Chapter 10 #2
"I saw a very tall man with black hair staring at the building.
I think it was the guy from Cray's building.
When he saw me, he took off, jumped into his car, and disappeared into traffic.
But this time, I got at least a partial plate.
" He rattled off a couple of numbers and letters, along with the make of the vehicle.
"Hang on." She pulled out her phone and asked him to repeat it, then sent the info to Wes. "This is good, Max."
"We'll see how good it is. He could have jacked that vehicle, and he might have already dumped it a few blocks away."
"That could still give us a clue. What about Whitney's car? Did you see anything inside?"
"Her doors were locked, and I saw no evidence of a file on the seat or the floor. I was about to come back and ask for her keys when I noticed the man looking at the building with a pleased smile on his face."
"If it was the same guy who killed Jonas, then the bombings are definitely connected."
"We know they are, Kara," he said, not a hint of doubt in his voice.
"We do," she agreed. "I also wonder if Whitney's early exit was just good luck, or if she knew she needed to be out of that building at a certain time."
"She definitely stumbled over her answers, and her car was locked."
"Let's talk to her again." They made their way back down the street, but Whitney was nowhere in sight, and her car was now gone. "She disappeared fast, but she shouldn't be difficult to find."
As she finished speaking, she saw Jason and Tyler get out of a black SUV and head straight to Ridgemont. "My team is here," she murmured.
Max gave a curt nod. "I'm going to take off."
"You should stay. You're part of this investigation."
"I doubt your team wants me to be a part of it, and I need to speak to Dominic. We'll catch up later. Let me know if you get a hit on the car. Or if you find Vincent Castellano."
"I will," she said, turning her head as she heard her name called. She walked down the street to meet up with Tyler. "Did Captain Ridgemont fill you in?"
"He did. Jason is talking to Damon Wolfe now as well," he said, motioning toward Jason, who had met up with Damon, who had just arrived on the scene with several other agents.
"This is connected to the café bombing," she told him. "I don't know how yet, but Max thinks he saw the man from Cray's apartment on the street here, smiling with pleasure at the destruction. That ties this blast to the last one." She paused. "Did you find Vincent Castellano?"
Tyler shook his head. "Wasn't home, and the super said she hadn't seen him since last weekend.
She thought he might be out of town. His employer said he's been out sick all week, but he's definitely not sick at home.
She let me into his apartment, because I don't think she likes him very much, and it looked like he hadn't been there in a while.
She didn't let me do much of a search, had second thoughts about that when I started opening closet doors, but I found nothing noteworthy. "
"Every lead we have disappears," she said in frustration. "Including a woman from the Building Department, who had the good fortune to come outside to allegedly retrieve something from her car before the bomb went off."
"Allegedly?"
"Her story had a lot of holes in it. But I have her name, and she shouldn't be too difficult to find. She was anxious about her boss, so it's possible she went to the hospital. I want to go there next and see if I can talk to any of the people who had minor injuries."
"Good idea. So, how far away were you when this happened?"
"Two blocks away. Near enough to feel the impact, but not close enough to see anything."
"You were with Malone?"
"Yes. We had just finished our meeting with Samantha Barkley's friend, and we were walking to our cars."
"Where's Malone now? I thought I saw him talking to you when we pulled up."
"He went to speak to Dominic."
"Why? Does Dominic own this building?"
"Not according to the woman from the Building Department. She said it's owned by Wexler Properties, but maybe Dominic has a link to that company." She turned as Jason joined them with a serious gleam in his eyes.
"What's your assessment, Kara?"
"This is tied to the café. But we need to figure out how and why before something else blows up. Unless we're no longer taking the lead?"
"We're still running with this, but we can tap into Damon's team as needed."
She was thrilled to hear that. "Good. Also, it's possible the man who killed Cray was here today. I sent Wes a partial license plate to track down. If he was here, he links to both bombings. In the meantime, I want to go to the hospital and talk to the survivors."
"I'll go with you," Tyler said.
"Keep me posted," Jason said.
"My car is a few blocks away," she told Tyler.
"That's fine," he said, falling into step alongside her. "So, Malone seems to be helpful."
"You sound surprised," she said dryly. "What is it about him that bothers you so much?"
"Maybe you should ask him what it is about me that makes him flee whenever I arrive," Tyler countered.
"Now you sound like him. Answering a question with a question. What was going on when you two met overseas? Was it something that involved both of you?"
"I can't say. It's classified."
"Well, that tells me something." She thought for a moment. "You both barely remembered each other, but when you did, your reactions were equally suspicious. Something happened that neither of you was happy about, maybe blaming whoever else was involved."
"I don't know exactly how Malone was involved," Tyler said. "But something went wrong, and I don't know whose fault it was. That's all I'm going to say about it."
"Fair enough. But we're not in the Middle East right now; we're in Manhattan, and Max is a conduit to Dominic Ashford.
We need his access." She paused as they crossed the street and walked down the block to her car.
The street was much emptier now, but the smoke still hung thick in the air.
"I was thinking when we heard about Vincent Castellano and his link to Petroysan, who is linked to Samantha's current case, that the café bombing was just about her.
But if that building doesn't tie to Samantha, then…
I don't know. If it connects to Dominic, then she was targeted because of him and not her case. "
"That would mean Petroysan is also tied to Dominic."
"Dominic mentioned his name when we first spoke to him, but that was in connection to Samantha. He didn't mention that he had a relationship with him?"
"It's interesting that there were so few people in the building," Tyler said. "Even though the blast was bigger, the body count was still small."
"Which isn't the way it usually goes," she agreed. "I wonder what any of those people would have had in common with Samantha."
"We need to find out if she worked on any cases that involved the Building Department. I'll text Alina and see if she and Zane can turn their search through Barkley's case files in that direction," Tyler said, pulling out his phone.
They got into her car a moment later, and as she drove to the hospital, she thought about everything she knew.
The low body count was a good thing, but also slightly puzzling.
Why wouldn't the bomb have gone off at a time when more people would be on-site?
And if someone was targeted, as Samantha might have been, why would anyone blow up a building just to get to one person? It seemed excessive.
"Maybe there's something significant about the manner of the attack," she murmured, glancing over at Tyler as she stopped at a light. "Someone wants the big blast, but they're not trying to kill a large number of people. What's the psychology, the motivation?"
"I don't know, but we need to figure it out."
"I hope Whitney Holden is at the hospital. She was the woman who got out of the building right before the explosion. She kept changing her story, and she took off the second my back was turned. Maybe her being out of the building was just a lucky break, or maybe it wasn't."