She tried to make sense of his words, opening the door and stepping down. Heat blasted her. “What in the world are you talking about?” She shut the door and jumped over a puddle before reaching the cracked sidewalk.
“I need to be armed and don’t have time to get permits to fly. Plus, I don’t want a record of me flying.” He opened the back door, and Roscoe bounded out, spraying water. “The dog is coming, too, and he doesn’t like airplanes.”
None of this was making sense.
She turned at the entrance, her mind reeling. “You don’t need to go with me to the wedding.”
He reached her, looking dangerous today in black cargo pants with a matching shirt. “We can argue if you like, but I am taking you to Tennessee if you’re still going.”
The mild headache turned into a pounding annoyance. “I’m not agreeing, but I don’t have the energy to fight with you right now.” She needed to drink the coffee he’d bought her.
“Okay.” He opened the door.
Maybe the coffee and a few moments would get her back on track so she could focus. She held her breath in the elevator until it reached the bottom, waiting for Roscoe to run out before following him.
Serena was working at Mal’s desk, mumbling to herself without looking up at them.
Wolfe slid a sugar-laden latte next to her before working his way toward the back room. “You can have my desk, Dana. I’ll be in the second case room.” Without looking back, he disappeared into the room.
Dana fought the very real urge to stick her tongue out at him and sat instead, tugging her laptop from her bag and letting Serena mumble in peace.
She worked for several hours, trying to track down Frank Spanek, using her cell phone to reach out to friends of Candy who might’ve known something about the story she’d been working on. Nobody knew a thing. She also tried to track down the three female CEO’s, managing to interview two of them on the phone, which didn’t help much. Theresa Rhodes was the only one on her list she couldn’t reach, and the woman’s assistant refused to give the location of her sabbatical. She’d much rather meet each one in person to gauge their expressions.
Dana’s mind kept returning to her sleepless night and that kiss from Wolfe. Her cheeks filled with heat.
“You okay?” Serena asked, diagramming on a notepad while sitting at the unclaimed desk.
She nodded, surprised the woman had realized she was in the room. “Yeah. I’m fine.” Not really, but she didn’t know Serena well enough to confide in her.
Serena tapped her pencil on the desk. “I’m really sorry about your friend. Force mentioned your loss when I got in earlier.”
Dana’s throat hurt from crying during the night. “Thank you. We should have the autopsy results soon.” She rubbed her aching temples. “You have any drugs? Advil?”
“Drugs?” Serena pushed away from the desk. “That’s it. The symbols—the first part anyway—correspond to some sort of equation.” She ran into the first case room, her tennis shoes squeaking.
Dana followed, her hand pressed against her left eye. This headache had better not turn into a migraine.
Serena moved to the taped-up notes. “That’s it. Right there.” She looked frantically around and then picked up a chewed pencil that Dana had forced Roscoe to drop earlier. “The code is quite elegant. Every symbol corresponds to a number, which corresponds to a letter minus three.” She rapidly began deciphering the notes, jotting down letters beneath the symbols. “Smart woman.”
Wolfe leaned back in his chair and kicked his massive boots up on the conference table, nudging thick case files to the side. Lines of stress cut into the sides of his mouth. “What is happening?”
Dana dropped her hand and waited for her aching eye to focus. Serena formed words beneath the symbols and letters.
Serena finished with one page and turned. “I have phrases in note form but no story. The phrases indicate a problem with Theresa Rhodes and her company.”
Dana nodded. “I figured we’d find notes that she’d turn into a story when she was ready. That’s how many of us write.” She moved closer. “Did Candy find corruption at Rhodes’s sports company? Maybe embezzlement or tax evasion or something like that?”
Serena frowned. “Well, kind of.”
Dana read more. “Any other CEO’s mentioned?”
“No,” Serena said.
Dana leaned in closer. “The word ‘heroin’ is everywhere in Candy’s notes.”
Wolfe’s boots dropped to the floor with a loudthunk.
Dana read out loud. “Heroin from Afghanistan?”
