“Possibly with this text. With Elizabeth’s say so as well.”

  She nodded. “I would hope I have some pull with the navy after working with them all these years.”

  From behind them were calls to see if they were coming. Nelson checked his watch and held it up to Mason.

  Mason nodded. “Yeah, the day needs to start, and you’re one of the key speakers, Elizabeth.”

  She nodded. “Go on in and tell them I’ll be there in a minute. How many men do you think you can get together to do this?”

  Mason shrugged. “The brass won’t pay for more than two.”

  A frown furrowed her brow.

  He shrugged again. “If you ask for too much, you won’t get anything. Make it reasonable. If Nelson goes with one other, that’s all you will need.”

  She looked at him in surprise. “Really? Because all of NCIS couldn’t get answers.”

  Nelson gave her a hard smile. “But they aren’t me.” And he and Mason and the others left to pass on Elizabeth’s message about her delayed arrival for the training session, leaving her alone on the pier.

  *

  As soon as Elizabeth got off the phone, she sent Mason a text. Confirmed. He has four days.

  Mason sent back an immediate response. He’s not here. He’s gone to pack.

  I want to go with him, she texted in response.

  No, Mason said. You’ll only hold him back.

  Okay but he reports to me.

  He reports to me, Mason said. We’ll be sure to keep you in the loop.

  She had to be satisfied with that. Except, as the day went on, she realized not only was she not satisfied with that but she had no intentions of being satisfied with that. If her brother was in trouble, four days wouldn’t be enough, and two men wouldn’t be enough either. They needed a whole team, and she had some connections—not a ton, but enough to help.

  Four days. She shook her head. She had Chris’s last port of call written down in her pocket. As soon as she was done speaking at noon, she’d look at it, then make reservations to Ensenada. She could probably drive down there faster than flying at this rate, even with the delay at the border crossing, known to sometimes be up to two hours each way. It was just a matter of timing.

  At noon, she immediately pulled up her laptop and checked the airlines for departure times and costs. It didn’t take her long to dismiss that option, wondering why it took twelve hours at the least to get from one international airport in San Diego to another one in Tijuana—the closest she could get to Ensenada from her quick Google search. The equivalent of driving twenty miles. Wow. And she had seventy more to go to reach Ensenada. She quickly realized she could drive there maybe by seven p.m., even allowing the time to get a rental car. Much better than flying out and not getting there until the wee hours of the morning. She’d drive and catch up with the men, who should be arriving at Ensenada within the hour.

  Surely they drove too, unless they got a military transport or whatever. She shook her head. She had her own travel arrangements to deal with. A hotel was about twenty minutes away from the docks where Chris was last seen. It wasn’t likely the best area of town, but, as long as it got her into the neighborhood where her brother had gone missing, then she was good with that. She booked it immediately online. She was still castigating herself for not having gone there immediately. But NCIS had said they would handle it.

  Until she’d gotten word last night that NCIS still had no answers, she’d been content to let navy law enforcement investigate. But now that they had given it a cursory check and deemed no more answers were to be had, her brother would be court-martialed when he was found. It set her nerves on edge and terrified her.

  Because, if NCIS wasn’t looking for him, nobody would be. And that wasn’t acceptable. That’s why she had had to speak to Nelson this morning. And she was glad she did. She was also glad that Mason had stepped up, had helped her set this up, with Nelson and his partner now allowed to search for her missing brother. She headed home, packed a bag with several casual outfits, drove her car to the San Diego International Airport, so she could rent a car easily, not worrying about the possible unavailability of a car at one stand-alone lot.

  Did she say easily? Most places flat-out denied her a rental, not allowing their vehicles to cross the border. She found that odd, considering San Diego’s proximity to said border. Others tried to dissuade her by jacking up their rental fares. She was getting more and more irritated. She had cash, but that cash was to exchange for Chris, nothing more, nothing less.

  She didn’t bring her emergency credit card with her, not wanting to worry about losing it in Mexico. She had her debit card. That was it. And she had drained a big chunk from her checking account, leaving little left. She had a money-market fund, but it took twenty-four hours to make a transfer on a weekday. And this was Friday. So no money until Monday effectively. Damn, should have done this online too. Thought being in person would make for a quicker selection. Wrong.

  So she had to waste further time haggling with these people, trying to get across the border without dipping into the wad of cash she carried with her and had earmarked for Chris. Only for Chris.

  She finally found one company who would allow her to drive into Mexico without hiking up their rental fees.

  Then it was another fight about the amount of insurance needed to cover the rental car.

  “In Mexico, we expect some damage to our vehicles, from previous experience over the years, even for a day trip,” the man behind the counter explained. “But, for your four-day trip, you must purchase full-coverage insurance, to ensure the car is covered for any eventuality.”

  “Like what?” she asked, when she probably shouldn’t bother at this point.

  “Tire damage, windshield damage, breaking into the vehicle to steal your luggage, or even theft of the vehicle itself.”

  She didn’t have time for this. “Full-coverage it is.”

  “It’s four times what the basic rental charge is when crossing the border.” He frowned at her.

