by Matt Lincoln
Cal scooted back so the rest of us could have a better view of the screen, not that there was much to see. When they clicked on John Amherst’s name, a large “CONFIDENTIAL” stamp flashed in our faces, and the computer beeped angrily at us.
“Rachel, do you have any idea why that is?” Cal asked.
Rachel shook her head. “I only worked with him the one time. We didn’t exactly keep in touch after this case was over.”
“Is there any way to get the file unsealed?” I wondered.
“Not with friends in really high places,” Cal pointed out. “And not quickly. I think we have to mark Amherst as a dead end for now.”
It was unfortunate because Amherst was probably our fastest path to Frances Dowell, but Cal was right. We didn’t have time to go through all the proper channels to access the file, especially since it might not even have the information we needed, and it would tip our hand to Graham.
“And Dowell’s contacts?” I asked. “Rick Mann and Sasha Richards? Linda said she thought she recognized the name Sasha Richards, but she couldn’t place it.”
“That would make sense because Sasha Richards is former Coast Guard,” Cal said, opening up the file they’d created on the woman. “She was dishonorably discharged about four years ago.”
“Why was she discharged?” Rachel asked.
Cal leaned in to scan a few lines of text. “Doesn’t say. Just says it was dishonorable.”
“What’s her connection to Dowell?” Lex said.
“Childhood sweethearts,” Cal answered. “The two of them were arrested for trying to rob a mall kiosk. She was under eighteen. Spent some time in juvie, got arrested a few more times on her own, and then enlisted in the Coast Guard to try to turn her life around. I guess it didn’t really stick.”
“Any way to know if she’s had recent contact with Dowell?” I asked.
Cal shook their head. “Hard to say, unfortunately. She works with a diving company now, taking tourists out to explore reefs or wrecks.”
“Where at?”
Cal grabbed the mouse and scrolled through the file for a couple of seconds, searching for the answer. “Florida, looks like.”
“What about Rick Mann?” I asked.
“He’s a bit more elusive. He doesn’t have a record, but he worked with Dowell at the restaurant Dowell used as a front for his smuggling business before joining up with Ward. He works with--” Cal stopped and snorted with amusement at something on the screen. “He works on a cruise ship now. Yikes, that’s got to be a bit of a downgrade.”
“What company?” Rachel asked.
“Star Shine Cruise Lines. Give me one second.” Cal swapped over to an internet browser and put in the company’s name, pulling up the website and jumping over to their list of routes. “Would you look at that? They’ve got a route docking in New Orleans tomorrow night.”
“Do you think that’s the ship Mann is on?” I wondered eagerly, sitting up straighter in my chair. Even Rachel’s mood lifted, the lines of her face lightening at the prospect of a real lead.
“One way to find out,” Cal said and tossed me their phone.
I caught it awkwardly, slapping it between my palms, and Cal enlarged the company’s number so that I could read it from where I sat. I dialed and put the phone on speaker so the others could hear. Why was I always the one relegated to making phone calls? I didn’t like it very much.
“Star Shine Cruise Lines,” a peppy voice answered after three rings. “Where your dream vacation getaway is just a click away. My name is Penelope. How can I make your dreams come true today?”
I cringed at the overly sappy, scripted greeting, but there was no hint of irony or awkwardness in Penelope’s voice.
“Hi,” I said, taking on her awkwardness for her. “I was hoping to get some information on the ship coming into New Orleans tomorrow?”
“Sure thing. What kind of information are you looking for so I can transfer you to the right department?”
“I’m looking for one of your crew members. I need to know if he’ll be on the ship tomorrow,” I replied.
Rachel leaned forward in her seat, elbows braced on her knees, nibbling at her nails while she waited for Penelope’s answer. I held my breath, nerves crawling within my stomach.
“I’m sorry,” Penelope said, sounding genuinely sorry, and I imagined there was a crease in her brow. “I’m afraid I can’t give out that information. Employee confidentiality and all that.”
