“You won’t know if he’ll go for it unless you try,” Juliette said.
There really was no reason I couldn’t attempt to break free, at least from Juliette’s perspective. So I wasn’t sure what to say. “Let me think about it.”
“Okay.” She smiled, and the glimmer of hope I saw in her eyes made me feel worse than I already did.
Hours later, Juliette asked me if I wanted to take a ride to the pharmacy to pick up the prescriptions the hospital had sent home with me. “You can just stay in the car, if you want. It’s fine if you would rather stay here, but I thought you might want some fresh air.”
I knew I had to check the phone my captain had given me, to see if I could identify the guy from the footage. “I’m wiped out. I think I’m going to stay.”
She leaned in and pressed her lips to mine. “Okay. Is there anything else you need while I’m out?”
“No, I’m good. Thanks.”
I waited until I heard the cars pull away to check the window. Both Juliette and Eddie’s cars were gone. So I went to the bedroom, shut the door behind me, and dug out the phone I had hidden in my bag. Sure enough,there were texts waiting from Chief Olson. He’d sent them an hour ago.
Unknown: Call your captain. She wants to talk to you. Let her know if this is the guy you saw and she’ll relay it to us.
The photo was grainy, but I was pretty sure it was the same guy I’d seen following us earlier that day at the market. Though I couldn’t be a hundred-percent positive. I stared at it for a few seconds and listened to make sure the house was still empty before dialing my captain’s number.
“Hey. It’s Wes.”
“How you feeling?”
“Sore. But I’ll live.”
“Did you take a look at the photo the chief sent?”
“Yeah, it looks like him, but it’s grainy.”
“The video equipment the guy had was fifteen years old. But it was enough for us to run him through our facial-recognition program. We got a hit. Guy is from New York, known associate of a rival family.”
I ran a hand through my hair, ignoring the pain lifting my arm caused. “Who is he?”
“I’m not going to give you his name, just in case it rings a bell and you came across him at some point when you were working with Vince in New York. I don’t want to taint the ID in any way.”
“How do you want to handle it?”
“I need you to meet me so we can do a proper photo array. We need to do this one by the book.”
“Meet you? In New York?”
“No, I’m back out in California. I came out two days ago to lend a hand on the shooting. I didn’t come by the hospital in case any of Vince’s men knew my face. Didn’twant them to question why a captain from the NYPD was coming to see you.”
“Good idea. Okay.”
“I’m staying at the Hotel Adventura. Do you know where that is?”
“Hotel Adventura? Sounds familiar. I can look it up.”
“Think you can give me a time?”
“No. I need to see what Juliette is doing tomorrow. I don’t want to raise any suspicions and sound like I have plans. Can we just play it by ear, and I’ll text you when I’m able to get away?”
“Sure thing.”
“All right, good. Anything else? Juliette only went to the pharmacy, so she’ll be back soon.”
“Nope. I’ll wait for your text tomorrow.”
