She glared at him, realizing exactly what he was saying but not saying. “If he’s dead, then there’s nothing I can do to help him. But I need to know one way or another. If he’s in trouble, I’m here for him. And, if he decided to walk away from me too, then I need to find that out. I’ll deal with it one way or another. The worst thing is not knowing.”

  *

  Nelson had to agree with her. Endless questions and always waiting for the phone to ring, for someone to walk in through the door—never getting any answers—that was the worst thing. He’d seen families worry over missing loved ones, not knowing what happened to them for decades. Anytime somebody who’d been listed as MIA was finally identified, there was such a relief to the family. They could finally find closure. The only problem with closure was there was no longer hope. So it was a double-edged sword.

  From her perspective, it would solve a lot of her sleepless nights if she knew her brother had voluntarily disappeared or if his body could be found. She’d grieve, but there would be daylight at the end of that long process. As it stood now, she’d worry about her brother’s disappearance forever. It would haunt all aspects of her life.

  Not that Nelson had come down here looking for a body. Skunk was one of those guys who always seemed to slip through the cracks and do well for himself, regardless of the situation. It didn’t seem to matter what was going on; he always turned up smelling like roses. But this time Nelson wondered if his friend had had enough good luck to get somewhere safe. It wasn’t in Skunk’s nature to just walk away. So, in his heart of hearts, Nelson figured something had gone wrong, and Skunk had been forced away, or he was no longer capable of going anywhere.

  He brought up his laptop as he sipped his coffee, and he did appreciate the coffee but would have preferred she hadn’t risked coming over here, letting anybody know who might be watching them that they were connected. Keeping her safe was paramount, and she just might have put herself in even more danger. Her intentions were good, but she didn’t understand how dangerous her actions were.

  Which then impacted his ability to do the job he came to do.

  As he flicked through his emails, checking for any updates, he lifted his gaze above the laptop. “You do realize you have put yourself in danger by coming here, right?”

  She shrugged. “I’m in danger just because I’m associated with my brother. I don’t have any illusions about that.”

  “But if we had managed to keep our association apart,” Nelson said, “you wouldn’t have been dragged into the muck if we go down.”

  She stared at him in surprise. “I blew that last night. Today won’t make any difference.”

  He chuckled. “You got a point there. We were avoiding too public a display of what we are doing here. We were also showing pictures and asking people about him but were discreet about it.”

  “Why?” She tilted her head as she looked at him. “How will you show people what he looks like discreetly?”

  “By finding a few select people who might have known him,” he said. “Not flashing a picture up and down the strip so everybody knows he’s missing and that you, a woman alone, wants answers. Even if they aren’t being truthful, we can get a read on them, know who to follow up with.”

  “You have your method,” she said. “I have mine.”

  Nelson looked to Taylor. “You got any updates, any interesting emails?”

  Taylor shook his head. He brushed the last of the crumbs onto his napkin he’d been using as a plate, cleaned up his garbage and said, “Looks like it’s time to move.” Casually he got up, just in his boxers and walked into the bathroom. Not that he had much choice as she’d come into their hotel room.

  Nelson glanced over to see if it bothered her. But she seemed completely relaxed as she worked on her phone.

  She looked up and frowned. “If Chris came on shore, what would he have done here? How much trouble could he have gotten into? Although, we have all those exits to consider too, checking for him at the airport and the bus depots. Which would he most likely take?”

  “Bus,” Nelson said. “They don’t check ID as closely as other modes of transportation.”

  “Makes sense. Anything that makes it easier for him, makes it harder for us to track him.” Elizabeth got up and paced the small room. “So can I come with you while you meet this woman?”

  “I’d rather you didn’t,” he said. “If we judge the meeting isn’t going well, then I might bring you into it. But it’s probably better if it’s just the two of us first. She won’t like any surprises—although we don’t have a formal meeting set up, so this will be a shock and not a pleasant one, so let’s not push it.”

