Chapter 24
We cruised across the island with the windows down and the sunroof open. It was a momentary breather from the chaos.
"You know, taking you out at the drop site would be an ideal opportunity," I said.
"You’re not making me feel comfortable about this.”
"Maybe you shouldn't do it.”
"Is that concern I hear?”
"It's my attempt at using good judgment. Of which I've failed miserably in recent times."
She laughed. After a pause, she said, "This could be an opportunity to find out who hired me.”
“If your employer had you poisoned before you completed the job, I don't think acquiring the data was their primary motivation."
Kara's brow wrinkled with confusion. "What are you getting at?"
"What if this whole thing was never about the data?”
"What was it about then?"
"Somebody wanted to set you up for the murder of Yan Zheng. I think this whole thing was designed to create tension and turmoil.“
"Why? What's the point?"
"Think about it,” I said dryly.
We drove by the newspaper dispenser at the corner of Willow and Basswood Street.
There were two on the sidewalk—one for the Coconut Times, the other for the Island Weekly.
I surveyed the area as we passed by. Pedestrians walked up and down the sidewalk.
Traffic buzzed on the avenue. A homeless guy slept on the sidewalk not far from the dispensers.
Everyone ignored him as they passed. He could have been an operative. It was the perfect cover.
I made a left at the next intersection and drove down the boulevard.
A frown tightened my face. "I don’t like this.”
"I don’t like it either. Tell me what you saw.”
"Two guys sitting across the street at the café with earpieces. The homeless guy. The guy on the other corner panhandling. They all had earpieces.”
Kara looked at me, astonished. "How did you see all that?”
I shrugged. "It pays to look.”
"What does that mean?”
"It means we’re not pretending to make the drop.”
"Who do you think they are?"
I kept driving. "How well did you cover your tracks when you were on Zheng’s computer?”
"I didn't worry about covering my tracks. I just needed to get the files and get out of there.”
"The feds have had that laptop long enough to figure out the Chinese server was breached and something was downloaded. You didn't have time to clear the logs. They know data was stolen.”
Kara put all the pieces together. "And you think someone tipped off the feds that the drop was going down today at the newspaper dispenser.”
"I think so. Whoever hired you knows you'll be dead before you can testify.
If you get picked up, that's a speedy resolution to this situation.
The feds can prosecute you, close the case, and give the Chinese what they want.
A scapegoat. A nongovernmental actor. Those feds are just waiting to see who shows up to make the drop. "
"That’s a good theory," she said, "but that's all it is.”
"You got a better one?”
“I’m still not putting it all together.”
“It’s a work in progress,” I said.
We drove back to Diver Down, parked the Porsche, and hustled back to the Avventura.
We found Jack on the sky deck, catching some sun, listening to classic rock while Piper sat at the bar in the shade, hacking away on her laptop.
"How did it go?" JD asked.
"It didn't," I said, then filled him in.
I found Piper at the bar. "How's it going?"
"It's going,” she said, her face buried in the screen.
"Are you making any progress?”
Her fingers stopped typing, and she glared at me. "It's a process. Every time you interrupt me, you're slowing down the process."
I raised my hands innocently. "Time is a factor.”
"So leave me alone and let me do my job."
I backed away and joined Kara and JD at the table. I took a seat, and we strategized next moves.
I asked Kara how she was feeling.
"I feel like I got hit by a freight train and a vice is squeezing my head, but other than that, I feel great," she said with more than a hint of sarcasm.
Brenda buzzed my phone.
"You find anything?"
"I found something, but I don't know what the hell it is.
Standard toxicology report came back clean.
But she does have elevated troponin and D-dimer.
Elevated liver enzymes suggest hepatocellular stress or damage.
Elevated creatine kinase could suggest systemic inflammation or muscle breakdown.
She's got a chemical structure in her blood that I've never seen before.
It doesn't match anything in the database.
It's acting like some type of endothelial disruptor. "
"Can you send me the chemical structure and a copy of her results?”
"I certainly can. You figure out what this is, you let me know. Because it's got me baffled."
It was a rare day when Brenda got stumped.
“I’ll keep digging into it,” she said.
The conversation had piqued Kara's interest, and she hung on every word. When I ended the call, she said, “So, what's the verdict?”
I shrugged. "I don't know at this point. Whatever you’ve been poisoned with is new and novel.”
"Some type of designer toxin?”
“Looks that way.”
“You don’t just cook that kind of thing up in a bathtub, do you?”
JD said, “You’d be surprised by what people can cook up with readily available chemicals.”
“Everything’s readily available on the dark web,” I added.
Brenda sent the information to my phone, and I forwarded it to Isabella. If this were some high-level covert toxin, she’d be able to figure it out.
I tried to reassure Kara, but there wasn't much more I could do at the moment.
She grew more and more antsy. I didn't blame her. Kara said, "I feel like I'm sitting around, waiting to die."
I didn't have a response. The situation looked dire for her.
Sullen and introspective, Kara said, "What are you supposed to do with the last hours of your life?”
