“I think you’re right and wrong at the same time,” he says.“You’re right that someone’s after her.You’re wrong about how you’re going after them.”
“I’ll hunt them all,” I say.“Every name.Every ghost.”
“You’ll bury yourself doing it.”
“I don’t care.”
“You say that now.”He leans in.“You care about one thing.”
“What?”
“Her.”
“I never said I’m in love with Daniela,” I say.
“You don’t have to,” he says.“It’s in your eyes.”
Fuck.Is it that obvious?“I… I can’t lose her,” I say.
“Then stop acting like losing yourself is collateral you can afford.Don’t you want to be someone worthy of her once all this is squared away?”
I laugh, though it’s forced.“You sound like a therapist.”
“Man, I’m so far from that.”He tilts his head.“But what the fuck… You want to make a list?”
“Of suspects?”I tap at my temple.“It’s already in my head.”
“No.A list of how to do this on the up and up.”
I take a deep breath, center my thoughts.“Reyes doesn’t get to walk.Not until I figure this out and have some leverage over him.”
“I agree,” Falcon says.“You’re already in too deep with him.But youhaveleverage.What he did to Daniela.”
“My word against his.”
“True.”Falcon pauses.“But he doesn’t have to know that.Maybe Agudelo kept photos.Videos.”
I smile.“Yeah.Maybe he did.”
“Good.”Falcon rubs his forehead.“You still think Haynes is a plant?”
“Yes.”
“By who?”
“Could be Reyes trying to misdirect,” I say.“I’m still not completely convinced he’s clean on this.Or he could be someone using Reyes to distract me.Or he could be the pawn of someone else.”
“Gordon Brown?”Falcon asks.
I shake my head.“Vinnie’s gut.Maybe.Dani doesn’t remember the name.But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t there.A lot of those men probably used aliases.”
“Okay,” he says.“Here’s what we do.”
I wait.
“You call a PI.Today.You have him scrub Jordan, Reyes, Brown, and anyone else Vinnie flagged.Quietly.Legal enough to pass a sniff test.”
“Legal enough,” I echo.
