that at least for the moment he had the car to himself.
What in the world was he going to do? How could he possibly explain to Melanie what he couldn’t fully explain to himself? Plus, he still had to face Pam.
The doors opened and he crossed the lobby in long strides toward the coffee shop. He spotted Carruthers at the last booth, sitting with his back to the wall, as soon as he stepped inside the room. Clay wondered how the man could look so polished and alert in his casual clothes this early in the day. Sam wore a light blue T-shirt the same shade as his piercing gaze. Clay walked past the row of booths and paused at the last table. Another man sat across the table from Sam.
The two men stopped talking when he approached. Sam glanced up at Clay, picked up the carafe near his elbow and poured coffee into a third cup on the table.
“Sit down,” he said with a half smile. “You look like you could use this.”
The other man moved over and Clay sat down beside him. He propped his elbows on the table and dropped his head into his hands. “You have no idea,” he muttered, wishing he could redo the past twenty-four hours.
Sam cleared his throat and said, “Clay Callaway, I want you to meet Joe Chavez. Joe’s from Florida, one of the best reconnaissance men I’ve ever worked with. He kindly volunteered to help us out here.”
Clay raised his head and looked at the man beside him. Dark eyes bored into him before Joe offered his hand. “How’s it going?” Joe murmured politely.
Clay heard himself chuckle with a sense of disbelief that he could exhibit any sense of humor. “Believe me, you don’t want to know.” He briefly shook Joe’s hand. “A volunteer, huh?”
“The colonel has a fine sense of humor,” Joe replied with a deadpan expression.
“No titles here,” Sam said. “We’re on a first-name basis on this little party. No need to be too formal since we’re supposed to be army buddies enjoying a little R and R.”
Joe rolled his eyes, making Clay feel better by the minute. So he wasn’t the only one commandeered to work this job.
Sam checked his watch. “I finally reached Pamela McCall. I left a message for her when I arrived last night but she didn’t return my call. Since I didn’t have her room number, I had the hotel put my call through a few minutes ago. She said she’d be down as soon as possible, but not to wait on her for breakfast.”
The waitress came and took their orders. As soon as she left, Sam said, “Joe’s been briefed on what’s happened here recently. We’re agreed that it would be a relatively simple matter to set explosives on land, but it took some tough professionals—some-one trained as we were—to do the underwater demolition work on the offshore rig. So it’s possible we’re going to find that Uncle Sam trained whoever did this.
“My biggest concern was to pick investigators that I could trust absolutely in any given situation. That’s why you two are here. You work well alone, you’re damn good explosives men, and you can put yourselves in the perp’s head to figure out how it was done.
“It’s up to us to find out why, as well. We’re going to do just that, which is why Ms. McCall is part of the group. She knows how to analyze records and do background checks, which will relieve us of that much.”
“Does she know who she’ll be working with?” Clay could no longer resist asking.
Sam shook his head. “Most of the time she’ll be working alone gathering information. Clay, I’m assigning her to you because she may need to do some fieldwork. I know she’s a trained operative, but most of her experience has been in the office. I’d feel better knowing you were with her in case we run into unexpected trouble. We’re also going to need to set up a command post that’s centrally located.”
Clay said, “The families have condo units in Austin we could use. There are several of them in one building. There shouldn’t be a problem with our staying there.”
Sam nodded thoughtfully. “Sounds like a plan. I’ll speak to Cole about that as soon as we finish here. Plus, we’re going to need some transportation,” he added, looking at Clay. To Joe, he said, “You’ve got the rental car you picked up at the airport for your use.”
Once again Clay spoke up. “My dad has a couple of pickup trucks we could borrow.”
Sam smiled. “I intend to rent a car, but I may wait until I get to Austin. Cole said something last night about having the company plane available for our use. He suggested we meet in the lobby at noon. By then, he’ll have arranged transportation for us to the airport where his plane is located. I figure that’s how we’ll go to Austin.” He looked at both of them and asked, “Do either of you have any questions?”
Chavez took a sip of his coffee. “What are the local authorities saying about this series of events?”
“They’re scratching their heads,” Sam replied. “I’m not much into trusting local authority. We’re going to be working independently, and we’re not going to be sharing anything we get with the locals.”
Chavez nodded.
After a moment, Sam said, “We’ve got a man who’ll get hired on at the offshore rig. He’ll be able to report anything he finds there. We’ve got to know quickly if this was an inside job or not. Chavez, you’re going to be covering the border area in south Texas, and your story is that you’re looking for family members. It will be a good cover for asking questions.” He paused while the waitress placed their orders in front of them. Once she was gone, he said, “Callaway, you and Pamela will be working with me in the central Texas area.”
He glanced past the men and stood. “Good morning, Ms. McCall. Glad you could join us.” He held out his hand and shook hers before motioning for her to sit down next to him.
Clay reluctantly looked up. She wore a pair of soft green tailored slacks and a cream-colored long-sleeved silk shirt. She’d woven her hair into a single braid pinned in a coil at the nape of her neck. She looked pale this morning, which wasn’t surprising, given the circumstances.
She also looked calm, very cool and ultrasophisticated.
“I want you to meet your teammates, Pam. This is Clay Callaway and Joe Chavez. Pamela McCall.”
Clay had to give her credit. If he hadn’t been watching her carefully he wouldn’t have noticed the slight tightening of her facial muscles as she nodded to each of them.
“Gentlemen,” she said quietly, sliding across the bench seat and folding her hands together on the table. Her gaze didn’t quite meet his.
Sam filled the last empty cup on the table with coffee and handed it to her. She took it gratefully, lifting it to her mouth without looking at either of the men across from her.
The waitress returned to the table. When she looked at Pam for her order, Pam shook her head and said, “Coffee’s fine for me.”
Sam glanced at her and almost said something, then shook his head. The three men quickly made short work of the meal in front of them while Pam had a second cup of coffee.
After he finished eating, Sam refilled his cup and looked at Pam. “I was just telling them that we need to keep our cover story simple. Clay’s on leave. I’m retired
