“You would have a hard time doing that, sitting in this room and letting guilt eat you alive. Sir.” The older man’s face softened slightly. “I'll allow you a few minutes to compose yourself before I bring Mr. Kowalski back.”
“Allow me.” Muttering under my breath, I shoved back from my desk instead up. Various kinks and stiff muscles protested movement. I hadn’t been doing much of anything but sitting in this room when I didn't have the cops and FBI here. My clothes were wrinkled and I was pretty sure I didn't smell that good. No wonder Doug looked so disgusted.
I needed to get off my ass.
Ten minutes later, Doug showed Stanley Kowalski into my office.
The investigator was a skinny man with graying hair and sharp, intelligent eyes hidden behind narrow-rimmed spectacles. When I hired him, he'd told me he had gone into private work after he'd retired from the force. He didn't look like a cop. I figured that must be a bonus as an investigator. Somebody like him showed up at the door, a person would expect some sort of sales pitch or a request for donations to a local ministry.
Definitely not law enforcement.
“Please tell me you have something,” I said as I stood.
“Afraid not.” He shook my hand and then lowered himself into the chair across from my desk. “As soon as I have anything, I'll call you immediately.”
“Yeah.” I moved to the window and stared outside. It faced out over a small, private garden. Isadora loved our garden. We had a larger one at our house in the Hamptons, but she spent a lot of time here in this one. I sometimes thought she’d live out there if she could. What if she–
“Don’t give up hope, Mr. Lang.”
I looked over at Kowalski. He had a worn, lived-in sort of face. The kind of face that made you think he’d done it all and seen it all, the kind that made you want to believe him. I wanted to. But Isadora was the optimist. Not me. Not after everything I'd been through. Everything I'd lost.
“What brings you over here then?” I asked.
He didn’t beleaguer his point.
Gesturing to my desk, he said, “May I?”
I nodded and pushed aside the clutter that had gathered there over the past few days. I watched as he pulled out a folder and began to lay out several black and whites, glossy, close-angle images of a man I didn’t know. Suddenly, I clenched my jaw, reaching out to snag one of the pictures. It was of Toni. With the guy.
They were sitting in a bar or something.
The look on their faces…it was one of familiarity. My stomach clenched at the expression on her face. She was smiling, the sort of smile someone only gave to a person to whom they were close.
I continued to go through the pictures. In a few of them, I could tell they were trying hard to keep from being overheard, their heads and bodies bent towards each other. When I came to the end, I looked up at Kowalski.
“What is this?” I asked, my gut a tight, ugly snarl.
“I assume you recognize the woman.”
“Get to the point.” Flinging the images down on the desk, I crossed my arms over my chest and waited. My heart was pounding so hard, I almost felt sick. Kowalski had better have a good explanation or I was going to be even more pissed than I already was.
“The man with her is her brother, Victor Gallagher. Are you aware of his…?” Kowalski paused and then forged ahead. “His somewhat checkered past?”
I snorted. “Yes. He’s a thug.”
“He’s a bit more than your typical thug.” Kowalski rubbed his hands together and looked away, obviously taking care with his words. “Now, please understand. I’m not making accusations, but I think it’s just worth…well, knowing. When Victor Gallagher was eighteen, he was arrested on felony drug charges, but testified against the guy he was running for. Word on the street was that the guy was trying to edge into some other family's business, and the kid was setting him up, but things went south. Kid got pinched. His lawyer made a deal, and because the guy wasn't from the neighborhood, the kid testified. He got six months and has been clean ever since. Or, at least, hasn't gotten caught. There have been rumors though.”
“I know about the drug conviction.” I trailed off when the investigator looked back at me. “What is it?”
“One of the things he's been rumored about being into since he got out? It was a kidnapping.”
Chapter 9
Toni
I tried to ignore the ringing of the telephone. It had been ringing off and on for the past twenty minutes.
Maybe longer.
My body had shut down on me, and all it knew or understood was sleep.
If it wasn’t for the fact that I had to pee, I probably would have blissfully ignored the phone indefinitely. I had the kind of brain that let me tune out the things I didn’t need to worry about. A benefit of having grown up in a noisy home. But once my bladder made it known I’d have to get up soon, I slowly and subtly started to drift to wakefulness, even though I ignored even my body’s urgent needs as long as I could.
A few more minutes.
I had my face under a pillow and if I could just have a few more minutes…
Another ring and I yanked the pillow off and lay there, staring up at the ceiling overhead. I wasn’t going to get a few more minutes.
Then the phone stopped and I sighed at the sudden and welcomed silence.
After a quick run to the bathroom, I all but dived into bed and hauled my blankets up. I’d been trying to do too much on too little sleep since Isadora had gone missing. I needed the rest.
Technically, I should have been over at the Lang's house. But Isadora wasn't there. Ash had made it clear that my presence wasn't welcome. I had work that I could do, yes, but I could technically do most of it from here. I didn't think I needed to stress him out more than he already was. I certainly didn't need the added stress of being around him.
My eyes drifted closed and a dreamy lassitude fell over me. I was hovering in that space between sleep and waking when the damn phone started to ring again, the shrill sound of my landline jarring me back into wakefulness.
Slowly, I pushed up onto my elbows and stared across the room at the stupid thing.
Whoever it was, they’d just keep calling and calling…
The idea didn’t help my voice sound any more pleasant when I finally grabbed it.
“This had better be important,” I snapped without bothering with a greeting.
“If it wasn't, do you really think I would've spent forty-five minutes trying to get hold of you?” Ash said his voice cool. There was no doubt it was him. “You sleep like the dead.”
“I spent two hours making up a final I missed, three hours trying to get my schedule set up for summer session, and then another two hours tutoring some punk who reminded me of you. Except he was ten years younger and a whole hell of lot stupider and he thinks he can be a doctor. At least you didn’t try to do that.” Irritation and lack of sleep tended to have a bad effect on my filter – as in, said filter didn’t work. “And it isn't like I've been sleeping well over the past week. What do you want?”
There was a pause. “When are you coming over to work?”
Closing my eyes, I sighed. Was he fucking kidding me? “I’m not. You made it more than clear I’m not wanted there.”
“You have a job to do. If you want to keep working here once Isadora comes home, I suggest you get your cute ass over here.”
The threat in his voice made me roll my eyes. “Your sister adores me and she'd have to fire me before my job disappeared and you know it.”
Wait a minute…had he just called my ass cute?
“I have news about Isadora. Just get here.” A moment later, the phone slammed so loud, I flinched in reaction.