“One his late wife knew about?” Lester asked, closing the circle.

“That’s the theory.”

“You agree with him?”

Willy made a face. “Dunno. That’s kinda why I’m here. Joe’s chasing down the usual stuff—background checks and past involvements. I’m all for that, of course.”

Lester laughed at the uncharacteristic largesse. “But…,” he suggested.

Willy gave him an apologetic look. “Okay, okay. It’s just that we’ve been chasing this case for a while now and getting nowhere fast. It might not be the worst idea to tweak procedure just a bit.”

“Here we go.”

“Yeah … Well, come on, Les. You know how much those background searches dig up. Little to nothing. DUIs, past addresses, most of them wrong, criminal records that only show when the guy got caught. Hit or miss, mostly miss.”

“Ah,” Lester said, his eye widening. “I got it. You want to kidnap Shaw or Seamus Kyle and torture one of them. Cool. I’ve never done that before.”

He interrupted himself theatrically by slapping his head. “Wait. That’s right. That’s illegal. Phooey.”

Willy pulled again on his seltzer before putting the bottle down. “I want to tail ’em.”

Lester’s face fell. “Oh, shit, Willy, Joe’s never gonna go for that. It’s the definition of labor-intensive. Plus, I’ve still got more retracing of Kalfus’s route to do. That’s taken way more time than we expected. What you’re pitching is worse than a procedural violation. It’s a budget buster.”

“Think of it,” Willy continued as if Lester hadn’t spoken. “Both Shaw and Kyle are in motion. If we’re right, they just knocked off Lucy and they know we’re suspicious. They’ve got to be busy hiding their tracks, covering up—going places, meeting people, doing deals. Now’s not the time to collect computer data and wait for something to happen but to slip in behind them and dog their heels.”

“Sniper-style,” Lester suggested neutrally.

Willy tilted his head. “Exactly.”

Lester went on. “Without authorization, without backup, and without pay, if I’m reading this right.”

Willy’s enthusiasm was unaffected. “Yup. Sounds like fun, don’t it?”

“And Sammie’s on board with this?”

Willy was coy. “She’ll appreciate the childcare money saved after you and I are suspended.”

Lester passed his hand over his face. Rationally, he knew it wouldn’t get nearly that bad. But it wasn’t good practice. It was precisely the kind of cowboying Joe disliked, and if anything did go wrong, the lack of backup would be a real consideration, for Lester at least. Willy was better suited for the maverick role and might have even been missing it.

Les had no similar itch to scratch.

But he wasn’t immune from the double stimulants of frustration and a thirst for action. As Willy had eloquently put it, they were strictly following the recipe book at the same time the bad guys were kicking into high gear—assuming they were the bad guys.

Which Willy’s proposal might settle one way or the other.

With Sue’s fatalistic last words echoing in his head, Lester gave his partner a nod. “Okay. How do you want to work it?”