to you because he wanted to follow the right chain of command. I hope that doesn’t piss you off because I consider that to be appropriate as well.”
He’d just spoken to his parents last week and couldn’t imagine what had happened that made him contact Mace, but if it was official for LSI, he had no complaint about how Mace wanted to handle the situation. Nodding, he remained quiet as he tried to swallow his heart back down after it had leaped into his throat.
“His friend, State Senator John Rector, contacted him because he’s concerned about his daughter’s safety. She’s a social worker who runs a small clinic out of Las Cruces, New Mexico. She’s not involved in the finances other than grants and pushing for charitable donations. There’s a bookkeeper who’s been taking care of the books for the clinic. Caesar Castiel. She examined the records and found discrepancies and things that concerned her. She made phone calls to some of the unknown companies whose donations seemed excessive and were not well documented. It seems that she may have poked a hornet’s nest. Now, the bookkeeper has disappeared. She grew concerned when he didn’t return her emails, but it appears he left the area.”
“Fuckin’ hell,” Cobb murmured under his breath. “Money laundering?”
“Right now, we don’t know.”
“It would be best if she had a forensic accountant or certified fraud examiner,” Cobb continued. “Regular tax accounting does not always have the investigative skills to follow the money trail.”
“Her father’s looking into that, but his fear right now is for her. After she made several phone calls, she began getting threats. Notes on her car. Harassing phone calls. Her father’s afraid that things are escalating.”
“He wants protection for her? I met the senator and his wife several months ago when I was home for my dad’s birthday. I know they’re friends of my parents, but I’ve never met the daughter.”
“I thought you’d be perfect for the protection detail and on-site investigative mission. You know the area. You know the people. And you understand the finances. There is a warning, though. Her father doesn’t think she’ll take well to having someone trailing after her.”
Cobb chuckled, “Don’t worry. I can be very charming.” He opened his tablet, knowing that Josh would be sending the mission information to him. “And the missing bookkeeper?”
Mace held his gaze for a few seconds before saying, “Don’t know. Levi will coordinate with the local FBI there. My guess… either he disappeared, or someone got rid of him. And that’s what Senator Rector is afraid of for his daughter.”
“What’s the daughter’s name?”
“Josephine. Josephine Rector.”
Just then, Josh sent the picture of Josephine to his tablet, and all the oxygen was sucked out of Cobb’s lungs. Josephine. Holy shit. Josie.
4
By lunchtime, Cobb had pored over the information Josh had sent him on Josie. The more he read the more antsy he felt, discovering that his conceptions about her didn’t seem to add up to the reality presented. Deciding to take a break, he gave in to the urge to pound the trails around his house to clear his head. Saying goodbye to the Keepers that were still in the compound, he headed home.
He pulled into his driveway thirty minutes later, embarrassed to acknowledge he’d made the whole trip on automatic pilot, barely remembering anything. He slammed his SUV door shut and stalked inside. Changing clothes, he headed out the back door to the deck and down to the lush green grass, starting his run toward the beach that was at the back of his property. When he’d moved to Maine to accept a position with Mace, he searched for properties. Like many of the other Keepers, he preferred to be near the water and liked his privacy.
When the real estate agent said she had a cottage for him that included five acres of woods, he laughed when he met her at the property. The cottage was a large red and white house built on a slight hill surrounded by woods with a back deck that led to the rocky coastline below. A dock was built over the water, giving him easy access to his canoe, kayak, and small motorboat.
His feet pounded the dirt as he dragged oxygen into his lungs, hoping to clear his mind. But he should have known—the only thing on his mind was Josie. The pictures he’d perused confirmed she was as beautiful as he remembered although rarely in a gown at a gala. Her social media was limited,