Laurel’s eyes dropped to my chest, then rocketed back up. “I know.” She looked panicked at having been caught.
“So basically, it could go either way.”
“There’s also the timing. We left the party with Dawson around eleven. So five law enforcement officials can attest to your and Nate’s whereabouts until fifteen after. Two young women we interviewed claimed to have seen the dealers arrive at ten thirty.”
“Okay, another point in my favor.”
“Yeah.” Laurel nodded. “Absolutely.”
“But?”
“Gibson suggested that you put them up to lying.”
“Wow. I can see why he’s running this investigation. A real detective.”
Laurel laughed. It was halfway between release and mirth. “Welcome to my world.”
“Thanks for telling me.” I knew she was sharing privileged information. I was the only suspect in an ongoing case and she had just given me everything they had. She’d probably broken a whole slew of rules in the last five minutes.
“Yeah, of course. You deserve to know what we are up against.”
We. I felt the weight of her trust settle around us. We were in this together. I reached across the table and put my hand over hers. She smiled halfway and nodded.
*****
The sound of the back door opening woke me up. It was still light out, but barely. I could just make out the gray shape of my furniture. A light flipped on in the kitchen. Someone shook Nickels’s food container. Next to me, Nickels put her head up. The container was shaken again.
“Nickels, where are you? It’s dinner time,” Robin called.
Nickels liked that idea a whole lot. She jumped off the bed and ran down the hall. I rolled out of bed, pulled on my jeans from earlier, and followed her.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
Robin jumped and almost dropped the food container. “Goddamnit, Cash.”
I laughed and took the cat food from her. She started laughing too. Nickels stopped eating long enough to stare at us. Then she went back to her dinner.
“So you’re feeding the cat?”
“Yes. You jerk. I thought you were in jail. I saw them arrest you this morning,” she said.
I started putting together the coffee maker. “I was released. I mean, they might arrest me again, but they need to manufacture a lot more evidence.” I hit the burr grinder.
Robin sat at table and waited for the noise to stop. “I was worried my whole shift. Why didn’t you let me know?”
“I did. I texted you as soon as I was out.”
“Oh.” She laughed again. “I may have forgotten to charge my phone. It died while I was at work. In my defense, I was very distraught over seeing my friend arrested this morning.”
I shook my head and sat across from her. “You’re a mess, woman.” The coffee machine gurgled and started to brew.
She sighed. “I know. So what happened?”
“There’s a dealer selling fentanyl pills. Seven guys have overdosed thus far. Six died. One is in a coma.”
“Oh, no. Are you wrapped up in that?”
“How do you know about it?” I asked. Robin was one of those moms who magically knew everything, but this was a bit extreme.
“I was on shift when two of them were brought in.”
“That’s rough,” I said. We both nodded. It was rough.
“So what’s your involvement?”
“I’m being charged in their deaths.”
“What?” Robin shouted.
“There’s some sketchy circumstantial evidence. A dealer who might fit my description. The victims have all fit the profile of my clients. It’s bullshit, but there’s a detective who is convinced I’m behind it.”
“It’s not Laurel, right? Because she must know that’s not how you operate.”
“Yeah, she knows. There’s a whole bunch of politics involved. The lead detective is convinced that Laurel and her partner are at least protecting me. Worst case, he’s convinced they’re helping me. It’s a whole thing. He’s a complete idiot.”
“Is Laurel going to clear your name?” Robin asked.
“We’re working on that.”
“How’s all of that going?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I might be in love with her.”
Robin’s eyes got wide. “Okay.”
“I might not. It’s very confusing.”
“I was mostly just talking about working with her, but that’s good information too. Kind of important.”
“That’s the thing. The more I work with her, the more I respect her. I understand her in ways I didn’t before.” Behind me the coffee pot beeped. I stood and pulled a mug from the cabinet. I held it up in Robin’s direction and she nodded.
“Does she know?”
“Probably.” I poured coffee and set one of the mugs in front of Robin. “She’s still way into me too.”
Robin nodded slowly like she was trying to absorb all of the information. “Andy said that too.”
“She said what?” I sat back at the table.
“That you guys were madly in love. And she called you stupid.” That was a tame version of what Andy had told us.
I shrugged. “That’s fair.”
“They’ve been talking, you know.”
“Oh, yeah. I wondered if Andy would work up the courage.”
“When you first told me, I was a bit wary. I thought Laurel might use Andy to get information about you.”
That was a new angle. I hadn’t thought of that. “Why did you let me give her Laurel’s number?”
“I could have been wrong.” She lifted one shoulder. “Turned out I was.”
“You’re brave.” My phone vibrated. I wrestled it out of my pocket.
“Most parents of teenagers are brave. And stupid.”
We laughed. I unlocked the phone and looked at my messages. One was from Nate an hour earlier.
There’s two. He included a fuzzy photo. It looked like Aryan behind the wheel of a sedan. There were two cars?
There was also a message from Laurel. I opened it.
There are two Aryans.
“Christ,” I whispered.
“What?” Robin asked.
“Nothing. We just got a lead. I need to call Laurel.”
Robin stood. “Okay. Be careful.”
