Page 64 of Juan

“What’s the tea?” Clara asked, taking a glass from Dulcie and drawing a snort from Philly.

Adrian rolled her eyes. “Mom, how many times have I told you to stick to slang from your own generation. Then it comes out charmingly quaint instead of painfully awkward.”

“Pfft,” Clara said with a wave of her hand. “I said what I said.”

“Quick updates first, then over to you?” Leo asked, directing his question to Callie. She glanced up from the plate she’d been stacking with cheese and crackers, froze, as if caught doing something she shouldn’t, then nodded.

“You’re eating for two, but even if you weren’t, no one’s going to judge,” Amber said, joining her with her own plate.

“We might judge if she ate the whole thing,” Leo said. Philly smacked him in the back of the head. “I lied, we wouldn’t judge. Much,” he muttered under his breath with a smile. Leo was no slouch, but no way would he ever go up against one of the Falcons. Especially not one protecting his partner. Not that it would ever come to that. Over the years he’d been coming around, he’d almost become one of the guys. Not a brother, not like the original fifteen, but more like a cousin. A very helpful, committed cousin. More than once, he’d stepped in to offer a hand. An ally everyone appreciated.

“What are the quick updates?” Spencer asked, holding her glass of lemonade as she resettled in her seat with a plate of food.

“Our lab confirmed the scopolamine came from batches grown and extracted by the Bios Therapeutics affiliates and provided to the Bios lab. They are still working on whether those batches are tied to the over-usage in Johanna’s research, but at least we know where the drugs came from that were used in the killings,” Leo said.

“Will the lab be able to tell if Johanna used drugs from those batches?” she asked before popping a cracker with Brie on it into her mouth.

Leo nodded. “But we want to figure out how many other researchers used it, too. If it’s a dozen, it might be harder tying it to Johanna, but if it’s three? Well, with all other evidence, the argument is stronger that her ‘over-usage’ was intentional and made its way to Anthony.”

“ETA on that is a couple of days,” Callie said before Amber could ask.

“Other quick news. I tracked Philip Calder, the PI, and ran a basic background. He’s not entirely clean, but he’s not rolling in mud either. He’s got decent contacts, and it won’t take him long to track down Amber since, presumably, she’s filed taxes and gets mail.”

“And I have a driver’s license,” she said.

“And your driver’s license,” Leo acknowledged. “But the good news is, he only works with one other person. His tech guy.”

“Meaning he doesn’t have the manpower to send an army out here?” Spencer clarified. Amber didn’t think he’d been too worried, but even so, she heard the relief in his voice.

“He doesn’t,” Leo confirmed. “And he doesn’t have the contacts to raise one, either. Even when he finds you,” he continued, his eyes holding hers, “he won’t pose a threat.” He waited until she acknowledged the statement with a nod before adding. “We’re tracking him now, so he won’t make a move without us knowing.”

Swallowing the bite she’d just taken, she nodded. “Okay. If those are the quick updates, is there a longer one?”

Callie set her glass down and grinned. “Not a longer one, but a bigger one.” She paused dramatically, and Amber threw a cracker at her. Callie caught it with a laugh. “We’re 99 percent sure a judge will issue a warrant tomorrow to search Anthony Ely’s home.”

Chapter thirty

“What? How?” Amber demanded, blindly reaching for his hand. Juan grabbed it, sliding his fingers between hers. Wrong place, wrong time, but he wouldn’t lie; having her reach for him when she needed support made him feel like a god.

“We figured out the algorithm today—well, most of it,” Callie said.

“What does that mean?” he asked.

“It means that we’ve traced the money from the buyers to the holding company to the consolidator, then to Anthony’s companies,” Callie said.

Juan frowned. “And that’s enough to get a warrant? And buyers of what? Well, we know who the ‘buyers’ are, but are they actually buying something? Something other than scopolamine?”

“We suspect yes, but haven’t found the answer to that specific question yet,” Callie said. “But between the money trail and what the lab found, the judge agreed to discuss the possibility of issuing a warrant. Also, the FBI has agreed to open a case, and once the warrant is issued, the police departments involved in all eleven deaths will be asked or, depending on which jurisdiction they fall under, ordered to open, or reopen, investigations into those deaths.”

“Holy shitballs,” Clara said.

Philly grinned. “I told you, she’s a goddess,” he said, grinning and setting a hand on Callie’s shoulder.

“I didn’t do it on my own,” she said with a smile.

“The best of the best never do,” Philly added.

“Are you telling us it could all be over tomorrow?” Amber asked, cautious optimism threaded through her tone. Juan felt the same, but despite the leaps he’d taken in the past few days when it came to not waiting for the other shoe to drop, he wasn’t quite ready to give voice to that hope yet.