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“Pisces Alley? It’s a cool little spot off the coast, about an hour boat drive. There’s a ton of spots like it. Cancer Bay, Gemini Grove. They aren’t well-known places, so they all feel really private. The names come from an old tourist map that went out of print back in the sixties and started getting passed around like it was the map to the Holy Grail or something.”
“Holy shit, I think you helped me crack this Dragon case.”
Zane looked rightfully confused.
I sat up, unable to believe it was all clicking together. “Jonah and I have the head of Dragon narrowed down. We think someone at the top of Club Trinity is responsible for the spread of this thing. Specifically, we think Lucien, one of Dylan Rose’s partners, is the leader behind it. We found a signature in a hacked phone that matches a signature he left on a—pretty shitty— watercolor painting.”
“That’s pretty incriminating.”
“It is, but in the same text message with the signature, there was a cryptic message. We figured it would lead us to the drug drops, but we had no idea what the code meant.”
“What was the message?”
“There were a few. One was ‘June seventh, Grove, Last Sunday at Time Sent,’ so… Gemini Grove on the last Sunday of the month. We thought maybe the dates had something to do with the quantity of drugs. Seven being the weight of the product, and the month being… well, something else. We were lost. You handed us the key.”
“That’s what Stonewall’s about. Teamwork.” Zane grinned in that excited way every detective did when a case was close to closed. “And sometimes some happy coincidences dealing with cryptic messages and old maps.”
“Very happy.” I shook my head and dropped it back, looking up at the dark blue sky, an ocean that stretched on and on.
“What kind of drug boss are you dealing with here, anyway? This isn’t usual for them, even for the smartest of them. Codes and secret messages?”
“Yeah I’m curious about that, too.”
“And what do you think Time Se—ooh, I see what it means.”
“It’s a smart code, Zane.”
“Really smart. Time Sent—so now you know that the drug deal is happening at whatever time that message was sent. It’s the only piece of critical information missing from the initial message. You’ve got the date and place, now time.”
“Ding, ding, ding. Exactly.”
“I’ve got a feeling that there were a ton of mix-ups whenever drug dealers had to go pick up their supply.” Zane chuckled. The image of these skeevy drug dealers getting lost out in the ocean had me chuckling, too.
“Do you have a copy of the map, Zane? Please tell me you do.”
My heart was in my throat.
Zane’s expression drooped. “No.”
My heart plummeted.
“But,” he said, perking up, “Enzo’s got one. One of his clients was a collector of old maps. He passed away and left a ton of his maps to Enzo. That’s how we found Pisces Alley in the first place.”
“Perfect. I need him to get me that map, preferably before the sun comes up. Think he can do that?”
“Yeah, we’ve got someone watching our place; she can send over a picture.”
“You’re a fucking rock star.”
Zane smiled and clapped me on my shoulder as he stood. “You’re the one who’s taking down an entire drug operation before it explodes. I’d say that makes you the rock star, Fox. I know you and Jonah will end this Dragon operation soon.”
I stood, feeling pride in being able to help Zane further his mission with Stonewall. “Well, if we’re right about the code, then this all might end tomorrow.”
* * *
Our Uber was driving down mostly empty streets, heading away from the crowded South Beach and taking us to the more chill North Beach. Jonah still wasn’t telling me what we were doing other than spending the night outside of my house, which sounded exciting enough, so I couldn’t even really picture what else Jonah was planning. A camping trip maybe? I’d never heard of camping on the beach, but hey, if Jonah wanted to do it, I was down.
There was an electric buzz in the air as we talked over the Drake song filling the car, a strong scent of Febreze and cigarettes in the air. I lowered the window, swapping out some of the Febreze with fresh ocean air.
“What do you think we should do?” Jonah asked. “If there’s a drug drop going on tomorrow, and we know where it is, then we’ve gotta let the authorities know.”
“I can talk to the DEA tomorrow, but they normally don’t react unless they have solid leads. All we have are cryptic messages that may line up with a couple named locations on an old map.”
“So what are you suggesting?” Jonah was grinning, knowing exactly what I was suggesting.
“Let’s go out there ourselves. Get pictures of the people involved in this and bring that straight to the police. They’ll be in cuffs by the end of the day.”
