Read Online Missing by Noelle Adams - Free Book Online Page B

hands,
and then returned to bed, she was still in time to watch the second fifteen
minutes of the local news.

Eight
     
    Nathan couldn’t believe that
Elizabeth might be in D.C.
    In all of his brooding reflections on where she might be
hiding and what she might be doing, he’d always started from the natural assumption
that she would get as far away from D.C. as possible.
    If she’d wanted to get away from him so much that she’d
resort to such desperate measures, then surely she’d want to live somewhere she
wouldn’t likely be recognized, where no one from her old life would ever
accidentally encounter her.
    Nathan sat at the desk in his office and stared at the
printouts Martin had given him last week when they’d met to talk about the new
lead he’d uncovered. Despite the unlikelihood of such a scenario, the pages, in
combination with the other evidence, certainly seemed to imply that Elizabeth
was in D.C.
    Or, at least, she had been a month ago.
    The pages laid out a series of financial transactions at a
small, local bank. Every six months, five-thousand dollars was electronically
deposited into an account at that bank and almost immediately withdrawn.
    The name on the account was Mary Scots.
    Nathan knew enough to realize the fake name on the account
was a reference to Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, the notorious cousin of Queen
Elizabeth I, who was imprisoned—forced to live in “protective custody”—for
years before she was executed for treason.
    The bitter nuances of the choice of name weren’t lost on Nathan.
    With a hoarse exhale, he looked up from the pages and back
to his computer screen, where he clicked to play again a segment of recorded
footage from the bank security camera. He watched the slightly blurred image of
a slim, dark-haired girl wearing sunglasses and a black pea coat walk into the
bank, wait in line for a teller, and then walk out, having withdrawn
five-thousand dollars.
    The girl’s face was too obscured to know for certain, but it
looked very much like Elizabeth. He watched it again. And then again, hunting
for any other clue or any sign that she was unhealthy or unhappy.
    It was simply a girl in sunglasses, making a bank
withdrawal. He just couldn't see anything else.
    It looked like Elizabeth. The name on the account sounded
like Elizabeth. And she’d been in D.C. just a month ago. She might still be
here now.
    If she was, she wasn’t living as Mary Scots. Martin and his
team had checked into that name and had turned up nothing but the bank account.
    But at least now they could focus their search for Elizabeth
in the city and the surrounding areas, and they were already looking into from
what source the money was being deposited into the account. So far, they’d run
into nothing but dead ends, but at least there were some new possibilities.
    Somebody was helping Elizabeth. That much was obvious.
Someone was giving her ten thousand dollars a year. While it was hardly enough
to live on, it would certainly supplement any other income she might be earning
on her own.
    Nathan felt a sick churning in his stomach as he thought
about some ways Elizabeth might have been forced to make a living. He prayed
she hadn’t been so desperate.
    He watched the footage from the bank a few more times, but then
he had to put it away. He couldn't obsess any longer on this today. He'd stayed
up almost every night this week worrying and trying to figure out new angles to
pursue, and he was already behind with his clients. He had a few more hours of
work to do in the office right now. Then he should run home and grab something
to eat with Victoria before he headed to the hotel.
    Tonight was his night with Lynn.
    He needed it.
    He needed something .
    ***
    Nathan had never been surprised that
Lynn was a passionate and enthusiastic lover. She was that way outside the
bedroom, so it seemed natural that she would be both of those things in bed
too.
    But there was something about her responsiveness to him