“Still, she owes you her life if she makes it.” Mina smiled at him.
Hopefully, her smile meant he’d regained her trust back. “I have a thing about being shot at so do you mind if I ask you if you’ve learned anything about Mercado?”
“Ah,” she said. “So you got someone to run the plates for you.”
Hayden nodded, but wouldn’t throw Gabe’s friend under the bus.
“Then I’m sure you know about his rap sheet. Unfortunately, I don’t know anything more about him at this point.” She took a sip of the coffee. “He’s in the wind, but we’ve issued an alert for him. Hopefully he’ll talk when we bring him in.”
“So no connection to Collins, Palmer, or Ivers,” Hayden clarified.
She shook her head. “But we’ve only just started digging into him.”
“We were hoping for more information,” Abby said.
“You know how it goes with a small department. You have to choose your priorities, and right now it’s the trafficked women.” She took a chest-raising breath and let it out. “Icantell you we recovered a handgun at Mercado’s home, which has been sent off to ballistics for comparison to slugs recovered at the scene. The weapon’s a 9mm, as were the slugs, so we’re hoping we have the right firearm. So far the only other important forensics from the scene is paint transferred from his vehicle to yours, which also is being tested for a match. We’ve impounded his vehicle, and forensics is doing a thorough search.”
Jude bent forward. “I don’t suppose you have anything on the other guy in his vehicle.”
“Nothing.”
Cady blinked rapidly. “But when you find Mercado, you’ll keep him locked up, right?”
“Yes. We have enough to hold him.”
Gabe gritted his teeth. “Maybe bringing him in will spook whoever he’s reporting to, and they’ll do something stupid while we’re watching.”
Mina crossed her arms and looked at each person in turn. “I know I can’t stop you from watching potential suspects, but I need to caution you not to spook them, preventing us from making a solid arrest.”
Nothing she said would stop them, but they’d embrace the warning to be more cautious. With Collins and Palmer detained, they needed to get eyes only on Mercado and Ivers.
