“Okay, but—” He glanced around before looking back at me. “I just gave those two officers my statement.”
Candy looked at Cassidy and Mike. “Why don’t we all go to our office at the federal building and talk there? At least we’ll have some privacy rather than talking about everything in front of the employees.” He nodded in the direction of the security guard who was openly eavesdropping on our conversation now that he’d finished giving his statement to the patrol officers.
“That’s a good idea,” Mike said. “We’ll meet you there in say—” He consulted his watch. “Half an hour?”
Candy gave him a sharp nod. “That’d be fine. Thanks, guys.”
I watched the retreating backs of Cass and Mike and looked back at Wes. “Come on. Ya can ride back with us, ya can.”
When Wes saw the huge tactical vehicle parked at the curb, he turned to me with wide eyes. “In that?”
I laughed. “It’s called a BearCat and it’s very comfortable. Come on with ya.”
We all climbed into the back of the BearCat with Candy riding shotgun and Mars in the driver’s seat. I introduced my team to Wes, and he was greeted with friendly handshakes and hellos from everyone. I recognized the curiosity in their eyes as they noticed my hand resting on Wes’ thigh as the BearCat wound its way through traffic from Hollywood to our office in West L.A. They weren’t stupid men. Every one of them couldsense that I’d formed a close bond with Wes but were too polite to mention it. When it grew quiet, Wes turned to me.
“I need to call Rami and Raj. I ran out of there chasing that guy so fast, they must be wondering what the hell happened to me.”
When I nodded, he pulled out his mobile and called them, telling them not to worry and promising to call them later.
I squeezed his hand. “Did ya eat? It’s goin’ to be a long afternoon.”
He smiled. “I took steaks out of the freezer because I planned on cooking dinner for you.”
I cleared my throat and darted my gaze around the inside of the truck. Everyone was silent, pretending to do anything other than what they were doing…listening to every word of our conversation. I glanced back at Wes. “We won’t be home until long after teatime. We’ll order a takeaway when we get back to the office.”
“Indian, I say!” Almond said.
I grinned at Alain. “All you English ever want to eat is Indian.”
“Totally untrue, old man. Sometimes we like kippers and porridge,” he replied in his plummy drawl.
“Gross,” Twizz said, looking horrified.
I laughed as Rex spoke up next. “I love a goodmatar paneer,” the Texan said. We all got a good giggle out of that.
Rex was a master on the grill as well as everything else food related, although I couldn’t imagine him eating vegetarian. But there was no doubt in my mind that he’d master Indian cooking if he tried. I often took the mickey out of him, telling him thatif he’d been a chuckwagon cook on some Texas ranch, he’d call all the cowboys to his backyard, a spin on the old Kelis song. He took the teasing well enough.
We walked into the federal building at the same time Cassidy and Mike did. Candy shepherded us into our briefing room and everyone but Mickey took seats while he went out to put in a takeaway order. He came back in a few minutes later, taking a seat and announcing, “Pizza, wings, and antipasto salad…on its way.”
He walked to the front and taped a copy of the police artist’s sketch of Wes to the whiteboard. “If any of you haven’t already seen this sketch, I wanted to show it to you and bring us all up to speed.” He looked at Wes. “Would you tell us what happened this afternoon?”
Cassidy held up a finger as he pulled out a mobile phone and set it on the table. “I’m going to record this so that it acts as your statement, Mr. Chaudry. Do you have an objection to that?”
Wes shook his head emphatically. “No. I have nothing to hide.”
Cassidy nodded. “Good.” He tapped a button. “This is Detective Cassidy Ryan and I’m here at the federal building in Los Angeles with my partner, Detective Mike Williams. It’s 4:18 p.m. February Fifteenth, 2026. Also with us is Weston Chaudry, and Captain Candy Sorensen from the FBI along with the rest of his Tac Team.” He reeled off all our names.
“Mr. Chaudry, will you tell us what happened?”
“Okay, after Patsy left for the office this morning—”
Candy cleared his throat. “I should mention that Mr. Chaudry has been staying with Patsy for the last few days.”
I gave Wes an encouraging smile. “Go on, tell us what happened,” I said.
Wes nodded then turned back to the room. “Anyway, I decided I needed to get out of the apartment for a while. I took a walk and ended up at Rami and Raj’s convenience store. I’d only gone in to say hello but I ended up staying for a few hours to help them do inventory and unpack some goods for the store…food, wine, chips, whatever. They get a delivery once a week. As I was finishing up, I walked out of the backroom with Raj and saw that man talking to Rami.” He pointed at the police sketch. “He had his back to me so I couldn’t be sure who he was until he walked out of the store and crossed the street.”
Cassidy held up his hand, interrupting. “I should say here that Mr. Chaudry pointed to the police sketch of the homicide suspect my partner and I have had circulating.” Cassidy nodded to Wes. “Mr. Chaudry, please continue.”
