Page 90 of Only the Devil

“Hey — what happened?” She’s gnawing on her thumbnail, the nail bitten down to the quick. I gently pull her hand away from her mouth, bending so she has to look me in the eye. “Daze?”

“Alvin Reed was murdered. Autopsy results came back.”

“Cause of death?”

“Poison. Presumed suicide.” Her laugh is bitter, sharp. “He was a veteran, Jake. I mean, come on.”

I hear her. “And they jumped to suicide?”

“I don’t think they cared, Jake.” She slams her palm against the wall; the sound echoes in the small room. “Why would they care about a veteran living in a rental with no family? I requested the autopsy. I paid for the autopsy. The police didn’t.” Her breath comes in short, sharp bursts. I recognize the signs of someone about to spiral.

“Bring the report to the police. There’ll be a record. Someone’s going to see they didn’t find poison?—”

“That’s the thing.” She turns to face me; there’s a fierce burn in those golden-brown eyes now. “They won’t ever care about Uncle Alvin. But they’ll care about Sterling — about who he’s connected to, what he’s hiding.” Her hands are shaking. “Jake — what can KOAN do? What can we do?”

She’s done with this gig. Learning Alvin Reed was murdered is her last straw. I get that. From a murder-investigation angle there’s not much we can do. But tactically? I run through variables like I would before any mission: known threats, available assets, tactical opportunities. In special ops, when you can’t go through the target, you make the target come to you.

“Alvin Reed, the comptroller, the Singapore executive — they were all problems, right?” I watch her process. “What did they all have in common?”

“They knew something. Or Sterling thought they did.” She’s following my logic. “Right. So what happens when someone becomes a problem?”

Daisy snaps her fingers. “I have to become a problem. We’ll set a trap.”

I enclose her hands in mine. “No.” Setting Daisy up as the cheese in a mousetrap is not the plan. “But you’re thinking tactically now. What asset do we have that Sterling values?”

She frowns, then her eyes widen. “The symposium presentation. I promised to look over the presentation Gilda’s creating and insert some slides about AI market monitoring.”

“This weekend? He’s asked Thompson and me to be present as security.”

“Why? You think he’s expecting something to happen?”

“No. The prick wants to look like a big wig. But we can make something happen.”

I set the desk phone to speaker and dial, keeping one eye on the security monitors. “Hudson, this is Jake. Do you have a minute?”

“I do.”

“Daisy’s with me.” I watch her sink into the chair across from my desk, still wound tight as a spring.

“Does this have anything to do with the text I just received from Rhodes MacMillan asking me to call him?”

“That’s probably my doing,” Daisy says, twisting that ring like a top. Her leg bounces with nervous energy. “Alvin Reed’s autopsy results came in.”

She gives Hudson the sixty-second update; her voice grows steadier as she focuses on facts instead of fury. I can see the tension in her shoulders, the way she grips the desk when she gets to the police not caring. Hudson concurs — no suicidal Army veteran goes hunting for poisonous flowers.

“I’ve got contacts with the LAPD,” Hudson says through the speaker. “Send me the autopsy, and I’ll see if I can get a case opened.”

Daisy shakes her head, though Hudson can’t see it. “The apartment’s clean. New tenants even. If there’s any evidence, it’s gone.”

I tap my fingers on the desk, thinking through the timeline. Too clean, too fast.

“You’ll be amazed at what they can find. Cases decades old get solved,” Hudson says. “Is that all?”

I straighten, shifting into operation mode. “No. There’s a crypto symposium this weekend. Sterling’s going to be there and he wants me on duty — theoretically because of protesters. I’ve got an idea, but to pull it off I’ll need backup. I know I’ve been slow to request additional resources?—”

“You’ve refused backup.” Hudson’s not wrong.

“Right. Well, I’ve got an idea. The murder victims all have one thing in common — I believe they became a problem.” I look to Daisy. “What if we create another problem? Daisy will have access to the presentation. What if we alter it — create a perceived risk. Then we monitor Sterling: see who he calls, how he reacts.”