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I scraped eggs as I did my best to cling to the sliver of hope that offered. “They stole a cell phone in Austin and headed northwest. Called, then turned off the phone and probably ditched it for good measure.” I sighed. “Not much help. Thanks for checking though.” But then I frowned. “I keep coming back to Tsuneo being in this area. That means something. Maybe Idris was here with him, and they’re moving him somewhere else?”
Ryan grimaced. “‘Northwest of Austin’ covers a lot of ground. We need another lead.”
He was right, damn it. The location clue had felt like a big victory but was virtually useless by itself.
I removed the eggs from the heat, clicked the burner off and mentally shifted gears. “Give me your opinion on something.” I pulled two plates from the cabinet and divided the eggs onto them. “If you were holding Idris against his will and wanted his cooperation—having already killed his sister—would you also kill the mother?”
He remained silent for a moment then shook his head. “Makes more sense to keep her as insurance. A hostage.”
Thin relief went through me. I placed the pan in the sink, nodded. “My thought as well. So, the good news is that she’s proba
bly not dead.” I set one of the plates and a fork in front of Ryan. “The bad news is they almost certainly have Idris’s cooperation.” I grabbed my plate and a fork and thunked down into the chair across from him, mood suddenly bleak over our lack of progress. “Now I know why Idris told me to stop looking for him.”
“You like him a lot,” he observed.
I squirted ketchup onto my eggs, ignored Ryan’s wince as I did so. “He’s like a kid brother. A seriously talented and really great kid brother.”
“I’m sorry. This must suck for you.” He forked some eggs into his mouth, gave me an approving nod.
“It does.” I offered him a slight smile. “You’d like him too.” I paused to eat. “Mzatal loves him,” I said after a few minutes. “Like a son.”
Ryan leveled a deeply skeptical look at me. “Mzatal? Like a son?”
“Yeah.” I started to dump sugar into my coffee, then remembered Ryan had already fixed it the way I liked it. “Crazy, I know, but he really does. Mzatal hasn’t stopped looking for Idris since he was taken.” I took a long sip of coffee, then lowered the mug and gave an evil smile. “And Mzatal slammed Jesral after he and Asshole sent Idris to Earth. It was fucking beautiful.”
Ryan let out a bark of laughter. “I bet.” He scooped up the last of the eggs. “Thanks for breakfast.”
“Anytime.” I finished my own then stood and cleared the plates. “Should I call Pellini and let him know we have an ID?”
“Yes, and tell him we’ll send over details shortly.”
Ryan returned to the basement to finish his report. I retrieved my phone, thumbed through the address book to Pellini’s name, and pressed call. It rang half a dozen times before he picked up.
“Pellini,” he rasped in a sleep-clouded voice.
“Hey, it’s Gillian. Wake up.”
I heard some mumbling and scuffling, then, “Yeah. I’m here. You got something?”
“An ID on our vic,” I told him. “Garner and Kristoff will be shooting the details your way shortly.”
“This just come down? Who is she?”
“Found out in the last half hour. Her name’s Amber Palatino Gavin from Seattle.”
“It’s a solid ID?”
“Unfortunately, yeah.”
“Unfortunately?” he asked, puzzled.
“Turns out she’s the sister of a friend of mine. A guy I’m trying to find.”
He blew out his breath. “Coincidence?”
I hesitated, unsure how much to tell him or how to frame it in a way that didn’t sound weird.
“Kara? You don’t think it’s a coincidence, do you?” He sounded tense, but his tone held none of its usual belligerence or mocking. “Look, anything you can tell me is more than I got now. Maybe we can meet to talk about it? I’ll buy you a beer. Or lunch.” His words tumbled over themselves. “There’s this Italian place that’s pretty good and not expensive. I mean, like a business lunch. Work.” He spoke the last in a rush as if to be absolutely certain I knew it wasn’t a date-type thing.
