Ilka grabbed her phone and found the message from Jeff: Fuckdate?
She texted him back. Where are you?
After waiting a few minutes, she called his number, but got his answering service. “Hi,” she said. “Call me.”
She didn’t give any hint that she was calling for a different reason but also didn’t say a word about screwing him. She turned up the heat in the car and waited patiently at the lookout site for him to return her call. Ten minutes later she gave up and decided to look for him.
She parked in front of the bar where they’d first met, on an awkward Tinder date. The woman behind the bar had known what was going on. The place had been deserted, and Ilka had nearly dragged Jeff out, even though he’d just bought beer for both of them. If the same woman was behind the bar now, she’d definitely know which Jeff Ilka was looking for.
“Nope.” The woman rubbed her bare tattooed arms as she shook her head. “Haven’t seen Jeff today. He dropped in for a beer a few days ago, but maybe he’s on his boat. Losing his job wasn’t the greatest thing for him. If you know what I mean.”
Ilka didn’t, not exactly. She shook her head.
“He’s no good at not working.”
Ilka still didn’t get it.
“I’ve seen him with some guys you don’t want to hang around with, if you got a job to get up for the next morning.”
“Okay.” Ilka nodded. The only thing she really cared about was that he didn’t have a new job, which meant he had time to help her. “I’ll check the boat.”
She felt the woman’s eyes on her back as she walked out, but really, the tattooed lady could think whatever she wanted. Ilka couldn’t care less; she had more important things to worry about than her reputation. She slid into the car and drove down to the marina.
The streetlamps along the wharf painted a narrow strip of light on the water. Jeff’s boat was moored down at the end of the pier, and even from a distance Ilka could hear music and loud voices. As she neared the boat, she noticed a dark-haired man bowed over a table; though the boat’s lights were dim, she saw him jerk up straight and throw his head back. Snorting coke, she thought.
She stopped. More than anything in the world, Ilka wanted to turn and walk away, but she needed Jeff. And as she stood wondering what to do, Jeff spotted her and headed across the deck. She stepped closer. Several eyes on the boat locked onto her as she stood towering above them in the dark. The small gangway swayed gently with every wave.
Jeff stepped onto the pier. “You should’ve called.” The look he gave her was clear enough; he assumed she’d come because she regretted not taking him up on the fuckdate.
“I did, and I also left a message.”
Something in the men’s voices told her they’d been drinking—either that, or the whole gang was doing coke. She turned back to Jeff. His pupils were dilated, but he didn’t seem as high as the others. In the short time they’d known each other they’d had a few serious run-ins, and hearing from him out of the blue had surprised her. But okay, he must be bored now that he’d lost his job as Raymond Fletcher’s bodyguard. Screwing her was probably as good a diversion as any for him.
“I need your help. What I mean is, I have a job for you. You told me you’re good at shadowing people. Are you just as good at finding them?”
Jeff had led her away from the boat. She felt his hand on her ass; she couldn’t really slap it away, seeing that she needed his help, but she turned to face him.
“Of course I can track down people,” he said.
“Do you know Sister Eileen? The nun who worked at my father’s funeral home?”
Jeff nodded. “I know who she is.”
“I want you to find her. Someone else is looking for her, and I need to get to her first. She’s gone underground, so it won’t be easy. She was at the hospital earlier today, but I’m pretty sure she’s planning on leaving town.”
Ilka kept eye contact with him to emphasize she needed help now—right now. Not tomorrow.
“Nobody goes so far underground that I can’t dig them up.” He sounded convincing. “But what’s in it for me?”
“Money. I promise you’ll get a substantial reward when you’ve tracked her down. But don’t bring her back to the funeral home. These people looking for her are the same ones who shadowed me—you know them, you’re the one who sniffed them out. They’re keeping an eye on us, and it’s extremely important you find her before they do.”
“Is that an order?”
He’s getting huffy, she thought. “No, no, it’s a job. A well-paid job I’m offering you, before I look for somebody else who can handle it for me.”
He lifted his palm in surrender.
Ilka described what Lydia had been wearing a few days earlier, the sweater and jeans. “I’m sure she’s changed clothes since then, of course.” It occurred to her that she didn’t even know what kind of clothes the woman might be wearing. “She could have taken her nun’s habit with her.”
It wouldn’t do any good to fill Jeff in on how the sister wasn’t really a nun, so she settled for telling him that she would most likely be in civilian clothes. She started explaining how Lydia had left the hospital that afternoon, but even she could hear she was repeating herself in her eagerness to provide Jeff with what leads she had.
He laid his hands on her shoulders. His pupils were still big, but he seemed calm enough. “I’ll find her, don’t worry. Then I’ll set up a place you can meet without anyone seeing you.”
She stood staring at him long enough to feel the warmth from his hands, the peace of mind it gave her. Then a gleam appeared in his eye and pushed aside all seriousness. He stepped closer to her.
Ilka backed off. “You’ll be paid in cash. And you get a bonus if you can get us together tomorrow.”
“Yeah, my fee. It’ll cost you five thousand a day.”
“I’ll double that if you find her tomorrow. But the daily rate goes down the longer it takes you to find her.”
“So, I get ten thousand dollars if I can hook you up with her tomorrow?”
Ilka nodded. “The quicker you find her, the more you get paid.”
At the moment she was ready to promise him anything. It looked as if he’d taken the bait. Ilka watched the wheels spinning in his head, perhaps calculating what was in it for him in the long run, if it turned out she had access to the Fletcher fortune. She’d almost mentioned the bag, but then she realized that would make Lydia too vulnerable. If he thought the ten thousand was the Fletcher family’s money, that was fine with her.
“I’ll find her for you,” he promised again.
Ilka told him he could call her anytime, day or night. She said it in the most business-like manner she could, to stop Jeff from hitting on her, but he seemed to have already gotten the hint. Before she turned to leave, he clapped his hands and yelled to his buddies on the boat that it was time to move the party.
It wasn’t only his promise to find Lydia that eased Ilka’s mind; clearly, he would do practically anything for a day’s pay of ten thousand dollars. And she was certain he had a broad network to shake the bushes. He’d understood the message: If anyone else found her first, there would be nothing for him.