"Make the most of it," I said, trying not to sound trite.
"Just how am I supposed to do that? I feel like ass, someone's trying to kill me, and right now, I have no idea what my life was all about. What was the purpose? Did I make a difference? Did I leave the world a better place? Did it matter that I ever existed at all?”
I wished I had answers.
Kara deflated. "If you’ll excuse me, gentlemen, I think I need a little time to myself.”
I showed her to a below-deck stateroom. I wasn’t normally in the business of harboring potential suspects, but I didn't want to let her out of my sight, as per the sheriff's request. We’d already gotten sucked into this mess—there was no turning back now.
“I guess this is as good a room as any to die in,” she said with a sigh as she surveyed the compartment.
“You’re not going to die,” I said.
“You don’t know that.”
“I’m going to do everything I can to prevent that.”
“You might just have to accept that some things are beyond your control.”
I frowned and left Kara to her privacy. I returned to the sky deck and rejoined Jack as the afternoon gave way to evening.
"Think she's gonna make it?" he asked.
"I don’t know what to think about anything at this point.
With any luck, Isabella will identify the compound.
Maybe there's some kind of antidote or cure. But Kara’s right.
I don't think some kid cooked this up in a makeshift lab somewhere. This sounds like it was designed by someone with resources and know-how.”
"That's what scares me," Jack said. "We may be dealing with something bigger than we can handle."
I gave him a doubtful look. My ego wanted to say there's nothing we can’t handle. But the deeper we dug into this thing, the more convoluted it got. We were likely dealing with power players with lots of resources. But it wasn’t the first time we had been the underdogs.
My phone buzzed with a call from Doug Haskins—the guy staying directly across from the Pineapple Cabana.
“Hey, Doug. What’s going on?”
“Sorry to bother you, but I thought you might find this important. I was talking to this girl in the bar. She said she was on the beach the night of the murder with a guy she had met in the hotel. I guess they were out there fooling around. Anyway, she said she remembered seeing the blonde leave the Pineapple Cabana through the patio doors. Then a few minutes later, she saw a guy enter through the patio.”
“What time was that?”
“She said it was late. After midnight.”
“I need to talk to her.”
“I gave her your number and tried to get her information, but she didn’t want to get involved. I think she’s married or has a boyfriend, and the guy she was on the beach with wasn’t him.”
“Did she give a description of the man?”
“She said he was late 20s, early 30s, athletic build, maybe six feet. Bald with a face like a boxer. A square jaw and a dimpled chin. Said he looked like that action movie star. Can’t remember his name.”
“Is she still at the hotel?”
“I think she was leaving today. She had luggage with her. We chatted for a bit in the bar before she hit the airport. I’ll keep looking into this for you, asking around,” Doug said with enthusiasm. “This is kind of fun. Maybe you can deputize me,” he said with a chuckle.
“Keep up the good work,” I said before ending the call.
It was second-hand information, but it was better than nothing. I hoped the witness would call, but I wasn’t holding my breath.
The rest of the evening was pretty low-key.
Piper kept working on cracking the encryption.
JD and I hung around, had a few drinks, and kept an eye on Kara.
She stayed in her stateroom. I didn't blame her.
I didn't know her well, but I didn't think she had totally given up yet.
But she was dealing with an overwhelming sense of hopelessness.
I checked on her before I went to bed. I put a gentle fist against the hatch to her stateroom and asked, "Are you okay in there?”
"I'm still alive," she said.
"I'm going to bed. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask.”
She climbed off the bed and approached the hatch.
She cracked it open. "Thank you. You've been very kind to me. You didn't have to help me. Quite frankly, I'm not sure why you did. I put a terrible burden on you. You’ve risked your job, and I’ve made you a target. I’d say I won't forget that, but in a few days…” Her eyes filled, and she choked up.
"In a few days, you're going to be just fine. We'll figure this thing out. Then you can owe me one.”
She wiped the tears away and extended her hand. "Deal.”
We shook on it.
"Now get some sleep, stay hydrated, and think positive."
She laughed. "Positive. Right.” A grim frown pulled her face. "I'm working on that part.”
"Work harder.”
She chuckled again and gave me a mock salute. “Aye-aye, sir.”
“Oh, one more thing. When you left Mr. Yan’s cabana, how did you exit?”
“Through the sliding glass door. Why?”
“Did you see anyone else on your way out?”
“There was a couple on the beach making out. But I don’t think they paid any attention to me.”
I bit my tongue, said good night, then headed up to my stateroom. Her statement somewhat corroborated Doug’s story. At this point, I was pretty well convinced Kara was playing it straight with me. There was another killer.
I brushed my teeth, pulled off my clothes, and slipped into bed. I flipped on the TV to catch up on the news. The anchor said, "Futures plummet as international tensions continue to rise."
I turned off the TV as quickly as I had turned it on. I didn’t need more bad news to close out the day.
But the bad news kept coming. It was a little after 2:00 AM when the sheriff called.