“Will you find it?” Helia asked. What she knew about offshore accounts she’d learned reading thrillers.
“They will,” Joey said. Leo flashed her a warm smile.
“If you haven’t found it yet, why’d you settle on Akin?” Dulcie asked.
Scipio tipped his head to the side. “Proximity. Not a determinative factor, but a real one. He has the easiest access, the most natural access, to the shipments of food when they come in.”
“And would be best positioned to remove the drugs when delivered to Sundaram,” James said.
“To Helia’s point, we shouldn’t exclude Greg from the suspect pool,” Scipio conceded. “When we dug into Akin, it made sense, but we didn’t know that Greg selected the vendors. In my mind, that moves the needle back fairly between the two.” His gaze scanned the room, looking for validation on the slight shift of focus. Everyone nodded. Helia agreed but couldn’t bringherself to join the group. She was too close to both men to feel comfortable considering either a killer.
Pushing her opinions and personal wishes aside, she returned to the story Scipio was painting. “Okay, so chaos ensues after Roger dies, with the three parties fighting to take over the lead role. Justin is killed in the process, leaving Kelly and either Greg or Akin.”
“Which is when Trish steps in,” Leo said.
“To clean up the mess,” Lina said with a contemplative nod.
“Exactly,” Scipio replied. “Pena and his wife have a lot on the line if Kelly or Akin or Greg call too much attention to the situation—two people have already died, which is more than unusual for this area. If they start infighting even more, the higher the risk the whole operation will get exposed.”
“Which is where we have some good news,” Kendall said, jumping into the conversation as she flipped her computer around. “What do you think of this?” she asked. Sitting across the room, Helia couldn’t make out the image, but those closest leaned in.
“A picture of Helia talking to someone at Sundaram?” Mantis said.
“That’s not Helia,” Callie said.
Kendall grinned. “It’s not. It’s Kelly. From behind, or even from the side depending on how they are wearing their hair, they look a lot alike.”
Beside her, Collin sucked in a breath. “Helia wasn’t the target of the dart yesterday, was she? It was Kelly.”
“That is what we think,” Leo replied.
“Trish and her husband have either decided that Greg/Akin will run the show and intended to take Kelly out of the picture. Or they’ve decided that neither will and they’re cleaning house,” Scipio said.
“I saw Kelly there, in town,” Helia said, that snippet of memory coming back. “About ten minutes before I was hit, she was at a restaurant down the block.”
“Another piece of circumstantial evidence to support our theory,” Leo said. “If Trish knew Kelly was in the area, but not what she was wearing, she could have easily mistaken you two.”
“Does that mean they’ll kill Greg or Akin next? And try for Kelly again?” Helia asked, horrified at the thought. She had no respect for the dealers, but she didn’t like the idea of them being murdered.
“We don’t know which strategy Pena and Trish will take, killing one or both, but yeah, we think one of those two things will happen,” Scipio said. Then added, “But as K said, the good news is, we don’t think you’re the target.”
She wouldn’t lie, relief trickled through her, but only a little. She’d not feel truly at ease until this was all over.
“What about Derek?” she asked, nodding to his solitary box. “And Kurt?”
Scipio studied the board. “Derek we’re not sure about. We’re still looking into him. We’ve only found a handful of social media pictures connecting him and Roger, but his spending habits are giving us pause.”
“And Kurt?”
“We’re sticking with the theory from last night,” Scipio said.
“He wanted to see if Wei Zhao’s organization should move in,” Lina said.
“And encountered a strong ‘no’ from Pena’s organization. Likely at Trish’s hand. Maybe with the help of one of the others,” Scipio agreed.
Helia hesitated to ask the question on her mind but swallowed her reluctance. “Collin said the killing was brutal and happened somewhere other than where we found him. Could Trish have done that on her own?”
“The killing, yes,” Collin answered. “Assuming she had a sharp machete.”
