“Especially if multiple people saw and recognized him, without expectations.”

“That’s the only supernatural solution I know of, but I’ll go to headquarters and conduct the proper research. They have the most extensive files in—”

His cell phone rang. A line grew between his eyes as he answered it.

Paige lowered her voice. “He’s not going to find the time. I’ll do it. Do you guys want to come? Or, better yet, maybe you could check the scene where we found Carlos. If there are scents or visions, it might help fill in the blanks.”

“Will do,” I said. “Is the site still secured?”

“Discreetly. I’ll have Lucas call ahead.”

LUCAS 17

LUCAS

17

BY NOON I’D BEGUN TO WONDER whether it was possible for a cell phone ringer to wear out. If so, I prayed it would happen soon.

I couldn’t complete a call without hearing the call waiting blip. If I managed to hang up, the silence would last less than ten seconds. My only choice was to let voice mail pick up for a few minutes by discreetly flipping the ring option to vibrate. I was becoming frightfully adept at operating that particular function. Not that it helped—I only had more calls to return and fell ever farther behind.

Some of the calls were case related—Simon with lab results, Dr. Aberquero with autopsy findings, a guard reporting from a scene. All expected and essential. But the others ran the gamut from “Should I cancel Mr. Cortez’s lunch with the governor on Monday?” to “Hi, it’s Bob in marketing, and I really hate to bother you, but your brother wanted to see my plans for the Wellspring campaign before I submitted the material to the printer.” Part of me longed to say, “Do you remember who you’re talking to and do you think I even know what the Wellspring campaign is, much less care?” But that wouldn’t do, no matter how frayed my nerves.

I had to calm “Bob” down and tell him that if he’d been put in charge of Wellspring, then my family had every faith in his abilities and instincts. And if anyone complained, I would handle it. At this rate, I was going to be responsible for every problem from buying the wrong manufacturing plant in Missouri to a copier paper shortage at the Seattle office.

There were VPs capable of handling these problems, but the absence of the top three men crippled day-to-day operations. Ideally, we’d have declared a period of mourning and shut down Cortez Corporation, giving my father time to recover. But the majority of the company holdings were in the human sector. Telling the world two Cortez brothers had died of unrelated causes in one night would open the door to investigations, by the police, the press and the stockholders.