Jack of Hearts by Diane Capri

Author:Diane Capri
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AugustBooks
Published: 2021-05-05T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 26

Wednesday, May 18

Golden, Colorado

8:15 a.m.

Gaspar had hacked into traffic and security cameras surrounding the Orchid Thai Bistro. On his monitors, he’d had a partially obstructed remote view of the fire since shortly after Otto and Burke had first arrived.

Firefighters had been battling for several hours, and the blaze was mostly under control. Smoldering embers might flare up again, but for now, the scene had settled into a somewhat predictable routine.

A while ago, the Audi had circled the block a couple of times before it raced away again, still headed west. Gaspar continued to trace it until it pulled into a busy parking lot two miles away and stopped.

He sipped a big mug of sweetened Cuban coffee with milk and tried pinging Otto’s phone again. As before, her signal didn’t show up on any of his searches. He tried twice more. No luck.

He frowned, drained the coffee, and pulled up the surveillance video surrounding the bistro fire. He scrolled to the time just before his last conversation with Otto and ran the video forward.

The charcoal van came into view. It was relatively new, possibly manufactured within the current model year. Eleven restaurant workers piled into the open maw and the door slid closed. Eleanor Duncan stepped back and the van drove away.

Gaspar paused the video and clipped stills of the rear license plate before he returned to the unfolding situation.

Soon afterward, the black stretch SUV rolled into the same spot. The images snared Gaspar’s memory. He narrowed his eyes and looked closer until he realized what was strange about the boxy vehicle.

The oversized limo moved oddly. It lumbered slower than it should have. The engine was too loud as it labored harder than the manufacturer intended, too.

Gaspar cocked his head and rewound the video for another look.

He had seen that pattern before. On vehicles that had been bulletproofed or outfitted with special heavy equipment. Like politicians and third world drug lords and gangsters used.

Extra weight impacted speed, efficiency, and maneuverability. The differences weren’t obvious. Unless you were attuned to the variances and looking from the right angle, you could miss it easily enough. No reason why Duncan or Otto should have noticed.

Gaspar watched them climb into the passenger compartment of the SUV. He paused the video and captured the rear license plate on the limo, too.

The driver moved the limo eastward, toward Denver. Gaspar left the video running and turned his attention to the license plates.

Neither the van nor the SUV bore a front license plate. Which might have been okay, but it made Gaspar a little twitchy. Or maybe it was the caffeine. He grinned.

Not all states required front plates. He ran a quick check on the rules for Colorado.

Front plates were easier than rear plates to track on toll roads. A bean counter in Denver had calculated the potential lost revenue from tolls if front plates were eliminated. Turned out it was way more than the cost of making and distributing front plates. The potential lost revenue proved too much for the state government to ignore.

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