Page 35 of Everyone’s a Liar

“He hasn’t been into the office?”

“Nope.”

The answer caught Bryce off guard. It wasn’t surprising he’d been avoiding Livia if he suspected his cover had been blown. But why not come to his office? He surely had other clients?

“Is that unusual?” she asked.

“Not when he’s working on a case,” Cherry said. “He’s disappeared for months before. But he always answers his phone. Or at least he gets back to me if I leave a message. This time”—she snapped her fingers—“nada.”

“You didn’t report him missing?”

Cherry looked baffled. “Why would I? He’s not my kid. Although he acts like it. Besides, I didn’t think he would want me involving the cops.”

“Why not?”

The older woman shrugged, returning to her task of placing the items from her desk into the box.

“Larry isn’t a bad guy, but he has some pretty sketchy clients. I warned him more than once he was going to get involved in a situation that was going to get him thrown in jail.”

“Can you be more specific? ‘Sketchy’ in the fact that they’re criminals?”

“A few. Not drug dealers or local thugs, but a few have been arrested for money laundering or counterfeiting.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Bryce caught Livia shuddering in disgust. Poor thing. She’d had no idea she’d been dating a man who would be involved with crooks.

“What did he do for them?”

“Usually it was following around a wife or girlfriend to see if they were cheating. Or doing background checks on the people who work for them.”

Bryce arched a brow. “Criminals have background checks done on their employees?”

Cherry shrugged. “Usually they wanted to know if the person was a gambler or into drugs. Those sorts of employees can be desperate enough to do anything, including stealing from someone they know will put a bullet in their head.”

Larry Sutton was even sleazier than Bryce expected, which might explain why he’d decided to disappear. There were some bad guys in New Orleans you didn’t want to make mad. And if you did, it was wise to slink into the shadows until it was safe to come out.

On the other hand, his sketchy client list made his connection to Livia all the more confusing. She didn’t hang out with criminals, and even though the Benoits were arrogant jerks, she’d never heard rumors that they were anything but upstanding citizens.

So if he had been pretending to be Jacob Pearson and then felt the need to disappear, who the hell hired him?

“Do you know the name of his current client?” she asked, already prepared for Cherry’s sharp shake of her head.

Was there some unseen force trying to keep Jacob Pearson from being found?

“Most of our clients are run through the regular billing system,” Cherry said. “But there are a few that he takes off the books. They usually pay in cash.”

“What about his current client?”

“One of those who prefer to be off the books. He never came into the office or called the main number for the business. Everything went privately through Larry.”

Bryce ignored Livia’s muttered curses, concentrating on Cherry’s words. “But it’s a he?”

The secretary hesitated. “I’m not sure. I just assumed,” she at last admitted.

It could have been a simple assumption, then again, it could have been that Larry used the male pronoun when talking about the client.

With a shrug, Cherry gathered up the last of the items on the desk and tossed them in the box.

“Why are you packing?” Bryce demanded.