He shook his head. “Seems like the real deal. But... Well, these guys are all capable of tracking others. They’d know schedules, who goes where when... I mean, any of them slipping into a house, staging a suicide or murder-suicide...”
“I believe that our people will be getting us more,” she said.
He nodded. “We’ve tossed our real phones and our computers have been wiped. Our fake identities are really well-established online. But we’ve still got to watch our own backs. Look at the things our people can discover.”
She nodded. “We’re going to need to split up to manage this, but we need to make sure that we do know what the other is doing at all times.”
“Absolutely. And don’t forget, the phones we have can ping the other at any time of the day.”
She laughed. “So, if someone gets one of us, they can find the other, too?”
“Ouch! Wow, your glass is half-empty. No, it shouldn’t work that way. Only we know the ping color each day—the one that will refer to our locations—and that color is something we’ll discover each morning when we look at the phones. Other colors will be meals, classes. We’re in good shape, we work with good people.”
“And it’s a cruise! What could go wrong?” Chloe said, smiling. “Okay, so, tomorrow morning, I’m taking Celia’s social media thingy and you’re—”
“I’ll head to VP Edward’s class on security,” Wes told her. “And, of course, in the afternoon, we’ll need to get to know our other suspects.”
“Exactly. We still have Amelia Swenson and the brothers, Daniel and Broderick McClintock. Amelia had reason to get rid of Frank Adams because he was above her in a supervisory position—getting the position when it had been between the two of them,” Chloe said, scrunching her face up a bit as she remembered everything they had learned about their suspects. “And the brothers... Hm, maybe just wanting to rule the market?” She shook her head. “I don’t get it!” she said softly. “I mean, could all this be over greed?”
“Greed can do remarkable things to people. We’ve both seen that,” he told her.
She nodded. “I’m just hoping that...”
“That we can figure it out? Hey, I read great things aboutyou. That was an amazing case that you and Alex Rodriguez managed working undercover.”
She winced and nodded. “Yeah, but Alex’s injuries at the last showdown still have him... Well, he may be in rehab the rest of his life. And, well, you’ll need to meet Alex one day. He’s a remarkable human being. He’s not bitter. He’s grateful for his life. And he told me that he’d never been capable of slowing down on his own and now he gets to spend more time with his kids, so...”
“Hey, yeah, I’m sorry. I heard he was injured and that he was on medical leave from FDLE. He sounds great. I do hope I get to meet him.”
She forced a smile.
“Sure.”
“You blame yourself.”
“No, no, I... I was a few steps behind—I was caught up tangling with another two members of the cartel and...”
“You got there in time to save his life, from what I understand,” Wes said.
“Maybe. I don’t know. There was a SWAT team right behind me,” she said with a shrug.
“You know,” he reminded her, “that with what we do, we know what can happen to us,” he said softly.
“Of course.”
“Hey, I’m glad you’re the one who has my back on this,” he assured her.
“Yeah, maybe? Well, I hope,” she murmured. “Okay! So, anyway, I’m off to sleep so that we can get to know all our charming computer people tomorrow!”
“Right. Oh! I’m going to get friendly with our cruise director, Billy. Because that way, we’ll know what excursions our suspects have opted to be on. Because...”
“Diving might give someone a chance to kill someone else?”
“Possibly. And one of the offerings in Jamaica is a trip to the Dunn’s River Falls—lots of places to push someone off of the rocks there,” Wes reminded her.
She groaned.
“Good point! All right, good night!”
