Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
LELAND
My phone rings and I see that it’s Henry who I wanted to come straight to the safe house, but he said he had some work to do at the department first. His wife, who I told him was more than welcome to join us too (mostly so I could pester her), is spending time with her sister, arranged by Henry to keep her somewhere safe while he frolics with us.
I did snap a picture of Daddy Duck which I sent to Tracy to make her jealous.
I just really want her to know what she missed out on.
I pick up the phone and answer it. “Hellllllo, Daddy Duck, or should I call you… Quackmaster.”
“I regret calling you.”
“I’m going to be honest, I couldn’t think of another duck-styled name, so it came out a bit rough. I tried. I should get points for trying.”
“Did Patel stop by to pester you?” he asks.
“She sure did. I think she really likes us or something,” I say. “Although… the word ‘like’ is a bit subjective, and in this case it means she wants to get a warrant to search our house and the office and our phones. So… maybe she likes us too much, and I wish she’d like us a little less.”
“I wish she did too. She met you without her partner, correct?”
“Sure did.”
“She knows better. We’ve already had this talk with her once.
Her partner informed us that Patel was supposed to meet her back at the department, but Patel hasn’t shown up and she’s not answering any calls.
Can you check the surveillance feed? I’m not saying she’d do something illegal like breaking into one of your places… but just in case.”
“If she did, I’m going to make sure she never lives it down,” I say. “I will haunt her for the rest of her life by reminding her of her illegal ass. When questioned why her partner was never with her, she told us her partner was waiting for her in the car, but now I assume that was a lie?”
“Her partner was still at the department. How about you check your surveillance?”
“I would drop by her office every day and remind her of the time she scarred me by inflicting illegalities on me,” I say as I slide over to the bag that’s holding the laptop I’d brought from home. “Did you tell Tracy about Daddy Duck?”
“My wife will never know about that.”
I grimace a little. “Should… should I not have sent her the picture?”
“Jesus, Leland! I’m finding a new son.”
I gasp at the horrors this man is spewing. “No! Henry, please no,” I cry. “But I’m so much better than your other children.”
“You’re peskier than them for sure.”
“Just keeps you on your toes,” I say as I start checking the feed from the agency starting from when Patel had left. She walks around the place and stares at it for a while, like something magical might happen.
Then, when she seems to realize that we aren’t going to come out donning our masks and holding a flamethrower—which I’d love to do—she gets in her car and drives off.
I watch the feed in fast forward until it hits the current time and becomes a live recording.
Then I switch to our house. I watch the cameras showing the exterior for a while before I see Patel’s car pull up in front of our house.
She gets out and stands by the road for a while; of course she’s not doing anything illegal because she’s Patel the Rule Follower, so I don’t quite know what she’s hoping to accomplish.
Is she just running through her head what she’d love to do?
When she turns to head back to her car, I see someone walking toward her.
Patel doesn’t see them yet, but even with the person’s face hidden by a hoodie and a mask, I know exactly who has graced her with his presence, especially when he steps up behind her.
She turns a second before he slams a baseball bat against her head.
Patel drops down as he grabs her, ripping her radio away from her, but she recovers quickly.
She picks up a rock and throws it at his face.
He dodges it with ease, but it’s the opportunity she needs to get up on her feet.
He rushes her as she pulls out her gun, but she’s disoriented from the strike and can’t get it fixed on him before he has her in a choke hold.
He slams her against the ground, one hand around her neck, the other pinning her arms down.
She knees him hard and manages to pull one hand free enough that her finger finds its way into his eye.
He reels back and likely doesn’t expect the pepper spray he gets right in the face.
She flips over and scrambles up to her feet a moment before he slams the baseball bat into her head again.
This time, she doesn’t get back up.
“Leland?” Henry asks, and I realize that I forgot that he was still on the phone with me.
“Um… Henry… I, uh… things aren’t good,” I say.
“What happened?”
“I’ll send you the recording. This guy… this ‘Silencer’ guy… he has Patel.”
“Fuck.”
“I’ll call you back later.” I quickly get up and hurry into Cassel’s room only to find him excited about something.
