Faceless (Sinister Secrets Book 2) by Candle Sutton (best motivational novels txt) 📕

Not many people were that observant.

People with something to hide. People on the run.

And cops. Cops were always watching.

Could Mitch have gone to the cops?

That would implicate him, too. And Mitch was good at looking out for himself, if nothing else. Going to the cops, especially when he didn’t seem to know what Tio was really up to, seemed unlikely.

But not impossible.

He rounded the corner, spying the woman halfway up the block.

Veering off the sidewalk, she entered a building.

Finally. Now he could see where she worked.

Presumably.

He glanced at the building as he passed.

His mouth dried out and the coffee turned to tar in his stomach.

Emblazoned across the front of the building were four distinct words.

Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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Silence weighted the room.

Kevyn looked at each member of her team, all of them waiting for Dak to join them. All of them wondering what might have prompted the “everyone to the conference room now” request.

JD had finally arrived from the police station. Maybe that was it.

Dak entered the room and closed the door behind him. A file folder was in his hand, which he dropped on the table with a smack. “Noelle Orson is bleeding green.”

Kevyn looked at the group around her before asking the question she was sure they all felt. “How? With all her family’s money at her disposal?”

Pulling out a chair, Dak dropped into it and flipped open the file folder. “I don’t know, but her monthly expenditures far exceed the profits made at her yoga studio. No doubt daddy’s chipping in on her expenses, but her financials consistently show accounts with minimal balances. Sometimes overdrawn.”

Sid scratched his head. “Doesn’t make sense. I looked into the financial records of her studio. It’s thriving. She should be making bank.”

Dak shrugged.

“So what are you thinking?” Kevyn studied Dak’s face. “Drugs?”

“That’s what we need to figure out.” Dak spread the papers in front of him. “Her father bought her condo outright, so she doesn’t have rent. Only monthly dues, which are high, but not unmanageable with what she should be bringing home from her studio. She has a lot of transactions from restaurants and clubs and seems to enjoy the night life, but not enough that it should be bleeding her dry.”

Several pages were distributed around the table. Kevyn studied the copy in front of her.

Bank records. Large cash withdrawals jumped out as if in neon lights. At least half of her credit card charges were for restaurants, clubs, bars, and casinos. Casinos… could Noelle Orson be a bad gambler? “We need to figure out what these withdrawals are for.”

“Agreed.” Dak looked around the table. “But we can’t lose sight of the Cummings abduction. We need to attack that before the trails go cold.”

“Well, the other bartender didn’t have anything helpful to add.” JD rested his elbows on top of the papers in front of him and leaned in. “Said he was talking to the night manager as they walked to their cars together, then was on the phone with his girlfriend as he pulled out of the lot. Hands-free, of course.”

The way JD said it made her think the bartender had made a point of adding that. Like any of them cared if he was using hands-free at the moment. They had a ring of kidnappers to stop.

“He didn’t notice anyone interacting with Cummings in an unusual way that night?” Dak’s question drew her attention from thoughts of hands-free devices.

“Nope. Or the days leading up to it, either. Claimed everything had been normal.”

Same thing the night manager had said. Given that they had no reason to lie, she suspected it was the truth.

“I did get surveillance video from inside the bar for that night. Got analysts reviewing it now.” JD harrumphed. “Not that I think it’ll do any good.”

No one responded, but she suspected they all felt the same way.

A knock sounded on the door seconds before it opened.

Kevyn swiveled. OPR Agent Caldwell stepped inside, his sharp gaze slicing into her.

Her breathing jackhammered and her insides shook.

Something told her this wasn’t good. Not if he’d interrupted a meeting to find her.

“Agent Taylor, Agent Lakes. There’s something I need you to see.”

See. Okay, that didn’t sound too bad.

“We’re in the middle of an active investigation.” Dak’s tight voice signaled his annoyance at the interruption. “Can it wait?”

“I’m in the middle of an active investigation, too.” Caldwell’s tone, even and lacking emotion, belied the tightening of his jaw and lowering eyebrows. “This will only take a moment.”

“Can we do it here?” Kevyn added a light lilt to her voice and gestured to her team. “I have nothing to hide from anyone in this room.”

Ugh. Maybe she shouldn’t have said that.

She certainly didn’t want some elements from her past paraded around.

But it didn’t sound like that was what this was about. Caldwell wanted to show them something. Not interrogate her.

Besides, this was a chance to reestablish trust. With Dak, if no one else.

A brief pause punctuated her question, then Caldwell shrugged. “Don’t see why not.”

Crossing the open space, he pulled something from a file folder in his hand and slid it in front of her. “Do you recognize this man?”

Her breath caught.

Mitch Taylor! Caldwell had found him!

Another copy passed from Caldwell’s hands to Dak.

Kevyn resisted the urge to look at Dak. Couldn’t do anything that Caldwell might construe as dishonesty. “Yes. That’s Mitch.”

“You’re sure?” Caldwell’s even tone was beginning to grate on her. Couldn’t the man show the slightest smidgen of emotion? Good or bad?

“Definitely.” Dak responded before she did. “This is who I saw outside Kevyn’s house.”

Caldwell nodded, his expression showing that it was the expected response.

“How’d you find him?” A