“Is there someone else I could speak to about it?” I pressed even as I felt that dark pall fall back over Rachel’s countenance, and my own stomach sank. “It’s important.”
“I suppose I could transfer you to the director of that particular route,” Penelope said carefully. “But she’ll probably just tell you the same thing.”
“That’s okay. We’ll give it a shot,” I decided, glancing at the others. Cal and Lex stared at the phone with a hard-eyed intensity, as if they could somehow send telepathic waves through the microphone and convince Penelope to give us the information. Rachel had stood and walked away from the desk. She stood by the wall near the stairs, her back to us as she tried to collect herself.
“Alright. I’ll transfer you then.”
The phone began to ring again, and I took a deep breath as I waited for someone to answer. I drummed my fingers against my leg to release some energy building up within me, inhaling through my nose and exhaling through my mouth as I counted to four each time.
“Hello? This is Erin Moon, director of the North American cruises for Star Shine Cruise Lines. Who is this?”
I cleared my throat. She’d answered sooner than I’d expected, and it threw me off a bit. “Director Moon, my name is Jace Greyson. I’m an agent with MBLIS. That stands for Military Border Liaison Investigative Services. We need some information on one of your employees, Rick Mann. Namely, if he’ll be on the ship docking at New Orleans tomorrow.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. Not without proof of a warrant,” Moon said smoothly. Even her voice sounded corporate. “I know how this works. And I believe in protecting my employees’ confidentiality above all else. Do you have a warrant, Agent?”
“No,” I said. “But--”
“Then I’m afraid I can’t help you. Have a good day.”
The line clicked and went dead. I passed Cal their phone back and sighed. “Dammit.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Rachel said from behind us, and we all swiveled to look at her. “Cal, can you figure out which marina the ship will come into?”
Cal nodded.
“Then we stake the place out,” she continued. “I assume we’ve got a picture of Mann?”
Cal held up one finger for us to wait and flicked through pages of their report until they found an old mugshot of Mann. It was ten years out of date, but it should still be enough to recognize Mann by. He was in his forties in the photo, with a fair layer of stubble across his cheeks. His eyebrows were heavy and thick, and he had thick wrinkles along his forehead, his hair just long enough to sweep the back of his neck. His nose looked squashed like it had been broken, and hopefully, that would help us pick him out from the crowd.
“We go in two teams and watch everyone coming off that ship,” Rachel continued, her face a determined mask. “We’ll make sure that we spot him.”
Lex raised a hand hesitantly. “I can’t. Ramirez needs my help with his other case tomorrow. Sorry.”
“What about Linda and Meg?” I suggested. “They probably know the marina pretty well. They can find the best place for us to watch from.”
“I feel bad asking them for so much,” Rachel said, rubbing at the back of her arm.
“Linda’s made it very clear to me that they’re happy to help,” I added. “I’m sure they’d be fine with it.”
Rachel hesitated and then nodded, smiling. “Okay. Give them a call. But keep this between us. Just in case.” She glanced back toward the stairs as she spoke. I hadn’t heard Graham return yet, but so
und didn’t travel to the basement all that well. We should get back up there before she grew suspicious.
With our plan in place, we broke up the meeting and headed upstairs just as Graham was coming through the front entrance.
“What were you all doing down there?” she asked since we’d come up as a very obvious pack.
“Cal gets lonely,” I said without thinking about it, and Cal punched me from behind. “Where have you been?”
“Around,” Graham said, giving me a cool look that said she wasn’t discussing case matters with me, even in passing, despite the fact that I’d brought her lunch once.
“Cool,” I said, giving her two thumbs-up. “Well, I’m headed out for the night. See y’all tomorrow.”
My coworkers nodded, and we headed for the doors as one, but Graham held up a hand, forestalling us. “Cal, I could actually use your help with something. Would you mind hanging back?”
“Sure,” Cal said, drawing out the word, and stopped walking.
I turned to wink at them when Graham wasn’t looking, and Cal returned the gesture, a faint, mischievous grin on their lips.
