“Ms. Han.”
She finally lets go of my hand and eyes the leftover dinner, holding up the takeout bag in her other hand.
“And here I was taking pity on you,” she aims at Kate. “I brought you a sub.”
“I take full responsibility,” I intervene, taking my seat. “I barged in on Kate unannounced.”
I realize my mistake when Pearl’s eyes narrow on her friend.
“Kate? You told him your name?”
A slight blush stains her cheeks, but Kate seems to shake it off as she grabs the takeout bag.
“I did. Now let me put this in the fridge, I’ll have it for breakfast tomorrow.”
“It’s Italian meatballs.”
“I’ll heat it up in the microwave.”
These two are entertaining, like an old married couple, and I bite back a laugh at the disgusted look on Pearl’s face.
“It’ll be soggy.”
Kate puffs out an annoyed sigh.
“Then I’ll eat it with a spoon,” she mocks.
Pearl has had enough of the banter and turns to me.
“So what brings you here, Agent Kenny?”
“Mitch, please,” I tell her as she takes the chair Kate was occupying moments ago, leaving her the edge of the bed to sit down on.
“Mitch,” she corrects herself, looking at me expectantly.
But before I can answer, Kate beats me to it.
“They found a girl’s body this morning.”
The shock is clear on her friend’s face.
“Georgia?” she guesses, immediately followed by, “I monitor the scanners. How come I didn’t hear about this?”
I repeat what I told Kate earlier, that we won’t know more until tomorrow’s autopsy.
“As for not hearing the call, it was decided to keep it off the radar for now. The Anderson County sheriff was called in and—knowing about the missing girl’s connection to the chief—he contacted us directly. The scene was pretty brutal and we didn’t want to risk Furmont showing up.”
Pearl pulls a phone from her purse.
“There’s been a development. Kate’s room,” she snaps before adding, “Bring a chair and my laptop.”
Then she looks at her friend.
“Onyx is on her way. We need to get Jacob on the line.”
We’re crammed inside Kate’s room.
Onyx is propped on the edge of the bed next to Kate. A striking woman with long black hair in a braid down her back, one single white strand woven through. She smiled and nodded when we shook hands but she never said a word.
I called Matt to join us as well and he’s leaning against the wall by the door. The rest of the CARD team is either surveilling Kendrick or back at the hotel. We wouldn’t have been able to fit them in anyway.
Jacob’s disembodied voice comes from Pearl’s laptop.
“What does your gut tell you?”
I assume the question is directed at Matt since he just finished describing the scene, and what we could see of the victim.
Matt glances my way in a silent communication before responding.
“It’s her. It’s Georgia.”
A muffled curse sounds from the other end.
“If I might venture a guess.”
This from Onyx, whose cultured, rich voice is a surprise. Matt gestures for her to go ahead.
“Perhaps whomever took her didn’t realize she was the chief of police’s grandniece. Not until your team started asking questions. Our perpetrator could’ve panicked and killed her.”
The thought had occurred to us. Matt and I mulled it over on our way back to town from the crime scene.
“Possible,” I tell her. “Especially since someone went through a whole lot of trouble to make identification a challenge. Not impossible, mind you.”
“As soon as we get confirmation from the medical examiner, we’ll get a warrant for the center,” Matt fills in.
“Wait…hold one second.” Kate holds up a finger and gets to her feet, starting to pace in front of the dresser. “Kendrick went AWOL a couple of days ago. What if what we suspect is true and he had a hand in her disappearance? He could’ve killed Georgia then. The next day he started destroying files, trying to erase evidence of the other missing kids. He doesn’t know we know who he is. He doesn’t know Georgia isn’t the only kid we know is missing. He thinks he’s scot-free, otherwise, he wouldn’t have invited his buddies for breakfast at the center this morning. Right now, we have the advantage, but if you walk in there waving a warrant, you’re tipping our hand. What if he decides to harm the other kids? Melissa, Chantel, Bobby-Jean, and who knows how many more?”
“What if they’re already dead?” Matt suggests.
Kate stops in her tracks and whips around to him.
“We don’t work on assumptions,” she snaps. “Until they’re lying on a cold slab next to Georgia in the morgue, we’re going to assume they’re alive. We can’t afford to push him in a corner or we’ll never find those kids.”
“So what do you suggest we do next?” I ask her carefully.
Her eyes are large and shimmering when she turns to me.
“What I suggested earlier. I want to approach Kaylie Bentevigna away from the center. I’m positive she knows more, and I may be able to get her to talk if I can catch her alone and off guard.”
“You’ll run the risk of exposing yourself,” Jacob cautions.
“I know,” Kate answers, her eyes never leaving mine. “But it’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
NINE
Opal
“Can you get her to meet with us?”
We met up with Sally in a small coffeeshop around the corner from my motel after days of trying to catch Kaylie Bentevigna away from the center. The girl turned out to be slick as an eel, finding ways to avoid me like she knew I was trying to catch her alone.
Sally looks from me to Mitch.
“Kaylie won’t talk to a man.”
I almost feel Mitch bristle and under the table and I squeeze his knee in warning.
“Has she been…” I let my words drift off.
Sally shakes her head. “I can’t talk about that.”
It’s as much of an admission as I can expect. Sally may be a volunteer counselor but she is equally bound to maintain client confidentiality. Still, it’s clear the girl has some cause to be mistrusting of men.
“I’ll meet with Kaylie alone,” I promise, ignoring Mitch’s annoyed huff beside me.
Other than my shifts at the center, he has been sticking close, insisting it was for my own safety. Since my boss agreed with him when Mitch first voiced his concern a few nights ago, I didn’t really have a choice. Not that it made me happy.
I’m putting my foot down now though. We desperately need a good lead if we’re going to find those kids. Hell, all we need is a place to start looking from. I’m keeping my fingers crossed Kaylie can help with that.
“I’m supposed to be meeting with her tomorrow afternoon. Let me talk to her. Maybe I can get her to meet me somewhere.”
Mitch doesn’t speak until Sally has left.
“I don’t like it.”