‘I know he was there,’ Scarlett said mildly. ‘One of those shots you heard was fired into his back. Luckily he was wearing a Kevlar vest or he wouldn’t be here with me now.’
Edna gave Marcus a thorough looking-over. ‘Would be a shame to waste a man like that,’ she agreed. ‘There was one other. White boy. Blond hair. Ran fast. Cleared an overturned garbage can like one of those guys in the Olympics.’
‘You mean like he was running hurdles?’ Scarlett asked. The Detroit guys had sent them the background check on Drake. The punk had run track while in high school, so running hurdles fit. ‘Did you see his face?’
‘Yes,’ Edna said. ‘He ran right past me.’
‘I was too busy lookin’ at his gun,’ Tommy drawled. ‘Kid wavin’ it around like some stupid gangbanger.’
Scarlett sighed. ‘Why didn’t you tell me this yesterday morning?’
‘You didn’t—’
Scarlett waved her hand. ‘I know. I didn’t ask.’
‘No,’ Tommy said. ‘I was gonna say that you didn’t stick around long enough for me to tell you. You were running toward that alley as fast as he done run away.’
‘Oh,’ Scarlett said, feeling very foolish. ‘Do you think you could pick him out of a lineup?’
Tommy wagged his head side to side. ‘All them white boys look the same to me.’
‘We’re not going into any police station, Detective,’ Edna said, folding her arms over her chest. ‘Not gonna happen.’
‘That’s okay. I have a few photos for you to look at.’ Holding her phone so that they could see, she flicked through the photos Isenberg’s clerk had provided for the array. She’d cajole Edna into the station for a formal identification later if she needed to.
‘That’s him,’ Edna said, identifying Drake on the second pass. ‘The third one.’
Yes. We got you, you little fucker. Scarlett kept her expression impassive even as she fiercely fist-pumped the sky on the inside. ‘Where did he run after he passed you?’
‘To the end of the street. Got into a fancy car. Passenger side.’
‘A Mercedes,’ Tommy added with gusto. ‘Silver. Shone under the street lights. Took off, burnin’ rubber.’
Excellent, Scarlett thought. A silver Mercedes had been registered to Stephanie Anders. She quickly typed a text to Vince Tanaka: Check silver Merc taken from Anders garage for evidence that Drake Connor and Tala Bautista rode in it.
‘Did you see who was driving?’ she asked.
‘A girl,’ Tommy said.
‘Figures you’d notice the girl,’ Edna grumbled.
‘Like you noticed that boy?’ Tommy shot back. ‘Just cuz there’s snow on the roof don’t mean the fire’s dead.’ He licked his lips lasciviously.
‘Oh, that fire’s dead,’ Edna said, annoyed. ‘Wasn’t more than stick kindlin’ anyway.’
‘Thank you for that visual,’ Scarlett said sarcastically. ‘What did she look like?’
‘Pretty,’ Tommy said. ‘Though not nearly as pretty as you.’
‘Good to know,’ Scarlett said. ‘Details? Hair color? Skin color?’
‘Blond hair. White skin. Sparkly earrings. Red fingernails. Long, like claws. She held the steering wheel like this.’ He positioned his hands with the thumb tucked under and his four fingers sticking straight out. ‘That’s all I know.’
‘That’s a lot. Thank you both.’
Edna frowned, troubled. ‘Is he gonna come after us? The boy?’
‘No. He’s in custody two hundred and fifty miles from here.’
‘Good.’ Edna nodded hard.
‘I agree. Now, you two stay cool, okay? It’s hot out there.’
Tommy pointed at Marcus. ‘Does he talk?’
Scarlett laughed. ‘Yes, he does. Why?’
‘Tell him to stay here. You run along, Miss Scarlett. I want to talk to him. Alone.’
Scarlett glanced at Marcus with a shrug, then came to her feet and walked to the door, where she texted Isenberg and Deacon with a progress report while watching Tommy, Edna and Marcus from the corner of her eye.
Positive ID for Drake Connor leaving Tala Bautista crime scene yesterday A.M. DC seen with a firearm, getting into silver Merc. Have files from Woody McCord investigation to review. Possible that McCord planned to name his supplier. Product = people/children. Likely for porn. McCord died in jail next day. His attorney died soon after, in a fire, possible arson. Wife died a few days later. All connected to McCord are dead. Possible Demetrius connection is as supplier of people to both Anders and McCord. Headed back into CPD.
Twenty seconds later, Isenberg called her cell phone.
‘Good work, Detective.’
Scarlett wanted to sigh. They were still on formal terms. ‘Thank you, Lieutenant,’ she said, echoing Isenberg’s crisp tone. ‘I’m not in a place where I can speak freely.’
‘Understood. Just listen, then. Agent Coppola finished her interview with the quality tech from Constant Global Surveillance. She was right – he was so shaken from the attempt to kill him that he was happy to give up what he knew in exchange for protection. He named Demetrius Russell as his customer for the ankle trackers. The tech would routinely cull out a few of the trackers for destructive testing, record them as recycled parts, then sell them to Demetrius, who always paid in cash.’
‘So he’s the link, like we thought.’
‘Yes. The quality tech said that he was selling upwards of two hundred units a year.’
Scarlett’s mind spun, thinking about all the victims like Tala’s family. ‘Wow. How did he keep that many destroyed units from being noticed?’
‘He’s implicated his boss, who was getting a cut of the profit. The Feds are picking up the boss as we speak.’
‘Look at the seventh sentence of my text.’
‘The one that says McCord died in jail? You think he was murdered in his cell to keep him quiet and didn’t commit suicide?’
‘Yes. So simple confinement may not be enough protection.’
‘Then I’ll make sure the Constant Global Surveillance employees have extra guards,’ Isenberg said. ‘But I also have other news for you. We have information on the sniper on the roof of the building across from CPD. The Feds did some fancy work with their facial recognition software. Her name is Alice Newman. Law degree from the University of Kentucky.’
‘And she’s a sni—?’ Scarlett caught herself. ‘Wow.’
‘That was our reaction too. She still hasn’t said anything besides that she wants a lawyer, but her cell phone had photos of the suspect she tried to shoot today. And of Marcus.’
Scarlett’s breath rushed out in a shudder. She cleared her throat, kept her voice level. ‘I understand.’ She looked at Marcus talking to the two old people and felt a fear so intense that her knees threatened to buckle. Demetrius had tried to kill him nine months ago and then again. yesterday. This woman had obviously taken up the challenge since Demetrius had failed.
There was a woman, she stood in the hall. Told him someone was coming.
Scarlett assumed that the woman who’d warned Demetrius that day in the hospital had been the same woman who’d accompanied him when he’d transported the Bautistas. A woman the Bautistas had called Alice.
‘Do you have any recordings of this woman’s voice?’ she asked her boss. ‘Even if it’s only saying that she wants a lawyer?’
‘Yes. We’ve been recording her since we brought her in. Why?’
Because even if she refuses to say another word, I can have Marcus listen to her to see if she’s the one he remembers being in the hospital when Demetrius came after him. ‘Like I said, I can’t speak freely here, but I’ll tell you as soon as I leave. I’ll call back in a few.’ Scarlett hung up as Marcus walked away from Tommy and Edna, his expression one of pained amusement that changed to concern as soon as he met her eyes.
‘What?’
‘Nothing bad, but we need to get back to CPD now.’