“You can return my old laptop to me.”
Piers stared at him in silence for what felt like an age. “Jay, you really haven’t changed at all. Didn’t going to prison teach you to stay within the law? I know what you do with that laptop.”
“Didn’t you learn that the law isn’t going to help with anything?” he retorted and regretted it almost instantly.
Hector’s face went a dark shade of red, and he drew himself up. “I have no authority to return evidence back to the convict it was confiscated from.”
He turned to leave, and Jay grabbed his arm. “Didn’t you just finish saying that you owed Stella? Giving me my laptop will speed up my finding her.”
Piers jerked his arm free and jabbed a finger at the trunk and the new laptop among the clothes and shoes. “Use that one. I’ll not break the law ever again, and you’d do well to do the same. Your record is no longer spotless.”
Jayden shook his head and let out a muttered curse. He had known it would be a long shot, but a part of him had hoped that in the four years that had passed, Hector would be less of a stick-in-the-mud.
“Hector, look, can I just borrow it for a few days so I—”
Hector turned back to face him. “You’ve gotten all you’re going to get from here, Jay. My advice would be to leave Natchitoches. And do it fast.”
Jay watched him drive away and heaved a heavy sigh. He piling all of his shopping haphazardly into the small travel suitcase he had also bought.
He apologized to the owner for any fuss caused by Hector’s search and went up to his room. From the look on the owner’s face, they hadn’t thought much of allowing him to stay.
Jay briefly debated staying a little longer to try and get Hector to let him at least have access to his old laptop but decided it would be pointless. It was such a small chance that he would ever surrender it, whereas a few days would get him to New Orleans and able to track down someone to set up his new laptop. It would also mean that he was not risking getting into any kind of trouble here that might end up involving the police. Hector was right at the end of the day. His record wasn’t clean anymore. It would be better to fly under the radar as before. Staying here is definitely not going to be helpful. He nodded to himself. He would leave first thing in the morning.
He sat at the little desk and pulled Hector’s file towards him. The first page was all Stella’s movements through Natchitoches. What followed were accounts of her coming to ensure that the house Matthew Goldstein had given him, that he’d signed over to Ruby, had been properly sold by Ruby. Then to his plot of land on Trudeau Street, making certain that everything from the explosion had been cleared away.
From what he could tell, it seemed as if Stella had gone missing soon after sending her last letter to him.
He quickly reached back over to the bed and unzipped an inner pocket of the bag, tugging loose a sheaf of four years’ worth of letters.
He looked at the last one she sent and saw that the post mark was for Salisbury, not Washington. While the two were reasonably close, nothing in any of his information provided a reason for her to be in Salisbury. He marked the page, feeling he at least had a starting point.
CHAPTER FIVE
By the time Jayden arrived in the center of bustling New Orleans, he was thoroughly sick of driving. He had only been free from prison for two days yet had already spent ten of those forty eight hours behind the wheel of his car.
After settling his things into his room at the hotel, he left once more and began to wander the streets on foot. It had been years since he’d had cause to find the man he sought, and it was made more difficult because the man in question could not be found unless he wanted to be. Usually he did not.
He went to all the old haunts, asking careful and prescribed questions, and eventually stopped for supper at a restaurant within the man’s range. He could feel the edge of his growing anxiety grow sharper, seeming to be causing actual damage within his body. Jay shut his eyes, trying to center his mind, to not let it panic about the fact that every day Stella was missing increased the chances she would not be found alive.
If she is already gone, panicking won’t bring her back, he told himself harshly and opened his eyes to find his table was no longer empty.
A large man with skin of deep mahogany and eyes that held a sharp intelligence was watching him carefully over a cup of steaming coffee. A quick glance showed him that the rest of the restaurant was now empty but for the staff hovering on the sidelines.
“Heard you’ve been looking for me since this morning.” The casual New Orleans drawl carried with it a hint of menace.
Jay hid most of his shock and instinctual fear behind a small chuckle. “Hi, Elliot. It’s been what, nearly ten years?”
Elliot huffed. “Four of which have had you looking out from behind bars.”
Jay’s lips curled in a half-smile. “I’m flattered that you’ve kept up with my life.”
Elliot gave a deep, booming laugh that easily matched his deep bass voice and huge frame. “How could I not? You’re the only person who managed to get me to grant them anything other than death.”
Jayden inclined his head, accepting the compliment and acknowledging the threat. He lifted his eyes again, keeping his nerves hardened and his voice casual.
