* * *
Max had sent Ryan a good-night message when she was still at Sean and Lucy’s house because she knew she wouldn’t be back at the hotel until close to midnight, which made it one in the morning in New York. So she was surprised when her cell phone vibrated as soon as she slid between the sheets. She almost ignored it.
But she never ignored her phone if she didn’t know who the caller was.
She looked at caller ID and saw that it was Ryan. She answered.
“I told you I wouldn’t call because it was getting late.”
“I appreciate that. But I wanted to hear your voice. And make sure you’re in one piece.”
“A very tired piece.”
“You’ve had a long day.”
“You might get a call tomorrow from someone in the FBI.”
“I get a lot of calls from people in the FBI. What did you do?”
“Not funny.” But she was smiling. “Well, let’s say I convinced Agent Kincaid that she could use my help. My investigation into Victoria Mills’s death is directly connected to her investigation into a three-year-old cold case.”
Ryan laughed. “Shouldn’t you be working the cold case?”
“Yes, I should, and fortunately, Agent Kincaid recognized that my experience in these matters will come in handy.”
“She did?”
“You sound skeptical.”
“I know you, sweetheart. You would withhold information from an active investigation if the police didn’t play nice.”
“You make me sound awful. And yes, I wouldn’t share if I didn’t think they would do anything with my information, but I would never obstruct justice.”
“You’re right, I didn’t mean to insult you.”
“Truth is, I thought she was going to block me. I thought she was going to put her foot down and I already knew I would have given her everything.”
“And walked?”
“No. But I respect Lucy too much to withhold what I know. I gave her the timeline and the connections between the two cases and asked her to let me work with her on this. Within reason, of course.”
“That’s … almost surprising. So is Agent Kincaid calling me? For what, specifically? It would be nice if I had some background.”
“It may not be her, but I pointed out that you already offered to help, and this is your strength. Whatever scam is going on has to do with a lot of land and a lot of money. And a deep understanding of embezzling, which in this case according to Sean Rogan would also include a talented hacker. One reason I’m so late is because Lucy confided in me that she doesn’t think that Denise Albright actually embezzled the money from her client. She thinks the money was taken after she was already dead, that she may have been pressured into changing the accounts the day she died and then someone else actually took the money and moved it from company to company until it disappeared.”
“I love shell corps. They’re so much fun.”
“You’re crazy, you know that.”
“You love me for it. But seriously, I am happy to help, and I’m not going to tell you not to get involved, but I looked up Agent Kincaid’s file. First, a lot of her file is sealed. Even I don’t have the clearance to see it.”
“I don’t want to know.” She did want to know, but she had promised Sean and Lucy that she wouldn’t dig into Lucy’s background.
“I was only going to say, she’s been involved in several high-profile and dangerous investigations over the last couple of years. I need you to be careful. For me and for Eve. We worry.”
“This isn’t a dangerous case.”
“Stanley Grant was shot and killed this afternoon. You could have been with him at the courthouse instead of Rogan, and you could have been shot. I can’t help it, Max, you take risks, and I need you to be extra careful.”
“I will be. I want to come home just as much as you want me home.”
“I’m glad you recognize that.”
“I am tired, though.”
“I wish I was there.”
“So do I. I need a massage.”
“I feel used.”
“You love it when I use you.”
“Use me whenever you want, Maxine Revere. I am yours. Sleep tight.”
Max ended the call and closed her eyes, smiling.
I love you, Ryan.
Chapter Eighteen
WEDNESDAY MORNING
On the drive out to the Youngs’ house in Kerr County, Lucy filled Nate in on what Max had learned. He was silent for several minutes.
“Okay, what?”
“I’m just glad she’s not on a damn ride-along with us,” he muttered.
“Then I would have to clear this with Rachel.”
Nate glanced over at her. “I don’t want her in this car. I don’t trust her. I know you and Sean are friends with her, but we’ve already been run off the road, we have unknown people tracking our progress, and we can’t trust the original investigators.”
He sounded unusually passionate. “Nate—I wouldn’t do anything without your consent.”
“You should have called me last night. So I could hear the woman firsthand. Ask her some questions.”
“I didn’t know she was coming over until she got there—but you’re right. I should have had you there.” She hoped Nate wasn’t too angry with her. “I’m already going to be in hot water when it comes out, but I want to keep it between us for at least today, until Max can connect Harrison Monroe to Denise Albright and give us a viable reason to talk to him. I went over all the files that Laura gave us and his name is nowhere.”
“He may not be connected to her at all.”
“They went to college together. All of them. Max doesn’t think any of them are innocent, that they were all involved in some sort of white collar scam.”
“She thinks they all knew about Victoria’s murder? About the slaughter of an entire family?”
“I don’t know. The way Max explained it—Victoria, and possibly the others, believed that Denise left the country. But when the bones were uncovered, they would figure out that she hadn’t—and then possibly go to the police with information that could lead to the killer. It’s a bit convoluted right now, to be honest, but I see what Max is getting at. And consider this: If you and your friends were involved in a scam and you were the only one with a family and children to protect, you were the weak link. The one most likely to turn state’s evidence or balk at doing something that crosses a moral line. I don’t know.”
“I think I follow.”
“If Stanley Grant wasn’t lying to Max, Victoria was working on something with Harrison Monroe. When she was murdered, who took over that job? Mitch Corta? But none of that connects to Denise Albright, not yet. Last night I went through her client list again and none of them are associated with MCG or Monroe or his business or his wife or her law firm. So until I get a thread that I can take to Rachel and have a damn good reason to insert myself in an SAPD investigation, I can’t pursue it.”
“Yeah, SAPD doesn’t like us right now.”
“Why?”