Puppeteer

by Schultz, Tamsen

  Dani, thankful to him for not pursuing the personal conversation, gave him a cheeky smile. “He's five years older, but don't let those boyish good looks fool you. Underneath all that baby skin is an old man.”

  “You mean, old soul,” Ty corrected.

  Dani's smiled widened, “Maybe that, too.”

  * * *

  Several hours later, Dani jogged up the steps to the second floor of the house, hoping to avoid Drew. But the fates weren't that kind.

  “Dani,” he called from the bottom of the stairs. She hesitated for a split second before turning to look down at him. “It's late, where have you been?”

  Dani glanced at her watch, surprised to see it was close to ten p.m. “I got hungry. We stopped for dinner.” The lie came easy. The truth was that she and Ty had stayed on the little shelf talking. Nothing too serious, just chatting about life. He talked about how he went from being a Navy SEAL to a vice detective. He talked about his family, his life in Portland. She talked about Sammy and the kids. They even spent a bit of time talking about Getz and Ty's recollections of him—of things he'd heard, over the past several years.

  Drew didn't look like he believed her, but for the first time in a long time, she didn't care what Drew thought of her. She felt a sense of calm that she hadn't experienced since the investigation started, probably even long before that.

  “How were the sites?” he asked, sounding like he wanted to ask something else.

  “Better than we could have hoped for,” she replied with a telltale glance down the hall toward Cotter's set up.

  “You going to tell Cotter?”

  Dani nodded and made to move away, but Drew stopped her. “Dani,” he spoke, the regret clear in his voice. Dani turned to looked at him, studying his face. After a moment, she shook her head in resignation.

  “Forget it, Drew.”

  “I was out of line,” he continued.

  “Yes, you were.” She refused to make him feel better, but she wasn't interested in pushing back or fighting about it either. “I want to catch Cotter before he closes up shop for the night, and then I need to go to bed. It's been a long day.”

  Drew studied her face. He knew as well as she did that Cotter wasn't going to close up shop for the night. Cotter wasn't going to close up anything until the investigation was long complete. But he was searching her face, looking for something. Whether or not he was satisfied with what he saw, she didn't know. But he gave her a sharp nod. “Stop by the library when you're done. I have a new stack of pictures for you.”

  It was as close to an apology as she was going to get, which was fine with her since she didn't want an apology—didn't know if she deserved one anyway. “Thanks, I will,” she responded, as she turned and headed toward Cotter.

  An hour later, she dropped into the library to pick up the promised photos. She'd hoped that her extra-long detour would mean the room would be empty—that she wouldn't have to see Drew again. She was disappointed to find both Spanky and Drew there, looking like they wanted to talk to her about something. But she wasn't interested in having any conversations, so she gave them a brief nod and picked up the tidy folder resting on the edge of the big, teak desk. She slid out of the room before either man could stop her and headed for her bedroom.

  She'd gotten only a few hours of sleep over the past three days—her eyes felt gritty and her limbs heavy. But even as she tossed the folder onto her bed and headed for the adjoining bathroom, she knew she wouldn't rest until after she looked at the new set of photos.

  Ten minutes later, showered and dressed in one of the old t-shirts she'd found in the dresser, Dani sat cross-legged on her bed and opened the folder on her lap. This stack of photos, like all the other photos he had given her over the years, was something Drew did for her—something that, if pressed, would be considered inappropriate. Many of the photos had nothing to do with her assignments and the agency wouldn't take kindly to her studying them. But Drew had made a promise to her over fifteen years ago, and he'd stuck by it.

  Focusing on the task at hand, Dani began to review the first photo in the stack. It was easy to dismiss. The single form in the picture was a woman, dark hair, young, wearing sunglasses. She looked like a journalist, ambitious but weary. The picture was taken in the desert somewhere; judging by the colorless beige background Dani would place it in the Middle East. It wasn't the face she was looking for.

