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“The resort.”
“We don’t really know. Supposedly, it’s Xanadu. It’s Sodom and Gomorrah. It’s whatever exotic, depraved wet dream you can think of. Apparently, the security and everything else are top of the line. They have military-grade signal scramblers, and no electronics of any kind are permitted on the grounds. Everything remains at the gate.”
It sounded like Wells had thought of everything.
“From what little we’ve been able to find out, they have facial recognition software on-site and trap and trace on every incoming and outgoing phone line.”
“Jesus,” Jimmy muttered under his breath. “No cameras, no phones … nothing.”
“Basically, you can’t reach your people once they’re inside?”
“Exactly.”
“And from what you’re telling me, you have no play.”
“Exactly. We would need to get someone invited in. Then he or she can insinuate themselves into Wells’s group, and we can see if he asks that person to either take over the drug business or help bankroll it.”
“It sounds like you have a golden opportunity right now to get someone in there.”
“In theory, yes. But the problem is that you can’t just create rich people out of thin air. Fabricating a background, planting media stories, and inserting fake information—all of that takes time, and really, with his resources, there’s no way of knowing how easy it would be for him to discover the ruse.”
I had a terrible idea. “What if we could get one of Evan’s friends to go in undercover? That would make sense, right? I mean, they would have seen Evan getting paid, and Mr. Wells would have seen all of them.”
“Yes. That would be brilliant, but you can’t just ask a civilian to step into a dangerous situation. It’s not something we do.”
“It is,” I contradicted her. “I know it might not be standard operating procedure, but you do make rare allowances for one-offs if there’s no other choice.”
“Yes. We would make an allowance if there was an undercover detective present to protect them.”
The room exploded.
Jimmy was not having it; I had a bad habit of getting shot.
Captain Gaines apparently liked me more than I’d thought. She wasn’t having it either. She actually needed homicide detectives in her homicide department.
But neither of them had the clout and position that the special agent had. Twenty minutes later, it was just her and another agent in the room with me. My partner and my boss had been excused to the hall to wait.
“Tell me what you’re thinking?” she queried me. “Bodyguard?”
“I would think so. Or … do you know what Mr. Wells’s take on gay is?”
“Better than bodyguard.” She was blunt. “If you and another man went in as a couple, that would put him more at ease. The bodyguard thing would be a harder sell.”
“Okay. Then let me talk to Evan’s friends. Let’s see if Nick McCall or Max Sutter will step up.”
Her eyes were locked on mine. “Are you certain about this, Detective?”
“Who else can do it?”
She was silent.
“I mean, do you have an undercover agent to spare?”
“Honestly, no. Not that I could even get them up to speed in the time frame we have.”
“Well, then.”
“You’ve already been vetted, Detective. If you can get some solid citizen to sign a waiver, we’re good to go.”
