“Except rumor won’t get us anywhere,” Darrell said. “No judge will let us use a stolen tape from a fired employee to get a warrant. The firm will hide behind privilege. Plus, whatever implications we read into that call, you know they’ll give us an innocent explanation for what they mean by backup plan.”

“Yeah. You’re right.”

“It also doesn’t help that Gordon Brink is dead and can’t answer any questions about it,” Darrell added.

I picked up my own hamburger and put it down. I ate part of a french fry but threw it back in the box. I had no appetite. The nausea that had begun earlier was getting worse. When I looked in the mirror, I saw that my skin had turned a ghostly shade of pale. Darrell didn’t seem to notice.

Instead, he went to the tape recorder and played the tape of the phone call again. He’d already listened to it six times, and the voices had been burned into my brain.

“ ‘Local assets,’ ” Darrell murmured. “He must be talking about Kip and Racer. If you were looking for muscle in this area for a job like that, they’d be the ones to call.”

I nodded. He was right.

“But that still leaves us with unanswered questions,” Darrell went on. “How did Brink know about Kip and Racer? And how did he even find them? They were hiding out because of the liquor store heist in Mittel County.”

“Norm knew they were in his trailer,” I pointed out.

“True, but I can’t see Norm helping Gordon Brink. Plus, Norm was already skirting obstruction of justice by hiding them at all. I don’t see him broadcasting the fact that he had two felons in his Airstream. And of course, none of this gets us any closer to the real question.”

I knew the question he meant. “What really happened to them?”

“That’s right. Brink tells the managing partner that he’s hoping to meet with local assets, which we assume to be Kip and Racer. Within a couple of days after that, Kip and Racer are dead, and Brink is checking out of the resort early and running back to Milwaukee. He doesn’t set foot in town for another six years, and when he does, he gets carved up like the other two. Then a few months later, so does Ajax. Four murders, presumably all connected. Presumably with one killer.”

“So how do you want to proceed?” I asked.

“Brink didn’t find Kip and Racer on his own. He had help. If not Norm, then who? I can only think of one person, can’t you?”

I frowned, but then one of the pieces in the puzzle I was wrestling with fell into place. “Ajax.”

“Right. Deputies were looking for Kip and Racer back then, and Ajax was part of the hunt. What if Ajax found them?”