18. Copy That

EIGHTEEN

COPY THAT

A t around 7:20 that night, we rolled up on Mary’s door at the long-term hotel where she was staying.

Raye knocked.

We waited.

Raye knocked again.

We waited some more.

“She’s not a spring chicken, maybe it takes her time to get to the door,” Harlow remarked into our collective impatience.

“It’s a glorified hotel room with a kitchenette and a baby living room. How much time does it take?” Luna asked.

I pushed in to knock again, but I didn’t when we heard shouted from the other side, “I can see you! And I’m not answering because I’m mad at you girls!”

We all glanced at each other before I called toward the door, “Why are you mad at us? You barely know us.”

We jumped when the door was yanked open, and Mary stood there in all her petite, old lady glory, complete with pink fuzzy slippers on her feet, glowering up at us.

I would never tell her this, but the glower lost some of its power due to the slippers.

“Because now all my kids and grandkids know I was sleeping in a tent, and they’re all mad at me, and they’re all scraping together the little extra they have so they can get me a nicer apartment,” she explained, all crotchety.

“If my grandma was sleeping in an abandoned parking lot in a tent, I’d want her in a decent apartment,” Luna pointed out.

“They already don’t have a lot, now they’re gonna have less,” Mary shot back.

“No. Now they’ll have peace of mind you’re taken care of, which is worth more than anything money can buy,” Luna returned.

Mary worked her jaw while she considered this.

We had the population of the whole homeless camp to get to, and I had a desire to get it done in time for Luna to be forced to spend even just a little bit of it with Knox that night, so I stated, “We’re looking into these abductions from the camp. Can we ask you some questions?”

She focused her glare on me for a few beats before she stepped aside and let us in.

We all trundled in, and yeah, the place was no palace. It was small, but it was clean, even if her belongings were wedged everywhere there was space to fit them.

The tiger cat, who had assumed the high ground on a tall stack of boxes, took a swipe at Harlow’s hair as she passed by. With a squeak, Harlow jumped out of range.

“Zuzu, quit that,” Mary ordered.

Even though she had no hope of reaching her, Zuzu responded by taking a swipe at Mary.

“Her name is Zuzu?” Raye asked.

Mary looked at Raye like she had two heads. “No. His name is Frank.”

We all looked at each other again before Raye pointed out, “You just called him Zuzu.”

“I call him Zuzu, and King Catopher, and Cat Catofferson and Prince of His Domain, and Scallywicious,” Mary shared. “He’s the only baby I have left. He gets a lot of nicknames. Obviously, you don’t have cats.”

This reminded me, I was in the market for a pet. It was time. I had a guy to talk to now, so I wasn’t talking to the sink anymore, but still.

Both Mom and Dad had no patience for animals, and both Jeff and I had always wanted one.

I wondered what Eric thought about cats.

“Actually, I moonlight as a pet sitter,” Raye told her.

“Great. I’ll take your card and call you the next time I go to the Caribbean,” Mary retorted.

I was beginning to like this chick.

However, time was a’wastin’.

“So, Mary, about these abductions,” I began.

She shook her head. “I didn’t see anything, and I wish I did or I woulda told the cops all about it when they came around,” Mary stated.

Damn.

“Have you heard anyone else talk about anything?” Luna inquired.

“No. That group doesn’t talk much. But they’d talk about that,” Mary said.

So, this was a bust and eating into Luna’s forced time with Knox.

“Though…” Mary drew that out.

We waited.

She didn’t say anything.

I sighed and said, “Mary, we have a lot of people to talk to tonight. If you have anything we can go on, we’d really appreciate you telling us.”

“That boy was there. I saw him,” she declared.

Boy?

“What boy?” Raye asked.

“He sells those pills. The bad ones. The ones that really mess people up,” Mary said.

Oh no.

“Fentanyl?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yeah. That stuff.”

“Why would you mention him?” Luna queried.

“Because he sells to some of those people in the camp, which is so sad. But also because I didn’t get a good feeling about him when he did,” Mary explained. “And not just the normal bad feeling of him doing what he was doing.”

“What kind of feel did you get?” Harlow asked.

“Like he was there to do more than sell those pills,” Mary told her.

“What else was he doing?” Raye pressed.

“Having a good look around,” Mary stated.

