‘ Dad, where are you now?’
‘Crossing the Golden Gate on my way to the FBI Field Office to get sworn in. I start working with the task force in a couple of days.’
‘Did you hear about the condo fire in Arizona yesterday?’
‘Sure.’
It was all over the news and the FBI was calling it ecoterrorism. The fire burned seventy-two condos under construction in an Arizona canyon and now was burning through drought-weakened, beetle-infested national forest.
‘I might know something about it,’ Maria said.
‘What do you mean? How?’
Marquez slowed. He adjusted his ear piece so he could hear her better.
‘I overheard something in July when I was still going out with Jack that I want to talk to you about. When I heard about the fire last night on TV it all clicked. Jack was talking to a friend of his, Ben Marsten, the guy that founded 1+1Earth. But I don’t want to tell you over the phone, and I have to tell the FBI, but I want to talk to you first.’
Marquez remembered the name Jack Gant, but he didn’t have a face to go with the name. He knew that earlier in the summer Katherine had believed Maria was falling in love with Gant, but the relationship had ended abruptly and it really hadn’t lasted that long.
‘I’m on my way to the FBI Field Office in San Francisco to get sworn in. I become a Federal officer again today and you could-’
‘Oh, that’s right, Mom told me, congrats.’
‘Do you want to meet me there?’
‘No.’
‘OK, but tell me a little more. Where did you overhear this?’
‘In Los Angeles at the W Hotel in Westwood in mid July, the same day we broke up. July fourteenth.’
As she talked Marquez crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. Out of habit he reached for a pen and wrote the name of the founder of 1+1Earth, Ben Marsten, on a pad, Jack Gant’s name underneath it. Ahead of him, the traffic was solid going into the toll booths, and he was late. The Special Agent-in-Charge, the SAC at the San Francisco FBI Field Office had a tight schedule today. The swear-in was slotted for 11:45 to noon.
‘I’ll tell you the rest when I see you.’
‘All right, I’ll call you as soon as I finish at the FBI. It’ll probably be a couple of hours from now.’
He was going to say one thing more, but Maria was gone.