Fuck I-4. Absolutely fuck it.
Why didn’t they make this a double-decker highway?
I slam on the brakes, reducing my speed by half, then weave into the emergency lane to bypass the masses.
After Hemsley provides a recap about the bodies found on the beach this morning, Chase green-lights them to enterthe Sunset cruise terminal to coordinate dealer protection and continue the homicide investigation.
When pressed about tipping off STK with our presence at the casinos, she shuts down the bellyaching. “Given what’s occurred in the last twenty-four hours, it’s clear Carnage knows we’re circling. Our new directive is to save as many dealers’ lives as possible. To do that, we need to split up. I’m sending some of you to coordinate dealer notification and protection activities. The rest of us need to find Kenzie Hayes and the plastic surgeon immediately. Those are our goals, people.”
She starts blasting out assignments to match that decree.
Agent Fowler will return to the office to assist Carson and Romero with the hunt for Carnage, Kenzie, and the surgeon. I’ll be doing the same after I get Lila safe and secure.
Agent Morales is sent to Oak Winds. FBI agents from Jacksonville are heading to the gambling cruise in Daytona Beach. The Miami FO will take the casinos in South Florida.
As for the impacted casinos outside of Florida, the SSA will coordinate with her counterparts in Louisiana, Missouri, and North Carolina.
All bases are covered.
With the conversation winding down, I ask, “Carson, what was it you found regarding Kenzie’s online communications? You mentioned something about that before the others joined the call.”
“Thanks for the reminder,” she responds. “Before everything went haywire, I stumbled onto something bizarre. And now that we have Ginny Lawrence in the spotlight, it’s more concerning.”
Where the hell is she going with this? I haven’t the foggiest clue how Ginny Lawrence could intersect with my sister.
“When Ginny was here for questioning the other night, she foolishly agreed to let us hold her phone, which I immediately cloned.”
Ah yes. I almost forgot about another one of Ginny’s famous tumbleweed moments.
Never fucking voluntarily give your device to law enforcement if you’re even remotely connected to criminal activity. As long as I live, I’ll never understand howthatwoman was romantically involved with Hartley, an STK key player who was connected enough to procure that fucking card marking dye. He taught her nothing about evading the law.
His mistake is our gain.
Then again, perhaps he was also mentally inferior. After all, he tried to force Carnage to pay him a bigger cut and was withholding the magic ingredient as leverage.
Hartley and Lawrence might be our home invasion Bonnie and Clyde, but they’re as stupid as Lloyd and Harry ofDumb and Dumberfame.
Agent Carson recaptures my wayward thoughts when she gets closer to the point. I hope. “Ginny’s phone has one of those hidden communication apps. The kind that looks like a game, but its real purpose is to conceal chats. I found a half dozen threads that show she was helping STK identify dealers to target for this scam. She’s been working with them for almost a year.”
“That’ll strengthen the indictment,” Chase surmises. “And perhaps we can use this to find more potential dealers who need protection.”
It’s killing me not to interrupt to ask how this relates to my sister. But I manage to resist.
Barely.
My partner does it for me. Bless him. “How does this tie back to Kenzie Hayes?”
“Bare with me,” Carson urges, then dives back in. “Two weeks ago, a message request was sent to Ginny from a user with the handleSweetbutPsycho95. They chatted once or twice a day ever since. Typically, they set up times to meet for drinks or playXbox together. Innocuous stuff. I almost ignored it. However, the message frequency spiked over the last three days. Here’s the kicker. Psycho was the one and only person Ginny contacted after leaving here the other night. No phone calls. No texts. No social media DMs. Just one message to this Psycho.”
User names often include the birth year. Kenzie and Lila were both born in 1995. I see where this is going. I wish she’d spit it out and spare me the play-by-play.
Chase interjects, seeking clarity. “That was the night after her boyfriend, Troy Hartley, was brutally slain in their home, right?”
“Exactly,” Bianca answers. “Times out to just shy of twenty-four hours after she found his slaughtered body. And here she is, messaging Psycho to play a video game.”
Oh my fucking god. This is unbearable.
Jabbing the mute button, I fail to bite back a growl. “Are you telling me that my sister is Psycho?”
