“Miss Palmer.” Moralas took off his hat as he entered, glanced briefly at Jonas and waited.

“Captain.” She stood by a chair but didn’t sit. “I have some information for you. There’s an American, a man named Scott Trydent. Less than an hour ago he offered me five thousand dollars to smuggle cocaine off the reef of Isla Mujeres.”

Moralas’s expression remained impassive. He tucked his hat under his arm. “And have you had previous dealings with this man?”

“He joined one of my diving classes. He was friendly. Today he came by the shop to talk to me. Apparently he believed that I…” She trailed off to look at Jonas. He stood very still and very quiet just inside the door. “He thought that Jerry had told me about the operation. He’d found out about the safe-deposit box. I don’t know how. It was as though he knew every move I’ve made for weeks.” As her nerves began to fray, she dragged a hand through her hair. “He told me that I could take over Jerry’s position, make the exchange in the caves near Isla Mujeres and be rich. He knows…” She had to swallow to keep her voice from trembling. “He knows about my daughter.”

“You would identify him?”

“Yes. I don’t know if he killed Jerry Sharpe.” Her gaze shifted to Jonas again and pleaded. “I don’t know, but I could identify him.”

Moralas watched the exchange before crossing the room. “Please sit down, Miss Palmer.”

“You’ll arrest him?” She wanted Jonas to say something, anything, but he continued to stand in silence. “He’s part of the cocaine ring. He knows about Jerry’s Sharpe’s murder. You have to arrest him.”

“Miss Palmer.” Moralas urged her down on the sofa, then sat beside her. “We have names. We have faces. The smuggling ring currently operating in the Yucatan Peninsula is under investigation by both the Mexican and the American governments. The names you and Mr. Sharpe have given me are not unfamiliar. But there is one we don’t have. The person who organizes, the person who undoubtedly ordered the murder of Jerry Sharpe. This is the name we need. Without it, the arrest of couriers, of salesmen, is nothing. We need this name, Miss Palmer. And we need proof.”

“I don’t understand. You mean you’re just going to let Trydent go? He’ll just find someone else to make the drops.”

“It won’t be necessary for him to look elsewhere if you agree.”