  “Right.” She glared at him. “So I’m supposed to just go back to my room and wait again, huh?”

  “You don’t like waiting much, do you?”

  “Do you?” she challenged.

  He shrugged. “I don’t think anybody does. Particularly not in this scenario. It doesn’t change the fact that this is a waiting game until we can find the right lead to open up some information here.”

  She studied him with a frown. “I still think I could be helpful with this conversation.”

  Taylor came out of the bathroom fully dressed and said, “Nelson, I think she’s right. It might make us seem less aggressive.”

  “I don’t think this woman will be concerned about how aggressive we are. She’s the one who got aggressive last night.”

  “I get that,” Taylor said. “But we can keep an eye on her, see how it goes, and if need be, you can approach her on your own, and I’ll stay back with Elizabeth.”

  “And that’s where the problem will start,” Nelson said in exasperation. “Already we have to split up.”

  Elizabeth stood. “Let’s go now. If I’m in the way, then I can come back. If it doesn’t work this morning, you can always try again later, just the two of you.”

  “We don’t have a lot of time, remember? We have four days. And yesterday probably counted as Day One to NCIS, even though we didn’t arrive until early afternoon. So we have three full days left. And that’s it.” Nelson tossed the rest of his garbage, his coffee cup as well, and closed his laptop, but he gave in. “Let’s go.” He glanced to see what kind of shoes Elizabeth wore and nodded. “Make sure you are always sensibly dressed while you’re down here. You never know when we’ll go for a full-on sprint.”

  She winced. “Sounds lovely.”

  “No,” he said, “it won’t be. But it could be very necessary.”

  As soon as everybody was ready, he led the way. They took the stairs down the back exit. Out in the parking lot, they walked around to the front of the building and down to the end of the block. It was early, and the streets were mostly deserted. The air was as fresh as it was likely to get in this corner of town.

  Nelson checked his watch. “Almost seven. You’d think some traffic would be out here.”

  “I think they all enjoy the nightlife too much to care about early mornings here,” Taylor said in a low voice.

  “Plus, it’s a Saturday morning,” Elizabeth said.

  Taylor nodded. “Most of them aren’t awake yet.”

  “Good,” Nelson said. “Maybe we’ll get lucky, and she’ll still be in bed too.”

  At the corner of the building they were interested in, they took a look around, saw no sentries on duty. They walked up to the front entrance and pulled open the double doors.

  With Elizabeth literally pinched between them, the three walked into the building. If somebody was supposed to be at the front desk here, they weren’t now. Nelson frowned, walked around the desk and checked to see if they had a list of who lived there. But there was nothing.

  Suddenly a voice behind him said, “Hey, what the hell are you doing?”

  Nelson straightened, turned to look at the old guy pouring a cup of coffee. “We’re looking for the queen bitch around the place.”

  The old guy cackled. “What the hell do you want with her?”

  “Information,” Nelson said.

  “She doesn’t even crack open her eyes until noon. What kind of information? Maybe it’s something I can help you with, particularly if there’s a reason.”

  Taylor stepped forward and pulled out a one-hundred-dollar bill.

  The guy’s face lit up. “A guy can buy a lot of booze for that.”

  “Yeah, but we’re looking for particular information,” Nelson said. “A man went missing a week ago.”

  The clerk shrugged. “You know how many people go missing around this place? That’s a day-to-day thing.”

  He’d barely finished speaking when Elizabeth shoved a photo of her brother in front of his face.

  The guy looked at it, scratched his scraggly beard and frowned. “You know what? I think I’ve seen him.”

  “Here?”

  He scratched his beard again. “I can’t remember.”

  “Well, be sure because there won’t be any more money if you don’t remember,” Taylor said in a dry tone.

  The guy studied the one-hundred-dollar bill, looked back at Nelson and said, “That kind of information could get me killed.”

