Cold Highway: Ellie Kline Series: Book Four

by Stone, Mary

  Heat warmed her belly and spread to her chest, but she quickly pushed the feeling aside. Clay was her partner, and a temporary one at that. Besides, he was probably just being kind.

  “He is a good guy, which is why I’m worried he’s being taken advantage of. Paul Strong approached him about starting a real estate investment business together, and there’s something about the entire setup that has me on edge.”

  “Do you know this Paul Strong?”

  “I’ve met him a few times, at events. My father knows him.” She filled Clay in on what she knew. “Nick’s father and Paul go way back, they’ve always been close. Both men possess vast fortunes and properties.”

  Clay parked the SUV and turned to her, his sharp brown eyes laced with gold in the sun. “If he’s a friend of the family, and he isn’t known to be a fraud, what set off warning bells?”

  “Nick has been party to purchasing several properties under their LLC, and it just seems like something is off. Paul shouldn’t need Nick’s money to purchase and restore these properties.”

  “If they’re partners, wouldn’t Nick need to fund some of the projects?”

  Ellie blew out a quick burst of air. “That’s what Nick said.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “None of this is sitting right with me.”

  Clay arched an eyebrow and grinned. “You’re going to have to be a little more specific than that.”

  Ellie threw her hands up, her voice rising a notch. “Paul could be in trouble and he’s using these investments to rebuild his wealth.”

  “I doubt a man with the type of wealth you’re describing would need to do something like that.”

  Rubbing her temple and wishing the headache would dull, she scowled. “There’s another possibility, but Nick shot it down right away. What if the man he’s dealing with isn’t Paul at all? They’re working entirely over the phone and through email. How hard would it be for a scammer to pretend to be Paul?”

  “That’s a bit of a stretch, Ellie.”

  “You don’t think any of this is concerning?”

  Clay let silence lengthen between them for a long moment. “Is it possible your breakup has you looking for things to worry about?”

  She crossed her arms over her chest, regretting ever having let him in on her theory. “I don’t think so.”

  “But you’re not sure?” Clay turned the engine off and gestured toward the café. “Let’s get breakfast. I’m starving, and I know you are too.” When she didn’t move, he stilled, his hand on the door. “What?”

  “I would feel better if you ran a quick search on Paul Strong.”

  “Ellie, I can’t misuse my position like that.”

  Ellie sat up straighter in the seat, turning and leaning toward him as she rushed to explain. “I’m not asking you to violate his privacy. Just see if a quick search of Paul Strong’s name throws up any red flags.”

  Clay pressed his lips together, brown eyes moving over her, as if searching for a crack in her armor. Finally deciding she wasn’t trying to pull one over on him, he relented. Digging into his laptop bag, he removed the tablet, and typed Paul Strong’s information into the ACTeam search engine. When the results came back, he flipped the tablet so she could see the screen.

  “There? Are you happy? Not a single hit on this guy. Paul Strong is completely on the up-and-up.”

  “Thanks for checking him out for me,” she said slowly.

  “Why do I get the feeling you’re not satisfied with the outcome?”

  Shrugging, she wasn’t ready to give up her gut feeling just yet. “I don’t know. I’m relieved, but—”

  “You have to admit to yourself, this might be about the breakup.”

  His words stung, but Ellie could hear the truth in what he said. There was no reason for her to worry so much about Nick. He was a grown man, an intelligent man. Maybe this was proof she wasn’t ready to rekindle their friendship right now.

  “Don’t look so glum. You care about your friends, and Nick is no different. He should be flattered that you’re worried about him.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Someone should tell him that. He was humiliated, stormed out.”

  “That sounds like a Nick problem. He’ll figure things out.” Clay rubbed what was probably washboard abs beneath his dress shirt. “Forget about Nick for a while. It’s time for a good meal, a jumpstart on Monday. You deserve it.”

  Ellie didn’t know about that. “What about the Matt Loomis case? Anything new on that front?”

  “Not since Friday.”

  She gazed past him to the view of a busy intersection beyond the car window. “I’ve been calling around, trying to find information on the names on all those IDs, but I’ve only tracked down a few. It’s making me antsy.”

  “Don’t let it stress you out. It’s normal for a case to stall out right before some bit of information breaks the case wide open. Just keep plugging away, and eventually all the pieces will fall into place.”

  “You make it sound so easy.”

  “Not easy, just predictable. If you keep at it, eventually you’ll break the case.”

  “Lucky’s out there somewhere, and he knows where all his victims are. If we can find him, we’ll have the answers we need.”

  “Solving a case like this is never that easy. Trust in the process and stop beating yourself up. We’ll solve this case, together. Be patient.” This time, he didn’t wait for her to get out.

  Hurrying to catch up, she fell into step beside him as he crossed the parking lot, the scent of fresh crepes and sweet fruit greeting them as they walked through the door.

  Clay was right, obsessing over Nick’s choices wasn’t a healthy way to deal with the breakup, and what she needed now was to fill her grumbling stomach while in good company. Her concerns about Nick and his business dealings were going to have to wait.

