The Enemy Who Knew My Name novel · Chapter 4 of 4

Chapter 4: What Bex Already Knows

The burner phone vibrated inside Nora’s coat before Bex opened the door.

Bex pulled it wide. Flour marked one sleeve of her black jumper, and her laptop sat on a stack of old newspapers behind her.

'You could come in,' Bex said. 'The dramatic entrance has been recorded.'

Nora stepped inside and shut the door. She took out the index card and placed it on the nearest clear patch of table. Then she set the thumb drive beside it.

Bex looked at the handwriting first. Then at Nora.

'You have five seconds before I start making assumptions.'

'You usually start sooner.'

'I was allowing for the possibility that the phone had made you polite.'

'It didn't.'

The flat smelled of coffee, bread, and sugar from the bakery below. A tray of unfinished pastries crowded the windowsill. Bex picked up the drive.

'Ledger photographs?'

'Petty cash. Salter Group.'

The complaint left Bex's face. The journalist stayed.

'You took these yourself?'

'Yes.'

'Are they clean?'

'Enough for comparison.'

'Good. I dislike evidence that arrives with a speech attached.'

She plugged in the drive. Four folders opened across the screen.

Nora sat opposite her. The chair had one loose leg. Bex had meant to fix it since university. Some things survived every crisis by remaining badly repaired.

Bex opened the first folder and enlarged a ledger page. 'What is the card?'

'It says the writer knows who I am. It says he isn't my enemy. It tells me not to run.'

Bex turned it over. The back was blank.

'Charming. Men have been giving women instructions since the invention of doors.'

'Caden Bryce wrote it.'

Bex's fingers stopped on the trackpad.

'You brought me Salter ledgers and a note from the man hired to find you.'

'He was hired to find the ghost auditor.'

'And he found her.'

'He hasn't told them.'

'You know that because?'

'If he had, Genevieve would have done more than ask me to reconcile petty cash.'

Bex made a mark beside the folder name. She searched Caden Bryce through the public record. Police reports. Civil filings. Two inquiries involving financial crimes.

'Private investigator. Former financial-crimes officer. No disciplinary record. No published connection to Salter. They hired him three weeks ago.'

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