  “We’re afraid that kind of information already got our buddy killed.” Nelson’s voice was hard. “We need to know if he’s alive or dead.”

  “When I saw him last, he was alive,” the clerk said. “But that was not quite five nights ago. I could be misremembering.” He grabbed his book, flipped through it a couple pages back and said, “Chris. Chris Etchings. Is that his name?”

  Elizabeth stepped closer. “Yes, that’s my brother.”

  “He was here Monday night. That’s all I know.”

  “Did he stay here before then?”

  He nodded. “He was here for a couple nights. He was here with some other people as well. But the last night he was alone.”

  “Do you know who the other people were?”

  The clerk slid a sideways look toward Taylor. “You’ll need a second one of those bills for that information.”

  Taylor pulled out a second one and waved the two of them in front of the old man. “Who did he spend time with?”

  Making sure nobody was listening, he leaned forward and said, “The queen bitch.”

  “And her guys?” Nelson asked.

  “They’re never separated,” the old man said.

  “Are they looking out for her, or are they watching to make sure she doesn’t get into any trouble?”

  At that, the man cackled. “So you noticed that, huh?”

  “I noticed something,” Taylor admitted. “It’s a little hard to tell though.”

  “She belongs to somebody, and you don’t want to piss that somebody off.”

  “Did my brother piss him off?”

  “Not necessarily. But we get a lot of seaman through here. They spend a lot of money in this place. We certainly won’t do anything to slow down that business.”

  “And did he have something to do with that?”

  “He was drunk and making a lot of accusations,” the old guy said. “Accusations that were making other people uncomfortable. At this kind of a place, it takes a lot to make somebody uncomfortable.”

  “Can you tell us what the accusations were?”

  He shrugged. “Something about seeing some men murder a man. Deep-sixing the body in the water and that they needed to be stopped.”

  “If he saw something like that, why didn’t he tell anyone before?”

  “Something about the rest of his rank closing in on him, and his life would be in danger if he said anything. He wanted somebody on the docks to say something. But down here, we keep our mouths shut. It doesn’t matter what you see or when you see it, no reason to tell anyone about it.” Just then a door opened. He lowered his voice. “And that’s all I’ll say about it.”

  “Wait,” Nelson said urgently. “What’s queen bitch’s name?”

  “Chelsea,” he said, “but I got no clue what else but that. First name only.”

  “And the guy she belongs to?”

  He just cackled. “We call him King.” His phone rang. He snatched the two hundred-dollar bills from Taylor’s hand and then answered the ringing phone and refused to talk to them anymore.

  They slowly walked back out onto the street. “That’s interesting,” Nelson said. “That would give Skunk a reason to disappear.”

  “Or it gave others a reason to make him disappear,” Taylor said thoughtfully. “And maybe he couldn’t get to the commander. Maybe it just happened, and he was looking for help to do something about it.”

  “He could have gone to the police though,” Elizabeth said. “No reason to not go to the local authorities.”

  “Maybe,” Nelson said. “And maybe the threat scared him enough that he didn’t want to go back on board. Sometimes it’s not easy. The crew can be pretty rough. And, if you’re considered a traitor, it can get ugly.”

  “So he knew something he shouldn’t, knew he was in trouble, missed returning to his station, and now he’s in trouble with the navy because he didn’t return to the ship? If he even mentioned bringing in the cops here, and some seamen did kill somebody, … that’ll get him killed,” Taylor finished.

  “So help me understand,” Elizabeth said. “No matter what Chris does, he loses. Sounds like he’s safer here than on his own ship. Yet he doesn’t get back on board because he’s too scared and has missed reporting in. That’s hard to swallow too.”

  “Don’t judge him for that. I’m not kidding when I said it can get really ugly. What if he thinks his friends were involved in the murder? Then he wouldn’t dare go back on board particularly if they know he knows,” Nelson said, emphasizing the last word. “I’ve been in the navy a long time, and there are a hell of a lot of good guys there. But you get some bad ones in the mix too. And it’s nothing like being up against your own homegrown soldiers who know how to kill. It happens. If Chris even thought they saw him, his life was in danger.”

