What Austin found in the dining room of the Tampa Hotel completely took him aback. Not only were Georgia and her mother seated at a table, Jackie, Michael, and Carl were with them.
"Austin," Laura said, quickly rising up to hug him. "We weren't expecting to see you here."
"I wasn't expecting to be here." He looked directly at Georgia when he asked, "May I join you?"
"Of course you may," said Laura. "Sit by me. Have you had dinner?"
Georgia barely looked at him, so Austin didn't wait for her permission before he sat down. "Thank you. I ate something on the plane, but I could use a drink." He motioned the waiter over and ordered coffee. "Jackie, I didn't expect to see you again so soon."
"We had a little unfinished business to take care of after we left Denver. Perhaps Carl will fill you in. He is quite proud of himself."
Carl cleared his throat. Wearing jeans and a cowboy hat, he looked right at home in the country western setting, and his eyes danced as he spoke. "Remember I asked you to get me into the country club?"
"Yes," Austin answered.
"Well, Mathew was there playing handball. I broke into his locker and put a GPS tracking chip in the lining of his billfold."
"Really? Isn't that illegal?"
"Some PIs do it all the time," said Jackie, "but we need not tell the authorities that part."
Austin chuckled. "Your secret is safe with me. Did you track Mathew to Tampa?"
"Yep," Carl answered. "I followed him to Amanda Black's apartment and took pictures of him going in. About an hour later, he came back out acting like a man with something to hide. I took pictures of that too."
"The next morning, her murder was in the papers," Jackie added.
"We knew we had him then," said Carl. "I sent the pictures to the authorities and said I'd be here anytime they needed me to testify."
"That's why we're all here," said Laura. "The Grand Jury meets tomorrow."
"Will you have to testify?" Austin asked Laura.
"I can't wait to testify. Amanda came to see me. I warned her not to tell Mathew, but…" Laura hung her head and when she did, Georgia took her hand. "Mother, it is not your fault."
"If anyone is to blame, I am," said Carl. "If I had gone up to check on her, I might have been able to save her life. I feel bad about that…real bad."
"No one is to blame but Mathew," said Austin. "He is a lot more dangerous than any of us knew."