Noah handed Leo his business card. “My cell phone is on the back. You get me good intel, I’ll get you out of Del Rio.”
Lucy was about to hand Leo her own card out of habit, but an almost imperceptible shake of Noah’s head had her simply adjusting the folder in her hand.
Leo looked at Noah’s card, then folded it three times and stuffed it way down into his pocket. “You burned me, Armstrong. Give me my gun.”
Noah took the .22 out of his pocket and field-stripped it in short order, then tossed it at Leo’s feet. “The knife isn’t legal.”
“Of course it’s legal!”
“Not in DC, and those are the only laws I know. I’ll leave it at the local FBI office; you can pick it up whenever you want if, like you say, it’s legal.” Noah walked away but kept Leo in his line of sight until they were almost to the car.
Noah drove away. “Your name—Kincaid. Jack worked down here, didn’t he? Against the cartels.”
“He specialized in hostage rescue. And he hasn’t lived here in years.”
“To be on the safe side, I didn’t think we should give our boy Leo too much information about you. Rick said that after what happened in June when you took down Nicole Rollins, Tobias Hunt, and the rest of their network, a lot of nasty people became very angry.”
“I didn’t take them down single-handed.”
“No. You, Jack, Sean, your future brother-in-law Kane.”
“And the entire San Antonio FBI and DEA offices.”
“Right now, considering what we’re working on and how it may be connected to human trafficking and possibly the cartels, we need to be cautious.” He got on the phone, but it wasn’t until he started talking that Lucy realized he’d called Rick Stockton directly.
“Rick, Noah. I’m here with Lucy and going to put you on speaker.” He put the phone down and said, “Jasmine. Know the name?”
“Yes.”
“A last name?”
“No—but if it’s Jasmine in Texas connected to something illegal, I know who you’re talking about.”
“Have a photo?”
“She’s never been photographed. We know that she’s in her late forties and the illegitimate daughter of a drug runner—but we don’t know which one. Word is she is friendly with her family south of the border, but does mostly her own thing. DEA would know more, she’s never seriously been on our radar.”
“The blond woman in the photos I sent you last night—we think she’s Jasmine. I need more. A last name. Last known address. Something to follow up on.”
“I’ll dig.” He hung up.
Noah typed into his GPS. “It’s faster to go straight to San Antonio from here. We’ll be back before five. The office will thank me—I’ve been neglecting paperwork for the last two days.”
Before he could set his GPS to give him directions, his phone rang again.
“Armstrong.” He listened for several minutes. “We’ll be there in less than two hours.” He hung up and glanced at Lucy. “Dead girl at the morgue in Laredo. She recently gave birth.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The resort where Carson Spade had stayed for two nights was one of the best in the region. Acapulco was a tourist city, and as such security was tight; as long as tourists stayed in town, they were relatively safe. Any tourist area had to worry about pickpockets and thieves, but leaving the city could be extremely dangerous.
“Nicco is expecting us.”
“Who?” Sean asked.
“Head of security. He pulled tapes for us.”
Sean didn’t always know how Kane did what he did. For example, there was a jeep waiting for them at the small airport where they landed. Two young men were also waiting, and Kane slipped them money to guard the plane. He didn’t want to land at a government-run airport for fear of tripping a security net—the government might search or detain them. Plus, as Kane had warned Sean earlier, having the name Rogan was dangerous in certain areas. The Mexican government had made great strides in stemming police corruption, but it was still a problem and the government itself wasn’t squeaky clean. What government was? There was always someone easily bought. That could benefit Kane—or get him killed. That Sean looked like a younger, taller version of Kane didn’t help. The luxury resort was on the south side of Puerto Marquez Bay, out of the main Acapulco area, but more expensive than most of the resorts in the region.
“Why didn’t she come with him?” Kane asked as he drove onto the resort grounds.
“She said she runs an antiques business in LA. Didn’t want to take the time off.”
“You believe that?”
“I don’t think she would have let her kid go to Mexico with her husband if she suspected he was up to something.”
“Hmm.”
“Which means what?”
“How’s their relationship?”
“She said fine.”
“You didn’t push.”