Chapter 72
CHAPTER 72
ON SHAKY LEGS, I follow Carlos and Ava through the building to the lobby. When he sees us, Ryan gapes back and forth between us with a look of astonishment. We’re dirty and soot-covered and disheveled, our clothes torn and wrinkled and bloody.
I open my mouth to try to explain what’s happened, but before I can get a word out, Ryan rushes forward. I recoil, almost expecting him to hit me, and instead he throws his arms around me. The second time in the last two minutes that I’ve been fiercely hugged. I’m too stunned to hug him back. My eyes drift over his shoulder to Ava and Carlos. Carlos frowns and holds his hands up in a “beats me” expression.
“I’m glad to see you all alive,” Ryan says, letting go of me and shaking Carlos’s hand and then, to my surprise, Ava’s. “Marta Rivera left another message in the van that said you were walking into a trap. But I couldn’t get a hold of you.”
I smack my forehead and say, “Shit. I forgot to call you back.”
“When I heard on the scanner that there was an explosion and fire on the Pueblo,” he says, “I thought for sure you all were dead.”
He says he arrived at the scene and got word that we’d been there and left with a suspect. He headed to the station to check to see if we were here, and he heard a gunshot as soon as he opened the door.
“What the hell did I miss?” he asks.
“Let’s get you caught up,” Carlos says, waving for him to follow us.
Thirty seconds later, we’re all standing outside the interview room, looking in at Llewellyn Carpenter’s dead body through the one-way glass. Carlos stops the video recording.
I tell Ryan what happened at the community center, then about our interview with Carpenter.
“Sorry we didn’t wait to involve you,” I say. “Time was of the essence.”
Ryan, who doesn’t seem the least bit angry at us for doing what we did without his authorization, says that he’ll call in a crime scene team to look at the interview room. And he’ll have someone check out the van in the parking lot next to the burning building. Maybe there’s something useful in there.
“How long before you can get a raid together?” Carlos asks him. “We need to go after Zebo.”
“It’s not something you can just throw together,” Ryan says. “A few days at least. I’m not sure the word of a dead man is going to be enough to get a warrant.”
Carlos points to the camera and says the interview is recorded, but Ryan still looks skeptical.
“That’s not going to work, Ryan,” I say, preparing for an argument. “Zebo is probably looking at the TV right now, waiting for reports of Texas Rangers killed. Or if anyone’s been arrested. If he doesn’t hear from Carpenter—and if he doesn’t hear about any dead Rangers—he’s going to know he’s compromised.”
“We don’t even have twenty-four hours,” Carlos says. “This time tomorrow, he’ll be in the wind.”
“And,” Ava adds, “we’ll never find Marta Rivera.”
I’m afraid Ryan is going to feel ganged up on, but as he looks back and forth between us, he genuinely seems interested in our arguments.
“What do you think we should do?” he asks.
“Let’s go after him,” I say. “Right now. We do it ourselves.”
Ryan has an expression on his face like he can’t believe what we’re asking him to do. But then he looks in at the dead body of Llewellyn Carpenter. It feels like we could end this thing once and for all—today—but if we don’t, if the so-called Mr. Z slips through the cracks, we might never bring this case to a close.
Ryan takes a deep breath.
“Rory, our approaches to law enforcement have been at odds since you joined the task force,” he says to me. “Maybe it’s time I give up the fight and try it your way.”