“Orders came down to put the pressure on Liz.” Scott gave a half laugh that had nothing to do with humor. “Orders from both sides. It wasn’t until after your trip to Acapulco that we were sure you weren’t involved in the smuggling. You stopped being a suspect and became the decoy.”

“I came to the police.” She looked at Moralas. “I came to you. You didn’t tell me.”

“I wasn’t aware of Agent Scott’s identity until yesterday. I knew only that we had a man on the inside and that it was necessary to use you.”

“You were protected,” Scott put in. “There wasn’t a day you weren’t guarded by Moralas’s men and by mine. Your being here complicated things,” he said to Jonas. “You were pushing too close to the bone. I guess you and Jerry had more in common than looks.”

Jonas felt the weight on the chain around his neck. “Maybe we did.”

“Well, we’d come to the point where we had to settle for Manchez and a few others or go for broke. We went for broke.”

“The drop we made. It was a setup.”

“Manchez had orders to do whatever he had to to get back the money Jerry had taken. They didn’t know about the safe-deposit box.” He blew out a stream of smoke. “I had to play it pretty fast and loose to keep that under wraps. But then we didn’t know about it either, until you led us to it. As far as Ambuckle was concerned, you had the money, and he was going to get it back. He wanted it to look as though you’d been running the smuggling operation together. When you were found dead, the heat would be off of him. He planned to lie low a while, then pick up business elsewhere. I had that from Manchez. You were set up,” he agreed. “So was he. I got to Merriworth, made enough noise about how Manchez was about to double-cross to set him off. When Manchez was snorkeling to your boat, I was on the phone with the man I knew as Clancy. I got a promotion, and Clancy came back to deal with you himself.”

Liz tried to see it as he did, as a chess game, as any game with pawns. She couldn’t. “You knew who he was yesterday morning and you still had me get on that boat.”