Page 170 of The Advocate’s Ultimatum

“No,” DuBois agreed. “It makes him stubborn.”

Urban wasn’t amused.

DuBois lowered his voice slightly. “Look, officially he’s not part of the operation.”

“Unofficially?”

“He’s a cowboy.”

Urban blinked once. “What?”

DuBois nodded toward JP’s truck. “He’s going to follow whether we keep him in the loop or not.”

Urban stared at him. “And you’re okay with that?”

“No.” DuBois shrugged. “But I’d rather know where he is than spend the next six hours pretending I can stop him.”

That earned a reluctant hint of a smile from Urban. “Does he have any formal training?”

“He’s former law enforcement, an investigator, and a Marine.” DuBois paused. “And smarter than half the detectives I’ve worked with.”

Urban studied JP’s truck again. “Is he armed?”

DuBois gave him a look. “Everybody’s armed.”

Urban finally exhaled. “Fine. But if this goes sideways—”

“He backs off.”

“You trust that?”

DuBois thought about JP. “No.”

That actually made Urban laugh. “Good. Better honest than overconfident.”

DuBois pulled out a folded street map, spread it across the hood of the sedan, and motioned for the crew to gather.

“Here’s how we run this.” He looked around. “When Sabre and Rourke leave, he will likely walk her to her car. Chen picks up his primary tail. Martinez rotates in every few blocks.”

Urban nodded. “No unit sits directly behind him too long.”

“Exactly.” DuBois pointed farther down the map. “If he loops, we widen immediately.”

“What’s our trigger for contact?” Lopez asked.

“We don’t contact.”

Everybody stared at him. DuBois explained. “The objective is Hannah Caldwell, not Daniel Rourke. If he leads us to her, we move carefully and lock down the location first.”

“Do you think he has any idea?” Urban asked.

“No.” But DuBois wasn’t completely certain, and that bothered him.

A homicide detective learned quickly that the smartest predators rarely looked dangerous. They looked patient, helpful, normal, like Daniel Rourke.

Urban straightened. “If we find the girl alive, Missing Persons takes lead.”

DuBois nodded. “But until then, this stays my operation. The Maddox homicide keeps us tied in.”