Page 121 of Last Chance
“Thanks.”
After depositing his mug in the dishwasher, Sawyer disabled the alarm and walked outside. While he walked the perimeter, searching for anomalies, he considered his options to keep Janie safe from Hernandez and his cronies. Precious few, he realized. He evaluated and discarded multiple ideas until he settled on the only viable plan. Risky option but necessary.
Circuit completed, Sawyer returned to the house, reset the alarm, snagged four bottles of water, and went to the security room. He gave two bottles to Logan, then resumed his seat and tackled Maria Moran’s social media accounts.
He flinched at the sheer number of posts with photos included. Sawyer could spend hours looking at everything Maria shared with the world.
What about her bodyguards? Both of them were her cousins. Would they be as apt to post their whole lives for the world to see? Probably not since they were members of Vatos Locos. The gang wasn’t interested in using social media as a recruiting tool.
He checked social media accounts for the names of the two men and came up with zip.
Back to Maria’s posts then. He planned to go to the very beginning of her posts, but it made more sense to scan posts beginning a year before she met David Moran.
He scanned photographs, recognizing her bodyguards in several pictures. Sawyer noticed several photos of Maria in the arms of a man with his back to the camera.
Huh. He checked the date the photo was posted. Two months ago. Sawyer studied the shot. The man Maria watched with blinding love in her eyes was not Janie’s brother.
“Find something?” Logan asked.
“Trouble in paradise.” He turned the laptop so his teammate could study the photo.
“That’s not Moran?”
“Nope. His shoulders aren’t that broad. Also, this guy is at least six inches shorter than David.”
Logan grunted. “That’s not a look shared between siblings or cousins.”
“Makes me wonder if this man has something to do with what’s happening to Janie.”
“How?”
“Janie’s Granny Irene left her a lot of money in her will, provided she gave nothing except a bequest to David. The grandmother was well aware of his tendency to blow money at casinos and the racetrack.”
“He’s in financial trouble. Makes sense that Maria might want to solve their money problems the easy way. Think it’s possible Maria is tired of her husband and hoped to get rid of him when Janie wouldn’t bail him out of trouble again?”
“Pretty extreme way to handle things. Why not just divorce David and start fresh with Mystery Man?”
“Perhaps David wouldn’t cooperate, especially now that a baby is on the way.”
Made sense. “Custody would be messy, considering the judicial system of two countries would be involved.” He dragged a hand down his face. “I hate to tell Janie about this.”
“We don’t have proof.”
“In this case, a picture is worth a thousand words. I think we’re right, but I don’t know if it has bearing on what’s happening to Janie.” Or rather, he didn’t want to think Maria Moran was cold-hearted enough to kill an innocent woman and her own husband for Granny Irene’s money. Then again, he’d known people to kill for a lot less than a few million dollars.
“Get rid of the husband and the sister-in-law, and start a new life with your lover and baby with the grandmother’s money.” Logan grimaced. “Cold.”
Sawyer looked at the photo again. Not much to go on except the back of Mystery Man’s head. “Wonder if Janie met him in Chile.”
“Only one way to find out. Ask her when she wakes.”
Brody arrived an hour later. “Sit rep.”
“Found something interesting while scanning Maria Moran’s social media pages.” Sawyer angled his laptop so his team leader could see the photo array he’d downloaded from the social media site. “What do you see?”
The other operative studied the photos for a minute, then said, “A woman in love.”
“That’s not David Moran.”