The Exchange: A Suspense Thriller by Dustin Stevens

Author:Dustin Stevens [Stevens, Dustin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-10-22T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Just minutes after Dutton had dropped her latest bombshell, their breakfast had arrived. Not one of them felt much like eating, each of the four picking through their assorted orders before asking for to-go containers.

Stacked up on the rear passenger seat under the morning sun, Erika could only imagine what state the food was going to be in by the time any of them felt brave enough to open the lids again.

As it were, the only purpose they were serving was to add the scents of eggs and bacon to the lingering aroma of coffee, the interior of the SUV fast starting to smell like it had been sprayed with a heavy mist of diner-scented fragrance.

Giving them nothing more than a passing thought, Erika instead stared down at the list balanced on her knee. Perched on the hump in the middle of the backseat, her phone rested on the dashboard in front of them, the picture of Bryan Takata pulled up on the screen, enlarged to fill the entire space.

Like she had told Cobb before, he looked to be around the same age as she and Callie, his skin unlined, his hair thick and gelled into place. A standard company website photo, he was dressed in a dark suit with a purple tie, his shoulders turned toward the camera.

Behind him was a sunny scene replete with cityscape and mountains in the distance, a backdrop that could just as easily be fake.

The name of the company he worked for was Mountain View Equity, a name that seemed woefully out of place from where they were sitting. Tucked into a string of commercial high-rises in the heart of San Bernardino, the building was eight stories tall, the website listing their office as a suite on the fourth floor.

Not large enough to take up the entire level, it named only a dozen employees in total, the number including all sales and support staff.

The first time Erika had delved into the place, she thought it was small enough that in Seattle, they wouldn’t have even bothered with the expense of covering the lease. They would have settled with letting everyone work remotely and just picked up the tab on wireless charges.

Immediately thereafter, she’d remember where she was, appearance often trumping reality or even pragmatism in Southern California.

Parked in the second row of the parking lot behind the building, they had a clear view of the main entrance, their only hope that Takata would be one for going out to lunch. Or for a short walk. Or a smoke.

Or anything to get him out of doors where they could speak to him for a moment.

Until then, they were tucked in the parking lot, staring straight ahead at the glass and brick building before them, trying to work through what they were just told.

“Adrenaline,” Erika said, the first to speak since they’d arrived. Working down through her notes, the word had been circled a handful of times, each with increasing size. “Is there any way Callie could have killed herself and not been buzzing?”

“The way she did?” Tobias said.

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