“Where?”
“Smashed up in a desolate part of Joshua Tree. On BLM land. It’s remote, and it has likely been there a few days.”
Ben mentally repeated the information, trying to process what it could mean.
“There was no sign of Efren. In fact, the car was completely stripped. The agent who went out there to recover the car is not optimistic any evidence survived.”
Ben looked from Mark to the investigation board. Pasted there was a photo of Efren’s car and the information regarding who had found it and when. This was bad. Their relationship flashed through his thoughts. Efren was a partner and a friend. Efren’s wife, Candy, hadn’t wanted him to go undercover. Ben had helped to talk her into it.
“He’ll be okay. He’s smart, and we’ll all be backing him up.”
All of that rang hollow now. “Have you told Candy?”
“I thought I’d leave that to you since you’re closer to her than I am.”
Ben nodded and said nothing. Mark was right. But it would be difficult to rip the heart right out of his partner’s wife.
Mark continued. “The assistant special agent in charge will be here. He wants us to brief him on our investigation while he briefs us on what’s happening in other parts of the investigation.”
“Will he shut us down?”
“I don’t know, Ben. We’ve messed up. Not only have we lost an agent, but we also barely have anything actionable on our target.”
“We were getting there.” Ben set his coffee down. Frustration building, he’d been tempted to squeeze the paper cup flat.
“On another front, Long Beach will pick up Stan Moffit. They conferenced with the PD in Hawaii, and both concluded the shark attack was fake.”
“Did they get an arrest warrant?”
“Not that they’ve said. They’re planning to bring him in for questioning first. I’ve asked to talk to him when they do. Maybe he can tell us something about Efren. Everything is moving fast right now. I doubt you’ll have a chance to unwind from Hawaii time.”
Ben shrugged. “I’d like to see the car.”
“There’s nothing to see.”
“Humor me. If Efren was in trouble, I know he’d try to find a way to get a message to me.”
“It should be in the Long Beach impound yard later today. Right now, let’s go over everything we have and get ready to brief the ASAC.”
After Sara left, Lainie went inside and started coffee. She itched to call Shea and find out the status of the search, but she restrained herself.She was halfway through her first cup when her phone rang. “What’s up, Shea?”
“A lot. We completed a search of your brother-in-law’s residence earlier this morning and waited there quite a while in case he returned home. He did not. After a short break, we served a warrant at his place of business. We still have not located Stan, but we do have a development. We found a body at the car wash—a female.”
Lainie went numb. Speech fled.
After a minute of silence, Shea spoke up. “Lainie, you still with me?”
She cleared her throat. “Ah, yeah, any ID on the body?”
“No. No ID. Her purse is gone, Lainie. Do you want to come down here and check her out? The coroner is delayed. There was a multiple-person fatality on the freeway, so we’ll be here for a while.”
“I’ll be right down. I really need to know.”
CHAPTER 25
All during the twenty-minute ride to the car wash, Lainie dreaded the moment she would get there. Her thoughts returned to the time she’d spent in the kayak in A-Bay.
I wondered what I would do if I found Evie’s body.
