Private Princess

Chapter 5

Alone in the woodland, Morgan pulled his phone from his pocket. He was surprised to see he had such good reception, but then reasoned that residents of one of the wealthiest regions of England would be unlikely to put up with poor service.

His call was picked up on the first ring.

“Hello, Jack,” Peter Knight answered in his London office. The head of Private London, Knight had been side by side with Morgan through some of their toughest scrapes. He was also the American’s friend. “The office told me you diverted here. Business or pleasure?”

“Business, Peter. Let’s get together and talk about it. I’m going to send you my location.”

“What’s the case?” Knight asked, knowing that their calls were encrypted to government levels and stood no chance of being monitored.

“Missing person with connections.”

“I might need to send you a team in my place, Jack. I had a case come in a few days ago. A man named Sir Tony Lightwood was found hanged in his home a few days ago, and his daughter wants us to take a look into it.”

“What have the police found?” Morgan asked, disappointed that it appeared he would be working without his British right hand.

“Said it looks like a straight-up suicide. Daughter wants a second opinion.”

“Why?”

“Says suicide doesn’t fit her dad.”

“Everyone says that. The truth’s hard to accept.”

“True,” Knight mused, “but the Sunday Times did list him at number fifty-two on their Rich List.”

“You’d better run with that case,” Morgan agreed. “Money doesn’t buy happiness, but...”

“It does give people a good reason to want you dead,” Knight finished.

Morgan was about to follow up, but then movement along the trail caught his eye.

De Villiers.

“I’ll meet you at your site,” Morgan told Knight, then hung up and walked over to join the tall figure of the Guards officer.

“Did you get everything you needed from the Princess?” De Villiers asked.

“She said Sophie had some things in her past, and that she made bad decisions. Can you be a little more specific?”

A look of distaste passed over the Colonel’s face. “Sophie was a good friend of your pal Abbie Winchester, if that helps,” he revealed, referring to the hard-partying royal whom Morgan and Knight had rescued from murderous kidnappers.

“I need more than that,” Morgan told him, but the officer shrugged, enjoying the moment.

“You’re the world’s greatest investigator, Mr. Morgan.” De Villiers smiled. “So let’s get you back to London. Then you can begin investigating.”