Oh man.

Casing the joint.

“What does this guy look like?” I asked.

Mary turned to me. “Young. Real skinny. Shifty. Dark hair. ’Bout as tall as you, maybe a little taller, not much though.”

“How young?” Raye kept at her. “Like, twenties young or thirties young?”

“Twenties young. Maybe just hit his twenties. He could pass as a teenager if you didn’t get a good look at his face,” Mary said.

“You said dark hair, is he white?” That was Harlow.

Mary nodded.

“Beard, mustache?” Again Harlow.

“No hair on his face. But the hair on his head is longish,” Mary said.

“Did he come during the day or at night?” That was Luna.

“Always during the day. Most of those kinds of guys slunk in at night. Not him. Right in broad daylight, breaking the law and destroying people’s lives, like he had every right to do it,” Mary groused.

We all took a moment to mentally grouse with her before I asked, “Did you tell the cops about him?”

A quick nod. “I did. But I could tell they thought it was just another drug dealer. They get a lot of those in the camp.”

I was sure they did.

“Would you recognize him if someone showed you a picture of him?” I questioned.

Mary brightened. “I would. You got pictures?”

“Not yet, but we’re working on some things,” I told her.

Or at least I hoped Tex and Duke were.

“You show me a picture, I’ll tell you if it’s the guy,” Mary decreed.

And if we could get a picture, maybe I could figure out how to find Javi and, since he knew everyone on the street, maybe he’d know who this guy was connected to and why he might be getting the lay of the land at the camps.

“Thanks, Mary. This has been really helpful,” I told her.

Her brows shot up. “It has?”

I smiled at her. “It has.”

She seemed pleased with herself as we said our goodbyes.

Frank took a swat at me as we started to leave, so I stopped and pointed at his kitty nose.

“Be good,” I ordered.

He curled a paw around my finger, gave it a good sniff then licked it.

“Good boy,” I murmured.

He stopped licking and swatted at me.

I laughed and braved a head scratch.

Frank started purring.

“Scammer,” I whispered.

“You got the touch,” Mary noted. “Frank doesn’t like just anybody.”

I hoped I had the touch.

“Is it better to get them as kittens or cats?” I asked her.

“It’s better they got someone who loves and feeds them,” Mary answered. “No matter what their age.”

She spoke truth.

She also followed us to the door.

“You girls be careful out there,” she called as we walked down the hall. “This is serious business.”

She wasn’t wrong about that.

Raye tagged the elevator button.

I turned to Mary and gave her a salute.

She gave me a shoo hand.

We got on the elevator, rode it, got off, hustled out to the parking lot, into the Sportage, and then we rolled out.

* * *

Raye was parking outside the camp when I received a return text from Eric about my text asking, Do you like cats?

Yes. Prefer dogs. Why?

I think I’m getting a cat, I replied, hit send, grabbed my Taser and angled out as the other girls did.

I’d learned from watching Eric, so I shoved my Taser in my front left waistband.

Easier to get to.

I did this making a mental note to ask Arthur for holsters. But I needed to do research before that, because I wanted to pick the one I’d get so it’d go with my outfits.

My phone vibrated in my hand.

Want to go to a shelter this weekend and look?

To respond and do it expeditiously, I sent him about twenty smiley emojis.

We headed toward Homer’s tent, with me watching Homer emerge from it to greet us, when my phone vibrated again.

I glanced at it.

Eric replied with a smiley, a thumbs up and a red heart.

All three were good.

Though, the heart was my favorite.

“Late again, Jessie,” Homer noted when we made it to him.

It wasn’t that late. It was just before eight.

But it was dark, already cold, and people were disappearing.

So I got his concern.

“Yeah, Homer. You remember my friends Harlow, Luna and Raye.”

He looked between them while nodding.

“We wanted to walk around and ask a few questions about what’s going on,” I told him.

“Why? Your guy is here,” he stated.

So he figured out Tex was ours, because I wasn’t sure Tex would tell him.

“You’re not telling everyone he’s our guy, are you?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Nope. He came to me. Requested space. Shared what he was doing and asked if I was okay with it. When I said yes, he told me we had to keep it to ourselves. But I’m glad he’s here.”

Well, either Tex or Mace or someone knew how to navigate this, because that was how to navigate it.

