IN PURSUIT (An Ivy Nash Thriller Book 2) by John W. Mefford

Author:John W. Mefford [Mefford, John W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: crime fiction female, female sleuth, amateur sleuth, domestic suspense, mystery thriller series, private investigator suspense thriller series, private investigator thriller series
Publisher: Sugar Hill Press
Published: 2017-03-02T22:00:00+00:00

22

I paced back and forth, my brain on overdrive trying to decipher the meaning of two simple words—the same words I’d found on the note to Zahera.

“You’re literally going to rub a hole through the rug.” Cristina sat on the couch holding her phone with a power cord attached to it. She’d been using it for three hours straight, after she’d downed a can of chicken soup and an entire box of saltine crackers.

I stopped in my tracks. “I’m trying to think through every possible scenario while I’m waiting for Stan to get up here. What do you expect me to do?”

She gazed across the floor. “I’m not kidding. Your rug looks like something you picked up off the trash heap.”

“Funny.”

She shrugged her shoulders and went back to searching for any sign of Mona and Dexter Hamrick in our nation’s crowded capital city. Every few minutes, she’d make a phone call and tell the person on the other end a variation of her story: she was the illegitimate daughter of Dexter and had heard he was looking for a relative to determine if they were match for a kidney transplant. When it came to lying, Cristina was a pro’s pro.

“You’re doing it again,” she said.

“Where is Stan? I buzzed him up ten minutes ago, dammit.”

I dialed his number again as I walked over to the front door.

“I’m standing outside your door.”

I looked through the peephole and saw Stan with his phone to his ear.

I unlocked the three locks and pulled him inside. “What the hell took you so long?”

“Two murder investigations,” he said dryly. He put both hands on his waist, then noticed Cristina. “Didn’t know you were crashing here.”

Moving the phone away from her ear briefly, she said, “Mom here let me use her shower and borrow some clothes while I get in from the rain.” She raised an eyebrow my way and smiled.

I’d never been called Mom before, even as a joke. I shook my head and stuck the napkin in Stan’s face. He immediately jerked his head back, as if he were farsighted.

He scowled as he read it. “I am in love with you...Evan?”

Cristina lifted from the couch while talking on the phone, using phrases like “illegitimate daughter” and “kidney transplant” and “urgent that I reach Dexter Hamrick.” She pranced into my bedroom and shut the door.

“Your other case?” Stan asked, pointing a thumb over his shoulder.

“Yes, but focus on the note.”

“Who’s Jake?”

I briefed Stan on my evening adventures with Zahera...and then with Jake. I could see he was surprised by my overnight guest, but he didn’t dwell on it.

He took another step back, his eyes reading the note again. “What am I missing?”

I turned the napkin at an angle. “Think about the carving on Eileen’s back.”

He scratched his whiskers, then pulled out his phone and swiped and tapped until the image of her dead body came up on his screen. “I think I need the visual, as sick as it is.”

I didn’t need to look at the images of the carvings on the backs of Eileen and Joanna.

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