The rest of us left the office. It was still a bit early to be finishing up, but it had been a bonkers day, and we could all use a little rest before tomorrow’s adventure. I waved goodbye to Lex and Rachel and crossed to my car. The seats had finally dried out since I’d left the windows open, but there was still a faint smell of damp in the fabric.
I called Linda as I drove home, watching the tourists ooh and ahh at the colorful buildings around them.
“CO Linda Reyes’ phone,” Meg answered.
“You mean she hasn’t saved my number? Wow, I’m offended,” I sighed, tsking.
“Jace?” Meg asked, a bright note in her voice.
“Yep. Do you and Linda have a minute?” I came to a stop before a red light and unrolled my window to let the late afternoon air into the car. The humidity tasted like sugar and fried dough from a shop just across the way.
“You just can’t stay away, can you?” Meg joked. “I’m starting to think you have a crush.”
“What can I say? I guess I like the sound of your voice.” I choked on the last word, the flirtation coming out of my mouth before I realized what was happening, but I didn’t think Meg noticed the sudden hitch in my voice.
“Someone thinks they’re smooth,” she said with a laugh. “What can I do for you, Mr. Flirt?”
“We’ve got a lead,” I explained. “We’d like your help with a stakeout.”
“And we figured out who Sasha Richards is!” Meg cut in. “Hang on, let me put you on speaker.” There was a beat of silence, and then she continued. “Okay, so, Sasha Richards is--”
“A former member of the Coast Guard?” I interrupted.
“Damn, you already knew? I wanted to do a cool reveal.”
“Cal dug it up,” I admitted. My light turned green, and I crossed the intersection, the car in front of me a little slow to start. “But thanks for looking into it. It sounds like she’s living out in Florida, so we can’t exactly get to her easily. We did turn up a possible lead on Rick Mann, though.”
“Do tell,” Linda said, intrigue in her voice.
“He works for a cruise line. One of their ships is coming into the harbor tomorrow night. We want to stake it out and see if we can find him, but we need a few extra eyes. Are you up for it?”
“We are,” Linda agreed. “Text me the details?”
“Will do. Save my number this time.”
Linda laughed. “I can’t. It’s my work phone. Let me give you my personal cell and Meg’s, just in case you can’t get ahold of me for whatever reason.” She rattled off two strings of numbers, and I grabbed a pen out of the cupholder to scribble them across the back of my hand while I drove, palm braced against the wheel.
“Great,” I said appreciatively. “I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Looking forward to it,” Linda said.
“Bye, Jace!” Meg piped up in the background, and I laughed as I ended the call.
When I got home, I transferred the phone numbers from my hand to my contacts and texted Linda a sketch of tomorrow’s plan. Rachel and I still had some details to hammer out, but we knew that the ship was coming in at three in the afternoon to the city’s main port.
I wondered if cruises were really as “magical” as all the ads made them out to be. It seemed to me they’d be a bit dingy and kind of cramped and more than a bit claustrophobic. I’d never felt the desire to go on one, though my mother had been on two and had tried hard to get the family to join her for the second. None of us had wanted to.
Since my family was on my mind, I wondered if Cal had dug up anything on the Greyson Gem yet. I doubted it—we’d all been so slammed by Malia’s kidnapping. The necklace had already been lost for well over half a century. It could wait a while longer.
I didn’t sleep that night. I was too anxious. I was thinking about Malia and the stakeout and all the lies to Graham that were rapidly piling up. We’d need a cover story for our stakeout. Maybe we were all off helping Ramirez. Maybe we just wouldn’t show up to the office all day. That way, she couldn’t ask where we were going in the middle of the afternoon. I was going to get an ulcer from all this sneaking around, which was odd, considering my entire job consisted of sneaking around. It was different when you were lying to someone who was supposed to be on your side. I remembered the other secret I kept from my superiors at the FBI. It was amazing that one hadn’t given me five different ulcers or straight up burst my appendix.
