Ginny let Gavin take the crackers away, giving him a disbelieving glance as she did so.
“Thank-you, Mr. Beck.”
“No problem. Glad to help.”
Ginny returned Mr. Beck’s smile as he started back down the aisle, only to feel the tug on her hair again.
“You did that deliberately,” she hissed irritably at Gavin.
“It was an accident.” Gavin dropped the crackers on her lap, leaving one in his hand to open for her as he took the can of soda.
“Accident, my ass,” she said witheringly, opening the pack of crackers and starting to munch on one to keep from bickering with him where everyone on the plane could hear.
“You were going to tell us why you changed your mind about going back to Sherguevil Island. I assume it has something to do with you getting Allerton’s confession?”
“Oh …” Ginny frowned at him, swallowing the last of her cracker. “I forgot what we were talking about when you so rudely pulled my hair.”
“Really? I thought you lost that train of the conversation when you were simpering over”—Gavin’s voice went sickly sweet—“Mr. Beck.”
She narrowed her eyes on him. “So, you admit it wasn’t an accident?”
“Ginny …,” he said warningly.
“Okay, okay. We don’t have to go back because you have my bracelet.” She moved her eyes to her lap to where it laid among the crackers and picked it up. Using her fingers, she showed him the flower charm. “It’s a tape recorder. Isn’t it neat? I bought it online. I recorded every conservation with him including today in his office.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you had it on you?”
Ginny thought he would be happy instead, but he seemed offended.
Hammer lifted the corner of his ice pack. “Why didn’t you tell me either?”
“I’d like to hear the answer to that question myself,” Gavin added his own two cents in the mix.
Ginny gave a long, drawn-out sigh. Men could be such dudes sometimes.
“I didn’t tell either of you for the same reason I didn’t tell Gavin about the tape recorder or how Agent Collins and I were trying to gather proof to convict Allerton—to protect you all.”
The relief on Agent Collins’ face was profound. Ginny started to smile at him, then decided she didn’t want to go bald.
“I’ll take that.” Agent Collins reached out to take it from her.
Ginny clutched it in her fist before he could. “You can have it after Gavin makes a copy of it for me.”
“We can’t break the chain of custody.”
“We can go to the sheriff’s office. Knox can make enough copies to make everyone happy,” Gavin suggested.
“I’m okay with that,” Ginny acceded.
Agent Collins looked at if his feelings were hurt. “You don’t trust me?”
“I trust you. I just don’t trust that it won’t disappear before Allerton goes to court. It shouldn’t take long, should it, Gavin?”
“No. Knox will have them on their way before they can finish a cup of coffee.”
Ginny looked at him to see the disappointed expression on Gavin’s face. “What’s wrong?”
“I was looking forward to dropping the fucker off in the middle of the ocean.”
“My way is much better, you’ll see,” she consoled him.
“Let’s see if you’ll still say that when I tell you what he meant about being reunited with your father and me.”
“So tell me.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“You’re still eating.”
She lost her appetite at his grim reply. “Never mind, I don’t want to know.” Ginny stared down at the cracker in her hand as Gavin started to massage the back of her neck. “My father is dead, isn’t he?”
“I’m sorry.”
“How long?”
“I have no idea.”
“Then how can you be sure?”
“That’s the part you don’t want to know.”
Ginny looked toward Agent Collins. “Is he?”
“We’ve had our suspicions that Jasper was no longer living.”
“Then why didn’t you or one of the other agents I talked to tell me?”
“We couldn’t say without a doubt that he was dead. We were hoping to corroborate that while we were on the island. Anytime I mentioned Jasper’s name to Mr. Allerton or Soleil, they would give me the run around about his location.”
“Soleil knew then.” Ginny picked up the crackers to dump them in the barf bag. The pain in her arm was nothing in comparison to the pain at finding out Jasper was dead. There had been a tiny part of her that yearned for some type of relationship with her parents. When she met Soleil, though, she had known immediately that that wasn’t going to happen. Now it seemed it was no longer possible with Jasper either.
Agent Collins looked away from her sympathetically. “I believe she does, yes.”
Picking up the bracelet, she gave it back to Gavin. “You can keep it until you make a copy of the tape.”
Gavin pocketed it for safekeeping.
“I’m tired, Gavin.”
“Then go to sleep. I’ll wake you when we’re about to land.”
Ginny gingerly laid her head on his shoulder as Gavin continued to massage her neck, easing some of the strain. She couldn’t understand why she didn’t feel more euphoric. With the tape recording on her bracelet, and the tape from the lobby showing what had taken place in the office, everything Allerton had worked to distinguish himself as—a defender of humanity—would be demolished.
Lifting drowsy lids, Ginny saw Agent Collins adjust himself uncomfortably in his seat.
“I’m too old for this shit,” he grumbled, adjusting his tie. “When I get to the office, I’m retiring.”
She instantly woke up. “You can’t!”
Realizing she heard him, Agent Collins turned in her direction. “My retirement was in the works when I was asked to take this case. My body has had it. Not only that, but I failed to protect you and the men under my command. I’m more than ready to step down. I don’t have the heart for it anymore. Do you think, if I had the opportunity, I wouldn’t have done the same thing with that cane as Gavin did?”
“You wouldn’t have,” Ginny disputed with surety.
“Probably not,” he said wearily. “I would have shot him.”
Ginny didn’t argue with him. She could kind of see him doing that.
“See the case through, and if you still feel the same way, then retire. Hammer told me you were chosen for this case because you have integrity. Allerton will be counting on his money and prestige to buy himself out of reaping the justice he deserves. You have to be the firewall that prevents it from happening. If not you, then who else do you think will be able to say no to the money he can throw at them? I didn’t risk my life and Gavin’s just to see him walk away. Please … wait.” Ginny gave him an encouraging grin. “I’ll even spring for your retirement party if you do. I have a friend of mine I’ll introduce you to. You two would be perfect together,” she coaxed.