I don't answer, but apparently, that's enough for Tarasco. A flick of his wrist sends the waitress scurrying into the kitchen. He invites himself to sit at my table with me, and a waiter with glasses of wine seems to materialize beside the table.
"Thank you," I say. "I really shouldn't. I'm working."
"That's right. You're looking for that poor missing girl. She always seemed so sad."
"You knew Lakyn Monroe?" I ask.
"She came in here a few times. Liked to sit in the back corner and read while she ate. Her heart seemed so heavy."
The waitress comes back to the table with a salad and bread, and the restaurant owner gets up. He wishes me a pleasant meal and walks away with a hope he will see me again soon.
I start working on my salad but am only a few bites into it when the waitress brings the next tasting plate. For the next twenty minutes, I struggle to keep up with her pace. In a slight lull, I glance to the side and see a woman hesitate as she comes through the door.
Millie Haynes.
She looks at me for a second, but her expression doesn't change. She lets the hostess lead her toward the back of the restaurant, and I try to see where they're going without making it too obvious. From my vantage point, I can only see a small portion of the table. She's seated next to a man I haven't seen before, and a bit of the clothing visible in the chair across from her looks like another man.
The two men lift wine glasses toward each other. Millie is a beat behind lifting hers. When she does, her eyes move over to me again. It's only for an instant, but this time, their expression is pleading.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
“Detective White apologizes, but he isn't going to be able to meet with you this afternoon,” the officer behind the desk at the station tells me when I walk up to her.
“Oh,” I say. “Alright. Has Dean already come by?”
“No,” she shakes her head. “He hasn't gotten here yet.”
“I'll call him and let him know,” I say.
“Thank you,” she says.
I start out of the building and see Dean coming toward me. He's half walking, half jogging, and I wait for him.
“Noah isn't going to be able to meet with us,” I tell him. “Which means I just ate approximately my body weight in Italian food in half an hour for no reason.”
“I'm not sure what that means or if it's a euphemism for something, but if not, it sounds delicious.”
“Not a euphemism,” I tell him. “But I did see something interesting at the restaurant.”
“And I have something new for you,” he replies.
“Perfect. You want to go back to the hotel, and we'll compare notes?”
“Actually, I was hoping I'd be able to beg off the meeting with Detective White anyway. I have a lead I need to jump on. It should only take me a couple of hours. But before I go, let me give you my news.”
We start walking toward my car. “I was eating lunch at that little Italian place I told you I wanted to try. The owner is really sweet, and he was plying me with as much food as he could get on the table. I came up for air for just a second, and happened to catch Millie Haynes coming in.”
“The fact that she eats is your interesting thing?” he asks.
“No. The fact that she came in with a man I didn't recognize, they sat at a table with another man, and she looked at me as if she was scared out of her mind is the interesting thing,” I tell him.
I've lowered my voice to keep my words away from a group of people walking past, but they've definitely gotten to Dean. He looks at me with raised eyebrows.
“What do you think she was scared of?” he asks.
“I don't know. But she only looked at me for a second, then was right back into it with them. It's as if she really was looking at me and didn't want them to notice. Now, tell me your news.”
“Okay, but I only have a second. Remember when you asked about the corn maze and the activities and stuff that happened at the old fairgrounds?”
“Sure. The town doesn't use the grounds anymore, so who operates those things?”
“I did some poking around. It wasn't the easiest thing to figure out because a lot of the land out there is contested. But, from what I was able to figure out, the section that has the corn maze, which also happens to be the section nearest to Lilith Duprey’s farm, is owned by an LLC.”
“A company owns it? What kind of company is this?” I ask.
“That I don't know,” he admits. “I wasn't really able to find out much about it. It's called FireStarter LLC, and it's listed as special interests.”
“Well, isn't that vague as hell. It's like the house in Iowa that was listed as being owned by a company called Spice Enya," I mutter.
Dean and I both know that was a cover for the rescue organization my mother worked for before I was born, and until she was murdered. That was the organization that rescued Dean's mother from the clutches of a horrifically abusive man, only for her to end up encountering Jonah and falling under his spell.
“Honestly, it's not all that unusual for people and companies to set up LLCs. Occasionally they can be façades, bordering on shady, but most of the time, they’re completely legitimate. Having different entities keeps ventures organized and can allow someone to delve into different types of business without having a personal name out in the public,” he says.
“Agent Griffin?”
I turn toward the sound of my name and see the receptionist coming out of the building toward me.
“Yes?”
“I have to go,” Dean says. “I'll see you later.”
I nod and