“I think I got it, Leland. I think I know how to save all of the people the Barlow family is controlling. We can either destroy the organization ourselves or send it to the FBI. I broke into a file that details where he’s keeping the women he’s using for sex work and have tied them to people who owe him money.
This could be it, Leland. This could destroy the whole operation from the inside. ”
“We have other things to worry about right now. This Silencer guy… Colby? He has Patel.”
Cassel stares at me for a long moment before spinning in his chair to face his computer and minimizing everything he has up.
He pulls the map back up and we watch the dot that isn’t moving.
“This dot hasn’t moved in four hours. He probably ditched the coat it was in at his place.
Looks like a high-end apartment from what I’ve seen of the outside.
But the problem with these trackers is that while I can tell you what side of the building it’s on, I can’t tell you the exact floor. ”
“Do you have footage of the people coming and going? That way we can at least see what faces go in and out,” I say.
“I wish I could identify him, but I really… I really don’t even remember him.
It’s like I know he was there. I remember the child with the knife…
but do you know how many people I saw every day that I never once cared about? ”
“We know he entered the building yesterday evening. It was the last time the tracker was on the move.”
He starts the playback, and I see people moving in and out, but unless the person is leaving, the camera only gets their back.
I study each person, judging their walk, their mannerisms, the way they move.
The problem is that when someone is being cocky, like this Colby is every time he faces me, they’ll move differently than when they walk normally.
But what I can do is eliminate people. I can estimate their height as they pass through the door. I can judge their build, their walk, their interactions. I know it’s not a woman, so it’s easy to eliminate them.
“It’s one of those three,” I say. Cassel cycles through them then starts checking to see what he can get of their faces. The security system in the place is severely lacking, but we know where the man lives and I have confidence that we’ll figure this next stage out.
He shows me a list of people who have apartments, but none of the names stand out.
“There’s something about this one,” I muse as I stare at the back of the man’s head.
“He pulls out his keycard before he even enters the building,” Jackson says from over my shoulder. “Do they need it for the elevator?”
“They probably do. Let’s look at upper-level apartments,” I tell Cassel. “Are there any nearby buildings that show the exterior of the building? He would have to turn a light on when he arrives. If any of the lights go on, we’ll have a pretty good idea which floor he’s on.”
“Let me see,” Cassel replies, doing whatever magic he works on the computer for a bit.
Honestly, I didn’t even know if it was possible but soon, we’re looking at the exterior of the building.
He synchronizes the time, and we wait as the man disappears from sight a moment before a light on the twelfth floor comes on.
“I think we have our room,” Cassel says, looking thrilled. “Let me get my stuff and I’ll be ready.”
“Have you even slept since yesterday?”
“I slept a little on the plane. I drooled all over Jeremy’s shoulder. He said it was ‘sexy’… or maybe he grimaced a little and said pesky, fuck if I know,” he says as he grabs everything he needs and hurries after me.
Not at all surprisingly, our entire group—including Sophia—decides to go, but we decide that only Jackson, Cassel, and I will go into the building to keep from looking suspicious.
We’re not sure if there’s an attendant at the door or how this place works, and having our group wander in with no idea of where to go or how to get up would immediately raise suspicion.
“You guys keep the murder van company while we’re gone,” I instruct the others.
“We could just drive off, have a beer,” Tavish says.
“Ice cream sounds better,” Ellis comments, here for some reason that none of us really know. He obviously doesn’t want to be here, but he’s not prepared to let Tavish go off on his own and not be there to “help.”
“I’m happy with anything as long as Leland’s quiet during it,” Sophia says.
“I could drink to that!” Tavish announces.
I slide my bag over my back and head toward the front of the skyrise apartment with Jackson and Cassel.
It clearly costs a good amount to live here, which tells me that he’s been making decent money on his jobs as the “Silencer.” The front door isn’t locked since there’s a restaurant just inside.
But by the time we reach the elevator, Cassel already has a keycard in his hands and a woman is left patting her waist for hers.
“You can just ride up with us,” Cassel says.