Page 6 of Tracking Payton
“Which diner?”
“I don’t remember.” She did, but she wasn’t going to give these bozos any information.
“Try. Was it near the mountains? What shops were nearby?” Jones pressed.
Why did they care about where they ate? “I think there was a Best Buy near it,” she said, pulling something out of her ass.
“Thank you.” Jones smiled. He probably thought himself handsome and that smile would get him anything. It had no effect on her. Not like Alex’s did. Dammit, she needed to stop thinking about him and his silly grins.
“How did he seem when you saw him?”
“What do mean?” She cocked her head to the side, trying to play off dumb. By the looks of the scowl on Jones’ face, she was playing it off brilliantly.
“Did he seem in good spirits? Was he angry?”
“He seemed fine. He was a little late to our lunch.”
Jones’ eyes lit up like the Fourth of July. “Did he tell you why he was late?”
“No, and I didn’t ask. Daddy was late to our lunches sometimes. It wasn’t uncommon.”
And the scowl was back. Payton had to bite the inside of her cheek so she didn’t laugh. It was too easy to mess with this guy.
“Did your father receive any calls or text messages while you were together?”
Her mind played back to that text her dad had gotten:Report early and debrief you.She didn’t think it had anything to do with his accident. Her dad was involved with so many projects, it was probably nothing. “Not that I remember.” She let a lone tear track down her cheek. “Why are the police looking into an accident? You don’t think there’s something more to it, do you?” Her eyes widened looking fearful.
“No, it’s just routine. We are curious why he would be on the roads so late. You wouldn’t happen to know, would you?” He gave her what she was sure was his award-winning smile that charmed most women and got them to spill their guts. Not her.
“No, Daddy kept odd hours for the military. He got stuck at the office a lot.”
“Did he ever work from home?”
“Not as often. He primarily worked out of his office building.” It wasn’t a compete lie. He either worked at home or his office.
“Would he keep paperwork at home?”
Now she really was getting suspicious. “Doubtful. Not as high security there as his office building.” His office at home was off limits. She’d never been inside of it before, but she didn’t think he’d keep government paperwork there.
“Thank you for your time, Miss Weber. We’ll be in touch.”
“Thank you. Aren’t you going to give me your business card and tell me to call you if I think of anything else?” A real police officer would know that. Another reason she thought these guys were fake.
“I’m actually out of business cards, but if you give me your phone, I can program my number.”
So he could put an app or something on it and spy on her. No thanks. “It’s in my car.” She patted her pockets and found a torn napkin and a pen. “You can write it on this.” Jones and Smith walked away after giving her their numbers, they didn’t look happy. Payton didn’t care.
She wasn’t surprised to find Alex and Colin already gone. They’d probably left the minute she’d turned her back. Fine, if they didn’t want to help her, she’d do it herself. This wasn’t the first crime she’d had to solve. It was better this way. She always worked better alone.
~
“He’s going to be pissed, you know,” Jones said as they climbed into the car. “When he finds out we didn’t get the location.”
Smith lit up a cigarette and took a long drag, playing off casual when inside he was quaking. He knew his boss was going to be furious with him. Him and his partner. Their boss didn’t tolerate failure well. “Shut up, Jonas.”
Jonas turned in his seat to glare at him. “Don’t tell me to shut up. He will probably kill us.”
Not him. He was too valuable. Jonas, on the other hand, was expendable. The kid was only good for muscle and had nothing for brains. “We’ll get the location.”
