Spirit (Blackwood Security, #10.5) - Elise Noble Page 0,28
you think we could speak with your mom and your aunt? They may be able to help. Sometimes even the tiniest detail, the most insignificant of memories, can lead to a breakthrough.”
“How old did you say the lady was?”
“Gwendolyn? She’s fifty-nine.”
“Then I doubt my mom would know anything. She’s only fifty-seven. This all happened before she was born.”
Or… My ears pricked up. Or she was the missing sister. The ages would fit. Two-year-old Gwendolyn and a newborn baby. Mom and daughter, aunt and niece. Valerie glanced sideways at me, and I knew she’d had the same thought. Her eyes gleamed with excitement. This was why she stared at her computer all day, wasn’t it? Weeks of research followed by the thrill of the chase. At that moment, I understood her better. She wasn’t so different from the rest of us.
“Your aunt may be able to shed some light,” she suggested. “How old is she?”
“Older than my mom. Uh, seventy-one? Do you really think I might have a relative I’ve never met?”
“The DNA certainly hints at that possibility. Would we be able to speak with your aunt? Perhaps call her?”
“She doesn’t talk on the phone.”
“Not at all?”
“She has hearing problems, so she lip-reads.”
“We could try a video call?”
“She doesn’t have a computer either. I’d ask the questions for you, but my flight home got cancelled, so now I’m stuck here for Christmas. When I said it had been a bad day, I meant a really bad day.”
“Where does your aunt live?” I asked.
“Alaska. In a small town not far from Anchorage.”
So near, yet so fucking far. We had one full day before Christmas, and a deadline I couldn’t bend. At least I didn’t have to fly to Florida and pick up Alaric now—that had bought me a few extra hours—but did we have time to fly to Alaska? I did some rapid calculations involving distance, airspeed, and fuel. If we left at daybreak tomorrow, we could be in Anchorage by lunchtime. A couple of hours speaking with Mina’s aunt while Brett took a nap… Fly home overnight… Yes, I could still keep my promise to Kiara on Christmas Day.
“If you’ll take us to meet your aunt, then we’ll fly you home for Christmas. Deal?”
“Huh? But there aren’t any flights. I called every airline.” She managed a half-smile. “It’s not the worst thing in the world. At least I’ll be able to eat dinner with my husband once he’s finished work—he’s a chef at Sam’s Town—but I sure did want to see my mom. We saved up for months to buy me the ticket home.”
“We have our own jet. It’s sitting on the tarmac at McCarran International.”
Mina gave her head a little shake as if to clear the cobwebs. “Have I fallen into an alternate universe? Private investigators have private jets? I’m in the wrong job.”
“It’s a long story.”
Bradley danced over, a cocktail in each hand. He passed one to Mina. “Here, you look like you need this. And it’s not a long story—Emmy married a squillionaire. Are we going to Alaska? I’ve never been to Alaska. Thank goodness I packed three jackets.”
“Are we going to Alaska?” I asked Mina.
“I barely know you.”
“Take a chance,” Bradley urged her, slurring slightly. “She who takes no chances wins nothing.”
I rolled my eyes. “Did you get that out of a fortune cookie?”
“Maybe. But it’s true, though.”
Finally, Mina nodded. “Okay, we’ll go to Alaska. And thank you.”
CHAPTER 15
“HAS ANYONE SEEN the Tylenol?” Dan asked.
“Don’t talk to me,” Bradley groaned. “Just don’t.”
We’d made it to the plane by the skin of our teeth. With Bradley barely conscious, we’d been forced to wheel him out to the car on one of those carts the porters used for the suitcases, and yet somehow, he’d still managed to complain with every bump. I very much suspected Mack was still drunk because she couldn’t stop giggling with Valerie, and Carmen looked like a zombie. I’d been relying on Ana to be the sensible one, but I’d found her in the bar at four a.m. downing vodka shots and arm-wrestling with the Incredible Hulk’s big brother. Me? I’d taken four hundred grand off a bunch of tipsy high-rollers in a high-stakes poker game and celebrated with too many gin and tonics afterwards. Fuck, my head hurt.
“I have Tylenol in my purse,” Mina offered. Since she’d spent the remainder of the evening filling out paperwork with Cesar and learning about her new job, she’d managed to stay sober. Now I knew what envy