  * * *

  Ellie returned to her desk more than an hour later feeling immeasurably better and ready to face the day.

  Fortis passed by, and she flashed him a brilliant smile, stopping him in his tracks. “What are you up to, Kline?”

  “Just hitting your list again.”

  “I thought I saw Agent Lockwood in here earlier.”

  “He was here.” She gestured to the blank notepad sitting on the corner of the desk. “We’re still waiting for something to give.”

  Fortis nodded, rubbing his chin with a knowing smile. “I remember those days. If you hit a wall on that list, feel free to jump to another case. If that doesn’t work, and I can help in any way, you know where my office is.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome. And Kline?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Keep up the good work.” He stood rigid for a moment, as if he was unsure whether to shake her hand or walk away. Then he spun on his heel, leaving Ellie flummoxed. The compliment had come out of nowhere, and while Fortis was a good detective and an equally good boss, he wasn’t prone to randomly praising his detectives.

  Ellie glanced around, dismayed that several pairs of eyes were watching her with the same bewildered expression. She gave an exaggerated shrug and went back to her computer screen, going through each of the cold cases on the list Fortis had given her and noting the current progress. When she was done, she chose the case that was nearest completion and dove back in.

  But it wasn’t long before her attention waned, and she found herself going back to Paul Strong and Nick. There was something off. Even with Nick and Clay trying to convince her that her heartache over the breakup was making her paranoid, she couldn’t shake the feeling she was right.

  Curiosity got the better of her, and she decided to look deeper into Lupine Property Management and Paul Strong. Not too deep, because she didn’t have a warrant, but there was quite a bit she could find out through a simple online search. At worst, she would find out she was right. At best, a good search might set her mind at ease.

  Keyword, might.

&
nbsp; She opened the web browser and started the search, aware of how ridiculous it was to do so.

  She started with Paul Strong himself. Jotting down anything useful the search results turned up, she followed lead after lead before checking his social media presence.

  On Facebook, Paul’s most recent post was a photo with his son, Peter. She took down the date with a frown. It was over six months before, and even the caption was a little cryptic. “Dad’s on his way to a better tomorrow. Bon voyage, Pops. See you on the slopes.”

  Her fingers flying, she took down the caption beneath the picture verbatim, sure it yielded some sort of clue. You didn’t have to be a rich kid to know “slopes” referred to skiing, but it was the beginning of summer now, and this photo had been taken around Christmas.

  Scrolling through Peter’s account, she found another post about a month later, of Peter skiing with his sister. The caption was equally vague. “Didn’t get Dad on the slopes but things are looking up. Now to score some chocolate and a Swiss miss.” The caption ended with a winking emoji. And made no sense.

  Ellie’s heart leapt as she had an idea. She used the mouse to copy and crop the mountains in the background of the photo, then she did a reverse image search, waiting breathlessly for the results.

  “Bingo,” she whispered when the screen flashed with one possible result. The Swiss Alps.

  “Swiss miss” was probably a play on words: Peter planning on flirting with a local rather than getting excited about a specific brand of hot chocolate. But the comments about Paul Strong still didn’t make sense.

  Ellie decided to move backward, trying to compile the events of the last year in Peter’s life based solely on social media posts and his friends’ comments. It was slow, frustrating work, and she was about to give up when she found something, and her breath caught.

  This photo was of Peter and Paul again, Paul obviously far more frail than in the more recent post. What had caught her eye was the entryway they stood beneath, though Peter had been careful to crop out any identifying information.

  But Ellie had been to the same place they were standing in dozens of times, while her father recovered from his heart transplant. They were at the hospital. A hashtag buried in a series of senseless phrases confirmed her suspicions: #TooStrongForCancer. The hashtag was a play on their family name, and based on the elder Strong’s appearance, Paul had battled cancer in the past year.

  The wheels were turning in her head as she typed “medical tourism” into the web browser.

  The instant results confirmed what Ellie already knew. Switzerland was still the top destination for the elite desperate for a cure not cleared by the FDA in the US. There were four likely spas Paul Strong could be at, though she knew it was pointless to call and ask for him. Their clientele demanded anonymity, and the Swiss spas delivered. There was no way she could call and just find out where Paul was, but it didn’t matter. The most important fact was that, if she was right, Paul Strong wasn’t in the US and hadn’t been for over six months.

  So, who was Nick working with?

  She switched gears, abandoning her intrusion into Paul Strong’s life and turning to the company Nick and the mystery man were running together.

  Lupine Property Management was a real company. At least, it seemed that way on the surface of the website. But after following a few dead links that took her to error messages or back to the home screen without explanation, she knew what she was dealing with. Con artists used dummy websites to trick potential customers, showing them just enough to convince them to invest in the fraudulent company. Lupine’s website was superficial at most, built to look like more than the façade it was.

  Using the reverse image search again, Ellie tracked down the properties LPM had purchased for their resort restoration projects. The names and photos were there, but her search of them turned up startling evidence that took the air out of her.

  Grabbing her phone and purse, she left her laptop on the desk. She needed to make a call but couldn’t do it in the office. The last thing she needed was her colleagues overhearing what she was about to tell Nick.

