Chapter 23
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Nitro replayed thevideo of that woman kissing Sam again, looking for any shot of her face. She’d worn huge sunglasses and no lipstick the morning she walked outside Angela’s inn. She kept her face turned down.
Never lifted it on the way to her car.
“I got nothing,” Moose groused, slapping the desk next to his keyboard. He swung around in his chair. “She dumped the car ten miles from Clercville where another one had been hidden in dense woods. Our people went over the one she left. Other than Sam’s fingerprints, nothing. Just give me a freakin’ partial of her face to run. Anything.”
“I wish I could, Cuz, but we don’t have enough to match to anyone.” Nitro rubbed his eyes. He could not sleep with one of his team in danger and Sam was in something deep. “What did you tell me the hand signs he made meant?”
“The angle sucked, but I doubt he knew where we’d placed a camera. Looked like he said ‘okay.’ Then he brushed his hand as if making space for a new word that looked like it could be ‘fine’ and then the word ‘turn.’ Can’t figure it out.”
Blade walked in mumbling, “Okay. Fine. Turn. Play the video again. I’m not on your level with ASL, but I’ve had to use it at times.”
Clamping a big hand over his forehead and leaning his elbow on the table, Moose tapped a key, and the video came up. He ran it forward to the point where Sam dropped his hand out the window and played that part in slow motion.
Nitro watched the process, willing something new to come out of it even though Moose had run that section over and over for hours.
A microwave beep sounded, some banging around in the kitchen, then Angel came out with a frozen burrito he’d heated.
Moose shook his head, translating again. “Okay. Fine. Turn. That makes no sense.”
Blade pointed over Moose’s shoulder. “Go back to the second finger sign.”
Angel sat in a recliner, eating his meal. Figuring out intel was not his forte. Performing impossible stunts and sniper shots were more his thing. Nitro never expected more than any of them could do.
Nitro ran the words in his mind again. Sam expected them to use what he’d shared. “Brainstorm anything, guys.”
Blade said, “Okay finetune?”
Moose frowned, defeat hovering in his face.
Angel called out, “Where’s your sense of humor, Nitro? Sam was probably screwing with us for dropping him in Clercville with his aunt.”
That thought had crossed Nitro’s mind once. He’d brushed it away. Sam would have sent them a message by now if that was the case. He knew they’d be keeping an eye on him.
Blade stared at the ceiling. “Okay. Fine. Turn. I feel stupid to keep trying the same thing and expecting different results.”
Between bites, Angel suggested in a humorous tone, “Maybe the word isfindinstead of fine. Like he said, ‘Okay, find me, suckers.’”
Find. Nitro stood. “Find. Okay, findturn.”
