Page 27 of Liaising Kai

She saw the wisdom of that and nodded. “You’re right. We don’t know who we can trust.”

After they made the decision to consult with the DEA, things started to move faster. At their office, they consulted with a Canadian company that was monitoring the fishing fleet in conjunction with Ecuador’s government. Once the signal for Eduardo’s boat had been found, it was discovered he’d turned his vessel monitoring system off.

With his equipment only pinging every two hours, showing him sailing near the Galapagos Islands, they cooled their heels until one of the agents said, “The Canadian company found and identified Mayta’s Gift using optical satellite sensors, compiled by the boat’s on-board navigation system. They lost him in the tributaries but can say with some accuracy that he was headed toward the Manglares Churute Ecological Reserve.”

It wasn’t long after that they took a helicopter to a drug interdiction boat manned by two DEA agents—Kelly and Shaw. After that they were winding their way down narrow, shallow channels with low, muddy banks, the river branching off, each arm reaching into another pocket of wilderness. From the vantage of the chopper, she noted that some of the channels were as wide as rivers, others narrow, like the one they were on now. This place was alive with birds, darting everywhere, flashes of color in the gloom, flitting among the lacework of branches, along with the dark shapes of Howler monkeys, who were eerily calling to each other as they passed, alerting the area of their presence. She was a city girl through and through and being immersed in so much nature unnerved her.

She had to admit to herself that she was shaken, scared as hell after all the death they had found surrounding this one man. But she wasn’t going to let her fear deter her from following through on this case.

Finally, they emerged from the natural grove into an area where the channel grew wider. Agent Kelly maneuvered the boat into a spot near the south bank, positioning them next to Mayta’s Gift, nestled into the small, natural cove and half hidden by trees and bushes.

A chill raced over Kai’s skin, and she looked around, sensing…something. She strained her eyes, staring into the gloom, seeing nothing, but sensing…a presence. The sensation lingered like a dark, intent gaze, and the hair rose on the back of her neck.

“Eduardo?” Davis called.

Silence.

“Eduardo?” he called again, but his inquiry was met again with silence.

They pulled up close to the boat where the agents and Davis went over the side, then offered his hand as she maneuvered off the boat onto Eduardo’s. She didn’t frequent boats, ironic, she knew since she worked for the Navy. She had done her agent afloat service, but that had been on an aircraft carrier.

While they searched, she looked off into the distance and her eye caught something red. She stepped off the boat onto the muddy ground and headed toward the speck of color, careful where she placed her feet on the uneven, shadowed path. She searched the area for that scrap of cloth, not watching where she was going.

She tripped, going down into the brush hard, and when she lifted her head, she saw a red shirt, then huffed in a startled breath when she followed the line of it to…Eduardo. A very dead Eduardo.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Davis rummaged around inside the boat but didn’t find what he was looking for, namely Eduardo’s phone. But he did find something that seemed out of place on a fishing boat. Rose petals, different colored ones. Had the man been romancing another fisherman? That also seemed odd. Out at sea?

He looked up to see Sargeant Dario Loor approaching on foot, and Davis frowned. What was he doing here? “Guys, we have company,” Davis said to Kelly and Shaw. They glanced in Dario’s direction but continued to search, unconcerned about the police officer.

“We got a tip that you found Eduardo’s boat. I thought after everything that happened with Roberto and Cesar I could help in some way.” He dropped his gaze, looking quite contrite.

“I think we’ve got it covered,” Davis said, wondering where Kai had gone. He suddenly realized she wasn’t on the boat. He looked toward the foliage, then back at Dario.

“Are you sure?” Dario approached the boat and something about the man’s casual demeanor and his sudden appearance without advance notice made Davis wary. His hand gravitated toward his gun, but his intuition was just a tad too slow. Dario pulled his gun and shot Kelly and Shaw. His contrite expression turned smug.

“You son-of-a-bitch.” It had been Dario all along who had been corrupted. “You killed Roberto and framed Cesar for his death. Cesar was onto you, wasn’t he?”

“He was a wily bastard, one good cop, but I found that being a good cop wasn’t enough. I have other ambitions. Drop the guns over the side.”

Davis pulled his weapon, then gathered up Shaw and Kelly’s, then released all three weapons into the water.

He waved the gun toward the brush. “Off the boat.” He roughly zip-tied Davis’s hands behind his back. Then he looked around. “Where’s the lovely Kai?”

Paralyzed by the sickening sensation sweeping through him, he calculated the odds of grabbing the man’s gun, his heart pounding from adrenaline and his fear for Kai. “She’s back at the hotel,” he lied easily, his voice flat. He stared at Dario for a second longer, disgusted with his inability to see through the man’s innocent mask.

Dario scoffed. “Sure. The way you look at her, the way she takes charge. Uh-huh. Not buying it. That’s not the kind of woman you leave behind. She’s here.” He shoved Davis forward on the path. “Supervisory Special Agent Talbot!” Dario shouted. “If I don’t see you in the next minute, with your hands up, your boyfriend is going to meet up with a bullet.”

“Kai, run!” Davis shouted. Hoping at least she would be spared being murdered in the middle of nowhere. Dario hit Davis in the back of the head and for a moment, he saw stars as the blow sent him stumbling forward, but he remained upright. That’s when he spied the bright red shirt and Eduardo’s corpse. This is what caught her attention, and why she wasn’t on the boat. He held out hope that she was long gone. Running for safety. There was nothing she could do for him. He was a dead man. Nothing but silence met Dario’s ultimatum.

“I guess she doesn’t care for you as much as you think she does.” He shouted again, “One more chance, agent.”

“Okay,” Kai said from his right, and his head whipped around to her, his stomach knotting in dread.

“Kai—”

“Thank you for joining us,” Dario said coldly. “Take out your weapon and throw it to me.” She kept her eyes on him, pulled out her Glock, and tossed the gun to him. He kicked it away. “Now, come here. Both of you on your knees.” Davis shot him a hard look, his eyes narrowed, and Dario took a step back, swallowing hard. He pointed the gun at Kai. “I said get to your knees!” His tone was all bravado now. He knew if Davis got one chance, Dario was a dead man.

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