“Speaking of the Clementine. The hotel manager is being uncooperative. Now that I have Marilyn’s sworn statement, I’m working on the warrant.”
“Good,” I say, and thinking of Lucas hacking the Clementine, I add, “I’m working another angle in the meantime.”
“The same kind of angle that got you that data drive early?”
“Exactly. For now, Enrique, one of Kane’s men, is dropping Marilyn off at her car. I have two other men discreetly following her when she leaves. So more on that later.” My phone beeps with a call and I glance at the caller ID. “That’s Andrew. Gotta go.” I switch lines. “Yes, brother love? Get it? Brother. Love.”
He ignores my perfect joke rather rudely. “One of the investigators in Boston snagged a tidbit you need to know. Ann’s parents said that their daughter had recently done so well on Broadway that she’d paid their delinquent mortgage. Apparently, the father broke his back last year putting up Christmas decorations and hasn’t been the same since. Ann wasn’t in a Broadway show. So, where was she getting her money?”
Of course, I know the answer as sure as Kane now knows who tried to kill him.
Marilyn Lennox.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
After my call with Andrew, Jay and I end up in a multi-level Taco Bell despite the fact that Taco Bell’s new menu sucks. But you must not protest the hand that feeds you the fastest of them all. At least not on the day they have the shortest line. So short that I barely have time to head upstairs and dial Tic Tac about the Marilyn money trail before Jay arrives with our food in hand and sits across from me.
“Gotta go, Tic Tac,” I say. “A burrito is calling. And when a burrito calls, you answer. Find the money trail, which won’t be easy. Marilyn is in accounting at one of the biggest firms in the country.”
I disconnect and set my phone down. “Tell me about the tea-drinking librarian,” I say opening my burrito.
“I met her in a coffee shop by my house.”
“Is she blonde and gorgeous?”
“She is, actually,” he says easily.
“And she thinks you do what for a living?”
“I told her I was a bodyguard for a bitch named Lilah Love.”
I laugh. “I like it. Honesty matters in a relationship.”
We chit-chat about “Sally” while we eat and until my cellphone rings yet again. I finish off my food and glance at the screen to find Murphy calling. I answer with, “Director.”
“Tic Tac got his raise. I just told him.”
“A good raise?” I ask.
“Yes, Special Agent Love. A more than good raise. And Tic Tac will take care of Lucas’s paperwork, since I understand you’ve named him his supervisor.”
“Oh yes. I did do that.”
“Good thing I’m fine with that, don’t you think?” He doesn’t wait for an answer. He moves on.
“I hear Pocher and his brother are on that list of fake investors.”
“Tell Tic Tac I didn’t get him a raise for him to yap to you.”
“Sadly, you are not yapping to me so he has to.”
I speak freely in front of Jay, as I always do. “They are on the list, as is Kane. I’m going to warn Pocher after my lunch, but I’m also taking his brother off the list, and yes, I know that’s evidence tampering, but—”
“Agreed. The last thing we need is Pocher digging around about what happened to his brother. He hired the man he thought was Umbrella Man to kill for him, when we know, it was only Umbrella Man’s accomplice. In turn, he rejected the idea that Umbrella Man would work for him and kill his brother, which was more foolish than a man of his intelligence normally plays anything.”
“Denial,” I say. “He didn’t want to be to blame for bringing that man into his life and therefore his brother’s life.”
“Exactly,” he says. “But in the end, he had to see that a serial killer is a serial killer. It took time, but now Pocher believes the Umbrella Man killed his brother, but he only came to that conclusion after extensive research to disprove that as a façade. That is not a can of worms we want opened again. It’s in all of our best interests.”
I’m shocked that he’s willing to do such a thing, but then, after some of the feelings Kane has expressed about Murphy, perhaps I shouldn’t be.
“On another note, I’m shocked you’ve transitioned from wanting to kill Pocher to warning him about a threat to his life. You obviously don’t think Pocher was responsible for Kane’s crash.”
“That’s correct, and credit where credit is due, Kane felt it was in all of our best interests to call a truce with Pocher.”
“Kane is a smart man.”
“Just one of the many reasons I’m marrying him on New Year’s Eve.”
“Do I get an invitation?”
My lips press together. “No one who has an agenda will be at my wedding.”