CHAPTER ELEVEN
KAI
The motel receipt led nowhere useful.
The burner SIM led somewhere worse.
Malik found the activation store, then the purchase batch, then the register transaction tied to three prepaid phones bought with cash forty-eight hours before Dre disappeared.
No customer name.
No loyalty account.
But the store camera had one clean angle.
A man in a gray hoodie bought the phones.
Baseball cap low.
Face mostly hidden.
Black male, maybe five-ten, medium build.
Could have been half the county.
The only useful detail was the watch.
Square black face. Bright orange band.
“That enough to identify?” Dez asked.
Kai shook his head. “Enough to notice if we see it again.”
He had the image printed and sent to the small group working the case. Nobody else.
No staff-wide email. No gossip.
If the leak was internal, Kai was done feeding it information.
By noon, he had also changed who knew where Nola’s security was posted, moved Dre’s employee file off the shared system, and quietly restricted manager access to the old dispatch software.
Rome noticed.
“You locking me out?”
He said it in Kai’s office with the door open.
Kai didn’t look up from the file in front of him.
“I’m locking everybody out who don’t need it.”
“I need it.”
“For what?”
Rome paused.
“Field assignments.”
“New dispatch handles field assignments.”
Rome’s mouth tightened.
“You doing a lot over one temp.”
Kai looked up then.
“I’m doing a lot over eighty-seven thousand dollars and somebody inside my building disabling cameras. Dre being a temp is why I didn’t assume he could do that alone.”
Rome nodded once.
“True.”
But he didn’t look happy.
Kai watched him leave.
Dez stepped in two minutes later carrying a paper bag.
“Eat.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“I didn’t ask. Nola text me.”
Kai stared at him.
Dez grinned and held up his phone.
“She said, and I quote, ‘If that nigga says he ain’t hungry, ignore him.’”
“Why does she have your number?”
“Because she likes me better.”
“Why does she have your number?”
“Group text for Dre. Relax.”
Kai took the bag.
Chicken cheesesteak. No onions.
Exactly how he ordered it.
“She know what I eat?”
Dez looked offended. “I know what you eat. I ordered it. Your romance ain’t that advanced yet.”
Kai threw a napkin at him.
Dez laughed and dropped into the chair across from the desk.
“You sleeping?”
“Enough.”
“That means no.”
“You my mother now?”
“No. Vanessa scarier.”
Kai unwrapped the sandwich.
“Speaking of your mother, she called me.”
Kai stopped.
“Why?”
“Wanted to know if I could help move a patio set Saturday.”
“That woman got three nephews.”
“She likes me.”
“She likes free labor.”
“Same thing in Black families.”
Kai laughed.
His phone buzzed.
Nola.
ANYTHING?
He typed.
NOT YET. EAT YOUR LUNCH.
Her reply came fast.
YOU DON’T KNOW IF I ATE.
I KNOW YOU.
YOU’VE KNOWN ME 8 DAYS.
LONG 8 DAYS.
Three dots.
FUCK YOU.
Kai smiled.
Dez saw it.
“This is disgusting.”
“You don’t have work?”
“I was working until you started smiling at your phone like somebody’s auntie.”
“Get out.”
“I’m going. But I want it documented that I object to all this.”
“Document whatever you want.”
Dez stood.
“Also, your security guy says Nola threatened to make him bring her trash cans up if he was gonna sit out there all day.”
Kai looked up.
“Did he?”
“Apparently he did.”
Kai rubbed a hand over his face.
“She got my contractor doing chores.”
“He said she gave him banana pudding.”
“Oh, he’s compromised.”
“Completely.”
The joke died when Malik appeared in the doorway.
“We got a hit on Dre’s burner.”
Kai stood.
“Where?”
“It pinged for eleven seconds near the Deptford Mall, then shut back off.”
“How old?”
“Four minutes.”
Kai grabbed his keys.
“Dez, with me. Malik, send the tower sector and stay on it.”
He called Nola while walking.
She answered on the first ring.
“You found him?”
“Maybe. Burner pinged near Deptford.”
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Kai.”
“We’re four minutes behind. You are twenty from there. Stay where you are and keep your phone on.”
“I can meet—”
“Nola. This isn’t me controlling you. This is math.”
Silence.
Then, grudgingly, “Fine.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t make it weird.”
He hung up before she changed her mind.
The tower sector covered too much ground: mall, bus stops, hotel, restaurants, apartment buildings. They split. Dez took the west side. Kai and one field supervisor checked the bus terminal and adjacent lots.
Nothing.
At the edge of one lot, Kai found a grocery bag wedged against a curb.
Same store chain as the receipt from Dre’s motel.
Could mean nothing.
Inside was an empty water bottle, a wrapper, and a torn piece of notebook paper.
Two words in black ink.
CALL KEEM.
No handwriting match yet.
No fingerprints they could use without police.
Kai photographed it and bagged it anyway.
He called Keem.
Straight to voicemail.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Dez called.
“Got Keem.”
“Where?”
“At his girl’s apartment. He says Dre called fifteen minutes ago.”
Kai was already moving.
Alisha met them at the building entrance, furious.
“I am so tired of y’all.”
“Where’s Keem?” Kai asked.
“Upstairs having a panic attack because his friend called saying somebody knows where his sister lives.”
Kai’s attention sharpened.
“Exactly what did Dre say?”
“He said tell Nola to stay somewhere else. Said the people texting him know her address.”
Kai called Nola before Alisha finished.
“Pack a bag.”
“What happened?”
“Dre says they know your address.”
Silence.
“Okay.”
No argument this time.
That worried him more than one would have.
“I’m sending Ray to the door. Stay inside until I get there.”
“All right.”
“Nola.”
“What?”
“You good?”
Another pause.
“Ask me when my brother’s home.”
Kai looked at the stairwell.
“I will.”
He ended the call.
Dez watched him.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“That’s my word.”
“No, that’s hers now.”
Kai almost told him to shut up.
Instead he looked at Keem’s apartment door.
Somebody wanted Nola scared.
They had finally managed it.
And Kai discovered he did not like that at all.