Bright and early the following morning, the three detectives of the Riptide Agency were at police headquarters familiarizing themselves with photos Quinlan had obtained of Harold Ottaviano and the flunkies he'd mostly likely bring with him. Looking at Ottaviano, there seemed a pretty clear resemblance to Justin Decker. Given the information Murray found—and that Murray was the one who dug it up—it was good enough proof of paternity for Cody. Once he, Nick, and Boz had memorized the faces they were looking for, they asked the lieutenant about his security.
Being Quinlan, he grumbled and scoffed, but in the end, he showed them his plans and a map of the tournament area, indicating where he would have men stationed. Given his usual level of disdain, Cody was grateful for the relatively generous cooperation. One glance at Nick, and Cody could see he wasn't quite sure of Quinlan's about-face either. They both looked at Murray who only offered them a small, quizzical twitch of his lips. All the signs said that somehow Boz had worked a minor miracle in their least favorite police officer.
The three of them and Quinlan headed to the beach; Cody and the guys walked while Quinlan insisted on driving. They strolled past him as he tried to force his unmarked car into an already overflowing parking lot. Cody guessed that quite a few illegally parked cars would be impounded before very much longer. And those cars might be joined by a few others that were legally parked but just happened to be in a certain lieutenant's way.
They checked in at tournament headquarters before the matches got started. Quinlan finally showed up and received the final schedule of events so that he could make sure he had men around the teams who'd received threats. And of course, Cody, Nick, and Boz would be on the lookout as well. There wasn't much else they could do at this point.
The top seeds were all awarded first match of the day: Tim and Rusty were playing on court one; Carritas and Mendez, McAvoy and Patterson, and Boyle and Radford were on courts two through four. So Nick joined Joyce and watched Tim and Rusty. Cody stood on the sidelines of the match featuring Carritas and Mendez. Millard Murray Fillmore sat with Sharon McAvoy, and they watched her husband and his partner. Which left the rest of the teams in the capable hands of Ted Quinlan and his men.
And…nothing happened. Other than the four top seeds handily beating all four opposing teams. Though he stood barely ten feet from the court boundary, Cody saw almost none of the match as his eyes roamed the stands, the crowds, the beach, the water, the surrounding buildings, and what little he could see of the parking lot crowded with cars.
Nothing.
Cody tried to take the view that no news was good news, but it didn't feel that way. He couldn't help but think there was more to come.
Another glance around the beach. Still nothing.
And the pattern continued through the morning. Cody occasionally checked in with his partners and the cops as they roamed the four continuously active volleyball courts. Nothing suspicious happened, and there was no sign of Harold Ottaviano or his men.