“Did you tell Joey not to talk to me or something?” Bones asked.
“No, I just warned her that, ever since your injury, you try to overcompensate by hitting on every woman you meet, and she should be patient with you but not encourage you.”
“What injury?”
“You got shot in the pelvis and now you can’t do your manly duty. That’s why we call you ‘Bones.’ It’s one of those ironic nicknames.”
Dane smothered a laugh in a rasping cough while Bones’ cheeks turned crimson.
“That was you, wasn’t it?” Tam asked with a straight face. “Or did I confuse you with somebody else? I’m sorry.”
“Not bad,” Bones admitted. “You do realize the next move is mine?”
“I’m counting on it, sweetie. Just don’t forget I’m the boss.”
The door at the end of the hallway opened into a well-lit conference room painted in bright colors and furnished with tropical plants. A giant, high definition screen on the far wall showed rolling surf and palm trees swaying in a gentle breeze. Just above the edge of hearing, the sound of waves crashing onto shore whispered from invisible speakers.
A long, oval table sat in the middle of the room. All the seats were occupied but three. Some of the faces were unfamiliar, but Matt, Willis, and Corey, the rest of Dane’s crew, were there, smirking at Dane and Bones like the two were school kids who’d just come from the principal’s office. A blonde sat with her back to them, but Dane didn’t need to see her face to recognize her.
“Avery?”
At the sound of her name, his sister turned around. He’d expected her to look contrite, if not downright guilty, but instead, she set her jaw and raised her eyebrows.
“Yes?”
“What are you doing here?”
“I work here. You have a problem with that?” The look in her eyes told him it would be a bad idea to answer in the affirmative.
“Man, I love it when she gets all Maddock Junior on him.” Willis laughed and slapped his thigh. “That’s exactly what you look like when you act stubborn,” he said to Dane.
“Come on, now. Maddock isn’t stubborn.” Bones put a protective arm around Dane’s shoulders. “When he knows he’s right, he sticks to his guns. And he’s right all the time.”
Everyone joined in the laughter, even the unfamiliar faces. Dane shrugged Bones’ arm away and turned to his friend. “You knew about this, didn’t you?”
“I told you she was moving down here because she got a new job.”
“You left out one important detail.”
“Not that long ago, you didn’t even know I existed,” Avery said. “This way, we get to spend even more time catching up on all those lost years.”
He couldn’t argue. It had only been a few months since he learned that his father, Hunter Maddock, had a daughter a few years younger than Dane. Avery was the sole blood relative he had left in the world, and the idea of her being a part of their new team, worried, even frightened him a little. Except for Angel, all the people he cared about were now part of this team, and that meant their lives were in peril. He knew they were adults and the responsibility was not his, but he couldn’t like it.
“It doesn’t matter,” Tam said. “I needed to add to our research staff. I like her and, more important, I trust her. She’s one of the few people in the world I can be one hundred percent sure isn’t connected to the Dominion. Are we clear?”
Dane nodded. As he took his seat, the others greeted him. He shook hands with Greg Johns, a tall, lean man with close-cropped, dark hair. They’d worked together once before, and Greg was a solid agent. The other two agents were Joel Berg, a sandy-haired man of about forty, and Kasey Kim, and attractive woman of Korean descent, who looked to be in her late twenties.
“You forgot to save me a seat.” Bones smiled at Kasey, who made a wry face and shook her head. “It’s cool. I’ll grow on you.”
“Like a fungus,” Corey chimed in.
“You two can paint each other’s toenails after the meeting. Let’s get to work.” Tam picked up a remote, clicked a button, and the image on the HD screen changed to a satellite image of Key West. Red circles dotted the map. “The circles are places where someone witnessed a murder during the tsunami, or a body was found with a gunshot or knife wound.”
“I don’t see a pattern, but that’s a lot of people,” Dane said.
“Twenty three. And those are just the ones we know about. The waters receded quickly. No telling how many might have been washed out to sea.”
“But the island was under water for, what, an hour?” Bones cupped his chin and stared thoughtfully at the map.
“Exactly. Think about that. What are the odds that the killers saw the tsunami hit, spontaneously cooked up a scheme to ride around in a boat murdering people, and pulled it off in such a short period of time?” Tam looked up and down the table.
“Or that a guy would run home, strap on his diving gear, and start cutting throats,” Matt added.
“You’re saying they knew the Tsunami was coming and they were ready.” Dane shook his head. “But how?”
“We’ll get to that in a minute. You said you didn’t see a pattern in the circles, and that’s true, but Corey’s found something.” The screen now filled with head shots. “These are the victims. See a pattern there?” No one answered. “Corey?”
“They’re all minorities.”
“Most of them are, but there are a couple of white dudes up there too.” Bones gestured at the screen.
“I did some checking and they’re gay.” Corey ran a hand through his short, red hair. “Willis told me about the killing they witnessed. He said one man referred to the other as his partner. That was my first clue.”
“That church we went to turned away the Latina woman and her little boy.” Willis scowled. “Bet you they’d have taken her in if she was white.”
“It could be a coincidence,” Tam said, “but I’ve got a feeling we’re on the right track. There’s more. We’ve been checking on our dead men — the one who came after me and Matt, and the one Bones snatched with his new toy. Both were members of the same church. The one who turned us away.” She paused, letting that sink in. “As far as we can tell, no other members lost their lives. Seems like every one of them just happened to be in the church at the time the tsunami hit. Every one.”
“On a weekday during business hours.” Dane didn’t bother to hide his disbelief.
“You catch on quick.”
“What is this church like? Conservative?” It was the first time Joel had spoken, and Dane noted the man’s rich voice and the way he enunciated each word.
“Not conservative — crazy. Separatist, racist, misogynist, every bad stereotype you can think of.”
“That guy we caught, the one who was killed, said something about a cleansing,” Bones said. “That definitely sounds like something this church would approve of. What’s a church like that doing in Key West? This place is chill.”
“Good question. The building has been around for a long time, but this pastor and congregation are new. He moved here from Utah less than a year ago, bought the church and grounds, though we don’t know for sure where the money came from, and managed to run off all the old members with his hate mongering.”
The back of Dane’s neck began to itch. He was beginning to understand why this was an issue for their team. Tam suspected the Kingdom Church in Utah was the driving force behind the Dominion in the United States, though she hadn’t yet managed to prove it. “You think this is a front for the Dominion.”
“I think it’s a possibility, even a probability.”
“I’ve been running background checks on the church members,” Corey said. “So far, I haven’t found one who’s from around here. It’s like this whole group was planted here.”