All He Has Left(48)
Jake looked down and noticed that his fingers were trembling. He couldn’t squelch the growing fear inside that—because of his encounter at Steve’s house—Eddie might panic and make a devastating move with Piper. Their words from the phone call last night about what they’d do to Piper if police got too close echoed in his mind: Then we do what we gotta do with her. Was Eddie now going to head straight back to wherever they had Piper and kill her? Was she already dead? Maybe he should’ve told Dani the truth. Maybe she could’ve somehow stepped in and done something to find Piper. But he was terrified that telling Dani the truth would somehow backfire on him.
Jake thought about Beth Spiller, the name he’d found in Steve’s checkbook. He had to find her. Because he’d tossed his burner phone, he had no current access to the internet to search for her. Jake still had Sarah’s old day planner with him, which listed her security codes for the offices of Kingston Financial. It was Sunday afternoon. The office was probably empty. Could he possibly find contact information for Beth Spiller inside the office?
Starting up the truck, Jake drove into downtown proper and found an open parking spot near 600 Congress, a high-rise office building in the heart of Austin’s financial district. Kingston Financial occupied the entire thirtieth floor. Sarah’s mother had decorated the office, and it dripped with the same rich luxury of their personal residence. An international design magazine had even run a feature on the office space a few years ago. Jake put the fake black-rimmed glasses back on, along with the gray cotton jacket and brown ski cap. Then he got out of the truck, took a few quick glances around for any signs of police, and headed straight up the sidewalk for the glass front doors of the building. He entered the spacious lobby, which was mostly empty. Two security guards sat behind a booth over to his right. Jake moved straight for the elevators, trying to look purposeful, like he belonged, and it was normal for him to stop by the office on a Sunday. Out of his peripheral vision, he could feel one of the security guards’ eyes on him. Was it just casual monitoring like the guard would do with anyone who came to the building? Or was it more?
Jake didn’t hang around to find out. Moving into the elevator corridor, he pressed a button, and one of the doors immediately opened. Rushing inside, Jake quickly punched the button for the thirtieth floor. But before the doors fully shut, someone else reached the elevator and stuck a hand in to block it. A fortysomething man in black slacks and a white dress shirt entered. He gave a quick nod at Jake, turned, and pressed the button for the twenty-fourth floor. The doors shut, and the elevator started to ascend.
“You work for Kingston Financial?” the guy asked. He was staring at Jake in the mirrored reflection of the elevator doors.
“What’s that?” Jake asked, buying time to sort out a good answer.
The guy nodded at the elevator buttons. “Noticed you’re headed up to the Kingston floor. I know a lot of the guys who work there.”
“Oh, yeah. Uh, just started there last week.”
“I didn’t think they were hiring right now. Which section?”
Jake had no idea how to address that. “Foreign investments.”
The guy gave him an odd look. “Gotcha.”
Jake stared down at his hands, avoiding eye contact. He hoped that answer was sufficient because that was all he could come up with in the moment. The elevator stopped on the twenty-fourth floor.
“Well, tell Andy Reyes I said hey,” the guy said, before exiting.
“Will do. Have a good one.”
Jake had no idea who Andy Reyes was. But he was glad to get rid of that guy. The less interaction he had right now, the better. He just wanted to get in and out of Kingston Financial as quickly as possible. When the doors opened on the thirtieth floor, Jake eased out into the hallway. The glass doors of Kingston Financial stood in front of him. On the wall beside the doors was both a card-key scanner and a keypad. Jake pulled the piece of scrap paper where he’d written down Sarah’s office code from his front pocket. Would the firm have canceled her security access after she’d died? Jake reached up, carefully typed in the six-digit code from the paper. He exhaled when a little red light on the keypad shifted to green. Reaching over, he pulled on one of the glass doors. It swung open easily, with no alarms going off. He was inside a moment later.
The name of the firm was emboldened from behind in bright lights on a white stone wall in front of him. There was a luxurious sitting area to his left with numerous leather sofas and chairs. The receptionist station currently sat empty. Jake stepped into the lobby, paused to listen. He didn’t hear anything from the various hallways. If someone was working this Sunday, they were deeper in the bowels of the office. Jake quickly stepped behind the reception counter and began looking around for a company contact list. He found a laminated list sitting under a keyboard by the computer. He ran his finger down the list searching for Beth Spiller. Bingo. He found her. Administrative assistant, special events. Beside her name was a phone extension. Picking up the reception phone, Jake pressed the extension and then listened. A phone began to ring down one of the hallways. Setting the phone on the counter without hanging up, Jake rushed down the hallway while trying to find the location of the ring. There were nice offices on the outside of the hallway and cubicles on the inside. The ringing was coming from one of the cubicles. But it stopped before he could locate the exact one. Hurrying back to the reception counter, he did the same exercise and again raced back down the hallway.