Richard Diaz was clearly worried for his wife; he was dismayed that she had done what she had, but he felt that the failure was his, as well. “She should have come to me. She should have felt that she could tell me anything,” he said over and over.
Brett and Diego offered the Diazes protective custody until the case was solved, but Richard preferred to handle things himself, planning a trip that would take them out of the area for the immediate future.
Since Douglas and the rest of the staff had no direct connection to the crime, they would be provided with police patrols and an officer on mortuary premises for at least the next several weeks.
Jill managed to get Brett alone for a few minutes. “What happens if you don’t find whoever is doing all this? What if it goes on for months...years? Just how long will the police protect us?”
“Jill, I can only tell you again, we will find him. This is too big. Too many people are involved, and we have so many officers from so many different agencies working on this that we can put a lot of pressure on the whole enterprise. Whoever’s behind this, he’ll make a mistake, and then we’ll get him.”
She nodded. “We’ll just have to be very careful, I guess.” She started to walk away, then turned and asked, “You will make sure we know if...if there’s a reason for us to watch out for something or someone in particular, right?”
“Yes,” he said. He shouldn’t have, of course. But she’d helped them immeasurably, and since he couldn’t personally watch over her and her family, the least he could give her was peace of mind.
When she left, it was finally time for him and Diego to head out and meet back up with Matt and Meg, and try to put the pieces together.
“We’re fucked,” Diego said as soon as they were outside.
“Fucked?”
“That guy was our best lead. If we’d found him alive...”
“He wouldn’t have said a word. He would have gone to jail before he ratted out his boss, who in this case might be Barillo or might be someone else entirely. Anyway, we’re meeting with Kinny tomorrow, so let’s see what he has to tell us.”
“Let’s hope to hell it’s something useful.”
“No matter what,” Brett said, “I think we’re going to pay a visit to an associate of Acervo’s.”
“Barillo?” Diego asked.
Brett nodded grimly.
“He’s denied everything. He made a point of confronting you face-to-face to deny everything.”
“But Acervo was a known associate of his. I want to see what he has to say.”
“You’re worried,” Diego said. “You’re worried about Lara.”
Brett managed a smile. “Yes—and no. Meg won’t leave her. And I honestly believe that the man pulling the strings will make a mistake, and soon. And then all this will be over.”
Diego was quiet. “Money’s involved in this somewhere,” he said. “We already knew that, though. After Kinny and Barillo, we’re going to start looking at money.”
“Who the hell has more money than Barillo?” Brett asked.
Diego smiled. “Lots of people. Lots of rich people. This is Miami, mi amigo. Lots of people here have money.”
*
When Sea Life closed at five o’clock, people jumped into action to make everything spick-and-span. Everyone was excited about the next day. The entire staff was set to arrive early to be ready to greet the massive numbers of soldiers and supporters who would be coming.
As things wound down and staff started leaving, Lara wandered back out to the lagoon to check on Cocoa. There were still people around, and it was daylight, so she wasn’t worried about her own safety. The dolphin swam over to the platform and allowed Lara to stroke her. Then she backed away, chattering, and Lara turned around quickly, her heart suddenly pounding, expecting to see someone coming up behind her.
The sun was still up but sinking slowly, and at first she saw no one.
And then she did.
Miguel Gomez was standing there, watching her and Cocoa, a slight smile on his face.
“Hello, Miguel.”
“Hola, senorita.”
“Join me,” she suggested.
It didn’t even seem odd to her that she was speaking to a ghost.
He came and sat with her. “That dolphin is very special, is she not?” he asked.
“Yes, she is.”
“She sees me,” he whispered.
“I think so.”
“Have you found out...how this happened? To me, I mean,” he asked.
“No, but we’re making progress.”
He nodded. She felt his sadness as if it were something in the air that washed over her.
“I wish I could help,” he said. “I wanted to live the dream, and we did, for a while. But now...I’m here. And Maria... I want so badly to see her, to know that she forgives me...”
“I’m sure she does,” Lara said.
He looked at her anxiously, as if desperately hoping she could say something that would prove the truth of her words to him.
And suddenly she realized that she could.
“My friend...the FBI agent. You know him, too. Brett Cody. He’s seen Maria. She knows it wasn’t really you.”
He seemed to brighten. “This is true?”
“Cross my heart,” she said, smiling.