Night Watch (Kendra Michaels #4)(86)

“Mr. Dyle is an extremely busy man. There’s no way he can possibly see you unless you have a—”

“Kendra Michaels. Dr. Charles Waldridge. Say those two names to him, and I’ll wait right here.”

The receptionist didn’t like it, but he nodded and spoke into his headset. After a minute or so, he looked up at Kendra and Jessie. “Mr. Dyle may be able to fit you in. If you’ll have a seat…”

Kendra and Jessie sat in the minimalist waiting area on padded cubes with no backs.

Fifteen minutes passed. Then thirty. Then an hour. Finally, the receptionist leaned toward them. “I’m very sorry. Mr. Dyle will be unable to see you today.”

Jessie stood. “You’re joking.”

Kendra joined her at the reception desk looking toward the hall of offices. “Where is he? Which direction?”

“It won’t do any good.”

“I’ll find out that for myself.”

The receptionist said quickly, “He’s left the building.”

Jessie looked around. “How? The stairs? That’s nineteen floors. He must really not to have wanted to see us.”

“He has a private elevator. I recommend that you call his assistant next time. I can’t guarantee that he’ll see you, but at least you won’t waste your time.”

Jessie’s gaze narrowed on his face. “You didn’t receive a call telling you that he was unable to see us after an hour’s wait. It just came out of the blue. You were told when you contacted him to keep us here for an hour while he left his offices and made his getaway.”

“Getaway? Ridiculous. Mr. Dyle is an important businessman, not a hoodlum.” But he did not meet her eyes and tapped his headset and turned slightly away. His body language signaled the end of his involvement with them in no uncertain terms.

It was obvious that they weren’t going to get anywhere here. Kendra whirled and headed for the elevator. “Great,” she said. “Total waste of time. The only thing we learned was that he definitely doesn’t want to talk to us about Waldridge. You said you were having trouble finding his home address. It looks like you’re going to have to dig deeper. We can’t let Dyle skip out on us like—”

“Later.” Jessie was looking at her phone as she nudged Kendra onto the elevator and pressed the button. “He may not be first on our agenda right now.”

There was something in Jessie’s tone that caused her gaze to fly to her face. Jessie’s usually impassive expression was still in place, but her eyes were glittering. Excitement? “Later?” Kendra repeated. “You have somewhere else to be?”

“We both do.” She was still looking down at her phone. “We’ll talk outside.” She glanced around as they exited the elevator. “There may be prying eyes and ears here.”

Once outside, they walked toward the parking lot in a direction that took them past Pershing Square, an outdoor park outfitted with brightly colored sculptures.

“So where are we going?”

“Back to the car.”

“I noticed that. Then where?”

Jessie raised her phone and showed Kendra the screen. “Here.”

Kendra looked at her phone. There was a still shot of a man in a half-empty apartment. She looked closer. Could it be…? She stopped, her eyes widening. “Biers?” she said. “This looks like Dr. Hayden Biers.”

“That’s because it is. Keep moving. We have to get there before he flies the coop.”

Kendra hurried after her. “What coop?”

“I planted a couple motion-activated webcams in his apartment in case he showed up. I got a text alert while we were talking to that receptionist upstairs. It looks like he’s gathering some of his stuff. Let’s see if we can catch him.” She held her hands out for the keys. “And I drive.”

“You think I can’t get us there in a hurry?”

“I’m sure you can. But not fast enough. I can do it faster and in a way that won’t get us killed. Trust me.”

Kendra was remembering that ride on Jessie’s motorcycle that had both terrified her and filled her with admiration. She dropped the keys in Jessie’s palm. “A street race may be in order someday.”

“I don’t believe so.” Jessie jumped into the driver’s seat. “You have a thing about humiliation.”

“Okay, now it’s definitely on the books,” she said as she buckled the safety belt on her passenger seat.

“You’re on. But right now, the only place I’m racing is to Redondo Beach. Get ready to hold on.”

True to Jessie’s word, it was a wild and woolly ride to Redondo Beach. Jessie whipped through a rear alley just in time to block a blue pickup truck roaring through. The truck braked to a screeching stop.

Before Kendra even realized what was happening, Jessie had thrown open her door and was in the alley, staring down the driver. “Dr. Biers. I need to talk to you.”

The man behind the wheel glanced to the rear, as if he might try to back out of the alley.

“No, don’t move,” Jessie said. “I’m here to help you. Dr. Waldridge hired me to find you.”

The man froze. “You know Charles Waldridge?”

Jessie nodded. “I told you, he hired me to find you. He was worried about you.”