Finding Carly (SEAL Team Hawaii #5)(33)

“Who does that leave?” Mustang asked.

“I haven’t spoken with Kelly Gregory yet, she was Keyes’s most recent ex-girlfriend. I’m guessing if she was treated as badly as Carly, that she most likely wouldn’t want anything to do with Keyes and his asinine plan, but I don’t pretend to understand women. It’s possible she was jealous and wanted to get back with Keyes. He broke up with her, as I understand it, so she might’ve wanted a chance to get rid of her competition, so to speak, if Keyes approached her.”

Jag pressed his lips together. He wasn’t willing to dismiss the woman. He’d had up-close-and-personal experience with how insane women could be. He pushed the thought away for now and concentrated on what Baker was saying.

“I also need to speak with Eddie Evans, Keyes’s neighbor, and his boss, Jamie Redmon, at the Coca-Cola plant where Keyes worked.”

“Any good leads with either of them?” Midas asked.

“Evans, maybe. His statement to the cops claimed that he didn’t know anything. Apparently he keeps to himself, said he minds his own business. Which I don’t doubt. What the detective hasn’t figured out yet is that the neighbor has a good reason to lay low. He’s got half a dozen scams going that I’m sure he doesn’t want anyone to find out about.”

“What kinds of scams?” Mustang asked.

“Charity, soliciting disaster relief funds, identity theft…the man’s a fuckin’ genius, as far as I can tell, except he’s using his smarts to scam people out of their money,” Baker said, the disgust easy to hear in his tone.

“You gonna shut that down?” Pid asked.

Baker shrugged. “Not my concern. Now, if someone I know and respect fell for one of his scams, then absolutely. But right now, my plate’s kind of full.”

Jag didn’t give a shit about the neighbor running his scams. All he cared about was Carly’s safety. “And the boss?” he asked.

“Another asshole. Seems Keyes surrounded himself with people just like him. But his alibi seems solid. He was at work, making someone’s life miserable by conducting their yearly evaluation. It’s why I haven’t made him a priority.”

Jag stomped over to his chair and collapsed into it with a sigh. “So, where does this leave us?” he asked. It didn’t feel as if he was any closer to finding out who might’ve been working with Keyes than he was a week ago.

“I’m still digging up shit,” Baker said. “Someone had access to a boat. Redmon, Langford, and Evans own boats, the others don’t. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t borrow someone else’s. Half the residents on this island own a boat, or at least have access to one. The weather was so shitty that night that most of the cameras at the marinas I’ve checked out so far either weren’t working or were useless because of the rain and wind. There are also plenty of private boat slips on the island that don’t have security cameras. But I’m not giving up.”

“What do you think?” Mustang asked. “Do you think there was an accomplice crazy enough to be out on the ocean that night in the storm? Do you think Carly’s still in danger, or has whoever Keyes was working with maybe slunk back into the shadows after he was killed?”

Jag waited impatiently for a response. He respected Baker. The man had an uncanny sixth sense. He knew what he thought, but wanted to know what the former SEAL was thinking, now that he’d been looking into the situation.

“My brain tells me that there’s nothing to find,” Baker said. “But my gut says differently. I can’t say for sure that I’m even looking at the right people. Keyes was an asshole, but he wasn’t stupid. He worked with a lot of people at the Coca-Cola plant, he could’ve talked any one of them into helping him. Detective Lee has done a good job interrogating the people Carly told him about, but Keyes likely had friends Carly didn’t know about.” Baker turned and met Jag’s gaze. “I’m on this.”

“On a scale of one to ten, how much danger do you think Carly’s in?” Jag asked bluntly.

“Five,” Baker said without hesitation.

Jag scowled. That wasn’t helpful. Not at all.

“It’s been months since that night,” Baker continued. “It’s obvious the accomplice is lying low. Not to mention, Carly’s been hibernating—which, for the record, I don’t think was a bad thing. There’s a good possibility that kept any accomplice from getting to her already. I hear she’s started working again.”

Jag nodded. “Part-time. Started yesterday, actually.”

“Right, trying to get back out there. Trying to reclaim her life. I admire that,” Baker said. “One of two things could happen…going about her regular business could light a fire under whoever Keyes was working with, set him off, make him try to finish what they started that night. Or he could slink back under the hole he came from, deciding she’s not worth the trouble.”

“And which do you think will happen?” Midas asked.

Baker looked at him. “I honestly have no clue.”

“Fuck,” Jag muttered.

“You can’t keep her in a gilded cage to protect her,” Mustang said quietly.

“I know,” Jag said. And he did. It was why he’d encouraged her to talk to her boss. To start working again. But that didn’t mean he was completely comfortable with it. “I’ve arranged for her to take some self-defense classes from Senior Chief Petty Officer Albertson,” Jag said.