Page 78 of Dead Man's List

“Another passport search?”

“Yep. Can you look up Monroe Brookman? He’s fifty-one years old, if that helps narrow it down.”

“Give me a minute.” A moment later he was back. “No record of Monroe Brookman having a passport.”

Kit thanked him and ended the call. “That was a bust.”

“For now, let’s focus on the PI,” Connor said. “If we find him, we’ll know who they were blackmailing.”

“True. We can come at the PI from the past and present. If the PI did accompany Veronica to the Caymans, the pilot might be able to give us a current name. If we’re lucky, we might be able to ID him from Munro’s past arrest records, if he was someone Munro knew from the past. Let’s get numbers for all the jurisdictions where Munro and Veronica were arrested back in the day, and then we can make calls.” She sat back in the chair and studied Connor. “Did you believe Veronica didn’t know the names on the list?”

“Mostly, yes. Only because she doesn’t have much to lose at this point. She’s admitted to blackmail, she was caught with the ill-gotten gains thereof, and she’ll go down for passport fraud.”

“Will she, though? It was her real identity.”

“Good point. One I’m sure her lawyer will pounce on once Veronica comes clean about it. But we did find more than two hundred grand of unreported income on her person, and she has official state documents in a fake name, like her driver’s license, so she’ll be in trouble with someone. In any case, I think that she would have spilled the tea on the blackmail list had she known their names. She was in an intense mental place.”

“She was. You helped to get her to that point. Nicely done, by the way.”

“Thank you.” He cut a small bow. “But what if we hit a brick wall in our search for the PI?”

“Then we go back to the trailer—our most concrete tie to Munro’s killer. We look for a tan Chevy Suburban towing a trailer.”

Connor nodded. “I’d say ask Marshall and Ashton to view the street cams, but they’re off looking into Jacob Crocker’s murder.”

“I already asked Navarro to put one of the analysts on it and he assigned someone, so that’s being covered. New question: how do you think Munro found out that William Weaver was about to rehire Jacob Crocker as his PI? Was that what triggered Munro to have him killed?”

“Maybe Munro didn’t find out. Maybe Crocker didn’t get rid of the information he found out about Munro. Maybe he tried to blackmail Munro and got himself killed.”

“All possibilities. For now, let’s focus on finding Munro’s PI. He has the information we need.”

“For all we know, he’s fled to the Caymans. If I was Munro’s partner and I found out what had happened to him, I’d be on the first plane out. We should check Veronica’s house in the Caymans.” He raised his hand. “I’ll go.”

Kit laughed. “It’s a good idea, but I think we can ask for local law enforcement assistance on that.”

“Fine,” Connor groused. “You’re no fun. Give me a list of people to call about Viola and Monroe’s past life of crime. We could be on our way to the Caymans, but noooo.”

“Pretty sure you’ll live. Let’s start by calling prison wardens. I want to know who Munro’s best friends were along the way.”

San Diego, California

Tuesday, January 10, 11:15 a.m.

“Sam.” A woman sitting at one of the coffee shop’s tables waved to him.

With a smile, he joined her at the table. “Maggie. It’s been too long.”

Maggie Doyle managed one of the drug rehab facilities in San Diego. Shelley had completed her thirty-day stint in Maggie’s clinic, under the care of one of her rehab counselors. But Maggie, a recovering addict herself, was a hands-on manager and interacted with the clients and their families as needed.

“It has. I’d love to spend all afternoon catching up with you, but I don’t have much time.”

“Neither do I. This is my lunch break.” Sam asked a server for his coffee in a to-go cup, then studied Maggie, who was sipping her coffee.

“So,” Maggie said. “You asked about Shelley Porter when you called this morning. What do you need to know that couldn’t have been handled with an email?”

“She was murdered last week.”

Maggie gasped. “What?How? By whom? Although I guess that’s what you’re trying to find out.”

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