“What’s going on?” I ask.
“You tell me. How was your visit?”
“It was good.”
I give him a summary of what happened.
“The woman started to talk eventually. His brother had none of it. He was suspicious of me, and I was suspicious of him. She was fairly open to me while he hid something from me. His lips were sealed. And his glare suggested more than being annoyed with my presence there. Something’s not right with his brother.”
“And you base your observation on what?”
“Gut instinct? The man runs his brother’s firm. He wasn’t thrilled with my story and gave me a bit of an attitude. Andrew’s mother was different. I think because she wanted to talk about her deceased son. Not so much his brother. So that’s that.”
“I’ll look into that firm,” he offers.
“Sounds good. In the meantime, I’ll check that cabin. I think I’ll go there sometime next week. We’ll see.”
For some reason, my enthusiasm starts to plummet.
It feels like I’m running in circles, missing an instrumental piece to make this story work and make sense in the slightest.
“Any news regarding my street?” I toss at him.
“Things are calm. No visitors. My people confirmed that someone had used the neighbor’s house several times this week. They got in touch with the owners and used a pretext to get some information. The couple has no relatives in the area. Everybody lives in Florida.They have a security system that was obviously hacked, suggesting a highly knowledgeable, tech-savvy individual.”
“What’s new?” I murmur, veering onto Francisco’s street.
I swerve again, driving into the underground parking garage.
Smoothly I come to a stop.
“What would be the chances these are the same people?” he says.
“You mean my father?”
“Uh-huh.”
“It wouldn’t make sense. It can’t be them. I don’t think so…. My father’s people checked what they had to check. Found whatever they needed to find. Or maybe not. But they moved on. This guy… I almost had a run-in with him last night. He thought we knew more than he did. He thought we had better information than he did. This is certainly not my father. My fathers ahead of us. He knows I’m trailing him. Following and mirroring each of his moves. I’m to my father what the guy from last night is to me. So, no. It’s a third party. And if he’s as tech savvy as I think he is, he probably knows we’ve tracked him down, and now he’s gone for good. He won’t come to Raven’s house again or use her neighbor’s place.”
I pause.
“I need to go now. My friend has something to show me.”
“Francisco Barreto?”
“Yes.”
“Good luck.”
“Yeah… I’ll talk to you later.”