Page 79 of Kiss Kiss Bang
Olivia was typing out her speech, but checking out the window every minute barely getting anything done. Sophie was hopping up and down on a muddy puddle when Joey ran into the room about twenty minutes later. “Read this!” he said, pushing his laptop practically into her face. She looked out the window—Sophie was still busy with the puddle—before looking at the screen as Joey dialed someone.
“Martinez, it’s Clad. I got something for you. I’m sending it to you now . . . don’t worry how I came across it. Just read it.”
Olivia was looking through what appeared to be a search history.
Pardons
Governor Pardons
Who is the Governor of Florida?
The list went on and on and most of the things were similar. Then the last one said Olivia Russo.
“Those are from Colin’s computer. The one that they found and confiscated. But there’s more. This is from an unknown email, one that I haven’t yet been able to trace, sent to McGregor.” He clicked on his computer screen, and an email popped up. It was photographs of handwritten notes made by Olivia.
“Oh my God, that’s my old notebook.”
“That’s what I thought when I saw it,” he said. It had amounts for her technical school and personal notes. It may as well have been her diary with her deepest secrets. It talked about how she and Connor would be married and stay sober and eventually leave Brownsville. It talked about her parents’ drug problems. About her dabbling in drugs herself . . . Shit, what else had she written in that stupid journal?
“You see it, right?” Joey asked, excitedly. “Connor and Colin figured out that McGregor could grant them pardons. Then, when they realized that you were running against him, they propositioned him to help get you out of the race in exchange for the pardon. That’s the connection!”
It made sense, what he was saying. But it still seemed so far-fetched. “You got all that from that.”
“And the fact I’ve been mulling it over for the last hour. And why else would McGregor have copies of your notebook?”
“I guess it would make sense. But how would they get me out of the race?”
“By hurting you. Scaring you. Making you so broke you couldn’t continue. Using your ill-placed need to keep your past a secret.”
“Could be, I guess.”
He looked around. “Where’s Sophie?”
“She went outside to play. She said she was going to catch lizards but she’s been jumping in a puddle.”
“Outside? Why?”
“She’s stir crazy, Joey. She wanted to go catch bugs with you, though. Maybe if you have a little time.”
“I don’t like her outside by herself,” he said, a bout of unease overtaking him.
“She goes outside all the time. This is all fenced in and there’re cameras all over the place—thanks to you—and I’ve been watching her the entire time.”
He started making his way outside. “How long has she been outside?”
“Maybe twenty minutes. I was watching her right now before you walked in,” she said, following him out.
He opened the sliding door and the first thing he noted was that she was not in the back porch. “Freckles! Let’s go catch you some lizards!”
“Sophie!” Olivia shouted. “You better not be by the bougainvillea.”
The yard had a lot of trees—a lot—and it was hard to see all the way to the back because of all the foliage, but the thick bunch of pink bougainvillea was all the way at the other end of the long yard and it was dense and dangerous from the spiky plants and fallen logs.
“Freckles!” he yelled, the hair on the back of his neck standing up. “Sophie!”
She didn’t reply and he took off in a full-on sprint to the back. She had to be there. She was always there. That’s where she liked to look for bugs. Of course she would be there.
“Sophie!” Olivia yelled from behind him. He pushed back some of the banana trees and then went over a fallen palm tree. He heard a noise, and his hand went straight for his weapon and he put his arm out to keep Olivia from moving forward.