I tried to will myself to sleep. It didn’t work, but I kept working at it right up until my alarm went off. My eyes were a little dry, but I didn’t feel particularly tired, so maybe I’d managed to doze a bit. Or maybe I had the first threads of adrenaline coursing through my veins, carrying me aloft.
17
Rachel wanted to meet at the office to firm up our plan for the stakeout. I thought we should meet out in a park somewhere, away from Graham, but Rachel was worried our prolonged absence would be more noticeable.
Rachel waved me into her office when I arrived. I didn’t see Graham, but I could hear the hum of voices in the lab. Rachel shut the door as soon as I was inside and motioned for me to sit. She seemed better today, but I supposed the word for how she was acting could also be manic. She buzzed about her office, watering her plants before she took a seat behind her desk, where she worried constantly at the stacks of papers and files there, straightening the edges over and over again.
“Graham has commandeered Cal for the day,” Rachel said bitterly. “Obviously, she won’t tell me why.”
“Linda and Meg are on board,” I said, and then winced at the unintentional pun. “They’ll meet us there at one, so we can pick out the best spots.”
“Good. We’ll split up. I’ll go with Linda, and Meg can watch with you. I’d like to talk with Linda, thank her for everything myself. If that’s okay.”
“Works for me,” I agreed and felt a small flash in my stomach at the thought of spending some time alone with Meg. I thought of the easy way she flirted and the feel of her hands on mine when she’d stopped me from rolling right off the dock yesterday.
“Any ideas for a cover story?” Rachel asked. She stood, unable to stay still in her chair any longer, and moved to the window to check the main office for Graham. She still had all the blinds pulled, and it gave the room a gloomy cave-like air.
“We’re helping out Ramirez? Same as yesterday?” I’d briefly thought of fabricating a whole new case for us to pursue, but I figured that would get too complicated too quickly.
Rachel nodded and dropped the blind she’d been holding up. “That’s good. Simple. Lex is off with Ramirez right now. Maybe we’re watching the marina to make sure Damien Rose doesn’t try to escape.”
“You good, Rachel?” I asked as she switched from one window to the other, as if that would somehow give her a better view of the room outside.
“Uh-huh, yeah, I�
��m fine,” Rachel said distractedly.
I finally noticed the two empty coffee cups in her trashcan and the third on top of her desk, and her manic energy clicked into place.
“Rachel, have you been up all night?” I asked, though I knew I couldn’t judge since I’d also been up all night.
She shrugged and glanced at her chair like she was debating whether she should sit back down. “I’ve been trying to track down Amherst. Just in case this Rick Mann thing doesn’t pan out.”
“Any luck?”
She shook her head, but the caffeine was doing a good job keeping her darker emotions at bay, and she didn’t seem all that disappointed by it.
“You might want to cool it on the caffeine right now,” I suggested, nodding toward the cup on her desk. “You don’t want to have to pee every five minutes while we’re on the stakeout.”
“Yeah, I’m done,” Rachel agreed. She hopped back to her desk and swept the empty cup into the trash. “I’m pretty sure I can taste sound right now, so don’t let me have any more, okay?”
“You got it.” I could probably use a coffee sooner rather than later, but I didn’t want to worry about the bathroom while we were at the marina. Getting out of the car every five minutes kind of defeated the purpose of a low profile. I checked the time on my phone. “Want to head over now? Get a look at the place before Linda and Meg arrive?”
Rachel nodded, the motion a little too fast from all the caffeine.
“I’ll let Graham know,” I said and left the office while Rachel gathered her things. I jogged down the stairs and poked my head into the lab, pausing for just a second before I announced myself to see if I could figure out what Cal and Graham were talking about.
“Nothing, really?” Graham said, and Cal shrugged, spinning in their chair so they could see her more fully. As Cal did so, they spotted me standing in the doorway and raised their eyebrows. Graham caught the change in expression and turned, her eyes slightly thunderous. “Spying, Agent Greyson?”
“Not at all,” I lied. “I just wanted to let you know that Rachel and I are heading out to help Ramirez with his final bust.”