“Got it. Send me a routing number, and I’ll wire your payment.”
“I’ll do that. It’s been nice doing business with you.”
“Same here.”
He called Gamble while driving to the marina.
“I’m on another line. Let me call you right back,” she answered.
“Hang up on them,” he said. “You need to get in your car, and drive over to the marina in Ozona. There’s a restaurant next door called Ozona Blue. Park in their lot instead of the marina’s. And bring a cameraman with you.”
“What’s going on?”
“I can’t tell you that. Just get over here.”
“My boss will want to know.”
“Tell him you’re following up on a hot lead.”
“I’m not going to lie to him. You’ve got to tell me what the deal is.”
Gamble had helped him move the investigation forward, and he considered her an asset. But she worked in a newsroom, and he didn’t want to risk having her blurt out what he told her, and her boss deciding to send a more seasoned reporter. He needed to control the narrative, and to do that, he needed to control her.
“Never mind. I’ll call my friend at CNN. Have a nice day.”
He ended the call. He didn’t have a friend at CNN, or any other media outlet. He was bluffing, and thirty seconds later, it paid off when Gamble called him back.
“I’m on my way, and I’ve got a cameraman with me,” she said.
“What did you tell your boss?”
“False alarm. He’s out of the office, so I didn’t have to deal with him.”
“Great. Remember, park by the restaurant, not the marina.”
“I heard you the first time,” she said.
Chuck was in his office doing paperwork when Lancaster arrived at the marina. He pulled a handful of hundred-dollar bills out of his wallet, and dropped them on the desk. Chuck fanned the money out and silently counted it.
“This must be my lucky day,” he said.
“I need to rent two boats, and two people to captain them,” Lancaster said.
“When?”
“Right now. I’ve got two parties arriving in the next thirty minutes, so the boats need to be ready. Can you make that happen?”
“Not so fast. Is that FBI agent lady that I took out yesterday one of those parties?”
“She is. Is that a problem?”
“Is there going to be trouble? Like, people shooting guns? I don’t want to get myself or one of my people caught in a firefight.”
“The suspects have been apprehended, and are waiting to be picked up. No one will be put in harm’s way. You have my word.”
Lancaster didn’t have a pretty face, but he did have an honest one. Chuck gave him a hard look, then stuck out his hand.
“You have yourself a deal,” he said.
Lancaster stood by his car to wait for Gamble. He’d muted his phone before going into Chuck’s office, and saw that Beth had called him and also sent a text.
Call me! her text read.
If he called Beth, it would get ugly, and he wasn’t ready to deal with her rage just yet, so he called Gamble instead.
“How close are you?” he asked.
“Google Maps is saying that I’m three minutes away,” she said. “I just got a news flash on my phone. There was a shootout in Palm Harbor earlier, and a whole bunch of people are dead. Did you have something to do with that?”
“Not me,” he lied.
Gamble sent gravel into the air as she pulled into the lot, and parked. As her cameraman pulled his equipment out of the trunk, Gamble came over to where Lancaster stood. Every conversation they’d had began with her asking a question. That was about to change.
“You are about to get the greatest story of your life,” Lancaster said. “I’ve located the kidnapping victims, and they’re all safe. They’re being held hostage on a fishing boat out in the gulf. Very soon, a team of FBI agents will rescue them, and you and your cameraman will be there to capture it. Does that sound good to you?”
“How did you orchestrate this?” Gamble blurted out.
He put his finger to his lips. “You don’t get to ask questions, at least not to me. But you can talk to the FBI later. They busted this wide open, and deserve the credit.”
“Why do I feel like I’m being played?”
“Go wait in the restaurant. When the time is right, I’ll come in and get you. I’ve already arranged for a boat to take you out, so you can film while the rescue goes down.”
“Sounds like you’ve thought of everything. Let’s get some coffee, Dylan.”
After they were gone, he called Beth.
“I’m going to kill you,” the FBI agent said.
Chapter 46
Daniels shook with anger. Jon had set them up, and she was ready to throw a pair of handcuffs on him, and march him off to the nearest jail.
Three members of her team shared the car. Their clothes smelled of smoke, and their hair was filled with particles of soot. A shift in wind had sent smoke from the fire over them, and made a bad situation even worse.
She was going to catch hell for leaving the scene. EMS was still pulling bodies out of the smoldering rubble, and it was her job to supervise the collection of evidence. Instead, she’d left Baldini in charge, and she hoped that he didn’t screw it up.
She pulled into the marina and parked by the restaurant. Jon was nowhere to be seen, and that enraged her even more. She got out, as did her team.
“Over here,” a voice called.
Jon was in the marina, standing at the end of a long dock. She told her team to stay put, then hurried out of the parking lot and into the marina. As she marched down the dock, her fingers instinctively brushed the pair of cuffs on her belt.
“I thought you were my friend,” she said.
“I am your friend.” Then he added, “And I always will be.”
“Friends don’t set up friends.”
“What are you talking about?”
From her purse she removed the blasting cap she’d found near the restaurant. Made of aluminum and tube shaped, it had a six-inch wire tail encased in plastic along with a tiny transmitter. She held the device in front of his face, and waited for a reaction. When none was forthcoming, she exploded.
“Don’t you dare tell me that you don’t know what this is,” she said.
“I don’t know what it is,” he said.
“Stop playing games.”
“I’m not.”
“Have it your way. It’s a blasting cap with a wireless detonator. I thought that these had a limited range, but obviously I was wrong. Did one of your SEAL buddies turn you on to it?” He didn’t respond, so she continued. “You planted five blasting caps at the restaurant. Four of them went off, and tricked Dexter into thinking he was being shot at, so he drew on us. Admit it, Jon.”
“I have no idea how those blasting caps got there,” he said.
“There were surveillance cameras attached to the gutters that weren’t there yesterday,” she said accusingly. “You were nearby, watching the whole thing, and when the time was right, you detonated the caps. You wanted to pay Dexter back, and got the FBI to be your proxy.”
“Not me.”
“Go ahead and play dumb. It won’t get you anywhere.”
“Were any of your agents hurt?”
“We’re fine, no thanks to you. The bikers died, and so did the broker.”
“How about Dexter?”
“Dexter cashed in his chips. Are you going to come clean, or not?”
He shook his head.
“I’ve had some experience with blasting caps,” she said. “You buy them in bulk. When I search that tricked-up vehicle of yours, am I going to find more of these? Because if I do, I’m going to arrest you.”