home. Cell phone and wallet were on his person. But no keys were found.”
Dumpsite was a landfill. Thrown away like trash.
Forrest Lawson had been hired to do a job.
“Was he killed because he didn’t complete the job or because he did and was no longer useful?” I questioned.
“In my experience, if Lawson was sent to kill her, he would’ve done that straight off then searched her apartment and found the computer,” Coop said.
“I would agree with you,” Myles said and went on to note, “but this guy was a rank amateur. He let the target out of his sight. Lawson asked Evette if she had a backup. Maybe he wanted to make sure he had all the evidence before he took her out?”
“Whoever tried to run Evette over was wearing a mask,” I mumbled. “The car was stolen and that fits Lawson’s rap sheet. Three arrests for auto theft. And the bullshit with the oil poured on her engine either in an effort to catch the car on fire or just create a smokescreen so she couldn’t see and possibly crash, was sloppy. No way a professional would’ve left a crash to chance.”
“You’re thinking Lawson did all three jobs. Failed three times and was disposed of.”
Myles was tracking my line of thought.
“Three strikes,” Coop added.
“Four strikes,” I corrected. “It’d be good if you and Kevin carved out some time to stop by the café Evette ordered her lunch from. Someone there might know something about the peanuts in her food. Also, we need to know how Lawson was communicating with whoever hired him. And how and where the money was being transferred. And we still need to run with Evette’s hunch about the minerals. Garrett’s getting bogged down and we need this intel five days ago.”
“Garrett punted the mineral research to Tex,” Coop informed me. “And he’s working on getting Lawson’s cell records.”
Forrest Lawson was found with his phone in his pocket. That meant they wouldn’t find anything on it. Lawson might be a nitwit but I’d put money on it a professional took him out and wouldn’t be stupid enough to leave a cell behind if it contained information.
“The cell records won’t give us anything but the GPS in Lawson’s car might.”
“Lawson drove a Chevy Cruze. Not only does it have GPS it also has onboard Wi-Fi.” After Cooper imparted that tidbit he moved around the papers on the counter and showed me the email Delilah had sent Garrett. “You should read this.”
I glanced at the email. The more I read the more my stomach clenched.
Maybe I’d been wrong about Delilah Watts.
Please keep her safe.
Delilah didn’t mention Evette by name but it wasn’t a jump to infer who she meant.
“What are your thoughts on Delilah?” I asked Myles.
“Whistleblower,” he immediately answered.
“And you?” I turned to Cooper.
“I admit I was on the fence. But the more we look into Abrams the more shady shit we find. It’s not just Timor-Leste where they’re trying to lease land. They also have a bid in Croatia and El Salvador. All three countries have had recent insurgencies, and the areas Abrams wants to go into are overrun with criminal activity. All three have strong rebel forces. And all three locations had villages that occupied the land they wanted.”
“Had?” Myles queried.
“Just like in Timor-Leste not long after Abrams approached the government there were attacks on the villages.”
“Are there minerals in those locations?” Myles went on.
“No clue. But I can tell you there are no EPA regulations and the UN global environmental laws are not followed or enforced. So Abrams could set up shop, test anything they wanted to with no oversight. Or they could strip-mine the land and as long as they paid off the right people no one would stop them.”
“Coincidence,” I mumbled.
“There was never a ransom on Kalee,” Myles reminded me. “Mr. Solberg is a very rich man. He would’ve paid any price the rebels asked.”
“The only thing I hate more than a fucking coincidence is—”
“A rectal exam?” Myles interrupted me. “I heard without enough lube the latex chafes.”
It wasn’t Cooper’s chuckle or Myles’ obnoxious laughing that caught my attention. It was the very feminine giggle from behind me.
“I’m sensing a theme,” Evette said.
“Shit.” Myles’ laughter died but Cooper’s did not.
“I’m afraid to ask,” I said and turned around.
I was met with a beaming smile.
So bright my lungs started to burn.
Yeah, there was no chance I was letting Evette get away.
Waking up next to the smile every day would not be a hardship.