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They intended to get his confession on video.

Easy.

Or maybe not.

As soon as they entered the condo, the hair on the back of Brax’s neck stood on end. Something was not right. He gave the signal to spread out and proceed with caution. It wasn’t until they got to the last room, the primary bedroom, that he found out why. Edgar was on his bed, his sleeve rolled up, a rubber tourniquet tied around his upper arm, and a hypodermic needle hanging out of his vein. There was foam around his blue lips, and his dead eyes were partially open.

All three of them took off their night vision goggles and Brax turned on the bedroom light. They touched nothing.

Beside the corpse was a spoon, a baggie of what had to be heroin, and a lighter. A cheap lighter.

Brax saw the pack of Parliament cigarettes on Edgar’s dresser. There was a lighter beside it that looked gold-plated. “Take a look at this.” He nodded at the expensive lighter.

“Someone sure did a shitty job of setting up this overdose.” Gideon said in disgust.

“Ronald?” Mateo asked. “But why would he? Why not just cut him loose? People dump their boyfriends or girlfriends all the time,” Mateo asked.

“Because now Ronald is an accessory after the fact of the embezzling, and I’m sure that Edgar has pointed this out,” Brax said slowly. “Or better yet, he’s an accessory after the fact of Angela’s murder.”

“Yep, I’m sure he would have pointed that out,” Gideon agreed. “Now Ronald wants all the players off the board.”

“How do we get to Ronald?” Mateo asked.

“We’re sure as hell not going to be all nice and get a paper trail. Now I get to get him in a room alone, and this time I want four minutes.” Brax caught a glimpse of his face in the mirror above the dresser. He looked deadly.

Jenny smiled when she saw her friend’s number come up on the screen. “Hi, Tina. Did you like the picture I sent you of the interview look?”

“Uhmm, I didn’t see it,” Tina said.

“You didn’t?”

“Uhmm, no.”

Jenny frowned. “Are you okay?”

Jada looked up from where she was watching a reality TV show, and Jenny shrugged.

“Look, Jenny, I really wanted to come and visit you. Remember when I said that?”

“Sure. I can’t wait to see you.” Jenny smiled. “But I think I should come out to you. Brax snowboards. So, it will be perfect for us to come out and hit the slopes. There’s just a couple of little things that need to be sorted⁠—”

“Stop! Just stop!”

“Tina, honey, what’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry. Let me start again. I came to visit you. I wanted to surprise you. I’m near the Norfolk airport, but my rental car broke down and my phone’s about to die.”

“Honey, I’m having trouble understanding you. Are you safe?”

Tina sobbed.

“I’m going to call the police,” Jenny said firmly.

“No! You can’t. I just need you to come and get me. I need to see you. Please. Can you come and get me?”

“Do you know where you are?”

“When I drove in it said Norfolk Industrial Park. I’m in a parking lot somewhere on Village Road. Can you please come and get me? I’m in a white Toyota Corolla.”