Both Ends Burning (Whistleblower Trilogy Book 3)

Both Ends Burning (Whistleblower Trilogy Book 3) by Jim Heskett Read Free Book Online Page A

Book: Both Ends Burning (Whistleblower Trilogy Book 3) by Jim Heskett Read Free Book Online
Authors: Jim Heskett
we can all be safe. I don’t expect you to understand.”
    “Well, at least her boss cares about us.”
    “What do you mean?” I said.
    “He drove up here and spent the day with us today. Thank God he did because neither one of us could figure out this stupid fancy remote control for the TV. He just left a few minutes ago. He’s a funny guy.”
    Janine was an attractive woman. Maybe Rodrick was being a little flirty. But, he was married, last I checked. “Is he, now?”
    “Yep. He’s a good guy, Tucker, and he cares about Grace. Unlike you, who abandons her all the time.”
    “I’m not abandoning her.”
    “Whatever, if you say so.”
    I closed my eyes as I pulled into our driveway. Took a deep breath. “Just tell her I’m safe, okay? I’ll check in with her in the morning.”
    Janine hung up without saying goodbye. She was right about most of what she’d said, but damned if her tone didn’t make me want to raise my voice and defend myself in a losing argument.
    Inside the house, I spent a little time playing the blinking game with Kitty, then I stared at the ceiling long enough to fall asleep on the couch.
    In the morning, my resolve came back. Things hadn’t worked out for me, but that didn’t mean the situation couldn’t change.
    I knew my mistake, it had been trying to uncover information from IntelliCraft locally . Or, thinking that they might just leave incriminating information lying around in an unsecured office building. There would be no reason for them to do that, and my little breaking and entering job had been the work of a pure lack of impulse control.
    I needed to go to the source. IntelliCraft was in Dallas. CEO Edgar Hartford was in Dallas. If Susan, my dad, and Alison wouldn’t talk, then maybe the man at the center of it all had proof I could use against them. I needed hard evidence if I was going to expose this company.
    I could go there, break into his house, and find what I needed. Just thinking about it was crazy, but hadn’t I breached the crazy idea threshold long ago already?
    Just as Grace had said before, the stars were aligning to bring me back to Texas. But I couldn’t fly to Dallas under my own name. IntelliCraft would instantly know where I was, and probably my intentions.
    So, maybe I did need a fake ID, after all. After exhausting all other options, I called Rodrick, the only person who I still trusted in town.
    “Hey, buddy. Is something wrong?” he said. “Are Grace and her sister okay?”
    “They’re fine, still hanging out at the condo getting pizzas delivered and watching cable. I’m not calling about them, though. I need your help with something.”
    “Whatever I can do.”
    “This is going to sound like a strange request, but do you know where I can get a fake ID?”
    He laughed. “Yeah, I’d say that qualifies as a strange request.”
    “I’m serious, though.”
    “Oh, well. Huh. Hang on a second.” He put the phone down and I heard a bit of muted conversation. “Come on over.”
    “Really? Just like that?”
    “Yep, come on over. We can work something out.”
     
    ***
     
    I pulled up to Rodrick’s house just after the lunch rush, barely managing to miss most of the traffic. I thought of the last time I’d come here, all full of apologies after accusing him of knowing where Grace had gone, before I knew she’d been kidnapped. That was only a few weeks ago, but it felt like years.
    Before I’d ever pulled a trigger. Before I’d killed anyone.
    Knocked on the door, and he greeted me with a warm smile. “Come in, come in,” he said.
    He waved me into his house, one of those pristine white-carpeted open-style ranch homes that seemed to have just rolled off the assembly line.
    “Janine told me you went up to Keystone and spent the day with them yesterday,” I said. “I appreciate you doing that.”
    He gave me an odd look as if he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t. But it melted from his face quickly. “I said I wanted to

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