If Evan hadn’t taken her down, what might she have done? If not for his interference, maybe she would’ve taken over from Hawke and gotten someone hurt in the process. She would haveto give her actions some serious consideration when they debriefed. She wouldn’t think about Evan being in love with her. Those thoughts would wait until the wee hours of the morning when she was ready to drop from exhaustion and didn’t have the strength to block the crazy idea.
They approached Hawke, who was standing outside the door, his assault rifle still in his hands. “Suspect’s dead.”
She’d expected as much. “Would you mind calling your supervisor and getting ERT out here?”
“Sure.”
“Thanks for handling it,” she said, and hoped she sounded stronger than she felt as her subsiding adrenaline brought on a heavy dose of fatigue and threatened to give her a headache.
“Thanks for letting us.” He lifted his shoulders. “I’m impressed that you knew we were better equipped and took a back seat.”
If he’d seen Evan tackle her, he didn’t let on, so she gave a nod, though she had to wonder again what she might have done if not for Evan’s interference. She put on the gloves and booties and stepped into the room. The metallic smell of blood mixed with spicy pizza lying in an open delivery box. The suspect had come to rest on his back between the window and a double bed, his lower body twisted at an odd angle. She’d hoped to make a visual ID, but a direct hit to his head prevented any possibility for facial ID.
She spotted his wallet and phone on the nightstand. She bagged the phone so they could image the device and search it the minute they got to the local office, then grabbed the wallet and withdrew a Virginia driver’s license. “This isn’t Nabi or Shah. It’s Gadi Amari.”
Mack’s mouth dropped. “We’ll need to grab the portable print scanner and try to get his prints from Interpol to confirm.”
Kiley nodded. “I need to follow up with Nigel Clark anyway.”
Mack stared at Gadi. “So if the police hack originated herelike Cam said, the Amaris are connected to Nabi and Shah, which links the Pittsburgh bombing to our investigation.”
“Looks like it,” she said, her thoughts spinning. “Question now is, what role were the Amaris supposed to play in the upcoming attack, and can they still carry it out without Gadi?”
Sean had gone inside to run license plates, leaving Evan to stand guard duty alone. But now a local team of agents arrived to set up a stakeout, and Evan gladly turned over the job and jogged across the parking lot. He couldn’t quit thinking about Kiley and wanted to find out if she was still mad at him. Clearly in the heat of the moment, she hadn’t been glad of his interference.
In hindsight, he felt a bit foolish. But the second that rifle poked through the window, he could do nothing less than get her out of the line of fire. Maybe he should have stopped there and let her get up right away, but at least he’d come to his senses and finally moved.
Fully expecting to be kicked off the investigation, he put on booties and gloves and stepped into the motel room. Sean sat on the bed engrossed in his laptop, likely still running plates. Evan expected the stink eye from Mack. Surprisingly he didn’t say a word or even look angry. Kiley refused to acknowledge him, or maybe she found the dresser search more interesting.
If he had any hope of remaining on this team, he needed to make himself useful and not stand around waiting for her to tell him what to do. He stepped over to the victim they would officially be identifying from DNA or prints, since facial recognition obviously wasn’t possible. Striped cotton pajama bottoms were his only clothing, exposing his flabby middle. He’d likely just woken up in the middle of the night, found his partner missing, and stuck his head outside to look for him.
“We find any ID for this guy?” Evan asked.
“Virginia DL says it’s Gadi Amari,” Mack told him.
“Really? Gadi.” Evan took a moment to process the surprise. “Any thoughts on why his brother wasn’t here at this time of day?”
“Maybe he went out to get supplies or food,” Mack said.
“If so, he should’ve been back by now,” Sean said. “And there’s been no sign of him.”
“He could have returned during the gunfire and bolted,” Kiley said. “Or maybe he’s not even in LA. I should text Cam to look for CCTV footage in the area.”
Surprised she hadn’t thrown him out of the room, Evan watched her get out her phone. Because she let him stay now didn’t mean she didn’t plan to kick him off the team. Maybe if he found something of importance in this room, she’d realize his value and keep him around.
He looked back at the body and remembered the tattoo from the bank video. Maybe Gadi had one too, tying him to the suspects from the container. Evan squatted down to get a closer look at his hands.
“Something of interest?” Kiley asked from above.
He looked up. “Checking for a tattoo like we saw in the bank video. He doesn’t have one.”
She gave a quick nod, which he took to meancarry on.
He turned his attention back to Gadi and knelt down by his torso. He might not have a matching tattoo on his hand, but he had a larger tattoo on his upper arm, and Evan wanted to get a look at it. He shouldn’t touch a body before the ME arrived, much less move it.
He turned to Kiley. “He has a tattoo on his arm. Okay if I nudge him to get a better look?”
“Go ahead.” Kiley’s phone rang, taking her attention. She answered and nodded. “Perfect. Thanks for letting me know.”
