrossed in their electronics. “They probably had fuck parties in there while I was knocking politely and bringing them coffee.”
“Fuck parties?”