  It would leave like ten dollars in her account. But she had other accounts. “Done.” Like that would keep her from her brother. She handed over her debit card. “Get me on the road.”

  She ran all the way to the car, throwing her carry-on bag into the passenger seat, and drove south with a long sigh.

  When she arrived at her hotel at seven-fifteen p.m. and parked her vehicle—in the unlit, uncovered, unenclosed grassy area to the windowless side of the hotel, clearly marked Hotel Parking—she shook her head. “Good thing I bought full-coverage insurance.” Making sure all of her personal belongings were no longer in the car, she locked her rental, saying a silent prayer. If worse came to worse, she figured she—and Chris—could get a ride home with Nelson. She entered the hotel, checked in with the front desk and hurried to her room. There, she tossed her bag onto the bed, grabbed her black jacket and headed outside.

  She had several photos of her brother, some in uniform, some in civilian clothes. She knew it wasn’t the smartest thing to do, to advertise she was a basically a tourist and a female on her own in an unfamiliar place, but she started at her hotel, asking if anybody had seen him. Out on the street, she found six more hotels, two normal-looking bars, and a seedy-looking bar that she wasn’t sure she wanted to go into in the first place. But it looked like a seaside dive, so it was probably exactly where her brother had been.

  After she asked around the hotels, she tried the two bars, then walked into the seedy bar. A wave of loud music and Spanish filled her ears even as the aroma of too much alcohol filled her nostrils. There was nothing like a seedy pub to add flavor to a night in Mexico. She almost backed out. Then she saw Nelson and somebody else sitting at a table with beers in their hands. She walked over and sat down beside Nelson.

  He glared at her, leaned forward and asked, “What the hell are you doing here?”

  She gave him a bland look. “I’m looking for my brother.” She held out the photo. “Have you seen him?”

  He groaned. “We can handle this. You know that, right?”

  “I put my trust in NCIS,” she snapped. “And seven days later, they tell me nothing except that he has left on his own and that he’ll be court-martialed when he returns. I’m not putting my trust in the wrong men again.”

  Chapter 2

  She saw the surprise in his eyes. “Why the surprise? Or did you think I was wrong to put my trust in them in the first place? Or did you not realize what they said about Chris?”

  “I realized it,” he said smoothly. “I’m just surprised they said anything to you about that. Normally that’s not good PR to tell anybody, particularly family members.”

  “What it did was make me angry,” she said. “Now I’ve got you two helping.” She looked over at the stranger beside him and frowned. “I got you two for four days to look for my brother. But no way I’m being left out of the loop. If NCIS couldn’t find out anything in seven days, the two of you will need a hell of a lot more help to find out anything in four days. So I’m here.”

  “Now that’s insulting.” Nelson sighed. He squared his shoulders, then sagged. “Look. I understand why you want to be here, but this is hardly the area for you.”

  “I’m in a hotel on this block,” she said shortly. “So whether it’s where I belong or not, my brother doesn’t deserve to be ignored. If we find out he’s dead in the river, then I’ll deal with it. What I don’t want to deal with is to find out he’s been kidnapped and being tortured or any other horrific concepts.”

  “Aren’t you maybe exaggerating a bit?” the second man asked.

  She glared at him. “What’s your name?”

  He reached out for her hand and said, “I’m Taylor.”

  She shook his hand. “No, Taylor, I’m not. My brother has always been a bit of a partier. He’s always been a bit of a ladies’ man. And he hasn’t always been too fussy about exactly where he found his entertainment. A part of me has always half expected him to end up in a back alley, shot by a jealous husband. But, since he went into the navy, he’s a completely different person. He’s proud of who he is. He loves being who he is. He would not have walked away on his own.”

  Nelson grabbed her hand and said in a very low tone, “No, you stop right there. Because all kinds of circumstances might very well have caused him to walk away on his own.”

  She turned that glare on him. She wanted to rage at him for taking that tack. He should back Chris up. He was her brother’s friend … But clearly he wouldn’t budge on this, interrupting her as she opened her mouth.

  “You need to understand that shit happens sometime. Often without our having done anything to make it happen. If Skunk saw something, and he thinks he’ll get blamed for it, he might have run. If he saw something, and he knows he can’t fight it, he might have run. If he saw something, and he was threatened, he might have run.”

  “He wasn’t spineless,” she snapped.

  “What if you were threatened?” Nelson asked in a hard, low voice. “As you said, he’s your only family. Anybody who wanted to make him do something could easily have applied pressure on him by saying you would be the first one they took out if he didn’t do what they wanted him to do. If he thought getting away and getting out from under them was the only answer, he’d have done it. But he’d have done anything he could to keep you safe.”

  She sat back. Of course Nelson was right. How could she not have considered this? Because she’d been so sure she was right, … that she knew her brother. But she hadn’t considered the circumstances that might have surrounded him. Like she was doing, he’d do anything to keep her safe. Her heart heavy, she slumped into the chair.

  Just then a waitress came by and asked in a mix of Spanish and English, “Buenas noches. Do you want a beer too?”

  She looked over at the men’s mugs of beer and nodded. “Yes, please.” When it arrived, she took a long slug, downing one-third of it.

