Page 108 of Asher's Assignment
Edie let out a soft growl. “You need to catch the flu too.”
His brows dipped. “Excuse me?”
She turned a quick glare on him. “I’ve been enjoying the relative drama-free investigation with the ladies. You and the rest of the team can be a teensy bit melodramatic.” She held up two fingers just millimeters apart.
“Melodramatic or not, we get the job done. So, can I have the car?”
Her hands clenched and unclenched on the steering wheel as she drove. “Fine,” she finally huffed. “But I’m coming back to the hospital with you. I’m not leaving Mom and Dad there alone all night.”
“You’re sure? Those chairs aren’t that comfortable to sleep in.”
“I’m sure. The nurse said there’s a lounge for ICU families that has recliners. I’ll find that and sleep there. I just wish—” She stopped and didn’t continue.
Asher looked up from programming the phone. “What?”
She glanced at him, then out the windshield, then back at him. “Sleep isn’t the only reason I don’t want you going off alone. I won’t stop you, but I just wish you’d wait until morning and take me or Audra with you.”
“Edie—”
“Please? It’s a safety thing. I doubt you’ll run into Lennox, but he isn’t the only criminal lurking at night.”
His jaw worked. Asher’s first instinct was to say no and do whatever he felt necessary. But he also understood her point. And he was not a field operative. “Okay. How about a compromise? I’ll just drive around. I’ll never get out of the car.”
She snorted. “I know you, Mr. Impulsive. You’ll see something that sets off your radar and want a closer look. Next thing you know, you’ll be wandering into some abandoned building full of druggies and crazy people. Especially after being on the road for two hours just getting back to Heron Ridge. The drive will give your mind time to get antsy.”
“It won’t be that bad, Edie.”
“The hell it won’t.”
Asher sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Look, I promise I won’t get out of the car. If I see something that I think warrants closer inspection, I’ll take a picture, then either come back in the morning or call for help. Okay?”
She eyed him for a moment before turning back to the road. “If you die, I will bring you back to life and kill you again, understand?”
He smiled at her in the darkness. “Completely.”
Forty-Five
“Come on, you son of a bitch. Work,” Asher grumbled at the laptop screen. When he’d run the partial of Lennox’s plate, he’d gotten entirely too many hits, so he went back to the surveillance image and tried once more to sharpen it. He’d hit on a combo of filters that had enhanced it enough he could read another number, but the last two were still blurry. One was a two or a seven. The last was a three or an E. Or maybe an eight. He knew he could run all the possibilities, but the more digits he had, the fewer the number of results he had to sift through.
He had one more thing to try, then he’d run all the partial combos and see what came up. But hopefully, he wouldn’t have to.
Tongue poking the corner of his mouth, he made a few more adjustments.
“Ha! Yes!”
His cheeks colored. He hadn’t meant to be so loud. His gaze darted up. Several people in the atrium eyed him. He was glad he’d moved downstairs rather than staying in the ICU lounge. “Sorry.” He waved a hand, then turned back to his computer. His tweaks had worked. He had the last two digits. A seven and a three.
With the new information, he restored the window for the license plate search he’d done earlier, and ran the full plate. Right away, a hit came back for a black Chevy Equinox.
“Whoa.” Asher blinked and read the screen again. The car was registered to a woman. Vanessa Burnwell. Not what he was expecting.
“Okay, Miss Vanessa Burnwell. Who are you?” He ran her name using the information from her license plate registration and found a DMV record. She was on the young side. Late twenties. Using her photograph, he ran a search of social media, then minimized the window, letting it run in the background. With her name and birthdate, he ran a background check.
“Well, that’s not surprising.” He sighed as he scrolled through the information that popped up. She had a record for drug abuse.
Scrolling further, he realized she was currently in prison, five months into a three-year term. “So, how did Lennox get your car?” Did she sell it to him before she went in? Or give it to him? That would imply they had a relationship of some sort. He needed to talk to this woman. If they were friends or lovers, she could know where he might go.
He picked up his phone and dialed the number for Stroud that Edie gave him before he left her upstairs with her parents. The line rang five times, then rolled to voicemail. Asher held back a sigh and left a message.
