Page 73 of Deadly Conflicts

“Oh, geez, Mom.” James was annoyed. “He eats six times a day from what I can tell. He’s obviously in no danger of starving.”

“Shut your mouth and go play with your friend,” Rose said. “When Maverick is done I’ll send him out.”

“Play with my friends? I’m not playing with my friends.”

“That’s what it looks like to me,” Rose said. “You’re obviously not investigating anything.”

“We are investigating,” James snapped. “That’s why I need Maverick. We need to know what you found on those video feeds outside of the courthouse.”

“All I know is that it was a small individual,” Maverick replied, plopping a huge forkful of pancakes into his mouth and continuing to talk as he chewed. “I can’t even tell if it’s a man or woman. The cameras aren’t bad up close, but the digital image is such poor quality I can’t blow it up. All I see when I look is a blob.”

“What about at the parking garage?”

“There were no cameras.”

“So we have no idea how long that car was out on the road after it was stolen,” James said, rubbing the back of his neck. “We have nothing. We have absolutely nothing.”

“How about some pancakes?” Rose suggested. “Mandy didn’t cook you breakfast before she left for work this morning. You must be hungry.”

“Mandy only cooks breakfast on the weekends and that’s the limit of her abilities, Mom,” James said. “It’s fine. We shared a package of Pop Tarts.”

“That doesn’t sound like much of a breakfast.”

“Yeah? She makes up for her lack of cooking skills in other departments,” James said, his mind busy. “I just don’t get it. Who steals a car for no financial gain whatsoever? There’s nothing missing from that car.”

“Oh, that’s not entirely true,” Maverick said, using his sleeve to wipe the syrup from the corners of his mouth. “There was one thing missing.”

“What?” James asked, making a face as his mother handed Maverick a napkin.

“The guidance chip from the navigation system of that car is gone,” Maverick replied. “Not only that, it was modified at a certain point.”

“I don’t know what that means,” James admitted.

“Those navigation systems are only made to input bare bones information,” Maverick explained. “The one that was placed in that car was meant to hold a lot more information.”

“What kind of information?”

Maverick shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine, but whatever it was, I’m betting it was good.”

“Me, too,” James murmured, licking his lips. “Well, at least we have a start. Now I just need to figure out where this all ends.”

“I would think that’s easy,” Rose said. “It ends at the same place it started.”

James nodded grimly. “Vince.”