Like how if it hadn’t been for Charlie Bleacke all those years earlier, Badger might have followed Duncan’s path.
Except he likely would have finished the job.
* * *
The next afternoon,Dewi and Ken had gone to be with Tamsin for her latest ultrasound and checkup with the doctor, as well as for Dewi to get her own checkup and to be there for Nami’s, leaving Badger alone at home.
Badger was in the kitchen when he heard the gate chime sound, and he glanced at his app to see it was Duncan’s code.
“There ye are,” Badger said when Duncan walked in a few minutes later. “Ye all right, then?”
Duncan slowly nodded. “I suppose.” But his friend’s dark and weighty mood told Badger otherwise.
“Spill it.” Badger pulled two bottles of Guinness from the fridge, opened them, and handed one to Duncan, lightly tapping bottles with him.
Duncan set his overnight bag on the floor and settled onto one of of the stools at the counter. “There’s a lot I’m still sorting out,” he finally said after taking a few long pulls from the bottle. “But of immediate concern is what the Thompson family told me one of the men who attacked them said. About having a cousin in a drug cartel in Mexico and them looking for ‘strange people.’”
Badger slowly nodded. “Aye. That matches what Peyton’s said he’s learned. Did you call him?”
“This morning, before my flight.” Duncan picked at the label on his bottle. “I keep going back to my gut tells me we aren’t finished with them. That we might need to go on the offensive. That it’s all related to the attack on the compound.”
“The uncle? Abundio?”
“Or his daughter. The one who took over business operations.”
“Miranda,” Badger said. “She apparently poked around at Carl and Mateo’s old apartment.”
“That would also fit with someone making electronic queries, right? That it would be someone younger?”
“Unless Abundio hired someone to do it, or asked one of his people. On paper, that company’s squeaky clean. As clean as any mining and logging corporation of that size can be, I s’pose.”
“There wasn’t another brother, was there? Or a son who might take over the cartel?”
“Not so far’s I know.”
Duncan slowly shook his head. “It’s too neat. Too tidy.”
Badger arched a scruffy eyebrow at him. “An’ we’re not talking about this with Dewi…why?”
“Because I don’tknow.” Duncan took another drink. “And I don’t want to add anything to her plate right now. I don’t like the way thisfeels, though. It doesn’t sound plausible that Manuel Segura disappears with two of Abundio’s best men andnoone comes looking for them?”
“We don’t know they weren’t lookin’. We took out pretty much all his top guys in Idaho. He’s the only one who knew the truth about what he saw, besides whatever he told to Abundio and Miranda. We know for a fact that Carl and Mateo told us the truth. You and I and Dewi all checked—they’re not lyin’.”
“I’m not saying don’t trust them. But things could have developed in the interim. Or there may have been behind-the-scenes machinations they weren’t privy to.”
“But they knew Abundio’s men. And said like as not Abundio would replace them immediately with barely a gripe about the inconvenience.”
“Hmm.” Duncan slowly shook his head. “I know we’ve got a lot going on right now, but let’s definitely keep this simmering on the back burner.”
“And outta Dewi’s hair?”
Duncan smirked. “For now.”
“Feels like the old days again, in a way,” Badger said. “Me an’ you.” He sighed. “I miss Charlie somethin’ fierce.”
“I know. Me, too. I’m sorry I wasn’t here.”
“Ah, we’re not doin’thatagain, ye feckin’ twat,” Badger snorted, reaching over to tap bottles with him again. “Past is past and can’t change what happened. All that matters is yer back, and at the perfectly right time. As if the Goddess Herself planned it.”