  “Okay, so he’s here in town for a couple days on leave. He sees his friends do something shitty, figures out they know he saw them. He doesn’t go back on board because he’s scared what they’ll do to him. So instead, he goes on a bender to try to forget what he saw, realizes he screwed up his life. And that’s where I get lost. Why didn’t he tell someone?”

  “If he told a Mexican cop down here,” Taylor said easily, “it’s possible he told the wrong one. A lot of cops would just look the other way in this corner of the world.”

  “So some crooked navy and some crooked cops?” Elizabeth asked in outrage. “How can anybody get that much of a shitty deal?”

  “Apparently, Chris can,” Nelson said in exasperation. He looped his arm through hers. “Come on. We need more food, and I need more coffee.”

  Chapter 5

  As the three of them walked along the street toward the restaurant, Elizabeth said, “I guess this is all helping me, but it just confused the issue more.”

  “Not at all,” Nelson said. “Now we have a direction and some people we need to talk to.”

  “Who’s that? Chelsea, the queen bitch, by any chance?”

  “Yes, but it changes things to know she’s owned by somebody. Means she’s not free to talk.”

  “So what do we do?”

  “We need to meet with King,” Taylor said easily. “She can send a message to him. But whether he grants us the meeting, I don’t know.”

  As they walked toward the restaurant, Taylor pointed to one of the doorways. “Isn’t that one of her henchmen?”

  Nelson, in a surprise move, jumped up the steps to stand in the guy’s face. The guy tried to tower over him, his fists clenching. Nelson slapped him back against the wall. “Take a message to King for us,” he snapped. “We want a meeting, and we want information on where Chris Etchings went. We want it today.” And then Nelson released him so he could sag against the wall. Nelson turned his back and hopped down the steps to join Taylor again. “Message sent,” he said with a laugh.

  They walked into the restaurant, and Elizabeth continued to stare at him. “Did you just threaten that big guy?”

  “They’re usually the best ones to pick on,” he said. “They always think they’re so damn big and dangerous looking that they don’t expect it.” Nelson still smiled but gave her a one-arm shrug. “Besides,” he said, his voice lowered, “you gotta stand up for yourself in this neighborhood. Never show fear. Never back down. They don’t respect you if you don’t get in their face. Just like that schoolyard bully we all grew up with, you have to confront them.”

  All Elizabeth could think was, Well, that might work for you and Taylor … Like she had told Nelson before, there was his method, and then there was hers. “And what if we don’t get an audience.”

  “We’ll create one ourselves,” Taylor said. “I suppose if we pick up his lady, that might do it.”

  Nelson chuckled again.

  They took a seat, ordered fresh coffee, and, when the waitress tried to give them menus, Nelson said, “I’d like huevos rancheros on the hot side. And tortillas, double the normal amount.”

  The waitress wrote down his order. When it was Elizabeth’s turn, she said, “I’ll be fine with just coffee, thanks.”

  Nelson looked over at Taylor and asked, “Times two?”

  Taylor nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

  The waitress disappeared, leaving the three of them with coffee.

  “How long until the message is received?” Elizabeth asked.

  “He’s already got it,” Nelson said.

  “Seriously?” Elizabeth asked. “That fast?”

  “Yeah. The henchman would have turned around and gone straight there.”

  “So now we just wait?”

  The waitress returned with a plate of toast she put down in front of Elizabeth, who said, “I didn’t order any toast.”

  “I ordered it for you,” Nelson said. “A muffin an hour ago was not enough food to run on.”

  She wasn’t sure about his term run but remembered what he had said earlier about being able to sprint. With a sigh, she slathered on jam and took a bite.

  It wasn’t too long before the food arrived.

 

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