“The numbers aren’t what you’re thinking, Camila,” Cassie said.
My daughter frowned. “What are they, then?”
“It depends on the company. You ever see numbers on the bottom of a can of food?”
“Yup.”
“There’s this thing called the Julian calendar. Food companies use them to convert dates into long strings of numbers. Like January 15, 2021. That becomes 21015,” Cassie said, “21 for the year, 015 for fifteen days into the year. December 30, 2021, would be 21364, because it’s one short of 365 days.”
“You know a lot about numbers, don’t you?”
“More than your dad, even,” Cassie said, her eyes sparkling.
“So how would you do it?” Camila asked. “How would you hide the one chocolate-for-life package? ’Cause I’m determined to win.”
“I guess if I worked at Monedas, I’d start with whatever system we had at the company,” Cassie said. “Let’s say it was the Julian calendar system. And then I’d purposely mess it up.”
“Why?” I asked, and they each turned to face me.
“Oh—you’re listening?” Cassie smiled. “I thought you’d disappeared into that place you go.”
Camila grinned at this.
“Why would you mess it up?” I repeated.
“First,” Cassie said, “for people like Camila. I’m sure she’s not the only one trying to win. And I don’t want to just break her system. Iwant to break her faith. Her feeling that thereisa system. I want her to throw it all out the window in frustration.”
I stood up from where we’d been sitting and nodded.
“You have a plan, Daddy?” Camila asked.
“I have a thought,” I said.
“About chocolate for life?” Camila’s eyes were huge.
“Finish your ice cream, hon,” I said. “I’ll be right back.”
As I walked outside, I heard Camila say, “Daddy’s gonna get me chocolate for life.”
“I don’t think so,” Cassie replied.
On the sidewalk outside, I found a number in my cell phone. A guy by the name of Manny, who ran our Evidence Recovery Team in Miami.
Details of one of the cases still had not made sense to me. But Cassie’s words to Camila had triggered a notion.
“It’s Gardner,” I said when Manny picked up. “Hey, I know Lucas Beach PD took possession of that crime scene up north, but you looked around first, right?”
“More than looked around,” he said. “I saw the face of the guy who almost killed you. Yikes.”
“You take pictures at the scene?”
“Yup.”
“There was a gun,” I said. “In the upstairs bedroom.”
“There wasyourgun, which he took off you. But you got that back, right?”
“I’m speaking of a different weapon,” I said. “One he had.”
