Page 33 of Juan

“But what ‘means’ is he providing these people? What’s actually killing them?” Hawkeye asked. “There’s no clear common thread tying the deaths together. The suicides, robbery, and the woman whose house was torn apart have mental aspects to them. But then we have four car accidents. The locations might be out of character, but as Adrian said, it’s not unusual for folks to fall asleep at the wheel.”

“How old was the woman who died in her sleep?” Stone asked.

“Seventy-one,” Leo said.

“Young, but not as uncommon as, say, a thirty-year-old,” Stone conceded. “It could have been natural. And the fire really could have been an accident.”

“I’ve given this a lot of thought,” Adrian said. “If he’s involved, which I’m assuming he is, then it can only be one thing.” Everyone looked at her. “I don’t know how or what, but the only thing I can think of that might have a hand in so many different kinds of deaths—”

A picture clicked together in Juan’s mind. A puzzle still missing pieces but the image clear. “Drugs,” he said. “Anthony is selling a drug. One that I’m betting won’t show up on a standard tox screen.”

Chapter sixteen

“Drugs?” Amber repeated. It both made sense and didn’t. Spencer nodded, but everyone seemed to be waiting for her to say more. She dropped her gaze, contemplating the possibility, then lifted it again when Spencer squeezed her hand. “I don’t know,” she started. “ If Anthony is involved, then in some ways, drugs make sense. It’s something he can pass off to someone else. Like I said earlier, something he doesn’t have to be close to when it kills,” she said. “But what kind of drug could cause all those reactions? I’m no expert on illicit substances, but it seems like it would need to be something unusual. Not the ones we read about so frequently. And that’s the part that doesn’t fit. He’s not the adventurous sort, and I don’t see him being capable of finding a drug that can do the things we’re talking about, let alone finding it in sufficient quantities to sell.”

“That’s one of the first things we need to track down,” Spencer said. She looked at him in question. “What kind of drug could be involved,” he clarified. “It’s got to be something psychotropic.”

“And something that either isn’t part of a standard tox screen or redistributes after death fast enough to not show up in one,” Hawkeye said.

“Are we getting ahead of ourselves?” Philly asked. “There are a lot of questions on the table, including whether or not any of these people—other than the guy shot by the police—were even killed.”

“He’s right,” Callie said. “To my way of thinking, there are three primary avenues to investigate: were the deaths murder; if so, what caused them; and what, if anything, was Anthony’s role. As I said, I’ll look into Anthony and his finances. That will give us a better picture of where his income comes from. From there, we might find connections to these folks.” She gestured to the pictures on the table. “Or more likely, to the family members we think paid to kill them.”

“I’ll look into the deaths themselves,” Leo said. “And the ME. Her past intrigues me.”

“Which leaves the drugs,” Dulcie said.

“Which may be a fool’s errand if there’s been no actual murders,” Mantis replied.

“It can’t hurt to look, though,” Stone chimed in. “Juliana can help.”

Amber smiled at that. Juliana liked nothing more than digging up interesting bits of buried information. It was how she and Stone had met in the first place. “She’d probably like that,” she said. Stone’s lips ticked up and his eyes softened, making Amber wonder when the two were going to tie the knot. Which also reminded her to follow up with Juliana about the dinner she’d asked about on Youth Day.

“I can ask Kara, too,” Mantis offered. “She might have some insights.”

“And I’ll reach out to Agent Perry,” Dulcie said. Everyone, including Amber, looked at him. Agent Grace Perry and her team had helped the Falcons with a situation at Bacco right after Monk’s father died. It didn’t surprise Amber that the club would reach out to the DEA if they thought drugs were involved. But the team was run by a man who’d served with several of them. That Dulcie would reach out to Agent Perry rather than their friend was interesting.

Dulcie shrugged. “She called the other day to check in on everyone. Besides, if we bring in Reaper, you know he’s going to be all up in this, and I don’t think we’re ready to ratchet up to his level of intensity yet. If we find anything that’s up his alley, we can go to him then.”

Amber had never met any of the agents, only heard their names, but judging by the conciliatory nods of the Falcons, Dulcie’s observations rang true.

“What am I supposed to do?” Amber asked. She’d been around the Falcons long enough to know that this problem wasn’t hers alone to carry, but still, she needed to participate somehow.

“You have a daughter you need to focus on,” Spencer said. She slid him a narrow look. “But you should get a lawyer,” he added quickly. “You’re going to need to sort everything out about her. She doesn’t have a birth certificate, you have no proof of parentage, and once you prove parentage, you’re going to need to get full legal custody of Zoe. You’ll probably need to get a DNA test—”

“We can arrange that,” Callie said.

Spencer acknowledged the offer with a nod, not taking his eyes off her. “I can’t imagine getting full custody will be a problem, given what Clara and Adrian told us about the night she was born. Especially not if we can also prove he’s involved in those deaths.” He gestured to the photos. “But all that will take time and probably a lot of paperwork.”

He wasn’t wrong. Or she assumed he wasn’t. She’d seen the legal struggles of many of the women the Falcons helped in the past year when it came to custody rights. And those mothers had birth certificates. But while that process was a big concern, it wasn’t her only one.

“I also want to be sure there’s no backlash on Adrian and Clara,” Amber said. With a twinge of resignation, she acknowledged that maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to leave the potential murders in the hands of others and focus solely on what she needed to do to secure her daughter’s safety, along with Clara’s and Adrian’s. Of all the next steps they’d identified, those were the only ones she really had any control over.

As if sensing her unease, Callie spoke. “I’m going to have questions for you as I start digging. We all probably will.” Leo nodded in agreement. “We may each have our strengths and areas to work on, but it’s all intertwined. None of us operate in a silo.”

She offered Callie a grateful smile. She could only do what she could do, and while she’d discovered she could do way more than she’d given herself credit for in the past year, Callie was right. What they were all about to step into would be a tangled web of deceit, danger, and treachery. They each had their pieces to focus on, but it wouldn’t ever be completely over until all the threads unraveled.

She exhaled again. “Okay, I need a lawyer.” She glanced around the room, her gaze landing on Mantis, then Leo. “Any chance Justice Warwick might have a recommendation?” Charley and Joey’s father was a federal circuit court judge. She didn’t know if he knew any local family law lawyers, but figured if he didn’t, he’d know someone who did. Someone who could handle this delicate situation.