Page 27 of Enigma (Pros and Cons Mysteries #6)

“ W here are we going?” Olive asked.

“I don’t know yet. But we can’t go back to the hotel, and we can’t use my vehicle.” Jason’s jaw was tight with concentration. “They know where we’ve been staying, what we’re driving, and probably where we’re going next.”

“Then we change the game,” Olive said. “We stop reacting to what they want us to do and start making our own moves.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“We talked about going to Texas,” she told him. “We just need to go there. Now. Oasis is where the answers await. I think we need to head to the airport and not look back. There’s no time to waste at this point.”

Jason didn’t argue with her.

Instead, he switched lanes on the highway.

Olive pictured the scene back at the hotel. It had been total chaos. She had no doubt the police were still there, still questioning people.

Olive and Jason were most likely going to be on their radar.

And that was just another reason to get out of town.

Olive and Jason headed toward Tampa International Airport, their belongings reduced to whatever they’d been carrying—phones, wallets, the surveillance photos from the hospital, and Jason’s lock-picking kit.

At the airport, Jason paid to park in the garage, and then they hurried inside.

“I checked on the drive here, and the next flight to Austin leaves in two hours,” Olive said as they walked inside. “There’s another one four hours after that.”

“Two hours doesn’t give us much time, but four hours feels like forever.” Jason headed toward the ticket counter. “What do you think?”

Olive wished they had more time to plan. In a perfect world, she would have paid cash for tickets under fake identities, taken a circuitous route through multiple airports, maybe even driven to a different city before flying.

But perfect worlds didn’t exist when people were actively trying to kill you.

“These people will be able to track us either way,” she said as they approached the counter agent. “Credit cards, security cameras, facial recognition software. If they have the resources we think they do, our names will pop up in their system the moment we check in.”

Jason paused, his hand halfway to his wallet. “So why are we doing this?”

“Because they’ll probably track us anyway, no matter what we do.” The admission tasted bitter. “At least this way we’re moving fast, staying ahead of whatever they’re planning next.”

She couldn’t argue with her own logic, but it still felt wrong to be walking with their eyes wide open into what might be a trap. Every instinct she’d developed over her years of investigative work screamed at her to be more careful, to plan better, to control more variables.

But Lloyd was missing, people were trying to kill them, and their only lead pointed toward Oasis, Texas.

Twenty minutes later, Olive and Jason had tickets on the four o’clock flight to Austin, with a layover in Dallas. Jason had used his credit card—there was no way around it—and now they sat in the departure area.

Olive kept searching every face, every person who lingered too long in their vicinity.

The businessman reading a newspaper three seats away—was he actually reading, or watching them over the top of the page?

The woman at the coffee stand who’d been “deciding” what to order for the past ten minutes—was she waiting for something?

Jason leaned closer. “See anything?”

“Yes and no.” Olive shifted in her seat to get a better view of the gate area. “Too many suspicions but not enough facts.”

“These people could have taken us out by now,” Jason said. “But they haven’t.”

“What do you mean?” She quickly glanced at him, curious about his words.

“Think about it. They’ve had opportunities—the hospital parking lot, Nancy’s house, the hotel. Instead, it’s like they’re trying to scare us away.”

Olive twisted her lips as she thought about Jason’s words.

The attack at Nancy’s house had been brutal but not lethal. The hotel ambush had been designed to create chaos and force them to run, not to corner and kill them. Even the car that had nearly hit them in the hospital parking lot could have been more decisive if murder had been the goal.

Jason had a point.

She continued scanning everyone at the gate as she asked, “Why do you think that is?”

Jason was quiet as he processed the question. “Maybe because killing us would create more problems than it would solve. Dead private investigators draw attention, especially when they work for Aegis. Media coverage, federal investigations, uncomfortable questions.”

“Or maybe they want us alive for a reason. Maybe we’re more valuable to them breathing than dead.”

“What could we possibly know that they’d want?”

That was an excellent question, and one that warranted more examination.

And Olive would rather talk here than on the plane.

She drew in a deep breath before diving in.