Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 79052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
“I think so. I think he does this a lot. Andy, Stewart, the maintenance man. He pretends to be someone else.”
“But how is he living?”
“Under yet another fake name and life. Now we have to find him.” Julian rested his hand on my shoulder. “And when Stewart calls you, and he will, because we all know how these psychos work, you have to pretend to still be in the dark. Almost beg him for help. He has to think he’s ahead of us. Still controlling the game. Let him get careless.”
“Why can’t we go find him and beat him until he tells us?” I snapped.
“Because he’s already underground. I called the real financial company, and they have never heard of him, which came as no surprise. He will respond to your message as Stewart and pretend to be shocked. Horrified. Drop some red herrings about who he told so we can chase our own tail. We’re going to trace the call and see if we can find where he is. Then we find Raven.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t see it.” I yanked on my hair. “How the fuck did I miss this?”
“He is an expert manipulator. Add an accomplished hacker with a flair for acting? It’s a scary trifecta,” Marcus mused.
Julian nodded. “You missed it because you’re not a field agent, Damien. You weren’t trained for this. Your focus was on Raven. On protecting her.” He shook my shoulder. “There’s a reason doctors don’t operate on their spouses. You can’t separate those feelings. You can’t be an objective doctor and a loving husband at the same time. It’s the same here. It was for me and for Marcus.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “This man is a genius at disguise. To be honest, I don’t know if any of us would have caught on. He’s too good at the game.”
“I should have. He was right fucking there, and I missed it.”
“Stop,” Julian insisted. “Stop blaming yourself, and concentrate on finding him.”
I hung my head. He was right.
“I wonder where else he has infiltrated your life? Or Raven’s?” Marcus muttered.
Egan made a noise and sat at the computer, his fingers flying over the keys. He was muttering in Romanian, the noises harsh and furious.
“What?” I asked.
“His sealed file is downloading. But there is a connection here. One we didn’t see before.” He turned his computer so it faced us. “I kept going back to the exit he took. I’ve been on it myself. So have you. It’s close to the off-site facility The Real Connection uses.”
“But we spent days checking and rechecking the staff of both places. They all came up clean.”
“We didn’t dig deep enough.” He hit a few more keys. “We took someone at face value. Older, married, wanting to help.”
A picture of Jeff Drew that Egan had snapped when he wasn’t looking flashed on the screen.
“Think about it,” Egan stated. “The sweating, his nerves. How he didn’t want us close. A heavy body suit, prosthetics, and a skullcap. A different pair of contacts. Another set of glasses.”
“Hiding in plain sight,” Marcus mumbled.
It hit me. “His cologne. I smelled it on Andy that night I cornered him. It was fainter because we were outside, but that’s why it was familiar.”
“Yes.”
Suddenly, other pieces fell into place.
“He gave us free access because there never were any profiles to find. He back-doored into his own system to find Raven. Made what looked like a regular profile and moved in on her. He would be the only one with access to that sort of control. He wiped his own trail.”
“You said she spoke with a few men. Met a couple for coffee?”
“Yes. She said they were too aggressive. Wanted more than she was looking for. Came on too strong. She liked Andy’s gentler disposition. At least until his true nature showed.”
“I bet they were all Jeff. If we could get into her profile, I think we’d find he’d blocked any access other than his own. His aggression became too much for him to hide.”
“Are we talking split personalities?”
“No. We’re talking a stalker. Someone I think has done this before. He’s obsessed the way Zander was over Missy. He has access, obviously money, and the ability,” Marcus stated.
“And now he has her.”
“Not for long.”
“Jesus, is Deb in danger?”
Egan spoke. “We’ll get eyes on her, but I would say not. Unless he knows his cover is blown.”
“We can’t let that happen. My God, she is going to freak out when she finds out who the man she was falling for really is.”
Marcus stood. “Better now than later.” He rolled up his sleeves. “We’re going to do what we do best. Find him and get Raven back. Fast.”
“And I’m taking him out.”
No one argued.
I wouldn’t have listened if they had.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Damien
Now that we had our crumb, our information on John Allan grew quickly.