Best Laid Plans(92)

“Kane’s being cautious. He always is, but this time I think he’s justified.”

There had to be more to it than Kane’s natural vigilance. “Why?”

“Because Kane came here last night.”

“And?”

“And I don’t need another reason. You don’t know Kane like I do. He doesn’t just stop by to talk. He went to see Brad Donnelly as well. Kane likes federal agents less than I do. A call would have sufficed, but he wanted to be here. I don’t think he’s going far. What do you know about this gang hit the other day?”

“Only what Brad told us the other night. Ryan said they’d ID’d one of the shooters as belonging to a different gang, possibly a rival of Trejo. I’ll be careful, I always am. And I’m partnered up with Barry. He’s good.”

“I’d rather you were with Nate or Ryan or MacKenzie.”

“Why? Because Nate and Kenzie were in the military and Ryan was a street cop?”

“Partly. But mostly because I know them. I don’t know Barry Crawford from Adam, and I didn’t like him when I met him.”

Lucy understood Sean’s protectiveness, but this was going a bit far. “Then trust me. Barry’s a smart guy. Yes, a little by the book and a stickler for protocol, but he’s good.”

“Of course I trust you. I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“It’s Brad who needs to be careful. He’s DEA. He’s the one they wanted dead.”

“But Brad didn’t see Tobias.”

“And Tobias doesn’t know I saw him.” They were going around and around on this and would never come to an agreement. “Sean. Please. I know you worry, but I’m a trained federal agent. Better, Jack trained me before I even joined the FBI. I take precautions. I’m not even working with Brad anymore. I’m working an old-fashioned murder investigation.”

“There’s nothing simple about this murder investigation.”

“That we can agree on.” She leaned up and kissed him. “I love you. I’ll see you tonight, if not sooner.”

*



As soon as Lucy left, Sean went to his office and took his special laptop out of the safe. Overkill, perhaps, but this laptop could get him into a lot of trouble.

He booted it up using his own secure server and ran a program to search out the worm he’d installed yesterday in Mona Hill’s computer. His cell phone rang a minute later and for a split second he thought he’d screwed up and this was Nate telling him that the FBI was on their way to arrest him.

Of course it wasn’t. First, he didn’t screw up. Second, the FBI didn’t work that fast.

It was his old friend, PI Renee Mackey.

“You’re fast and wonderful, as usual,” Sean said when he picked up his cell phone.

“Don’t forget it, sugar,” Renee said. “I just sent you a report, with pictures, but thought I’d call and give you the four-one-one.”

He put his secure laptop aside and pulled up his email on his primary computer. As Renee spoke, he flipped through the pictures of an upper-middle-class home on a large parcel just outside of the city. There were also pictures of a woman and a boy. The woman was pretty in a simple way—long dark hair, balanced face, good bone structure. She was young—mid to late twenties.

“The woman is Darlene Hatcher, twenty-six. The boy is hers, Bobby. He’ll be eight this summer. No father in the picture—no marriage license, no court-ordered child support, no custody agreement on record. I sent you his birth certificate. No father was listed. But, I did a little digging. The residence Darlene put on the birth certificate doesn’t exist.”

“She’s in hiding.”

“Possibly.”

“But look at the certificate.”

Sean scrolled through the documents. Renee had taken a picture of the birth certificate. Name, address, mother’s maiden name …

“Jefferson.”

“Bingo.”

Darlene hadn’t put her father down on the birth certificate, either. Was she Mona’s younger sister? It made sense in a strange way.

He looked back at Darlene’s picture. She was Caucasian, like Mona’s mother. But as he studied the bone structure, he saw that even though Mona was of mixed race, they had the same basic facial shape and the same green eyes.

“What does Darlene do for a living?”

“She’s a teacher. Went to college a little late, graduated last year with a master’s in early childhood education. Teaches kindergarten.”

Sean tried to process all the information. Mona had a half sister. She was paying for her to live well, while Mona, a former porn star, ran a prostitution ring in San Antonio. There had to be more to it.

“And I know exactly what you’re thinking, Sean. So I went there.”

“Went where?”

“To the school. Sniffed around. I can act the sweet little ole granny when I need to.”

He laughed. “I’d like to see that.”

“You’ll have to pay me extra. Well, there’s more to this story. Darlene listed on her employment forms that she has no family, that her parents are deceased and she has no living siblings. I then thought … how did Ramona Jefferson just disappear?”