Page 72 of Dead Man's List

Akiko looked surprised, and then her eyes grew glassy with tears. She moved into Kit’s embrace and held on tight. “Thank you. I needed this.”

Kit wrapped her arms around her slender sister. “I could tell. Promise me you’ll wait until I can go with you. As soon as this case is over. Promise me.”

“I promise.” Akiko pulled away. “You can tell Sam if you want. I know he was wondering, too.”

“If he asks, then fine. But I won’t volunteer your personal information.”

“I trust you. I always have.”

Kit felt her own eyes sting. “And I you. Be careful. Do you have any charters booked?”

“Yes, but they’re all parties I’ve booked before and Paolo will be with me.”

Kit knew Akiko’s first mate, and the man was more than able to defend them. Akiko could take care of herself in a pinch, but Kit was always comforted when Paolo went out on the charters. Akiko took her clients far off the coast, where the fish were big. Too far to get help if she needed it. Paolo was a lifesaver.

“Good.” Kit remained calm for her sister’s sake, but her gut was screaming that something was wrong with this setup.“Don’t fret. We’ll get to the bottom of this. Did she give you your mother’s name?”

Another shake of her sister’s head. “Said she’d tell me everything when we met.”

“I don’t like mysterious people,” Kit grumbled. “Just…be careful.” She waited until Akiko had passed through the doors before returning to the conference room, where Sam was studying her whiteboard.

“You’ve added some names,” he said.

“Yep. Today was an eye-opener for sure.”

He glanced at her as she sat beside him. “I know about Connor’s interview with Veronica Fitzgerald and that Laura Letterman is her defense attorney. Joel called to let me know. After he gave me shit about getting trashed on two margaritas.”

Sam’s cheeks had pinked up, and Kit thought it was cute. Not that she’d say so. Sam seemed embarrassed enough.

“Don’t feel bad. After that interview, Connor took a nap like a baby.”

“While you worked.” He looked meaningfully at the board.

“Well, yeah. He’s done the same for me when I’ve been too tired to function. He woke up and we interviewed the pilot. He knew Veronica was transporting cash. He’d searched her backpack once when she’d fallen asleep on one of the flights to the Caymans. Said he wanted to make sure she didn’t have any guns. He could overlook the cash, but not guns. She wasn’t armed, so he let it slide.”

“She had a gun today when you picked her up.”

“That was in her handbag, not the backpack. He said he would have searched her handbag too, but she was clutching it to her even in her sleep. The money she paid him for each flight was too good for him to make waves. So he kept his mouth shut and did what she asked.”

“Did he know anything about the other guy? The PI whose name Veronica claims not to know?”

“No. The pilot said that he only flew her.”

“Not very economical on Veronica’s part,” Sam observed. “There were other ways to hide cash much closer to home.”

Kit smiled. “I thought of that as we were talking to the pilot. Turns out she’d bought a town house in George Town in the Caymans. Paid cash. The title is under her Viola Feinstein alias.”

“The bad guys always seem to go for houses on the beach.”

Kit shrugged. “Not everyone enjoys the desert.”

“True.” He pointed to the whiteboard. “What’s next?”

Kit brought him up to speed, including her plans to reinterview Wilhelmina Munro and to find out who might have known of—and taken advantage of—Shelley Porter’s addiction.

“I can find out where she went to rehab,” Sam offered. “There could be a connection there. If they knew she was an addict and still using, they’d know she’d grab the cash bait.”

Kit wrote that on the whiteboard as a next step. “We’re also taking another look at the murder of Jacob Crocker, William Weaver’s PI. No one was arrested for his murder. There may have been some physical evidence that can help us. As luck would have it, that was Marshall and Ashton’s case. They were upset that they couldn’t solve it, so they’ve taken point.”

---