Silently admitting that Jarek would change his tune if he knew the truth about what she’d done.
For a moment, Jarek thought he’d convinced Di to give God and faith a try. But then she ate their dinner as if determined to complete a mission that needed to be accomplished within a specific time frame. He tried not to be disappointed.
He wasn’t a pastor; he had no clue how to talk to someone about faith. If he could get her to attend church with him, that might help.
But he wasn’t going to hold his breath on that possibility either.
By the time they’d finished eating and cleaning up the kitchen, they still had over an hour to waste until they could head back to check out the warehouse. He doubted Di would consider another combat nap, so he dug the laptop out of the duffel and booted it up.
“What are you looking at?” Di asked, joining him at the table.
“Figured I’d look into Kyle Dimitri, a.k.a. Kiko.” He tapped his credentials into the police database. “I’m curious about his criminal record.”
“Good point.” She leaned so close he could feel her breath against his cheek. What would she do if he turned his head to kiss her? Kiss him back? Or slug him?
Probably the latter. Besides, they had work to do. This wasn’t the time or the place to allow his personal feelings for her to become a distraction.
“That cop mentioned he’d been in Rikers.” She glanced at him. “That means he did more than a year.”
“Yep.” He kept his gaze trained on the screen. He wasn’t the type to lose control, but she was sitting far too close for comfort. “Well, looks like he was arrested for possession with intent to sell and a weapons charge. And assaulting a police officer.” He tapped the screen. “And check out who the arresting officer was?”
“Jeff Schnor.” She sat back in her chair. “As a cop working narcotics, that makes sense. I still think it’s strange they didn’t show up to the scene of the shooting.”
“Maybe you’re right about them working a different angle.” He didn’t want to believe one of his fellow officers was involved. But he wasn’t naïve either. Anyone could be swayed by greed.
And the drug trade brought in big money.
“How long was he at Rikers?” Di asked.
“Almost three years.” He toggled to another section of the report. “Looks like he was released just three months ago.”
“Stupid to get right back into the drug business.” She drummed her fingers on the table. “Then again, I’m leaning more and more toward these attacks being a paid hit. Our pal Kiko was probably thinking he’d make some easy cash.”
“Going up against you?” He scoffed. “Not likely. Someone should have warned these guys that you’re a former army soldier.”
“Exactly.” Di was always beautiful but turned downright stunning when she smiled. “Guess he’ll have plenty of time to think about that as he rots in prison.”
“Yep.” He glanced at her bandaged arm, then turned his attention back to the screen. “I’m going to send a message to Andrews, encouraging the DA to offer Kiko a deal in exchange for information.”
“You can do that later.” She put a hand on his arm. “I don’t think we should communicate with anyone at this point. Besides, Andrews won’t take advice from you. If you know anyone in the DA’s office, you could go directly to them.”
“I do know one of the ADAs, Gemma Holland.” He and Gemma had dated briefly but parted as friends. He had to admit that going to the DA’s office directly was a good idea. “I’ll call her tomorrow. I think you’re right about holding off on engaging with any direct lines of communication.”
“Maybe we’ll know more after our foray to the warehouse later tonight.” She rose to her feet. “We should have bought coffee. It’s going to be a long night.”
He nodded and glanced at his watch. Still thirty minutes to go. He glanced outside, noting dusk was just starting to fall. Times like this, daylight savings was a real pain. “We’ll stop on the way.”
“I was thinking we should stop at the port authority first.” She shrugged and added, “Can’t hurt to see if there were cases of Liquid Gold Coffee and Tea dropped off earlier. And if so, where they might be headed.”
“We can, but we already know where their warehouse is located.” He wasn’t sure stopping at the port authority was a good idea. “I think we’re better off heading straight to the warehouse. Maybe we’ll get there in time to see them unloading the boxes of cargo inside.”
Her eyes lit up. “That’s a great idea. But that means we should go now. Maybe we can slip inside the warehouse while they’re unpacking crates.”
He sighed. “That’s called trespassing.”
“Yeah, but if we find drugs, I’m sure we can make a case for probable cause.” She waved a hand as if the details of how they’d make their illegal search work out in their favor was inconsequential.
It wasn’t. But he knew that wouldn’t stop him from going along with her plan.
