I wave my hand dismissively. “He’s not my new boyfriend, and you know it. I only said that to get Mom out of my hair.”
I tell Will all the facts, including how Rocko had no clue that Mike was doing our deliveries. “Don’t you see? He must have found out that Joey was in Whispering Bay and he decided to use his uncle’s delivery business as a cover. Pretty brilliant if you ask me. I wouldn’t put it past this guy to have been the one who broke Rocko’s leg.”
“Let’s say I buy this. How did this Mike or El Tigre or whatever you want to call him know that Joey was here in Whispering Bay to begin with?”
“Probably from Ken Cameron. He must have sold Joey out to the mob.”
“The dead FBI agent? Why would El Tigre kill him if Ken Cameron was selling him information?”
“Maybe Ken wanted more money. Or maybe El Tigre just wanted him out of the way so that Ken couldn’t double cross him and relocate Joey. Who knows? It could be any of a dozen reasons. When your nickname is El Tigre you don’t need much of an excuse to kill someone.”
“Have you told this Agent Billings your theory yet?”
“No, and I don’t intend to.”
“Why not? Let them check it out. It’s their job.”
“Because right now it’s just a bunch of circumstantial evidence. What gives it more credibility is the fact that I’ve caught him in two big lies.”
“Ah,” says Will, finally getting it.
“Yeah. I’m not about to tell Agent Billings that I’m some kind of freakish human lie detector.”
Will gives me a thoughtful look. “Are you sure about those lies, Lucy?”
“Positive.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to set a trap for El Tigre and get him to confess.”
Will laughs. And not in a nice way. “How exactly are you going to do that?”
“I have no idea, but considering the FBI is batting zero, I can’t do much worse, can I? I figure between the two of us, we can—”
“No.”
“You don’t even know what I’m about to say.”
“Let me guess. Between the two of us, we’re going to trip up some ruthless professional hitman who’s determined to get a half-million-dollar bounty by killing an FBI informant. Oh, and anyone else who gets in his way too. Sure! Why not? I’m going to channel Travis here. Leave. This. To. The. Professionals.”
“Believe me, I’d be happy to, but if I don’t do something then the Cooking Channel is going to pick another town to host Battle of the Beach Eats. Which means I can’t win the show and I lose the chance for twenty-five grand.”
“So this is about money? Why didn’t you say so? I can give you more.”
“More? You’ve already lent me fifteen thousand dollars!”
“I’ve told you. No need to pay me back. Consider it a gift.”
“Absolutely not. I have to pay you back that money.”
“If you feel the need to pay me back then comp me a muffin every day for the next year and we’ll be even.”
I refuse to even acknowledge this ridiculous suggestion.
“Man, you’re stubborn.”
“So are you.”