  The men looked at her with respect.

  She wiped the foam mustache off her lip. “Okay, so then where do we start?”

  “You don’t start anywhere,” Nelson said. “We have already started.”

  She brightened. “What have you learned?”

  He just gave her a flat stare.

  She frowned and leaned forward. “You can’t get rid of me that easily. That’s not who I am. You also need to remember that I’d do anything to help my brother. So don’t try to chase me off with any kind of excuse. And don’t say, Just go home and wait.”

  Nelson sighed. “But that’s what you need to do. We have things set up. We have a relay system back home. We have connections. We’ll let you know if we find out anything.”

  She lifted her beer mug, had a second sip and put it down. Then she pulled out the hotel’s business card she’d picked up and wrote her room number on the back with her cell phone number and slid it across to Nelson. “You’ll do better than that. You’ll tell me before you go to bed tonight exactly what the hell happened here. I get this isn’t the time or place, but no way you’re walking away without letting me know how much you’ve learned.”

  And, with that, she picked up her mug, tossed back the contents, pulled out some money to cover it, threw it on the table and walked out.

  *

  “She won’t be an easy person to deal with,” Taylor said.

  “No,” Nelson agreed. “But, if you think about it, she’s right. It’s her brother. NCIS can’t find anything, and we are down here because she managed to give us this window of opportunity. Of course she wants answers.”

  “Yeah, but I wasn’t thinking we would have to look after her too.”

  “True,” Nelson said. “But you got to admit, she’s got class.”

  “She’s classy only because you like women who drink beer,” Taylor said with a grin. But then he nodded. “She’s a good-looking woman. The fact that she’s also an engineer is huge. She’s got brains and beauty, although she might be missing a little bit of that feminine-wiles stuff.” His grin widened.

  “Oh, I don’t think so,” Nelson said. “I think it has everything to do with being concerned about her brother. You can’t really blame her. You know if it was one of us, we’d have gone to hell and back to make sure we found him.”

  Taylor nodded. “And we have many times before. … I guess this time it’s your turn.”

  Nelson looked at him in surprise. “What are you talking about?”

  Taylor chuckled. “I’m talking about you’re single and part of Mason’s team. It looks like you’ve got somebody already in your corner.”

  “Corner?”

  “Keepers,” he said. “Don’t tell me that you didn’t think of that? No way not to, with so many of your buddies finding successful matches by now.”

  Nelson shook his head. “Don’t even go there. What we’ve got is a woman who doesn’t want to believe her brother has done wrong. That’s all. Besides, you’re here too. Maybe it’s your turn.”

  “She’s not for me. You don’t believe what she said about her brother either, do you?”

  Nelson thought about it. “When I knew him, he was a party skunk, and that’s one of the reasons he got his nickname. He used to pass wind so violently after he drank heavily that he’d gas us all out. And he drank like a fish, and I tell you, he left a room smelling like a skunk had been through there. It was unforgettable.”

  The two men chuckled at the thought.

  “But what was he like morally and ethically?”

  “Well, it’s funny because I didn’t think he was interested in the navy. His father was navy, and of course, his sister works for the military as an engineer.”

  “When did their father die?”

  “That’s a good question.” Nelson looked off in the distance. “If it’s recent, I wonder if that’s what triggered Nelson’s behavior.”

  “You should phone and ask,” Taylor said. “We need all the information we can find up front.”

  Groaning, Nelson grabbed the card Elizabeth had given him and sent her a text, asking about her dad. When the answer came back, he whistled. “Eight weeks ago.”

  “That also explains why she’s so stuck on finding Chris. She’s already lost one male in her life. She doesn’t want to lose the other one.”

  “Exactly,” Nelson said. “But we also need to know how he died.”

  He texted her the question, but, instead of getting the response texted to him, his phone rang.

  “He died on base,” Elizabeth said. “They still don’t know what happened. They say he had a heart attack. I’m pretty sure it was drug-induced. They said too much heart medicine.”

  “And you didn’t think to tell us that?”

  “NCIS said it wasn’t related,” she said. “So I figured that’s what you would say too.”

  “We can’t say anything if we don’t know.”

  There was silence for a moment, then she asked, “Do you have his file?”

  “No, we don’t,” Nelson said. “We don’t have either file. And I highly doubt NCIS will give us access.”

  “I have copies of both,” she said. “I’ll email them to you.”

  He gave her his email address. “We’ll be here for another hour or two, waiting for more people to saunter in. Then we’ll head to the hotel.”

  “Good,” she said. “You can fill me in then.” And she hung up.

  Chapter 3

  The walk back to the hotel was relatively short, interrupted only to get some food to-go, but Elizabeth fought with her nerves as way too many people appeared to be watching her. Every step she took brought catcalls and whistles from both sides of the streets. She shoved her hands in her pockets and wondered if it was even safe to be out in the dark in this area. The shadows shifted and moved beside her. She glanced nervously around even as she put steel into her spine.

  Had she been foolish to choose this hotel? There was really no way to know yet. But to think that her brother had been here, well, she wouldn’t be any less diligent than he was. If she had disappeared, he would have come after her. She could do no less for him.

 

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