Obsession (Steel Brothers Saga 2)

He smiled. “Peter, please.”

“Very well. Call me Jade.” I turned to Talon. “I’m glad it all worked out.”

He nodded quickly but didn’t say anything to me. Something was off—more off than usual. And where the hell was Colin? After that scene he’d made Saturday night, I’d more than expected him to show up in court. None of this made any sense. I couldn’t try to figure it out though. I had to get to work.

I headed to the building next door. I said a quick hello to Michelle and then went into my office. A few minutes later, Larry showed up in my doorway.

“How did the Steel case go today?”

“It went fine. The judge accepted the plea bargain.”

“No jail time?”

I shook my head. “Nope. Given the lack of severity of the misdemeanor, I felt it was in the best interest of the people to get a chunk of the Steels’ money rather than spend the taxpayers’ money to keep him in jail. He’s not a threat to society. This was his first offense of any kind.”

“Sounds good. Though I wouldn’t have minded him getting locked up. At least for a few nights.”

I jerked backward. Had I heard him right? “Larry, what makes you say that? Do you have a history with the Steels?”

He shook his head quickly. Too quickly. “No. But those three boys walk around town acting like they own the place. Just because they have the most successful ranch in Colorado.”

I bit my lip. Boys? All three were a head taller than my boss. “Why are you having me investigate them again?”

“I told you before. That’s classified. Have you found anything yet?”

“Nothing that I haven’t already advised you about. But I’ll get back on it today and see what I can find.”

“Great. Thanks, Jade.” He left my office.

Man, something bothered me about that guy. He had a creepy vibe to him, something that went far beyond his questionable ethics as an attorney. If only I knew—

Larry Wade. His last name was Wade.

Wade was Daphne Steel’s last name on the original marriage certificate that we had found in Marj’s basement. But it wasn’t her name on the one in the Colorado database.

Could there be a connection?

Probably not. Wade was a fairly common name. Maybe not as common as Smith or Jones but a heck of a lot more common than a lot of other surnames.

If I was going to investigate my boss, I’d do it at home. I wasn’t sure if I could clear my cache on the city server, so I didn’t want to do it here.

But my curiosity got the best of me. I had been covering my tracks as best I knew how since I started this investigation into the Steels. I could probably begin with looking up Daphne. She had to have a birth certificate somewhere, right? If she wasn’t born in Colorado, it might still be under her original name, Daphne Kay Wade.

Quickly I searched the Colorado birth records. Damn! There she was, Daphne Kay Warren, born in Colorado, and the age matched up. How in the hell did someone change a birth certificate? Whoever did this had to have left a stone unturned at some point. I hoped I could find it. I did a quick search of the national databases. A plethora of Daphne Kay Wades and Daphne Kay Warrens existed, but none of them matched the criteria I needed. She was indeed born in Colorado, and her certificate named her as Daphne Kay Warren.

As much as I wanted to start Googling Larry to find out more about him, my first priority was finding and getting copies of all the news articles that Marj had found since Ryan took her copies away.

That was simple enough. I found them easily in the local paper and in all the papers in Grand Junction. They appeared to be the same articles, so I sent them to the printer and started a file. After I put the folder of articles in my briefcase to take home, I went out to talk to Michelle.

“Did you need something, Jade?” she asked.

“Maybe. I’ve been doing some investigative work for Larry, and I’d like to be able to continue at home from my home computer. Is there any way to access the Colorado databases from home?”

“You can always log into our server.”

Of course I could. I knew that. But I didn’t want a paper trail. “I tried that,” I lied. “My computer doesn’t support the logistics.” I had no idea what I had just said, but I figured she’d buy it. “I was hoping maybe I could access them from my own browser.”

“I’m afraid not. Not without one hell of a hacker.” She smiled.