It was a lie.
Brantley had interrogated enough people to know when a man was lying. And Decker had gone from sheer panic to instant relief, his answer coming far too quickly. He was lying.
“No,” Decker said when Brantley flipped on his turn signal. “Go down to Sixth. There’s construction on Eighth.”
Brantley turned off the signal and waited for the light to turn green.
“Who’s Eddie?” Brantley asked.
“A friend.”
“What’s this friend running from?”
Decker huffed. “Running? What makes you think … he’s running?”
“Why else would you go off the grid?”
“I wasn’toff the grid,” Decker countered. “I told Z I had some shit to take care of.”
“So why’d he call us in a panic?”
“You’ll have to ask him.”
Brantley fully intended to because, based on Decker’s reaction, Z knew exactly where Decker was and possibly what he’d been doing.
Which meant they’d been played.
***
“Did you find him?” JJ asked whenshe answered her phone two hours after she’d given Brantley directions to Decker’s phone.
“Yeah.”
“Why don’t you sound happy?”
“I’ll explain it all when we get back to Texas.”
“So that means you’re comin’ back? Today?”
“Yep. If Z did his part.”
“I’ll check with him,” JJ told him.
“Wake his fuckin’ ass up if you have to.”
JJ didn’t need to see Brantley’s face to know he was seething.
“Is Decker comin’ with you?”
“I told him to meet us at the airport at fourteen hundred. If his ass doesn’t show up, he’s no longer my problem.”
JJ could hear the frustration in Brantley’s tone, but considering it was the middle of the night, she didn’t figure it was a good time to ask him for details.
“Okay. I’ll call Z, make sure your transpo is arranged. Let me know when y’all are on the way back.”
“Will do. Oh, and JJ.”
“Yeah?”
