That same thought had occurred to me.

“But it wasn’t just the FBI and the cops.” Galimore pointed his fork at his chest. “I was also part of the problem.”

I let him continue.

“The Gambles were good people caught between bad alternatives. Either their daughter had turned her back on them, or she’d come to harm. Early in the investigation, they phoned me every day. Eventually I stopped picking up. I’m not proud of that.”

“So your interest is twofold and self-serving. You want to clear your conscience and at the same time stick it to the cops.”

“There’s something else. I got a call at my office earlier this week. The voice sounded male, but I can’t be sure. It was muffled by some sort of filter.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I’ll spare you the colorful verbiage. Bottom line, the caller threatened to take me down by exposing my past to the media unless I backed off on the Gamble-Lovette thing.”

“And you said?” I kept my voice neutral to hide my skepticism.

“Nothing. I hung up.”

“Did you trace the number?”

“The call was placed on a throwaway phone.”

“Your explanation?”

“The body in the landfill. The story in the paper.”

Galimore’s eyes again swept the restaurant.

“Someone out there is getting very, very nervous.”

Chapter 17

“WHAT DO YOU PROPOSE?”

“I did some checking. Fries was in the wind for a while, reappeared about five years back, and now lives outside of Locust. He’s in his eighties, probably senile.”

Offended by Galimore’s broad-brush dismissal of the elderly, I snatched up the bill. He didn’t fight me.

“You intend to question him?” I asked curtly.

“Can’t hurt.”

While digging for my wallet, I spotted the page of code I’d torn from Slidell’s spiral. I withdrew both.

When Ellen left with my credit card, I unfolded and read Rinaldi’s notations.

“This mean anything to you?” I rotated the paper.

“What is it?”

“It’s from Rinaldi’s notes on the Gamble-Lovette investigation.”

Galimore looked at me. “Rinaldi was a stand-up guy,” he said.

“Yes.”

The emerald eyes held mine a very long moment. When they finally dropped to the paper, my cheeks were burning.

Jesus, Brennan.

“Wi-Fr. That’s probably Winge-Fries. Rinaldi was curious about the contradiction between their statements.”

I felt like an idiot. I should have seen that, but then I’d just learned of Fries.

“OTP. On-time performance?”

“Seriously?”

“Onetime programmable? You know, like with some electronic devices.”

“Onetime password? Maybe the rest is a password for something.”

“Could be.” Galimore slid the paper to my side of the table. “The rest, I’ve no idea. Unless FU stands for the obvious.”

My eyes were still rolling when Ellen returned. I signed the check, collected my card, and stood.

Galimore followed me out to the parking lot.

“You’ll let me know what Fries says?” I asked in parting.