Brett was grateful they’d had time for this last shot. Cocoa led them to an underwater ridge heavily covered with refuse. It was near an embankment popular with boaters, too many of whom threw beer cans and other garbage into the water.
They found most of the rest of what Brett believed would prove to be Randy Nicholson’s body strewn among the debris.
Most important, they found what remained of the head.
*
As soon as they got back on the cutter, Lieutenant Gunderson told Brett that Matt Bosworth had asked him to call when he was back aboard. After he hung up, he told the rest of them what had gone on while they’d been in the water.
First, Pierre had given them a tentative identification on Boss Man.
His name was Jose Acervo, and he was a known associate of Anthony Barillo. He wasn’t in the upper tier of the family business, but he wasn’t a peon, either. The way Brett explained it to Lara, Barillo himself was the king, his family were the heirs to the kingdom, the second tier were like the nobility and had real power and the third tier—which included Jose Acervo—was being groomed to become part of the aristocracy. The problem now was to find Jose.
An all-points bulletin had already gone out; all they needed now was for someone to spot him. The scary thing was that he might have heard he was a wanted man and already be in the wind. The area was full of private planes, and it was easy to slip off to the Caribbean or even South America.
On top of that breakthrough, Matt had received a call from a mystery woman who was trying to reach Brett, because Brett had set his phone to forward unanswered calls to Matt, in case something important happened while he was underwater. The woman had been too nervous to reveal her reason for calling when she’d realized that she wasn’t speaking to Brett, but Matt had managed to trace the call to one of the city’s few remaining pay phones.
“It’s on Bird, near the Diaz-Douglas Mortuary Chapel,” Matt had told him.
“I’ll be damned. Someone there means to talk,” Brett had replied.
“I doubt it’s Mr. Diaz,” Diego said drily when Brett told the group.
“That leaves just one person,” Brett said. “Jill Hudson, the makeup artist.”
“And she’s scared, I’ll bet,” Diego said.
“I hope she’ll call back, but I don’t want to count on it,” Brett said.
“We certainly can’t go see her at the mortuary,” Diego said.
“We’ll wait for her to leave. And it’s nearly four now. We need to get the hell down to Bird as soon as we’re back in port,” Brett said. He looked at Lara. “When you and Meg are finished at Sea Life for the day, head straight to your place. We’ll all meet there as soon as we can.”
She nodded. His hair was still wet, his shoulders bronzed and sleek. On one hand, she was anxious for the day to end.
On the other, she wasn’t sure he would notice her if she did a naked tango right in front of him.
He was so focused on the case right now, so determined to solve it before things became worse.
Before they had to go out looking for more bodies.
“Of course,” she said. “Straight home.”
Once they returned to Sea Life, Lara didn’t even have a chance to talk to Brett. According to Meg, he and Diego had spoken briefly to Phil Kinny, who’d been waiting to take possession of the remains, then rinsed off in the kids’ spray play zone, thrown on their clothes and left, still buttoning up their shirts.
She and Rick had swum the last little way with Cocoa, making sure she was well rewarded for her efforts with love and fish. By the time Lara was out of the water herself and ready for a shower, Meg was waiting for her by the lockers.
“Itching to get back on your computer?” Lara asked.
“That obvious, huh? I need to see if there’s a connection between someone at that mortuary and someone who’s part of the Barillo family. When it comes to something petty that you think you can get away with, you’d be amazed at what people are willing to do—sometimes for money, sometimes to keep someone else safe or out of trouble, or to cover a debt they can’t pay.”
“Who do you think it is?” Lara asked her. “I don’t know any of them, only what Brett has told me.”
“I didn’t meet any of them, either. But as far as I’ve been able to find out so far, no one there has a criminal record. That’s why I think someone was bribed or someone close to them was threatened.”
“Well, I’m going to hop in the shower. Then I’m going to work on some last-minute preparations for Sunday. It’s going to be a big day for us here,” Lara said.
“I’m glad my job is to hang with you, because I’m looking forward to it. It’s impossible to really pay our soldiers back for everything they do, but what you guys are doing is really wonderful.”
By then they’d reached the offices and headed upstairs.
Lara wanted to head straight into the shower, but she needed to get some things first. As she walked into her office, she paused.
There was something on her desk.
She walked over, frowning, puzzled.
It took a second.
And then she realized what it was.