Chapter 29
KNIGHT RAN FROM Private’s building to Eliza Lightwood’s home. The London traffic was heavy, and he wanted answers without delay. The gray clouds had finally delivered on their threat and rain was falling. Knight drew stares as he weaved between umbrella-carrying pedestrians.
He was soaked by the time he arrived at Eliza’s apartment complex. There was no way in without a code, but Knight’s disheveled state drew a compassionate look from the security guard who sat behind the building’s glass frontage. The man got up and shuffled to the door.
“I’ve seen you enough times,” he told Knight, opening the door. “So much for summer, right?”
“I know,” Knight agreed, rewarding the kind gesture with a smile. “I appreciate this. Thank you.”
The security guard smiled back, glad that he could do a little to help someone’s day. Knight gave the man a parting wave and made his way to the elevators. After shaking his hair like a soaked dog, he knocked gently on Eliza’s door.
There was no answer.
He knocked again and again. No answer.
Knight pulled out his phone. Eliza’s number was a fixture in his recent calls list. He hit it. It went straight to voicemail.
He frowned. He tried again. Straight to voicemail.
Knight looked at the apartment door’s lock. It was the Trilogy model that was popular in the homes of the wealthy. There was a slot for a key card, and then a pad for a code. He could only hope it wasn’t set up to require both.
With nothing but intuition from his gut to guide him, Knight entered the birth date of Sir Tony Li
ghtwood.
An LED flashed green, and the lock clicked open.
Chapter 30
THE RANGE ROVER made easy work of the forest tracks as Jane Cook drove them toward the location of Sophie Edwards’ waterfall photos. One of the royal residence’s cleaners, a Brecon Beacons local her entire life, had identified the spot, and now Jack Morgan guided them there with the use of an Ordnance Survey map.
“Take this,” he told Lewis, seeing a call from Knight coming through and taking it on a headset. “Peter?”
“Can I be overheard?” Knight asked.
“No,” Morgan replied.
His brow creased as Knight revealed that Sophie and Eliza had both attended the same university and graduated in the same year.
“It’s not a big school, Jack. There’s a good chance they could have known each other.”
“Is she with you?” Morgan asked.
“No. Her phone’s going straight to voicemail. I’ve tried her offices, and she’s not there either.”
Morgan ran a hand through his hair as he worked through it. “Sophie and Eliza were blackmailing him together,” Morgan concluded. “Where do you think she is now, Peter?”
But there was no answer.
The line was dead.
“Dammit,” Morgan cursed, looking at his phone screen. “I’ve lost all service. Do you have anything on yours?” he asked the two women with him in the Range Rover.
“Nothing,” Lewis replied. “We’re deep in the forest now, Morgan. Not LA.”
Morgan held his reply.
“I don’t know what you’re expecting to find here,” the Welshwoman said to no one in particular. “Needle in a bloody haystack.”