Page 57 of These White Lies

She chews on her lip and then crinkles her nose. “I don’t know when it began or ended, but I saw them together the night of Natalya’s engagement party.”

Oh fuck.

“I didn’t want someone to see me.”

“Who?”

“My ex-husband.”

“Not still friends?”

“Hardly. And seeing as how he had his tongue down someone’s throat, I’m guessing he doesn’t want to see me either.”

“It was Natalya?” My shocked question is out before I think better of it, and now all eyes in the room are watching me.

She grimaces.

“That’s the connection.” I say, hoping to fend off the questions I know my team is going to have about my reaction. “Carrow found out.”

“Doesn’t explain what they are looking for though,” Sera points out. “The note said ‘GIVE IT BACK.’” She looks thoughtful. “But it could be something Natalya gave Gowan, of Carrow’s.”

“It’s been four years. Keith wasn’t in Atlanta the whole time. He definitely wasn’t the year after the divorce, because he was a no-show for the depositions involving the client lawsuits. He was in Bali,” Elizabeth says.

“Why do they only want it back now?” Vincent cocks his head thinking.

“I don’t know, but Carrow is our best lead.”

Detective Simpson doesn’t have the money to hire people to pull off the murders or attack Elizabeth. Carrow does. After everything I’ve learned about the man, I’m going to enjoy making him tell me what he knows.

And if he sent those men after Elizabeth…

“Anything else?” I force myself back to the conversation.

“Looks like Gowan’s been living in Monaco most recently. He bounced around the globe a lot in the last few years.”

Sera snorts. “Monaco. La-di-da.”

I level her with a warning look. She shrugs, but her mouth snaps shut.

Elizabeth shakes her head. “I have no idea how he could afford that. Even with the money he stole from me and our clients…”

“There’s an apartment in Savannah,” Finn adds. “The lease is still active. Signed under one of the aliases he used at hotels—Michael Renton. From the pictures of an old listing, it looks sort of like a garage apartment. Utilities are auto-paid. I almost missed it, because he’s had it so long.”

Anticipation flares in my chest. “He could have hidden whatever it is there.”

“Maybe.” Finn pulls off his glasses to clean the lenses absently. “That’s not the part you’ll be interested in. Someone else is looking. I haven’t identified them yet, but I will. They are still trying to backdoor the same files I’ve already accessed.” He smiles. “I left them some road blocks to play with. They’re not as good as me, obviously.”

“Obviously.” Sera rolls her eyes.

“Government?”

“Doubt it. Too messy. Not street-level or Belarussian-warehouse-full-of-hackers level either. Probably a hired gun, and with their skills, must have been hired by someone with money.”

The Lapidarists.

Elizabeth is silent, and when I glance at her, I see the creases in her forehead. Her eyes shift to Finn’s screen where the lease is clearly visible on the screen. The alias is in bold at the top of the form.

Her throat bobs, and pink tinges her cheeks. “During the divorce, I found out Michael Renton was the name he used on dating sites. The apartment was probably where he took thewomen he picked up,” she says it evenly, but I hear the catch in her voice.