  She was going to have a hard enough time convincing Nick that what she had discovered was true.

  21

  Ellie’s hands were shaking as she climbed into her SUV and shut the door, cranking up the AC against the Carolina heat.

  Heart in her throat and stomach in knots, she dialed Nick’s number and waited for him to answer. He took so long, she was about to hang up and call back again when his voice finally came on the line.

  “Hey, Nick, it’s me.”

  “Ellie, hey. Listen, I can’t talk right now, all right? I’m sorry about last night, but I’m in no mood to deal with what—”

  “I’m not calling about last night. Well, not really.” He could be mad at her all over again if he wanted.

  “Why doesn’t that make me feel any better?”

  “Look, Nick. I know you told me to mind my own business, but there’s something you need to know about Paul Strong.”

  Nick groaned. “What? He’s a fraud? A phony? A swindler? You hardly know the man, Ellie. Why are you obsessed with dragging his name through the mud?”

  “I’m not, and Paul isn’t a fraud.”

  “Okay, then why are you calling? What is so important that you needed to call me at work to rehash this situation?”

  “You’re at work? For your dad?”

  “I finished up what I was doing at Father’s company last week. I work for myself now. Lupine Property Management is my full-time career.”

  Ellie’s stomach dropped. “Where are you?”

  “I was just about to leave home to meet with the real estate agent for the Mount Pleasant property and take a look.”

  “Was?”

  “She called to let me know there was a water main break, and the road was barricaded.”

  Ellie closed her eyes, inhaling slowly. “A water main break right when you were supposed to tour the place? You don’t think that was a bit convenient?”

  “It was the opposite, actually, but I wasn’t meeting for a tour.”

  She knew before she asked him but still hoped against hope she was wrong. “Why meet then?”

  “To finalize some documents. I made a partial down payment on the property last Friday to keep it out of auction, but the realtor needed to process the paperwork today so we can move the sale forward.”

  The urge to bang her head against the steering wheel was strong. Ellie knew that without a longtime family friend in the picture, Nick would’ve never made the leap and purchased property without seeing it for himself. But he’d been drawn in, and she was still struggling to convince him of that fact.

  Ellie decided to go with blunt. Dancing around the facts to let Nick down easily wasn’t doing anything but frustrating her. “Look, Paul Strong isn’t the person you’ve been talking to.”

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “Telling you the truth?” she snapped back, angry that he wouldn’t just listen. “Because I care about you, okay? You’re my friend, Nick. And someone is conning you.”

  He snorted. “Now you’re accusing Paul Strong of being a con man? Ellie, you have got to let go of the idea that everyone is out to get you and anyone near you. Paul Strong is a good man.”

  “Paul Strong is a great man. But he’s been in Switzerland for six months being treated for cancer. He’s not in the US, Nick. Whoever he is, the man you’ve been working with is not Paul.”

  “That’s not possible. Where did you find this information?”

  “I ran a Google search. No special access, no bending the rules. Everything I found is available to the public, if you know where to look.”

  “Ellie, I would know if Paul was out of the country. My father would know.”

  Her grip on her patience slipped. He was so bent on proving her wrong, he wasn’t even listening to anything she was saying. “When was the last time you or your father laid eyes on Paul? In the flesh? W
as it in the past year? Two years?”

  The pause lasted for several seconds. “I’m sure he mentioned seeing him at the winter benefit.”

  “He was already in Switzerland by then.”

  “You can’t prove that.”

  Holding up her cell phone, she sent him the screenshots of the posts she’d saved from Peter’s social media accounts. “I’m sending you pictures. The last time Paul was on US soil was in the first picture. After that, Peter travels to Switzerland three times to visit his father.”

  There was a long pause while Nick surveyed the photos. “These pictures prove nothing. Ellie, please stop. This obsession can’t be healthy. Paul Strong isn’t on some extended vacation overseas, and there isn’t some mystery man taking over his life while he’s gone. You’re being paranoid. Please, just leave me alone.”

  His words cut her to her core. “Leave you alone? I’m trying to help.”

  “If you could stop this crusade, that would help me a lot. I can’t take any more of this, Ellie. This isn’t healthy for you or for me.”

  “Nick, listen to me. This isn’t about us. This is about you. I don’t want to see you caught up in some kind of scandal. When schemes like this go bad, it’s usually the good guys who take the fall.”

  “Schemes?” He went quiet, and her hope soared. Something she’d said must’ve gotten through to him.

  She slumped back in her seat. “Yes, it’s—”

  “Ellie, I think you need to talk to someone. Not just for your sake, but for your family.” His voice was calm, tender even, as he tore her heart in two. “If you need me to help you find someone to talk to about this, I will, but I can’t be part any longer. Your paranoia is out of control. I’m sorry. I can’t pretend this isn’t concerning behavior from you.”

  “You can’t really believe that.” A lump rose in her throat. She swallowed hard, but the lump remained.

  “Ellie, I’ve moved on, and you should too.”

  “Moved on?” Her mouth dropped open, and she couldn’t keep the incredulous tone from her voice. “Are you saying you’re already dating?”