What a day! I gulped down some cheese and crackers from the vending machine for a quick lunch when my phone rang with a number I couldn’t identify. Southern California area code.

“Detective Lee.”

“It’s…Shayna. Shayna Thomas.”

“Shayna!” I said too loudly. I lowered my voice. “Are you all right?”

“I’m okay.” Her voice shook. “I’m at a pay phone at a gas station. I don’t think I was followed.”

“Shayna, if you think you’re being followed, you need to notify the police.”

“I don’t know. I’m not sure. It might be all in my mind.”

Though I still had no concrete proof that my father was involved in any way with Juliet and Lisa’s disappearance, my intuition was on overdrive. After the phone call I’d received from my father after the last time Shayna called me, I knew he was at the helm. Proving it was another story. I’d been on his tail so many times, only to have him elude me. He never left any evidence that was enough to lead to his arrest.

But he would. With Larry Wade and Tom Simpson now gone, my father was getting nervous. I could feel it in the marrow of my bones.

“Just be careful. Don’t put yourself in danger to call me. Promise me, okay?”

“I won’t. But I had to talk to you.”

“What’s going on?”

“I got a text. All it said was ‘help.’ I can’t help thinking it was Juliet or Lisa.”

“Was it from a number outside the US?” I asked.

“I don’t know. It said ‘private.’”

“Damn.” I bit my lip. “Sorry. It could be a hoax. Someone trying to play with you.”

“I know. I thought of that. I just have a feeling it was one of them. I got chills when I read it.”

I had always trusted my own intuition, so I again resisted telling Shayna to discount her own. Still, I didn’t want her walking into trouble either. “I know you can’t forward me the text, but someone needs to get a look at your phone. Your local PD can unblock the number.”

“Yeah, I know. But…”

She was scared. I could hear it in her voice as it trembled across the line.

“Look. Never mind the phone. I can access your cell records and get the information for you. My office can run the check. Okay?”

“But what if they find you looking?”

“Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself. Just keep yourself safe. That’s the primary objective here. Tell me you understand that.”

“I understand. I’m just afraid…”

Of course. Shayna wasn’t worried about me. She was worried about herself. I had to protect her at all costs, even if it meant not looking into the number.

But what if it had come from Juliet or Lisa?

I closed my eyes and exhaled. It didn’t matter. I had to put Shayna’s safety first. I couldn’t go chasing dragons when another’s security depended on me leaving them alone. I’d make another call to the LAPD when I got off the phone.

“I won’t look into it right now,” I assured her. “Please don’t worry. It will be okay.”

“Thanks for listening to me. Really. I’m so freaked out.”

“I’m here for you.”

“I have to go. Bye.” The phone clicked dead.

I let out a breath of air. Now what? Before I could think what to do, my phone buzzed.

Of course. Dear old Dad. He’d called the last time Shayna had contacted me. I answered without looking at the number. “What is it?” I said through gritted teeth.

“Ruby?”

Shit. It was my boss. “Sorry. I thought you were someone else. What’s up?” I tried to sound nonchalant.

“Come down to my office. We have a lead in the Jordan Hayes case.”

---

Jordan Hayes had been a young woman working as a receptionist at Tejon Preparatory High School, where my father and the others had been students. She was the one who had gotten Jonah and Melanie access to the yearbooks they needed. Those books had allowed the Steels to uncover their father’s involvement with the future lawmakers club. The books in question had been deleted from the online archives and stolen from the school library. Jordan Hayes had gotten them from an off-site facility and given them to Jonah Steel. She had paid for that indiscretion with her life.

I couldn’t help but think of all the people who had paid with their lives for coming into contact with my father. As I sat across from my boss, Mark Wilson, several faces emerged in my mind’s eye. Luke Walker, a blur because I hadn’t known him personally. Gina Cates, my beautiful cousin. Talon Steel. At least my father hadn’t taken his life.

“So you see what I mean?” Mark said.

I widened my eyes. “Sorry?”

“You’re a million miles away, Ruby.”

“I apologize. What have you got?”

“A business card. Tucked under the carpeting in Jordan Hayes’s apartment.”

Tucked under the carpet? Why did that sound so familiar to me?

“And you’ll never guess whose business card it is. Jonah Steel’s.”

I fought the tightening in my throat. “Jonah Steel?”

“Yeah.”

My mind raced. “I remember. Jonah Steel’s wife, Melanie, said he gave Jordan his business card when they first went to the school looking for information.”

“It could be the same card,” Mark said. “But I don’t buy it.”

“Why not?” My blood chilled. Surely Mark wasn’t thinking Jonah had anything to do with Jordan’s death.

“Number one, it was lodged under the carpeting. It’s doubtful Ms. Hayes would have taken the time to hide the card under her carpeting.”

“Right. I know that.” And that’s why it sounded so familiar to me. I remembered now. The Steels’ private investigators, Trevor Mills and Johnny Johnson, had found a business card lodged under the carpeting in one of Talon’s guest rooms. This couldn’t be a coincidence.

“Number two, you say Steel handed Ms. Hayes the card?”

“As far as I know. That’s what Melanie told me, anyway.”

“Funny thing, then. The card we found has no fingerprints on it. Not a one.”

“See then? Jonah Steel didn’t have anything to do with this.”

“Of course not. First of all, he most likely wasn’t wearing gloves when he handed Ms. Hayes the card. Second, what kind of a moron would go into a woman’s apartment, murder her, and then leave a calling card lodged under the carpet?”

Thank God. “For a minute I was sure you were going to go after— Oh, never mind.”

“You know me better than that, Ruby, but this card was left by someone for a reason. We need to figure out what that reason is.”

I wasn’t sure whether I could talk to Mark about the card found in Talon’s home. The Steels hadn’t gone to the police about the break-in and the rose left on Jade’s pillow. It turned out that it hadn’t been a break-in at all. Someone, most likely my father, had threatened Talon’s housekeeper, Felicia, and forced her to leave the rose for Jade. Why? We could all only guess. I had given up long ago trying to figure out why my father did anything. Until I had the Steels’ okay, I had to keep quiet about the similarities in the placement of the cards.

“So there are no prints,” I said.

“That’s right. So what’s the next step?”

“Figuring out who would want to frame Jonah Steel, I guess.”

“Yeah. You have any idea?”

If he only knew. “I do have a few ideas, Mark. Why don’t you let me handle this?”

He pushed the file toward me. “It’s all yours, kid.”

Though being called kid would probably bother some detectives, I let it roll off my back. I had grown up at fifteen. I had never really had the chance to be a kid, so I kind of liked the term. “Thanks, Mark.” I took the folder. “Anything else?”

“Yeah. Go home. You look like shit.”

I chuckled. “Thanks. I’ve just been burning the candle on both ends.”

“That vacation didn’t do you a lot of good, did it?” he said. “And then you came back early too.”

I hadn’t explained to Mark the reason I had come back from Jamaica early—because of the kidnapping of Juliet and Lisa. Though the resort hadn’t closed down, they’d offered refunds and allowed people to leave if they wanted to. Our party had stayed for the wedding and left the next day.

“You know me. Workaholic.”

“This can wait till tomorrow, Ruby. Go home and have some ‘you’ time.”

“I’ll think about it.” I left his office.

But there would be no thinking about it. Once the workday was over, I was meeting Ryan at the prison to see Larry Wade. He was already in the city now, presumably talking with Bryce Simpson’s uncle about the future lawmakers ring. I hoped he was getting some good information.

I plopped the new file down on my desk. My phone, which I had left on my desk when I went to see Mark, blinked with a missed call.

A number I didn’t recognize.