Hopefully that would be sooner rather than later.
“You’re a magnet for trouble,” Andrews groused. “Can’t you just stay home and out of the line of fire?”
He arched a brow. “I tried that, but the gunman broke into my house, remember? Does the name Kyle Dimitri, a.k.a. Kiko, mean anything to you?”
“No.” Andrews huffed and turned away. He called out to one of the officers. “Where’s the slug you found?”
Jarek curled his fingers into fists to keep himself from grabbing Andrews by the shoulders and shaking some sense into him. That the detective hadn’t asked him even the most basic questions burned his butt. Even though he and Di had provided their statements to the responding officers, Andrews should have gone over the chain of events with them again. Instead, he’d decided to focus on the evidence.
The guy wasn’t worthy of his gold shield.
One he wouldn’t be carrying much longer, Jarek silently reminded himself.
“Let’s get out of here,” Di said in a low voice. “I feel naked without a weapon. We left our duffels in the boat. I’m hoping they’re still there.”
“Fine with me.” He turned away from the scene. “But we haven’t really learned much.”
“We know Kiko fired the shot, and that means Hernandez is likely the one sending gunmen after me.” She nodded toward the warehouse they’d intended to look at before the shooting had taken place. The second warehouse was only a block away from their current location. “Now that I think about it, Kiko’s goal may have been to keep us from checking the place out.”
“Could be.” He glanced at her. “I don’t think it’s smart to head there now with all the cops around. We can check back later.”
She frowned, then nodded. “Okay.”
They walked around the block to head back to the boat. He was surprised to see the older boat that Cargo Shorts had arrived in earlier that day was now gone. Di noticed too. “I guess the shooting scared Cargo Shorts away.”
“We don’t know that he was the one who took the boat.” While he silently agreed that was a likely scenario, he didn’t want to encourage jumping to conclusions. “Could have been his buddy. Or someone else.”
She shot him a skeptical glance, then quickened her pace to reach the boat. She jumped into the vessel and opened the storage area where they’d stuck the duffel bags. After rummaging inside hers, she removed a Glock and tucked it into her empty holster.
“Much better,” she said, patting her hip.
“We shouldn’t have left the weapon unattended.” He’d forgotten her comment about having a backup weapon. He joined her in the boat, inserted the key in the ignition, and started the engine. “Good thing nobody stole it.”
“Yeah.” She grimaced. “That would not go over well since the weapon is registered in my name. It would be just my luck that the idiot who stole it would use it to commit a crime.”
“Do you have other weapons in there?” He glanced over as she unwrapped the line holding the boat in place. Then she brought the buoy in and pushed away from the pier. When they were far enough away, he put the boat in reverse to get back into open water.
“Just a knife.” She grinned, shoving a strand of hair away from her scarred cheek. “A KA-BAR knife to be exact.”
He should have known. “I’m surprised you don’t have flash-bangs or grenades in there.”
“I have some in a storage unit.” She came up to stand beside him. “We can head over if you think we’ll need them.”
“No, I think we’re good.” He should have figured she’d have other weapons stashed away. It made him wonder why she’d gotten out of the army. Well, other than the whole debacle of the exfiltration going sideways. He glanced at his watch. The shooting incident had dug into their three-hour window of using the boat. “Any other stops before we head back?”
“Let’s just cruise the river for a while.” She gazed out at the other boats around them. “Maybe we’ll be able to spot a drug boat.”
“They won’t have neon signs,” he drawled as he did as she requested.
“Too bad, because that would really be helpful.” Her playful comeback made him grin. He increased their speed, and Di leaned into the wind as if she enjoyed going fast.
She was an intriguing mix. Shooting bad guys one minute and soaking up the sun the next.
He steered around other boats. The river was a little more crowded now, but from what he could tell, most of the boaters were tourists or locals enjoying the warm summer day.
“Hey, check that one out.” Di chinned toward a larger boat with two men wearing black ball caps low on their foreheads. The boat was heading south along the river, the direction from which they’d come. “I think they’re carrying.”
Noticing the bulge in the small of their back, he nodded. People without carry permits tried to hide their weapons, but they mostly failed to keep them a secret. Especially in the summertime. As their boats passed on the river, he tried to get a closer look at the men’s facial features. They didn’t so much as glance at him or Di, their eyes focused on the water as they spoke in low tones.
