"Probably a hired gun. The guys in charge are American. Whoever they are, they're arrogant and think they won't get caught. In any event," Garrison continued, "they put their plan together on the fly. They can't have had forged papers before they snatched Leslie and Ana, because they'd need good photographs. Did Leslie have her passport on her?"

"No." Marisa looked at Nate to confirm, and he nodded. "We found it in her stuff at the hotel."

"If the kidnappers planned to fly out of Mexico, they'd need to have gotten papers to do it. That would take time."

"Good point," Nate said. "How long would that take?"

"Maybe their Mexican accomplice could have gotten them papers to fly out. But they couldn't guarantee that you wouldn't go straight to the cops." Garrison leveled a gaze at Nate. "Which you should have."

Marisa said, "But they told us—"

"I know what they told you. Still, that would have been the right play. Because if you had, the authorities would have looked for them at the borders. If they were coming back to the States, they had to leave from somewhere and go in somewhere else. All those somewheres are crawling with cops."

Good logic. Nate wished he'd thought of it.

"My guess," Garrison continued, "was that they didn't want to risk all that. They found another way into the country. Either they drove and smuggled Leslie and Ana through, or they headed to the Gulf and secured passage on a ship."

"That makes sense," Marisa said. "How long would that take?"

Garrison shrugged. "Days. If I were you, I wouldn't worry. They're probably still traveling."

Nate studied Garrison's expression. He couldn't tell if the guy really believed it, or if he'd just wanted to make Marisa feel better. Either way, she seemed relieved, which left Nate thankful for the FBI agent.

* * *

NATE AND GARRISON LEFT Marisa in the pickup a few streets over from the auto body shop where Russell Anderson worked. She'd argued that she wanted to go with them, but Nate adamantly refused to take her to visit the former G&K employee. Even if Anderson'd had nothing to do with the kidnapping or the stolen money, there was a good chance he blamed Marisa for what had become of his life. No point in subjecting her to that.

When Garrison took Nate's side, Marisa agreed to hang back.

After the first block, Garrison said, "What'd you leave out?"

"What do you mean?"

"There was something else you learned from Charles Gray, right? Something you didn't want to tell Marisa?"

Nate glanced at the man beside him. "How did you know?"

Garrison shrugged "Instinct, maybe."

Instinct indeed.

"Well?"

Nate told Garrison what Charles had said about Leslie.

"Marisa's theory is correct," Garrison said. "Leslie set the whole thing in motion."

"The question is, why?"

"Any guesses?"