  Setting it aside, she looked at the second photo. A single form was in focus, a young man, not the man she was looking for. But the photo was taken at a café so she pulled out her magnifying glass and scanned all the other faces. No traces of the blue-eyed man whose face was burned in her memory.

  Methodically, Dani went through all thirty-six photos before sagging against the headboard, closing her eyes, and admitting defeat. One day, it might be different. One day, she might see the man who haunted her nightmares. She had to hope that, one day, in some photo, she would see the face of the man who had killed her parents.

  Chapter 10

  “I MADE BLUEBERRY SCONES,” Dani announced as Marmie walked into the kitchen the next morning. “Want one?” she asked. Dani saw Marmie glance at the clock and didn't miss the look of concern that passed over her colleague's face.

  “Everything okay?” Marmie asked, reaching for a pastry.

  “Fine. Did Adam find anything on Smythe's daughter?” Dani poured a cup of coffee, offered it to Marmie, then poured another cup for herself.

  “He did. We have some evidence she might have met with Keogh a few months ago in Morocco.”

  “Some evidence? Might have met? How close are we to getting anything more definite?”

  “Close,” Adam said, entering the kitchen followed by Spanky.

  “God, that smells good.” Spanky sidestepped Adam and went straight for the scones.

  “How close?” Dani asked, leaning back in her chair. The two men joined her at the table after filling their own mugs and loading up on scones. If she didn't know better, she'd think they looked like a group of old friends enjoying breakfast together.

  “I know they were in Morocco together.” Adam said, catching a falling blueberry. “I even know they attended the same party. But I'm waiting for a contact to send me his surveillance data to see if I can get a photo of the two of them together.”

  “Can we sketch this whole thing out?” Dani asked Spanky, their resident artist. “We have a lot of players and having to divide up the board and keep our investigation into the drugs separate from the investigation into the weapons is making me crazy.”

  “Sure.” Spanky rose from his chair, grabbed a pen and paper from the counter, snagged another scone, then sat down again. Flipping over a clean sheet of paper, he wrote ‘Drugs’ on the left-hand side. Under it he wrote ‘Savendra’ and ‘Sonny.’ On the right-hand side he wrote ‘Weapons’ with Smythe's name under it.

  “We need Getz's name on there somewhere,” Dani pointed out. “He's a key player in all this.”

  “More than the others?” Marmie prompted, even as Spanky added the name in the middle of the sheet.

  “He's the place where everyone meets.” Dani paused and took a sip of coffee. “I can understand how Smythe might come in contact with Keogh, given their similar circles. And since Sonny has lived in most of the major drug producing countries and Savendra has family connections to the Colombian cartel, I can understand how Sonny and Savendra might be the drug contacts. But what I can't figure out is how Sonny and Savendra got hooked up with Eagle's Wing and how both Eagle's Wing and Smythe got hooked up with Getz.”

  Dani took a sip as she leaned forward to study the paper. Next to her, Adam did the same, while Spanky tapped the pen on the table.

  “Something smells good.” Drew walked into the kitchen. Dani glanced up. He caught and held her eye for a moment.

  “Blueberry scones,” she said, turning back to the paper.

  “Did you make them?”

  “If you consider ‘making’ adding water an
d an egg,” she replied without raising her eyes.

  “Good enough.” Scone and coffee in hand, Drew dropped into a seat beside Marmie. “What are we doing?”

  “We're trying to figure out the connection each of these parties has to Getz,” Adam answered.

  “What more did you find out last night?” Dani asked Marmie.

  “I spent my time on the weapons piece of this case. I figured we can do the other part, researching Sonny and Savendra, anytime,” Marmie said.

  Across from her, Drew gave a tight nod. No one on the team liked operating this way—breaking the investigation up into several parts. It obscured connections and relationships and made it harder to find patterns or links between parties. But, given the sensitivity of the possible Smythe connection, they didn't have a choice. They couldn't lay everything on the table at the same time.

  “We did receive confirmation that Keogh and Smythe did not meet in Jordan a few months ago. Yes, they were both there, but they didn't meet. Smythe's two unaccounted for days are now accounted for. He was staying at a resort with a very married woman,” Spanky added.

