LITMIR.BIZ

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have a lead,” she said.

      * * *

      “I can’t believe you guys did this so quickly.”

      Teague glanced at Laney, who was sitting in the passenger seat of his SUV once more. They were on their way to SeaTac airport with recent photos of Amber in hand. Quinn was a big believer in HUMINT, human intelligence, or as Teague called it, boots on the ground, a holdover from his corps days. But it was Hayley who had quietly convinced Quinn to add another facet to their approach in non-hazardous situations: letting the involved party participate if that was what they wanted. No one, she said, was as invested in the case as the person themselves, and the urgency and emotion they displayed sometimes nudged people over onto their side, into empathy, by the sheer force of it. It made sense, and Teague had seen it work a couple of times now. He’d already had a lot of respect for Hayley after how she’d handled their actions the night she’d become collateral damage in their operation, and this only added to it.

      Laney Adams, he thought, was cut from similar cloth. She might have been crying at first, but not since, and there was a steely determination in her, now that she knew she wasn’t alone. He suspected it would be wise not to underestimate her, now that she had a course set. And she’d made it clear she wanted to be involved every step of the way.

      He’d reluctantly volunteered to be the one to pick up Laney. It only made sense, given he was the one who had brought her problem to them. And he didn’t quite understand his own reluctance. He hadn’t been happy about pouring his guts out to her about Terri, but it had seemed necessary at the time. He wasn’t much for looking backward and dwelling on things he couldn’t change, a lesson learned in the hardest of ways with his sister. But he was still uneasy, and if it wouldn’t have been odd enough to draw attention, he would have opted out.

      He’d even thought of suggesting Hayley, using the girl thing as an excuse, but Quinn had so obviously assumed he’d want to be handling this one that it made him stop and wonder why he didn’t.

      Maybe it was just that this one reminded him too much of Terri. True, Amber was an adult, not a sixteen-year-old girl, and there had been some contact, at least, via the texts, and they had a clue who she might be with....

      Yeah, right. Cases are exactly alike, he thought wryly.

      That excuse shattered, he wasn’t sure where that left him. Except in the car alone with Laney Adams, who unsettled him far too much. And as much as he didn’t want to admit it, that was likely what had him wishing someone else would be doing this. Somewhere along the line he’d turned into a coward, wanting to avoid a situation that made him uncomfortable.

      “Teague?”

      He’d never answered her, he realized. In fact, he had to think for a second to remember exactly what her words had been.

      “Sorry. Thinking.” Don’t ask me about what. “Yes, our guys are good.”

      “It helps that they even looked.” Her voice was harsh, even a touch angry.

      “The cops are understaffed, they have to play the odds,” he said. “And the odds say that an adult who’s still, as far as they know, texting her best friend, is okay.”

      “And the friend who thinks something’s wrong with those texts is imagining things.”

      “They have to justify the time they spend on cases. They have a lot on their plate. When they’re dealing with murders, shootings, robberies and the like, there’s not a lot of time left for...”

      He’d been about to say “lesser things,” but managed to bite it back before the words got out.

      “I get it. I know they have priorities. And they did try. They took the report, entered it into their system, put out flyers and released them to the press. But it pretty much ended there. I don’t really blame them, and I wouldn’t be upset if I weren’t so worried.” She sighed audibly. “I would have hired a private investigator, if I could afford it. But everything I have went into starting the shop.”

      “Well, you’ve got in essence a team of them now,” Teague said.

      “And you really do this for nothing? How does Foxworth afford it?”

      “Charlie.”

      “Charlie,” Laney said, “must truly be a genius.”

      “In many ways. Plus being the only person on earth I’ve seen Quinn intimidated by.”

      “That is a frightening thought.”

      Laney laughed as she said it, and Teague was grateful the moment of tension seemed to have passed.

      “I still can’t believe Amber got on a plane to Vancouver, though,” she said. “She seriously hates to fly. She got groped really badly once, and she’s never flown since unless she had no other choice.”

      “All we know for certain is she bought a ticket,” he cautioned. “Or at least, her credit card did.”

      Laney was looking at him; he could feel it, without even taking his eyes off the road in front of them. And when she spoke he heard the underlying note of fear in her voice, although he could tell she was trying to hide it.

      “Are you saying somebody else bought it in her name?”

      “The ticket was purchased online.”

      “So all they needed was the card in hand.”

      “Yes.”

      “If she is with Edward, why didn’t he buy it?”

      “Good question.”

      “They said it was a round-trip ticket, though, right?”

      Teague nodded. He didn’t point out that anybody paying attention these days would know a one-way ticket, especially one for an imminent flight, automatically drew more attention.

      “So she would have been back by now, if she really had taken that trip.”

      “If she kept to that schedule, yes. It’s taking our team a bit longer to find if the ticket was actually used. Passenger manifests are kept pretty close these days.”

      She went silent then, but Teague sensed her mind was still racing. It was as if having Foxworth on her side had helped her go from helpless flailing to critical thinking, and now she was catching up in a hurry.

      “It’s asking a lot to hope some ticket or airline agent will remember having seen her two weeks ago, isn’t it?”

      “Yes. But there’s always a chance.”

      “She is kind of distinctive.” She paused, gave him a sideways glance. “By that I mean beautiful. Stop-you-in-your-tracks stunning.”

      He’d seen the photo they’d chosen to show, seen the others Laney had. He couldn’t deny Amber was a beautiful woman. Hair the golden color of her name, hazel eyes also more gold than anything. He preferred the warmth of cinnamon-brown, himself, but there was no denying Amber would have been noticed by any guy around.

      Amber and Laney together would be enough to turn heads.

      “You two must have looked like flip sides of the same coin.”

      “Amber’s much prettier,” she said. It sounded like a reflex, an automatic response. Because she believed it? Because she’d said it so many times it actually was a reflex?

      A third possibility occurred to him.

      “If you were fishing for a compliment, consider it landed.”

      Out of the corner of his eye he saw her head snap up. “No! I wasn’t. It’s a simple fact. I’m all right, but Amber is exquisite.”

      He couldn’t deny the genuineness of her quick response; she really hadn’t been fishing. But what she said still surprised him.

      All right? Is that really what you think, that

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