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He pushed his sunglasses up to the top of his head. “Agent James Flannigan. Nice to meet you, too, Faith. Call me Jim,” he said while shaking my hand firmly. “Thank you both for coming on such short notice. I wanted to loop you in.”

“Did you convict the bastard?” Oscar asked gruffly before sucking on his straw.

“Not yet. We’re still building the bigger case.” The agent's eyes traveled from one tall styrofoam cup to the other. “No shake for me? ”

“I’ll get you one, if you tell me why you called us up here,” I grinned as I sucked on my straw.

“Deal,” he said with a smile. “Although I’m limited in what I can share, and this is entirely off the record...” He wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand.

I scooted further forward, waiting for what seemed like forever for him to continue.

“The perp is part of a case we’ve been trying to crack for years. The reason I called you, though, is that in reviewing the transcripts from the initial interrogation, before I got involved, he made a passing comment that you may find relevant.”

“Relevant to the Kylie Bennett murder, you mean?” I asked from the back.

“Not exactly,” the agent turned in his seat to look me in the eye. “He may have implicated himself in other murders in your area.”

“What other murders?” Oscar said from the passenger seat with a rising tone.

“A rookie agent started questioning him before we had him in the interrogation room. When they asked him about a body found floating in a canal in the Keys, he asked, ‘Which one?’”

“Well, what did you get out of him afterward?” Oscar insisted.

Unfortunately, instead of pressing him on it, the rookie–who is now off the case– said the location and date of your victim’s murder, and told him we had DNA evidence connecting him to the crime. All before he was in the interrogation room.”

“You’re shitting me?” I fumed that the supposed pros we’d turned the investigation over to, acted like amateurs.

“I wish I was,” Jim said with a sympathetic look.

I was shocked that he was admitting their major misstep. Oscar was pissed.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Oscar shouted, slamming his milkshake into the cupholder on the console. “That goes beyond a rookie mistake.”

“Agreed,” Jim said matter-of-factly. “Which is why he’s off the case. I wanted you guys to know, though, in case there are other mysterious deaths by drowning on your books. I’ll do what I can to help to get any more info from the witness regarding those cases, should they arise.”

“Have you established a connection to the victim?” I asked, scooting forward on the seat.

“I can’t say,” Agent Flanigan replied with an apologetic scowl.

“But we can assume it was not a random wrong-place-wrong-time situation?” I asked, now on the edge of my seat.

“I’d say that’s a fair assumption. And based on the witness’s remarks, you might consider a review of old cases. If you have DNA evidence you want to run through CODIS again…”

“Okay. We’ll check with our colleagues down in Key West,” Oscar said with an understandably deflated air about him. It sucked not being let in on the scoop .

“Aside from your colleague’s ineptitude, is there anything else you can share about the case?” I asked, not meaning to sound as bitchy as I did.

“Unfortunately, not much. Still off the record, we’re questioning him for his involvement in a major narcotics operation. He is a hired hand for some very bad people.”

“A hitman?” Oscar asked, his voice still laden with anger.

“Among other things,” Agent Flannigan answered.

I felt nauseous at the thought, but I had to ask. “Please don’t tell me this murderer is in witness protection for his cooperation and won’t be doing any time.”

“For his cooperation, we took the death penalty off the table. But rest assured, he will be spending the rest of his days behind bars. And that deal won’t necessarily apply if he happens to be charged with other murders in the future.”

“We’ll see what we can find,” Oscar said through gritted teeth. “I’d sure like to see that bastard fry.”

“I don’t blame you for that. Hopefully we’ll have his boss there too. In his operations, we suspect that he’s orchestrated dozens of murders in the past forty years.”

My mouth dropped open. “Forty years?”

“That’s right. And we’re getting closer to nailing him with one of his main hitmen in custody.

I hope this sheds some light on our insistence in taking over your case.

We need your guy to nail his boss. But make no mistake, I’ll help you nail him too if you link him to other murders. Just say the word.”

“You got it. And, on the record, I’m a woman of my word. What flavor smoothie do you want? ”

“Pineapple mango banana, please,” Agent Flannigan said with a grin.

“I’ll be right back.”

When I returned with Jim’s smoothie, Oscar was waiting in the Charger. I handed the shake through the Suburban window. “Thanks for offering to help. We’ll be in touch if our search turns anything up.”

“I look forward to it.” He smiled, sucking his smoothie through the straw. “Mmm. This is the real reason I wanted to meet you here. Thanks, Detective.”

Oscar seemed to have left all his anger and negativity in the Suburban, because he was wearing a big smile when I climbed into the passenger seat of his Charger. “I guess we got a new project,” he said, sipping the last of his shake.

“Well before we start digging through old case files to try to find a new case to work, we still have to question the owners of the stolen truck and boat.”

“Yeah, but digging will be more fun,” Oscar said.

The unlikelihood that our search would be fruitful was a silver lining in itself. There was something to be said about living in a sleepy little island town with almost zero crime. But part of me had to wonder if the one of the namesake smugglers of our little cove had been haunting it all along.