“Thanks for feeding Nickels.” I grinned. Robin rolled her eyes at me.
As soon as the door closed, I called Laurel.
“You got my message,” she said.
“Yeah. What the hell does that mean?”
“Exactly what I said. There are two of them. Siblings. Tyler and Alyssa Hirsch.”
“Jesus fucking Christ.” Even their names were white bread.
“There’s more. Tyler perfectly matches the image from the video. He’s twenty years old. He’s six one. The minivan is registered to him at that address. So that corroborates everything you guys brought us. I reached out to campus security for Tyler’s keycard usage, but it could take them days to get back to me. If they even bother to.”
“I doubt he used his own keycard anyway.”
“You’re not wrong.”
“What about the girl?” I really just wanted to ask if she fit my physical description, but I was too afraid that asking outright would curse it somehow.
“Alyssa is twenty-three. She’s five seven. Has short hair. License photo shows a more shag-like cut, but Reyes just sent me an image from the house. The girl they saw was driving the Chevy Malibu registered to Alyssa. She matches the description, but her haircut is almost identical to yours now.”
“This is fucking fantastic.”
“It is, but now we need something concrete. Unlike Gibson, I like to gather evidence.”
“Such high standards.”
“I’m crazy that way.”
“So we need to continue the stakeout?”
“Yeah. Nate and Lucas split up. Nate is on Tyler. Lucas is on Alyssa. Watching two o
f them means our lives just got complicated.”
“Can you call in backup?” I barely trusted Kallen and Reyes. I was reluctant to include anyone else. But if it got my name cleared faster, I’d make my peace with it.
“I’ll have to. Are you still down to help tonight?”
“I’ll pick you up in my stalker van at ten.”
“Someone sure knows how to woo a lady.”
“Yeah. I get that a lot.”
Chapter Twenty-seven
Tyler Hirsch was the most unimaginative college student I’d ever seen. He went to class, he worked out in the gym on campus, he went home. I couldn’t see inside his house, but I was certain that he took his vitamins and went to bed at nine o’clock. The only remotely interesting thing about him was that he had killed at least six people.
Granted, I was judging him after watching for only a day, but I felt secure in my assessment.
Alyssa had marginally more personality. She didn’t keep a strict schedule like her brother, but she wasn’t exactly fascinating. Monday morning, she had gone grocery shopping where she apparently paid with cash. I wasn’t judging, but I was the only person I knew who paid with cash at the grocery store. That afternoon, she started dealing.
Duarte had spent the better part of the day shadowing her. He had some crystal clear photos of her exchanging a paper-wrapped package for a wad of cash with the bouncer at Club Et Les Filles in midtown. Laurel had to coach the hell out of Duarte to stop him from arresting them on the spot. He was so excited about the entire exchange that I got to hear him retell the story for two hours straight when I took over for Laurel.
We were leapfrogging our coverage. It was wildly ineffective, but it was the only way to cover two perps with only five people. Including Ionescu or Michelson would have resulted in warm bodies, but it was also a guarantee that Detective Gibson would be one of those bodies.
It was a relief when Nate called to report that he was ready to take over for Duarte. I didn’t mind puppy dogs, I just didn’t want to drive around with one all day. We made the switch when Alyssa stopped for frozen yogurt. Dealing drugs was hard work. I mean, I never stopped mid-delivery for frozen yogurt, but she was new to the game.
“How was junior detective?” Nate asked as he settled into the passenger’s seat. We were in my SUV today. It was less conspicuous than the van for daylight hours, but mostly I was excited to be sitting in a comfortable seat.
“More junior than detective.”
Nate laughed. “Has Lady Aryan Nations done anything since selling to that bouncer?”
“Ran errands. She went to the bank. She went to Target. This girl is all over the place.”
“Well, buckle up, buddy. It looks like we are going to the pet store.” He pointed as Alyssa turned in the lot for Petco. “I’ll take this one.”
I groaned. “I’ll let you have it.”
Nate clapped his hand on my shoulder. “You’re a true friend.”
“I know.” I pulled into a spot at the edge of the lot. “You should try to tag her car on the way in.” I grabbed the tracker out of my glove box.
“You got it.” Nate took the tracker and jumped out of the SUV.
We had ventured outside of midtown into Natomas. I understood it. Running errands was a lot easier in suburbia than midtown. But of all the suburban options, Natomas was nowhere near the top of my list.
Nate strode toward the entrance to the store. He stopped to tie his shoe behind Alyssa’s car. It was a tried and true method. He stood and continued into the store. I pulled up the tracker app. The second dot on the map was stationary.
I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel. I drank some water. I watched the entrance of the pet store intently. This was Olympic level boring. Alyssa finally emerged. The reusable bag that had been tucked under her arm on the way in now held something. She climbed in the Malibu and spent a few minutes rummaging in the front seat. Nate emerged from the store and wound his way through the lot toward me. She finally got back on the road. We followed her.
“So Alyssa has a fish and the fish now has food,” Nate said.
“That is absolutely relevant information. I’m glad we were able to confirm that detail.”
“Same. We are going to blow this case wide open.”
