Whitaker might be smart, but the people he’s manipulating are merely puppets. If they were as smart as him, they wouldn’t be pawns in his game. It means they come with risks, and one risk is being sloppy and fucking up.
Let’s just hope this one fucked up enough that I have something we can use.
When we reach the car, Gabriel turns in the passenger seat to face Jesse.
“We need to call this in.”
Jesse shakes his head. “You heard him. He has proof I was involved.”
“I recorded the entire conversation with my phone,” Gabriel says. “From the moment he started talking until the end. I have verbalproofhe planted evidence on the body. We have the video recording of someonein your house. I don’t know how you could even remotely believe that he could pin this on you.”
“The only reason he allowed us to do those things is because he doesn’t think you’re going to turn it in. Actually, heknowsyou’re not going to turn it in,” I say. “You want us to help you figure out where he is, but you don’t want us to legally look into it because you did something in the past that he could use to destroy you. You’re afraid that once they start digging into you, they’ll find something. Now tell me. How many did you kill?”
Jesse looks panicked. “I didn’t kill any of them! It’s bad enough Ibroughthim people. You think that wouldn’t be enough to ruin me?”
“Where’s Lacey? Is she somewhere he can find her?”
“She went into hiding with her brother right after the incident at the hospital.”
Gabriel looks at me to see what I think we should do. He’s leaving me to make the final decision. But the thing is that Jesse isn’t cold-blooded; he’s not going to chance more people dying just to stay out of prison.
I say, “I’m going to see what I can get off the tape. I can almost guarantee Whitaker wasn’t the person who planted this. If we can find the person who did, then maybe they can give us some hint to Whitaker’s location.”
“What the fuck do I do with the head? I can’t just… leave the head in my house, can I?” Jesse asks. “I can… I just… I…”
“I’ll take the head,” I say. “We saw how good you were at hiding a body last time.”
“I’m fucked, aren’t I?”
“You might be,” I admit. “But we’ll see where we can go.”
Gabriel suggests, “Go stay with Matthew for a while. Tell him you’re paranoid. Don’t leave him completely in the dark. We’ll drive you to the department; I don’t think you should be alone.”
“Okay. Thank you, guys,” Jesse says. “I’ll be back in a minute. I have to grab Nefertiti. I moved her to my car when I realized someone had broken in.”
Gabriel stares after me while I head back into the house alone to retrieve the box.
TWENTY-THREE
Gabriel
I watch Liam carry the box with the head in it out to my car. He pops the trunk and sets the box inside before coming around to the driver’s seat.
I don’t like this. The more Liam does, the more at risk he becomes. And now he’s going to take the head and simply… store it somewhere until Jesse decides whether or not we should turn this in?
“Thank you both so much,” Jesse says, sounding like he’s near tears while he hugs the small travel cage for his tarantula.
“I don’t like tears or words of appreciation,” Liam announces as he drives off.
I don’t like any part of this. All the phone call from Whitaker accomplished was pissing the man off, and while Liam seems to think it went splendidly, I’m nervous Whitaker will set his sights on him. Liam is confident and cocky, but that will only get him so far.
“I’ll have the fingerprints checked and see if we can find something,” Jesse says.
“I’ll have Gabriel tackle that. Jesse, I want to run through things with you, see what we can pull up.”
“You sure? I don’t mind dealing with the prints.”
“Nah,” Liam says as I notice him glancing in the rearview mirror. I’m uncertain why until I shift in my seat and see a police car pulling up behind us. The moment the sirens flip on, Jesse’s entire body seems to collapse in on itself. He sinks down in his seat and closes his eyes.
