That was close!
She was walking into the kitchen when he entered from the other direction and turned her cheek to receive his kiss.
“Did I receive anything today?”
She held up the report she was reading.“Just this.It was express mailed.”She handed it to him.
He gave it a cursory glance and returned it to her with a smile.“I do believe that’s for you, love.You’re dealing with that now.”
She returned his smile.“You’re not allowed to retire yet, love,” she said, hating the way that word rolled off her tongue.
He chuckled.“No, that’s not my immediate plan.But thank you for humoring my ways.”
She shrugged.“You obviously have done something right throughout the years.It’d be unwise of me to ignore that.”
He studied her, then sighed.“If only my daughter had felt that way…” He shook his head, as if clearing the thought.“No, never mind.I do not wish to discuss her.What’s for dinner?”
The cook turned from the stove and started telling him while Jacinta held her smile in place.
Think about the money.Think about how much money is at stake.
He’d fallen asleep nextto her while she continued reading the report.Once he was out, she knew she had at least an hour before his bladder awakened him.
Disgusting man.
She eased herself out of bed, pulling on her robe and slippers and taking the report with her.If he did find her gone, he would believe her excuse of going downstairs to work for a few minutes because she couldn’t sleep.She’d set that excuse up early on for just this reason.
To investigate while the house was still.
She pulled the thumb drive from her bag, slotted it into her laptop, and copied the info into an innocuous-sounding folder in her documents folder before she wiped the thumb drive clean.
Then she took a few minutes to go through the info, her jaw dropping.She’d thought perhaps this would have something to do with Manuel running the cartel, but this?
This was…
Incredible.
Apparently, based on the dates on the files, Miranda had used Manuel’s information to continue the investigation after he disappeared.And yes, she had notes about Carl Peterson and Mateo Soto disappearing with Manuel on a trip to Florida.
But how does all this involve Russians in Australia?
Abundio’s cell phone was plugged into the charger on the desk and she picked it up, turning it on and unlocking it.That phone she’d had the code to for a while, and he didn’t realize it.
But there was nothing there she could see.
Thinking, she closed her eyes.
Where would he hide burners?
It’d need to be an easy place, but less obvious than in a desk drawer.Somewhere in the office where he could get to them easily.
After a few minutes, she opened her eyes and walked over to the small closet in the room.There hung a couple of old coats and sweaters of his.She started going through all the pockets, and it was in the third coat, a heavy, ugly, musty woolen thing whose scent nearly gagged her, where she found two burners in an inside pocket, both powered off.
The same phone passcode didn’t work for either of them.She thought about it for a moment and tried a couple of what felt like obvious combinations, without success.
Then she pulled out her own phone and looked up Miranda’s birthdate and tried the day and month.
The first phone unlocked.And when she tried the second, the code unlocked that one, too.
