“I know how it sounds, Uncle Ty. But you’ve handled dozens of cases. Just because it’s easier not to believe it, that doesn’t mean it’s not true. Am I right?”
Of all the big cases he’d been involved in, and some went high up into the government, it was always easier at first to doubt your reasoning. To even accept yourself that it was true. “You were a science major in college, if I recall?”
“Geology.” She shrugged. “I’m like an expert on rocks and things.”
“And in geology, if someone was pushing this theorem, one that had a way of making you believe it if you fit a number of things together, but was unsubstantiated by fact, only possibility, no matter how credible the thinking behind it seemed … what would you advise them to do?”
“I know where you’re going with this, Uncle Ty … I’d tell them to test it. To corroborate it. With evidence. Both in the field and in the lab.” She took out a pen and grabbed a napkin and wrote something on it, and passed it across to Hauck. “So there …”
It was a number. D69-416.
Hauck asked, “What’s this?”
“Your corroboration. It’s the license plate number of the car that went in there just after Trey. From the security film at the park gate. Just check it out. You can do that, can’t you?”
“I don’t exactly have jurisdiction to do anything out here. Plus, I gave your stepfather my word.”
“Ex-stepfather,” Dani said. “Look, Wade’s basically a good guy. I don’t know why he would have sat on this. But he’s not exactly his own man these days. He’s burned a lot of bridges and he’s got a son who’s in a VA hospital who needs every dime he has. I think it’s fair to say, there’s not another job for him after this one.”
“So maybe he did check it out. And it went nowhere.”
“If that’s the case, then what’s there to lose? Please, that’s all I’m asking. If you can bring down the secretary of the Treasury, I know you can manage to get an ID on a license plate. If it leads nowhere, I’ll drop it. I promise. I’ll be a good girl.”
Hauck nodded. He folded the napkin up and put it in his shirt pocket. “And if it does lead somewhere …?”
“If it does lead somewhere, it means that Trey and Rooster were murdered …”
“And we give it to Chief Dunn. That’s the only way I’ll do it. I’m not going around playing cowboy here, Dani. That’s the deal.”
“Fine.” She nodded. “I agree.”
“Good. So now that we’ve gotten past that, where does a guy stay in this place? On an ex-detective’s wage. I don’t need to bunk next to Jay-Z and Beyoncé.”
“You’re welcome to stay with me.” Dani shrugged. “If you don’t mind the company.”
“Roommates?” Hauck asked.
“No. Long tail. Four legs.”
“I love dogs, but maybe it’s better if we keep this a working relationship,” Hauck said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Brooke …?” Hauck called in from a room at a pleasant-looking motel not far from Dani’s apartment unit.
His secretary back at Talon was silent, clearly startled. “Ty …? Is that you?”
He hadn’t called into the office in almost a month. “The one and only.”
“Where are you? Still in the Caribbean? I have a ton of mail and some messages I was going to send in my weekly email.”
“I’m actually in Aspen.”
“Aspen? Colorado?”
“Nearby anyway. A town called Carbondale.”
“Jeez, you certainly win the prize on how to get the most out a leave of absence. What happened to the boat?”
“It’s in a marina back in St. Kitts. An old friend called me to get involved in something, something to do with his daughter who got into a bit of trouble out here.”
“Everyone was expecting you to come back here.”
“I’m just checking out a few things and then I’ll be back. Which is the reason I’m calling. I need you to do something …”
“Ty, everyone here wants to know what’s going on. People come up to me, as if I have some inside information. Even Mr. Foley asked.” Tom Foley was Hauck’s boss, president of Talon, who Hauck knew was using him, his name recognition at least, to attract accounts. “I’m not sure how to respond.”
“Respond how I would respond myself. I don’t know. Soon. If Foley needs to reach me, he knows my number, same as you.”
“He said he’s tried, Ty.”
“Well, yes, in fact, he has,” Hauck admitted. “Somehow I always seem to be at sea.”
Brooke laughed. She’d worked at Talon when Hauck arrived there. But over time she had proven again and again how loyal she was to him. “Last I heard, Colorado isn’t anywhere near the coast. I think he’d be pretty mad if I didn’t connect you.”
“I’d be mad if you did.”
“Very nice of you to put your executive assistant in the middle between you. I didn’t take this call, okay? So what is it you need?”
“I have a Colorado license plate number. I want to know who it belongs to.”
“How do you want me to find out?” The company had several ways to go about it. Both above and below board. Proper channels was to put though a request through Motor Vehicles, but they would need to know why and that could take a few days. Hauck was hoping to clear this up and get back to his boat as quickly as he could.
Less transparently, they could lean on their various law enforcement contacts they had. In the police or FBI. That could get the information in an hour. Those kinds of favors were called in every day. But then there would be a trail. Someone would know. And sometimes, you didn’t want a trail.
The third way was to just pay someone off. There’d be no trail. No one would ever know. They’d get the information in a flash. Just a ledger in the company’s cash account.
“You choose. It’s all aboveboard,” Hauck said. “And it’s not that kind of getting involved. At least not yet. I just want it back as quickly as you can. Being on land is making me dizzy.” If Brooke was one thing, she was resourceful. And discreet. “Okay …?”