20. Archer
ARCHER
Nolan had informed me of the creepy man who had been staring at Iris when they got up to the hotel room, so I decided to follow Nolan and Iris down when they left to see if it was anyone I recognized.
While it had been a few years since I had seen any of them, I had spent weeks looking over every case file of every member of the Pagano Family , so I liked to think I would have recognized someone in their syndicate if they were in front of me.
Vince and I followed them down, staying far enough behind as to not raise suspicion that we knew each other. We had just made our way over to the front desk area when Nolan called my cell.
“Yeah,” I answered.
“He’s now chillin’ by the front door takin’ a smoke,” Nolan said.
“Alright, we’ll head over there,” I told him.
“Copy,” he responded and hung up.
Vince and I made our way to the front door and spotted the man instantly. His gaze was indeed following Iris as she and Nolan crossed the street to the parking garage.
That was good, though, because it gave me a chance to look over his face well without him noticing me.
The man looked familiar, but I couldn’t pinpoint why or who he was.
Vegas attracted a lot of weird people—from scammers to tourists—so it didn’t mean this man was necessarily tied to the Pagano Family syndicate.
I could have arrested him for any number of things back when I was a cop, so maybe that was why his face looked familiar.
“You recognize him,” Vince said, not as a question, though.
“Yeah, but not sure who he is,” I told him. “ He doesn’t look like anyone from the Pagano files.”
“I’m gonna go pretend to take a picture of the circus poster behind him so we can look at his face later and have Axel see what he can find,” Vince said and then walked over toward the man, looking casual as could be.
The man in question dropped his cigarette, stomped it, and then turned to me and stared right at me. The look on his face told me he recognized me, too, but there was no fear behind his eyes. Nor was there anything friendly, though, either.
Vince got within five feet of him and pretended to take his picture. The smoking man walked over toward him, putting me on alert.
He said something to Vince as he walked by and got into a cab. Vince turned to say something back to him, but the man just kept walking. Both Vince and I stayed rooted where we were, watching the man enter the cab and drive off.
Vince walked back over to me and got close before speaking. “ He definitely knows you. And he’s definitely involved.”
“What did he say to you?” I asked.
“Tell your friend to watch his back and to get that woman of his as far away as possible. See you tomorrow,” Vince answered.
“See me tomorrow?” I repeated.
“Yeah,” Vince responded. “ And I doubt he means to join us for drinks.”
I had a feeling that wasn’t a good thing.