Lisa sighed and closed her eyes. “Can you transmit that information to this device?”
“Affirmative, Vasquez, 1682. Tracking information is being forwarded.” Lisa heard a muffled chime in her speaker. “Can I assist you with any other orders at this time?”
“Negative. Thank you.” She hit the end call button then pulled up the text messages. “Thank god you boys are still alive.”
5
Southeastern Oklahoma
Bridger sifted through the documents and laid them out on the small dinette. “Rob is killed in a single car accident and an attempt is made on Lisa.”
“According to tall, dark and sexy.” Gregg grinned at him.
Bobby shook his head. “She has no reason to lie.” He scratched at his chin as he scanned the reports surrounding Rob’s accident. “I wonder if…”
“If she’s blaming a gangland attempt on ghosts of her past?”
Again Bobby shook his head. “No, Lisa is better than that. If she says that it’s a professional attempt, I believe her.” He lifted the papers concerning Rob’s accident. “But how could she claim that Wolcott’s death was an assassination?”
Gregg leaned back in the old metal chair and shrugged. “She’s easy on the eyes, but I dunno if she’s still sharp enough to make that call.”
Bobby stared straight into his eyes. “Some could say the same about you, Mr. Five Star Hotel.”
Gregg shrugged. “I’m still in the suck with you assholes. I just provide tech support these days.”
Bobby turned back to the reports. “I’m not seeing the autopsy results.”
“They didn’t do one,” Gregg stated flatly. “I’m guessing nobody thought one was necessary.”
Bobby lowered the pages and studied him. “A sound and fit guy rolls his Jeep and it crushes him, but they don’t even do tox screening to see if he was on something that might have caused it?” He dropped the pages. “That dog don’t hunt.”
Gregg studied him through narrowed eyes. “Yeah, you’re right. They’d at least do a blood screen for alcohol.” He lifted the lid on his laptop again and began to dig.
“Just for shits and giggles, check the surrounding counties. There’s the remote possibility that he was taken to a different coroner, if it was closer to the accident site.”
“Ah…gotcha.” Gregg pointed to the screen. “You’re smarter than you look.” He pulled up the corresponding reports and printed them. “Looks like the initial autopsy was performed in a neighboring county before his body was transferred closer to home in preparation for burial. My guess is that the local coroner just signed off on the initial work.”
“Probably billed the county for…” Bobby trailed off, his eye catching something. “Myocardial infarction?”
“Heart attack,” Gregg stated.
“I know what it is.” He held the sheet up. “Why would that be cited as Rob’s cause of death?”
Gregg sat forward and pulled the screens back up on his computer. “Hold on a second.” He tapped away for a moment then sat back. “I’ll be dipped in shit.” He pointed to the screen. “Coming at ya.”
The printer hummed to life again and Bobby pulled the sheet from the tray. “Tox report?”
“If Rob had a bad ticker, shouldn’t he have been on some kind of medication?” Gregg asked, coming to his feet. “The guy was in his forties. Relatively fit. No history of heart disease, yet his COD is a heart attack?”
Bobby lowered the paper and shook his head. “Sounds like somebody is trying to make his death look like an accident.”
Gregg nodded. “And yet, they go after Lisa with automatic weapons?”
Bobby shrugged. “Make it look like a gang hit?”
Gregg whistled low. “She was working for Houston PD.” He shrugged. “I don’t guess you know if her work had anything to do with drugs or…?” He trailed off.
“Gangs,” Mauk stated, coming to his feet. He rubbed at his eyes and stared at his watch. “How long was I out?”
“Not long enough,” Bobby said crossing the room. “You should get more rest. We got your six.”
Mauk shook his head and reached for the cold coffee. “Nah, I’m good.” He yawned as he poured another cup. “But Lisa worked for the inner city gang task force.” He sipped the cooling dark nectar and watched the other two. “So they also crossed paths with narco on a regular basis.”
Bobby leaned against the wall. “It wouldn’t be a far stretch to assume a drive-by hit like that was work related.”
Mauk shook his head. “I tried to make that connection, too. Not that I didn’t trust her judgement. But she said she could tell.”
“I’m not saying it wasn’t what she claimed. Just that if somebody sent a hit squad after her, that would be a good way to make it look work related.”
Bobby froze when his cell phone rang. He pulled the old flip phone and his gaze narrowed.
“Who is it?” Gregg asked.
“Baba Yaga.” Bobby flipped the phone open. “Bridger.”
“You got an incoming call from a Lisa Vasquez. Want me to try to port it through?” Jim McDougall asked.
Bobby’s mouth fell open and he stared at Gregg. “Speak of the devil.”
North Florida
DJ hung up the phone and stared at the text that appeared over his burner. The Tracking and Allocations guy had said that he was the second person to call about that particular order and it made every hair on DJ’s neck stand on end.
He scrolled through the names in the text and ignored Laughlin’s. He actually felt a bit choked up when he read that Wollychop was deceased. “Poor bastard.”
He continued to scroll and paused when he realized that Bridger and Soares had the same contact number. That left Lisa.
He scrolled across to the number of record and hit dial. He turned and leaned against the wall of the 7-11 he was parked at and listened as the phone began to ring.
The line connected, but there was no voice answering it. For a moment he felt his blood pressure increase and he almost hung up. Instead, he went against his better judgement. “Lisa?”
It took a moment
