'Give me the address,' he said, hoping he sounded like he was in charge now.

She gave him the details and they arranged to meet a couple of hours later. If nothing else, Evan wanted a couple of hours to get there early like he had before. He wondered what the equivalent phrase to like a lamb to the slaughter was when you knew damn well what you were getting into.

Chapter 27

Evan had only just got off the phone to Ellie when his phone pinged. He checked and saw that he had a text from Tom Jacobson, the dentist who had the office below Evan's. Call me was all it said. Jacobson happened to own the whole building which made him Evan's landlord as well. Over the years he'd had to put up with quite a bit of strange goings on as result of having Evan as a tenant.

'Mr Buckley,' Jacobson said when he picked up.

Evan bit back the wisecrack that had been on the tip of his tongue. Something was wrong. Despite all the aggravation that Evan's presence had caused for Jacobson over the years, they were firm friends. Jacobson had been very supportive to Evan, both financially when Evan's business had been on the rocks and personally when he went through his bad patches over Sarah's disappearance. The usual greeting would have been Evan or perhaps Evan, you sorry son of a bitch.

'Mr Jacobson,' Evan said, instead of Tom, you old bastard.

'I hope you don't mind me calling you,' Jacobson said, 'but there's a young woman here to see you. She said it's urgent. I didn't want to let her into your office, so she's here in my waiting room.'

'Did she tell you her name?'

'Yes. Her name's Sarah.'

If he hadn't been sure something was wrong before, he was now. Jacobson knew all about Sarah and he knew the effect her name would have on Evan. He might as well have shouted they're here waiting for you with a gun to my head.

'Okay, tell her I'll be right there.'

He cut the call and tried to think what to do. It had to be the two guys again—Juan and José. It all made sense. They'd seen him give his card to the bartender in Kelly's Tavern. They must have gone back there and got it after the police had scared them off and rescued Evan. After they'd missed him at the hotel, his office was the obvious next step. In a way he was surprised it had taken them so long.

He wondered what sort of a state Jacobson was in. He'd sounded okay apart from the forced formality of the conversation. Hopefully the thugs didn't suspect him of alerting him. They weren't to know what sort of relationship Jacobson had with his tenants. Presumably they'd all agreed beforehand what he would say to persuade him to come back to the office. Luckily they'd settled on a young woman waiting. That made it so much easier for Jacobson. He wondered what Jacobson would have said if they'd told him to say a man was waiting.

There's a man waiting to see you. He says it's urgent. His name's Jesus H. Christ.

The question was what to do now. He couldn't go back there. There was nothing he could do to help. What was he going to do—shoot it out with them? Then it came to him.

'Not dead yet?' Guillory said when he picked up. 'I'm waiting on a call any moment to say they've found you dumped in an alley somewhere. They'll probably ask me to ID you.'

Evan laughed. 'It's not me you need to worry about,' he said and told him about the situation at his office. 'I really don't want to do Ryder any favors, but if he gets his fat ass over there, it'll be on a plate for him. They're probably carrying all kinds of unlicensed firearms and other stuff. He'll get lardy-ass detective of the month.'

Guillory laughed. 'You have no idea what a fiercely fought battle that is every month.'

'Shame the same guy wins it every time.'

'Okay, time to get off the line. I'll get him over there as soon as you get your skinny ass off the line.'

'Don't forget to tell him who he owes for his good fortune. Tell him he owes me.'

'No problem. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to give you a call later and let you know when it's safe to go back to your office. He'll enjoy that.'

Damn, Evan thought.

'Whose side are you on?'

But the line was already dead by then.

Chapter 28

Evan was surprised how persistent the two guys—and whoever they worked for—were. But did that make it any less or any more likely that the meeting with Ellie was another set-up? Were they looking to get two bites at the cherry—his office and her hotel—or could he assume that their presence in his office meant they'd given up on the hotel?

He suddenly laughed to himself at his own stupidity. What the hell was he worrying about? As a result of the tip-off to Ryder, they were likely to still be in police custody when he was meeting Ellie.

However, just to be on the safe side, he'd head over there straight away. The two guys would still be at his office now, waiting for him to turn up, so even if they decided to go to the hotel as well they wouldn't be able to get there before him. And that was without the added complication they would face with the police. That would cost them a good few hours even with some slimeball defense lawyer working to get them out. It would also give him time to get his car back and change the wheel.

But, despite what most people he knew believed, he wasn't a complete idiot (well, maybe sometimes) and he decided to buy himself even more time. He got his phone out and shot off a quick text to Jacobson: Traffic completely snarled up. I'll be another twenty minutes. Ask Sarah to wait.

That only left one problem. What to do about the whole situation with Ellie when he met her? He turned things over and over in his mind as he took a taxi across town to her hotel and the more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that her whole story was one big lie. There were just too many holes and inconsistencies in it. She'd lied to him more times than she'd told him the truth—if she'd told the truth at all. Even though he'd thought her story about being Dixie's snitch sounded plausible at first, it just didn't ring true now. Why didn't she have some means of contacting him?

And then there was the situation at her hotel room. What did she have that made them want to turn her room over? If she was a snitch, it would be information that she dealt in. Not something physical that you could hide in a hotel room and people could search for.

And what about the piece of paper he'd found with a date, the letter 'J' and the name of a bar? If she was a snitch and that was the information that she wanted to deliver to Dixie then she was a very stupid one for writing it down and tucking it in her diary. Whatever else she was, Evan didn't think she was stupid. Far from it. Conniving, manipulative, duplicitous—yes. Stupid? Not so much.

On top of all that, there was one overriding principle that he knew he could rely on. Whatever else might happen, he could be certain that whatever was at the bottom of all this, it was all about her. She was using him for her own purposes. And if it hadn't been for the photograph in his pocket he would have been one hundred and ten per cent sure that she was stringing him along with her promise of information about Sarah's whereabouts.

But the photo was in his pocket. On top of that, she had deliberately cut the original photograph in half so that he wouldn't see her or the mystery arm. Sarah's arm. Why would she do that if she wanted him to believe her? Maybe it was some kind of psychological manipulation, knowing he would believe it more if he found it for himself.

He could go mad thinking about it. There was only one way to find out. He just didn't have any choice in the matter. At least he'd got things straight in his mind to the extent that he knew what she'd told him so far was a lie. Surely he could only move forward from here.