The Fall of East: Book 3 in the Hear No Evil Trilogy by Malone, Nana (best reads .txt) 📕

I shrugged. "Oh, yes. I owe Garreth a nice long conversation."

She nodded. "Whatever you need to do, I’ll back you."

I wanted to kiss her. "Let's get on it then. If Jameson's on that property, we'll find him. Telly, do you want to do this?"

Telly pulled out her laptop and grinned at me. "Catch me if you can." And then I instantly regretted trying to race her. She was ready to prove herself, which meant, God, she was going to give me a run for my money.

"All right, we're on." And then I leaned over my computer, knowing that Garreth Jameson was close enough to touch. All he needed to do was make a mistake.

Chapter Twenty-Two Nyla

They swarmed the Jameson estate like ants. Everywhere I turned was an Interpol agent, along with police. There was an attack team on standby too, in case we should need it.

Denning took charge of all of us. "No showboating. We're here to capture, not kill. Bring him in, quietly and efficiently."

He assigned two of the agents to guard the back side of the main house then directed me, Amelia, and the rest of the agents to the front.

Amelia and I took our positions, clearing the house room by room, doing as we were told. When it became clear Garreth wasn't in the house, Denning pulled me aside, and Amelia was right on his heels. "Where the fuck is he? You're the one who brought the intel that he would be here."

I scowled at him. "Look, we all got the same intel from Hazel. Oh, wait, now that's not her name is it? Krista Wilson said a wounded animal returns home. He's here, but there are a hundred acres on this estate, and a million ways to slip off this property too. If we don't do this right, he's going to slip through our fingers and possibly be gone forever."

"You would just love it, to have my job, wouldn't you?"

Amelia crossed her arms. "Can the two of you stop please? What are the other structures on the property?"

I’d memorized the map, so as Denning pulled it up on his tablet, I rattled off, "The servants' quarters, the main house obviously, two guest houses over on the western side, the family crypt which has sort of a mini lodge house on top of it, and then over on the far eastern side of the estate are all the maintenance sheds and a small house where the managing caretaker lives. Underneath though, there are tunnels leading every which way on this property, so we have to be careful.”

Denning stared at me. "Why do you know this place so well?"

"Well this isn't my first time at this rodeo. We've been spending a lot of time paying attention to Lord Jameson. I studied the schematics the last time we were here."

He watched me warily. "If you say so."

He frowned down at the table, and I said, "Sir, give me something to do."

He ignored me and gave Amelia her marching orders, telling her to coordinate the searches of the small buildings.

"Okay, I'll help her," I said.

He shook his head at me. "No, you're going to be stuck with me. I'm going to watch you like a hawk so I can see where you're going and what you're doing. Because I don't believe you're this good. Matter of fact, I'm pretty sure you are terrible at this job. I see you with your eyes on my job now that your father is gone and I'm acting section chief. It won't be you they pick though, you know that, right?"

"And considering your personal history with a criminal, I wouldn't hold my breath if I was you, either. Denning, just let me do my job. I'm not coming for yours. I have no interest in that. All I want to do is bring in the bad guys. That's it. How hard is that to understand?"

Over the wire, two agents reported they had cleared the crypt.

Denning smiled at me, maliciously. "Okay then, why don't you go help them? Let them show you how they cleared they crypt, do another sweep of it, and when you're tired and bored, do another one."

"Denning, surely you can see how this is unhelpful and a waste of resources."

"I don't give a damn if it's unhelpful."

"Fine. I'll go." Anything to get away from you, I thought to myself.

I followed the path around the hedges until I found the crypt. It was constructed of the same pewter stone used for all the buildings on the property. Instead inside though, it was all marble, floor to ceiling. Jameson, or rather Henry Warlow, had clearly spent a lot of money on this for a family that wasn't his. I would never understand it. His first wife was buried there alongside an infant she’d miscarried once.

I found myself trying to do the mental gymnastics of wondering if his first wife had known, if his current wife had a clue, and if anyone else in the family ever figured it out. Were there unexplained deaths in his family? Was he capable of such a thing if it was necessary to protect his real identity?

But Lord Jameson/Henry Warlow was not who I was after. Tonight, I was after his son. I already knew he was dangerous based on everything East had told me, so I needed to keep my wits about me.

I called out for the two uniformed officers that were supposed to be on watch, but neither of them responded.

Where the hell were they? They shouldn’t have left their post until a senior officer had cleared them.

I followed the smooth marble around the corner and then discovered that one of the marble walls wasn't quite level. There was a slight bump in the seam in the wall. Using my phone for a flashlight, I looked around and saw a small button on the floor near the wall. When I pressed on it, a hidden door started to shift and