“I’ll track him down tomorrow.” Sean kissed her. “Reed called me a couple of hours ago. They confirmed that Carl Chavez was one of the two people in the van that was used at the courthouse. The van itself was destroyed out in the desert, they couldn’t find any evidence inside, but remnants of the paint job and floral design match the van that was used. The passenger was likely his cousin, though they don’t have a clear image of him, only a partial.”

“One more loose end tied up.”

“Reed said you’re a smart fed,” Sean added. “I think she likes you.”

“I tried to be open with her from the beginning. She still doesn’t like Max. How is Max? Did you talk to Ryan tonight?”

“He’s really mad that I wasn’t sitting on top of her like David would have done, and I’m feeling a bit guilty about that as well. You were followed, we had been followed, I guess in the back of my head I figured they just wanted to know what we were doing. I didn’t think they’d actually go after Max. But I should have. That’s on me.”

“No, it’s not. Max didn’t ask for your protection, and she knows what she needs. Don’t blame yourself.”

“I did go over and see her, bring her flowers. She’s not a very nice invalid. Grouchy and quite bitchy.”

“She hates not being in the middle of things.”

“Even though Ryan isn’t happy with me or Max, he’s very impressed with our work. He’s been on the phone with the SSA of White Collar with his analysis of the money-laundering scheme. He was having fun. I think he’s enjoying the fact that Max can’t walk and he gets to wake her up every two hours.”

“We’re going to interview the Monroes tomorrow. We have a strategy, but neither Jennifer nor I is positive that it’ll work.”

“There’s no one better than you, princess, and I was pretty impressed with Detective Reed letting me go into the bar undercover. That was fun.”

“Did you bring Jesse home?”

“Yeah, I grabbed him after I looked in on Max. They were watching one of the new Star Wars movies. Jess likes it over there, but I think he was ready to come home. And Bandit was really happy to see him.” Sean reached down and scratched the dog’s head, earning himself a lick.

“How’s Ricky doing?”

“He was watching the movie, quiet. Not part of the group, but not wanting to be alone, I think. Mateo’s keeping an eye on him, but they had a good talk this afternoon. I guess the guy who took care of him for the last three years is religious and they regularly went to church, so Ricky naturally gravitated to Mateo.”