Page 32 of Enigma

Olive and Jason thanked the clerk and walked back outside, both of them seeming to feel the weight of disappointment.

Olive looked at the ATM again, trying to imagine the scene that had played out there just minutes before they arrived.

“So close,” she murmured.

“At least we know he’s alive.” Jason’s voice sounded heavy with frustration. “And apparently mobile.”

“With the same woman from the hospital,” Olive added. “Which means either she’s subtly coercing him or . . .”

“Or he’s willingly going with her,” Jason finished. “Which raises a whole lot of uncomfortable questions about what my father’s really involved in.”

He rubbed his jaw as if disturbed by the thought.

They climbed back into the car, and Jason called Detective Santos to let him know the update. Then he started down the road again.

They were only five minutes away when Olive’s phone buzzed with a text from Tevin. She opened it, wondering if he’d discovered anything.

Did you check your email yet?

She showed Jason the text, and they looked at each other with growing unease.

They hadn’t. Not yet.

Her lungs tightened as she wondered what Tevin had found.

CHAPTER 20

Jason pulled the car to the side of the road, the tires crunching on gravel as he put it in Park.

Olive squinted as she opened her email app on her phone.

“What did Tevin find?” Jason’s voice carried the weight of someone who wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer.

Olive scrolled through Tevin’s message, feeling more troubled with each line. “He found a bank account belonging to your father.”

“What kind of account?”

“The kind someone uses when they don’t want other people to know about it.” Olive continued reading, her frown deepening. “Jason, there have been several large deposits into this account over the past six months. We’re talking six-figure amounts.”

Jason’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Six figures? From where?”

“That’s the problem. The deposits are coming from a business called ‘Oasis Financial Services.’ They’re very generic and very anonymous.” Olive looked up from her phone. “What do you think this means?”

Jason shook his head, conflict playing out across his features—disappointment warring with the desire to believe his father was innocent. “Dad said he got away from what happened in Texas. He told us he cut all ties with that network years ago.”

“He still has his medical license, right?”

“Yes. He works part-time at a home health clinic in Tampa. Just a few days a week, helping elderly patients who can’t get to regular doctors’ offices. It’s legitimate work.” Jason’s voice sounded flat, as if he was trying to convince himself as much as her.

Olive chose her next words carefully, aware she was walking into sensitive territory. “Do you think these people are still manipulating him somehow?”

The question hung in the air between them.

She wasn’t quite sure Lloyd was being manipulated—his behavior at the hospital, the way he’d seemed almost resigned to telling them the truth, suggested someone who might be more involved than he’d initially let on. Though he’d appeared contrite earlier, maybe that was all an act.

“I don’t know,” Jason said. “Six months ago, I would have said absolutely not. Dad seemed . . . settled. Happy even, especially after he started dating Nancy. But now . . .” He gestured at Olive’s phone. “How do you explain that kind of money?”

“Maybe we should ask him,” Olive said. “When we find him.”