“Ryan!”
I looked up. Ruby was walking swiftly toward our table. I stood. “What is it? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, fine. I need to talk to you.”
“Okay. We’re almost done here.” I looked to Larry. “She’s not leaving. Do you have any more information for me?”
“No.” Larry motioned to a guard, who came and took him away.
I looked to Ruby. “Why did you come back?”
“I have a new theory,” she said. “And I’m not sure you’re going to like it.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Ruby
I drew in a deep breath and gathered my courage. How was I supposed to tell the man I loved that I suspected his newly found mother was the mastermind behind everything?
I couldn’t. Not yet. First, I’d tell him about the e-mail I had received from Wendy via one of her doctor’s cell phones.
“Just what I don’t need right now. I’m beat. I can’t deal with her tonight.”
“Lights are probably out in the ward by now anyway,” I said. “It can wait. You want to get something to eat?”
“Yeah, that’d be good. What’s good around here?”
I rarely ate out, but we found a Mexican place that had good reviews. Over dinner of carnitas and refried beans with pico de gallo, I told him about the card that had been found in Jordan Hayes’s apartment.
“You can’t suspect Joe,” Ryan said.
“I don’t, and neither does my boss. But the MO is familiar.”
“Yeah. That’s how we found Colin’s business card in the guest room at Talon’s house. But surely Felicia couldn’t have gotten into Jordan’s apartment.”
“Probably not, though we’re going to want to question her,” I said. “Most likely it was my father. Remember, Felicia said the guy who threatened her had spooky blue eyes. Same as Joe said, and same as Melanie said. My father has been wearing colored contacts to disguise himself. At least that’s what we suspect.”
“Yeah, Joe figured that out too.”
“So anyway, it was either my father or someone who was told by my father to place the card at Jordan’s. By the way, have you heard from those PIs of yours?”
“Mills and Johnson?” Ryan shook his head. “Nope. They seem to have fallen off the face of the earth.”
“I don’t like the sound of that. I’m going to look into it at work. I wonder…” I swirled beans around on my plate.
“What?”
“What if Mills and Johnson… No, that’s too farfetched.”
“What?” he said again.
“Mills and Johnson have been working with police departments in Colorado for years. They wouldn’t have gone to the bad side.”
“Meaning?”
“What if my father got to them? Paid them off to disappear?”
“Would they do that?”