be cool,” Alicia pointed out as she tugged at her shirt trying to get some air flowing over her body.
“Wrong. Buster is putting two other agents inside. He wants me and Diamond in the van,” Dani countered.
Alicia laughed and Dani cast her a look. “I'm sorry,” she said. “I just can't get used to you calling the captain ‘Buster,’ though, I admit, he does kind of look like one,” she conceded with another smile.
“So, if it's not Savendra. Who do you think it is?” Alicia asked, turning serious. Dani kept her eyes on the street, debating how much to tell the other agent. She liked Alicia Gordon, and her instinct said to trust her, but Dani's training said not to. She decided to hell with training; she had a niggling sense Alicia might be able to help in some way.
“We've got another potential. His name is Sonny Carlyle. We refer to him as Sonny. Sonny and Savendra has a better ring than Carlyle and Savendra or Sonny and Joe.” Dani explained conversationally why they referred to one suspect by his first name and the other by his last.
“And you think Sonny is the man—or rather, boy, I take it?”
“I do,” Dani answered.
Alicia took her eyes away from the glasses and glanced at Dani. But before she could ask why, Dani's phone rang. Glancing at the screen and seeing Drew's name, she hopped out of the car and walked several feet away.
“Dani. We have some news on Keogh I wanted to pass on.” Drew spoke the moment she answered, also explaining why Ty wasn't calling. “The crate with the weapons was already in the hanger at the airport when Smythe's belongings were prepped for shipping.”
“So they were never at his house?” She walked a little further away.
“It's looking that way. Adam is searching for footage in the storage area to see if we can either figure out who dropped the crate, or at least a time frame of when it was dropped.”
“I would think the hanger would have twenty-four-hour security footage.” As she commented, Dani's gaze caught on a little girl riding a tricycle in a driveway, her mom watching from the porch.
“They do, but it's not reliable. As in, there are several key hours missing at interesting times.”
“So is Smythe still on our list?” It would make things a hell of a lot easier if they could strike the ambassador off the list of potential arms dealers.
“Despite the fact that we can't find any additional intel linking the two together, none of us like those missing hours so we're all leaning that way.”
“And the daughter? Nelly?”
“Her father is on the list because we can't find any reason to take him off, but Nelly is a different story. Given her background and behavior, if either Smythe is involved most of us here would place our bets on her.” Drew's voice fell flat.
“So, we're not out of the woods?” It would be better if it was Smythe's daughter that was involved, but it would still be an interesting negotiation between the intelligence organizations in the US and the UK.
Dani sighed and looked away from the little girl. The valley sprawled below her, bleeding into the ocean beyond. “I know I sound like a broken record, Drew, but we're missing something. There are too many pieces moving with too much precision. It's almost as if there is someone pulling strings somewhere, orchestrating the whole thing. How else can we account for a drug dealer and militia hooking up, or Getz getting into arms dealing?” Her voice trailed off.
Both she and Drew were silent for a long moment. She was conscious of the heat radiating up from the sidewalk, the sounds of birds and children's laughter, but her mind was mulling over what she had just said. It wasn't anything that had formed in her mind before she'd spoken. But now that she'd vocalized it, it felt right. There had to be someone manipulating the whole mess. Who and why was a whole other question.
Drew sighed. “I think you might be right on this. Which is fucked up. The last thing we need is one more player, but without a central person, someone calling all the shots and making the connections, there's no way this level of operation, with this many players, would get off the ground.”
Dani didn't answer, knowing Drew was figuring out next steps.
“Fuck,” he swore.
“You want me to come home?”
“No,” he said after a pause. “Stay there, do your thing. If