Alyssa turned into a neighborhood without warning. She did not drive as safely as her brother. We made the turn, but I pulled into a driveway a few houses down. When she turned again, Nate gave me the go-ahead to follow her. We went a whopping quarter mile before we spotted her car parked in a driveway. The house was a cookie-cutter single level built in approximately 1997. It looked exactly like a house across the street. Next door was a mirror image of the house. On the other side there was a two-story version. We parked on the street and watched. Nate handed me a pair of binoculars. He got out Duarte’s camera with its impressive telephoto.
There was no movement in the house. To be fair, it was two o’clock on a Monday afternoon. There wasn’t much movement in general. Twenty minutes later, I wasn’t sure if I was still awake. I wasn’t entirely sure I was still alive. The door finally opened. Alyssa stepped out. She stopped in the middle of the walkway and turned back. A guy stepped out. He was mid-twenties, a little chubby, and had no chin. His hair was almost to his jaw, but it looked lank and heavy. It had been at least three years, but Benji looked the same as he always had.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Nate said.
“Is this happening?” I asked.
“Yes.” The shutter went crazy as Nate took photos.
Alyssa continued down the walkway and climbed in her car. Nate redirected the camera to take a picture of the address. I grabbed my phone and dropped a pin for good measure.
“Hey, Nate?” I asked as I started to follow Alyssa again.
“Yeah?”
“We just found Benji Nelson.”
“Yeah, we fucking did.”
We high-fived.
Benji was a generally useless human. Smart, but just enough that he could see the truth in the world. He really didn’t like seeing the truth so he did his damnedest to be high most of the time to keep himself from seeing said truth. Some people turned to activism. Some people ran for office. Some people just worked on their listening skills. But not Benji. He built a blanket fort and crawled inside.
Last time we’d seen him, he had grabbed my messenger bag at a party. It had about five hundred bucks and an equal amount of pills. And I liked that bag. Nate and I gave chase. I was pretty sure Benji had no idea he could run that fast.
“Text Kallen. Tell her we might have a lead and we need someone to take over,” I said.
“On it.” He started typing.
“We are getting back on the freeway. Might be headed back to West Sac.” Traffic was just starting to pick up. Highway 80 was a nightmare anytime after three. We were dangerously close to three. At least the traffic gave us plenty of cover.
“Reyes is still on Tyler. He’s home already,” Nate said.
“Maybe we can just ditch Alyssa there?”
“Totally.”
Alyssa threw us for a loop when she pulled off the main drag, but she was just getting gas. As expected, she drove straight home after that.
“Verdict?” I asked.
“Kallen is on her way in case Reyes needs her. She says to go follow our lead.” That was worth another high-five. “I can keep an eye on her tracker too. You know, in case she leaves.” Nate pulled out his phone and started the app.
“You’re so tech savvy.”
“Maybe I’m not.” He held up the phone, but I was driving so I couldn’t focus on it.
“What am I looking at?”
“The tracker is on the freeway and it’s not moving. It must have fallen off. Dammit.”
“Shit.”
Nate grumbled and tapped his phone, but that didn’t miraculously reattach the tracker. At least we still had another. We retraced our steps back to Natomas. Halfway there, Nate accepted the fat
e of the tracker and tucked his phone away.
We got lost in Benji’s neighborhood briefly, but in our defense, everything looked beige. I parked in front of the house. Nate triple checked the address. We were in the right place.
“You ready?”
“I’ve been ready for this moment for a long time. That little shit outran me,” Nate said.
We got out and went up the walkway. Nate rang the doorbell. There was a delay and then we heard footsteps. The door swung wide. Benji looked lost for a moment, then his eyes went wide and he stumbled backward.
“Hey, Benji,” I said.
Benji stuttered but couldn’t seem to land on a word.
“Thanks, we’d love to come in.” Nate took a step inside and threw his arm around Benji’s shoulders. “How’s it going, buddy?”
I followed and closed the door. Nate led Benji through the house. There was a formal dining room with a hutch. Benji didn’t live alone. Just off the kitchen at the back of the house, there was a living room. The large screen TV displayed a paused video game. Nate sat Benji down on the couch in front of the TV.
“Is there anyone else home?” I asked.
Benji shook his head.
“You want to go check?” Nate asked me.
“I’ll be back. You two get acquainted again.”
I went back through the house. There was a hallway that led to a couple of bedrooms and an office. It looked like Benji lived with one of his parents. I opened a couple of drawers in the master bedroom. There were a lot of polo shirts and size 42 khakis. The bathroom held Barbasol, drug store shampoo, and an expired Viagra prescription. I felt pretty confident in betting he lived with Dad.
Benji’s room was surprisingly neat for a twenty-four-year-old who lived with his father and had the luxury of video game playing on a Monday afternoon. It smelled clean and the bed was made. He still had posters stapled haphazardly to the walls. Some were more sun faded than others, but all of them appeared to advertise Xbox games. In the center of his bed was a paper-wrapped package. It was a lot smaller than the one Alyssa had given to the bouncer at Club Et Les Filles. I really wanted to open the package, but stupid Laurel had impressed upon me the power of evidence. Dammit.
The Price of Cash Page 22