  “How reliable is the confirmation?” Dani asked.

  “I have photos if you'd like to see,” Spanky said, offering her his cell with a mischievous smile.

  Dani shook her head. “No thanks. If Smythe looked like David Beckham, maybe, but since he doesn't, I think I'll skip confirming the gross visual I already have.”

  “So what about the daughter?” Drew asked.

  “Cornelia Elizabeth Smythe. Goes by Nelly.” Adam proceeded to tell Drew the information he'd already shared with the rest of the group. As if on cue, Adam's cell buzzed.

  “And we have confirmation they met.” Adam held up the phone that revealed a picture of Nelly and Keogh dancing much closer than the couples around them. Adam scrolled to the next picture. Nelly and Keogh slipping out a door, holding hands.

  “Okay, let's assume Keogh is involved and he uses Nelly to get the weapons into the country. But do either Smythe or Nelly know? Does he ask either, or both, to help? Or does he use his connections to broker the deal on his own, using info he learned from pillow talk with the daughter?” Spanky posited.

  Dani rose from her seat, mulling over the possibilities, as she headed to the coffee pot.

  “It's empty,” Drew said.

  “Thanks, Drew. I figured that one out.” She held up the empty pot and made a face at him.

  “You do make good coffee. Better than mine.” He smiled. Things were righting themselves between the two of them.

  “Glad I can be of service.” She filled the water and added the grounds and soon the kitchen was filled, again, with the smell of fresh coffee. When enough was in the pot, she dumped it into her cup and leaned against the counter.

  “Can we take another look at the paperwork on Smythe's shipment that contained the crate of weapons? Maybe cross-check the names on the forms with any known persons of interest? If we have any footage of the crates being loaded, we might want to run some facial recognition on those folks, too.”

  “Smythe doesn't have any cameras at his house,” Spanky interjected.

  Adam stood as he spoke. “No, but London is filled with CCTV cameras. We can get an idea of when the goods were packed and see what we can find in the surrounding area.”

  “It might be a needle in a haystack,” Drew said. Sighing, he added, “Then again, we don't have anything else. Adam and Marmie, why don't you coordinate that with your team.” Both nodded in response.

  “Even if Smythe is involved as only a mule, we still have no idea how Keogh, assuming he is involved, and Eagle's Wing got connected with Getz,” Dani pointed out.

  “Then take a closer look at Keogh,” Drew directed. “We have more files than we know what to do with on the man, we just didn't suspect he was involved until that photo of him and Smythe came through yesterday.”

  Dani opened her mouth to say something then snapped it shut. She wanted to focus on the drug connection, on Sonny Carlyle. But she'd opened her big mouth and given Drew a perfect opening to redirect her. With their fight the night before still fresh in her mind, she decided not to push. Nodding, she followed Adam and Marmie to the study.

  * * *

  The sun was hanging high in the sky when Dani sat back from her review of Keogh's files. The man had been to every country any self-respecting arms dealer traveled to. And judging by the photos and information, he liked his women young, his cars fast, and his parties lavish. A lot like Nelly Smythe. Not a thing like Ramon Getz.

  “I was talking with Ty last night and he said that, as far as he knows, Getz doesn't leave his compound very often.” Marmie and Adam raised their eyes as Dani spoke.

  “As far as we know, he's only left the country a few times. At least under his own name,” Marmie confirmed.

  “And our surveillance hasn't been set up long enough to know who comes to visit him,” Dani thought out loud. “He's so different from Keogh. How would they have connected?”

  “We probably won't know until we get into Getz's place and see what else he has there. Assuming he has more than the one crate of weapons, once we can get some forensics, we should be able to trace where they came from and then do a geographic profile to confirm Keogh's involvement and figure out where they might have met,” Adam said.

  Dani frowned. The wait-and-see approach wasn't one of her favorite options. Unfortunately, sometimes it was their only option.

