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“No, it doesn’t. I know he didn’t send it to his partner. I showed him and he didn’t know what the numbers meant either.”
“Well, I guess this will remain a mystery. Unless you want to come out to the desert and see if there’s something hidden at those coordinates.”
“Assuming they are coordinates and aren’t in Europe or Mongolia.”
“Yeah, both those places are out of my jurisdiction,” Brantley said as he retrieved his phone.
He messed with it while Margot ate some of her taco and sipped her whiskey. Before long, Brantley smiled and turned the phone to Margot. He’d googled the GPS coordinates for Borrego Springs, CA. Margot didn’t know much about longitude or latitude. What she’d learned back in grade school was long forgotten, but the big numbers were the same and smaller numbers were awfully close.
“It looks like it’s a little out of town, but those coordinates are a lot closer to Borrego Springs than Mongolia,” Brantley told her.
“I noticed.”
“So, you want to come check it out?”
“Are you inviting me out to the desert with you?”
“No, I’m a happily married man. I’m inviting you out to the desert as a sheriff’s deputy looking to take advantage of your experience, expertise, and familiarity with the case. Do you want some more tacos?”
“No, I’m good.”
“Hey, I get why you wouldn’t want to go out there.”
“Yeah? Why wouldn’t I want to go out there?”
“It didn’t end well for the last person to come out there poking around. From what I hear, Stickley was supposed to be a tough operator.”
“Are you saying I’m not?”
“No, from what I hear you’re no slouch either. What I’m saying is, it didn’t make any difference.”
“I thought you wanted me to go.”
“Sure, as a consultant to my department. I don’t want you going up there by yourself in an unofficial capacity.”
“What makes you think I’d do that?”
“Ames and Radcliff. They said that, besides being occasionally hostile, you don’t listen when people tell you to leave something alone. Are they wrong?”
“No, not completely, but I wasn’t planning to do anything but stay out of the way on this one.”
“I can see that, though I wouldn’t bet on Ames or your boyfriend checking out those coordinates any time soon.”
“You could check them.”
“I will be. I just thought you might pick up something I might miss.”
“I have a date tomorrow night.”
“If we do this right, you’ll be back in time. If not, I’m going to bet your detective boyfriend has had to cancel on you because of work.”
“Is this work? Normally for work I like to get paid.”
“You’re coming out as a consultant. That sounds like work to me.”
“Paid consultant?”
“That’s not something I can approve, but if I ask and they say yes, are you going to do it?”
