Keys nodded. “Which was helpful. Your info was valuable in connecting the dots. We eliminated all the hotels in the area. But–”
Niko cut in. “These men won’t be at a hotel, especially if they’re here on business.”
Keys glared at him but had enough sense to leave it at the stare. “As I was saying,” he started, “we found a few high-end rentals. Here are the addresses.” He pushed another piece of paper across to me.
Looking them over, they were outside of Atlanta, but not too far. Very nice areas, but all the homes are set on sprawling acreage and far from the street. I said, “Most of these will be gated.”
“I may be able to short them,” Keys said.
“Maybe able to? Do you know if there’s any other ways in, or are they all surrounded by high walls?” These were not the type of homes with chain-link fences, but tall concrete walls that aren’t easy to scale. Plus, the walls would be visible to the street, even if we could make it over.
“I can’t test it or I’d risk alerting them of an issue and they’d have the company out there to repair it. Most will have a door somewhere along the walls.”
I studied the pictures. “We need to do recon. We gotta confirm which it could be, if any of these.”
“We also found messages on one of Jolene’s phones. She was definitely scared. And she was supposed to meet with an investigator. Said she had info but wanted immunity for turning.”
“How soon after was she killed?” I asked.
“The night before the meeting,” Keys said.
Eagle sat up straighter, tucking his hair behind his ears. “So they found out, or the investigator was dirty.”
“Hard to say which. They haven’t done shit with her investigation but there wasn’t any chatter about a larger ring that I could find. The investigator she was gonna squeal to may have been a client she trusted and he didn’t open a report to save her. Or he was in on it,” Coop chimed in.
“Did you find where they were supposed to meet?”
“It was coordinates. She was smart and it was in code, but I figured it out.” He pulled out another sheet. “It’s another small airport. Private owners only.”
I grabbed the sheet, about to pop off about why we hadn’t seen this one before then I noticed the address. “This is a bit of a ride.” It was well north of Atlanta, not quite the mountains but up that direction and far off the highway.
‘Yeah. We never looked that far out. But that’s where she asked to meet.”
Falcon scanned over all the papers laying on the table. “Maybe she was planning to take off. You said she was scared.”
Keys shrugged. “Maybe. But I wanted to point it out. Could be another clue.”
“Or another dead end,” Red said.
I asked, “Is the airport still in operation?”
Keys nodded. “Yep. But like I said, private owners only,so slower traffic.”
Niko said, “And far away from the large prying eyes of the Atlanta airspace.”
“No military bases in that area either, but there’s restricted air space in and around Atlanta,” Eagle said.
Rooster broke into the chat. “So if you needed to move questionable cargo and had the means to pay extra–”
“It would be the perfect place to go,” Niko said.
“Alright. The airport is further away and we know these assholes are close to Atlanta based on the traffic cams,” I said, flinging some of the papers across the table. “No other women, besides the ones that left with them, have gone missing recently that we know of. The airport can wait, but we can go check it out. First, let’s do drivebys of these addresses and see if we can get eyes on Martinelli’s men.”
“Recon only, Prez?” Eagle asked.
Looking over at Niko, I shook my head. “If we find them, we need to try to get them back to the shed.” These fuckers were not only linked to Romano, but they were following Klara, and had been monitoring my Kitty Kat before she was mine. I didn’t want to take any chances leaving them to roam free here.
“I’ll have my car,” Niko said.