  “So what about the drugs? Do you think it's Sonny or Savendra supplying them to Eagle's Wing?” Dani changed the subject, taking a little break from Michael Keogh. Her team was more interested in Getz and how he was involved with Smythe, if at all, than either Sonny or Savendra. But, they'd promised the DEA they'd give them not just Getz but the drug channels, including the two boys. Which also happened to align with Dani's personal interest in the case.

  “Well, they both joined the group within the past year and both have connections to drug producing countries. But if you were to push, I'd put my money on Savendra,” Marmie offered.

  “Why?”

  Marmie took off her glasses and sat back. “Don't get me wrong, I'm still keeping my eye on Sonny, but Savendra has the most direct connection, the most stable connection, to a known middleman.”

  Dani acknowledged this with a small nod. “Yeah, that's true, but other than that one summer, do we have any other intelligence showing that Savendra spent time with his uncle in Colombia?”

  Adam rose from his seat and adjusted the shades as he joined the conversation. “He's an interesting guy. Born in the US to an immigrant mother and US-born father—his life is solid middle class.”

  “Until he went to spend a few months with his uncle in Colombia,” Dani pointed out.

  “Yeah, that does raise a few red flags,” Adam grinned as he handed her a file.

  She glanced at the file then tossed it on the table, more information on Savendra. “Especially when he returned to the US and joined the Eagle's Wing.” Pausing, she drummed her fingers on her thighs. “But that's what we need to figure out. Militias don't typically form alliances, of any sort, with foreign groups. So why would Savendra join one after leaving his uncle? And it makes even less sense to think about his uncle supplying drugs to the militia.”

  Marmie lifted a shoulder and replaced her glasses on the tip of her nose. “Which is why we're still watching Sonny. You seem to have an opinion, Dani. What's your take?”

  Dani stood and paced toward the window. “I'm not getting a good feel on this. I'm hung up on how everyone is connected to Getz. But, boiling it down to just the drugs, I want it to be Sonny. But wanting it doesn't make it so.”

  “Why Sonny?” Marmie asked.

  Dani paused, debating whether or not to move forward. She pushed the shades aside and stared down the long lawn and out toward the sea. Like the previous day, the weather was clear and the sky an intense blue. But all was not as calm as the sky would have her believe, as waves from another
off-shore storm crashed along the rocky coast with spray high enough to be visible from the house. Without turning, she spoke.

  “The murder of Sonny's father is similar to another murder I've looked into—a couple of murders I've looked into,” she corrected herself. “I'd like there to be a connection. I'd like for Sonny to lead us to the man who killed his father so we can figure out if he was responsible for the other murders as well.”

  A moment of silence followed her pronouncement. Then Adam spoke. “What is the connection, Dani?”

  Dani shrugged. “Maybe there isn't one,” she admitted. “But Sonny's father was in the same line of business as the victims in the other case, and he was killed in the same way. Maybe it has nothing to do with why Sonny joined the Eagle's Wing, or maybe it does. But either way, I'd like to talk to him. See if he can point us toward the murderer.”

  “What murderer?” Ty's voice echoed through the room. Dani spared a quick look at her teammates, who had both gone back to whatever it was they were looking at before she had interrupted them.

  “Just talking about an old case. What have you been up to today?”

  He studied her face for a long moment before answering.

  “Paperwork. A little bit of this. A little bit of that. Can I see you for a minute?” He motioned toward the hallway with his head.

  She thought about telling him she was busy. But, with his arms crossed over his chest and his feet planted apart, he wasn't a man who was going to go away. And looking at him standing there, looking back at her, she wasn't sure she wanted him to. She wasn't about to go running into his arms. But she could do with a little bit of the calm he'd brought her when they were out on the ledge the night before.

  She inclined her head and he followed her out.

  When they were alone, he spoke. “I'd like to get a better idea of how you think the drugs are going to be coming in. Not the physical way they'll be arriving, but who the players are. You've mentioned a couple of names and I want to get a better sense of who they are, maybe see if we've seen them up here before.”