Chapter Twenty-Two

Jamie and Cookie parted ways after their meeting with Marissa, each understanding that the other needed time alone to process what they had learned, to sit in solitary with the truth. They agreed to meet at Jamie’s place the next morning to regroup and view Kristen’s case with fresh eyes and the new knowledge of what she had been doing before she died.

Jamie had just finished running a brush through her hair when she heard a quick rap on the door and a key turning in the lock.

Cookie emerged a moment later, his hair still wet, probably fresh from a shower. He was dressed in the print of the day—a black shirt with white-etched flowers in rows down the front.

“New shirt?” Jamie didn’t recognize the specific pattern. “I like it. It’s subtle.” She modified her comment. “Well, subtle for you, anyway.”

“Thanks for the backhanded compliment,” Cookie quipped as he walked over to her fridge. Deuce immediately perked up from his slumber once Cookie’s hand grasped the refrigerator door handle. He opened it, reached for two water bottles, and handed one to Jamie. “You realize you have no food in your fridge.”

“I have pickles. And blueberry jelly.”

“That’s disgusting.”

“Who needs food with Marty downstairs?”

He shrugged. “Maybe some bagels or snacky things would be nice.”

They sat together at her small table, drinking water and staring at nothing in particular. Deuce had decided to stay put since no food had been offered for his consideration. He snorted then closed his eyes, his nose creating a small whistling sound when he exhaled.

“You okay?” Jamie asked. “After the meeting yesterday?”

“I should ask the same thing,” Cookie replied.

“I didn’t like what she told me, but I believe what she told me. And I’m angry and sad for Kristen all at the same time.”

Cookie tapped his fingers on the table. “I’m in the same place. I don’t want to believe her, but I do. Manny’s still not here, though.”

Jamie leaned toward him and put her arm around his shoulders, resting her head on one. “Getting answers is a good thing. You know we don’t always get them in our line of work.”

He tilted his head and let it lean against hers for a moment. He then sat upright. “Okay, enough of that. Get off me.”

“So salty this morning,” she joked as she reached for her laptop. While waiting for it to boot up, she grabbed the water bottle and drank half its contents before placing it back down.

Cookie watched her, the humor plain on his face. “Little dehydrated, mija?”

“Shut up.” She typed her password into her laptop. “I had one beer last night when I got back. One,” she said with emphasis. “You can ask Marty. I was a total bore.” Jamie directed the conversation back to Marissa and what the woman had shared with them the previous day. “So, what do we know now, assuming Marissa is telling the truth? Let’s go through it all again.”

Cookie rubbed his eyes and exhaled an exhausted breath. “If she’s telling the truth, someone else saw Kristen after Ritchie left. And there’s one more journal out there that completes the codebook she was creating about the Deltone business.”

Jamie considered Cookie’s summary of the previous day’s events. “Kristen chose to hide one journal on Marcus Holliday’s boat, right? Why?”

Cookie considered this. “She trusted him. It was convenient—an opportunity.”

She ran her fingers through her hair and readjusted her ponytail. “Or both.”

“Or both. Do you think he knew about it being there?”

Jamie typed his name into her online search engine, reading about Marcus’s background again, hoping to find something she had missed during her preliminary investigation of him. “I’m not sure. The guy chasing us at the dock could have just been doing his job without Marcus knowing we might show up there. And he did let me search Kristen’s locker without any problem. He opened it for me and let me take everything.”

“True, but maybe whatever important was in there, he already took first.”

“But the burner phone was in there, which leads us to Ritchie and his claim that Kristen was alive the last time he saw her.”

Cookie made a clicking noise with his tongue. “Yeah, that doesn’t make sense.”

Jamie turned her laptop to show Cookie her online search results. “Look at this guy, Cookie. Comes from big family money, and no personal scandals here. Nothing. Is that even possible? Doesn’t that kind of bank end up corrupting people? You can buy anything you want.”

Cookie considered this point. “Maybe he’s that one in a million? Super-rare moral guy who happens to be loaded.”

“Well, if that’s true, he’s not just rare. He’s a damn unicorn.”

Cookie patted Jamie on the hand. “Well, maybe we should go see if that unicorn can give us the magic clue we need.”

And with that, Jamie knew the next item on her schedule. She wondered if Marcus Holliday hated surprises as much as she did, not that she cared. He was now the most important thing on her list today.

Lucky him.