“Tex hasn’t been around the camp for very long,” I remarked. “But I think some of the folks trust me, so I thought maybe I could ask.”

“No one knows anything, Jessie,” Homer said. “Only time the cops have come not to rustle us around was when they came asking about this. We’re worried. If we knew something, we would say.”

“I’d like to ask anyway. Is that okay?”

He nodded.

“Will you escort us?”

He nodded again.

I slid a glance through the chicks, and we headed into the camp.

A frustrating, slow-going hour later, we found Homer was right.

No one knew anything. Or at least not the ones who would talk to us, which was about half of the camp. Homer took over questioning about a quarter of the rest. The last contingent didn’t talk to anybody, not even Homer, so we didn’t approach them.

Though, one woman, her name was Connie, made a remark about the Fentanyl dealer and the worse-than-normal feeling he gave her, which I didn’t think was a coincidence.

Tex avoided us by entering his tent when he saw us, something I wasn’t surprised about. Being “new,” he’d be edgy about outsiders, so he did it to keep his cover just in case someone was watching.

One thing of concern was that I noted the General wasn’t among them.

We were back at Homer’s tent when he said, “Seems like we wasted your time.”

They didn’t.

Though, it was close to time for Harlow to meet up with Brady, so it wasn’t worth it for Luna to take her slot, which was a bummer.

“We have a semi-kinda lead we’ll be looking into,” I told him. “Maybe it’ll pan out. It wasn’t a bust.”

He dipped his chin at me, at the chicks, and he was about to duck into his tent when I asked, “Where’s the General?”

Homer gave me a sad look and said, “He goes out on what he calls patrol at night. Usually gets lost, rattled, holes up somewhere, and in the morning, we gotta go find him. By now, he’s probably lost.”

God, I hoped Scott, Louise and the guys found help for the General, and soon.

Homer waited to see if I had anything else, making me wish, not for the first time, that I could find help for him too. He was such a good guy.

Maybe I could talk to Scott and Louise about it.

Since we didn’t have anything else at that moment, I smiled at him and said, “Thanks for helping.”

He nodded, once, and finally ducked into his tent.

As we walked to the car, Raye said to Harlow, “We’ll drive out like we’re driving away, so I can make sure we don’t have a tail. Then we’ll come back and drop you on the other side of the warehouse.”

“Cool,” Harlow said.

We all got in the car. Raye drove away.

“Keep driving,” an ultra-deep voice came from all the way in the back.

We all shrieked, and Raye drove up on the sidewalk.

I twisted in my seat and had to contort because Javi was pushing himself through the opening into the backseat with Harlow and me.

Somehow, he managed this miracle regardless of his size, and he planted his fine ass between me and Harlow.

“Quick draw. Impressed. But if you tase me, beautiful, when I come to, I’m kissin’ you,” he said, his head turned toward Harlow.

I leaned forward and saw Harlow staring up at him with her mouth hanging open and her Taser aimed at Javi.

“Harlow, put your Taser down,” I ordered. “This is Javi.”

“You’re Javi?” Harlow whispered in her adorable grown-woman, little-girl voice that I suspected drove some men wild.

“In the flesh,” Javi whispered back.

“Hi,” Harlow breathed, yep, still in that grown-woman, little-girl voice.

Javi made a low, rough noise that I felt in my nipples.

Translation: he was one of those men who her voice drove wild.

Which meant I also felt my eyes bug out of my head.

I turned to Luna to see she’d twisted in her seat to stare at them, and her eyes were bugged out of her head.

I looked to the rearview mirror to see Raye had corrected us and we were back on the road. She was still driving, but she was also looking in the mirror with her eyes bugged out of head.

Their eyes could be like that simply due to all that was Javi, since this was the first time they’d seen him.

Though, I suspected it was only partly due to that and partly due to what was happening between Harlow and Javi.

I returned my attention to them to see I’d still ceased to exist and those two were the only people in the SUV.

I only had a split second to consider a Javi/Harlow hookup.

In that split second, I decided it both scared the shit out of me, and I loved it.

Then I had to move us along.

“Sorry to interrupt.”

It took visible effort for Javi to turn his head to me.

Whereupon I smacked him in the chest and snapped, “Dude! You scared the shit out of all of us.”

“We can’t be seen talking, and your man would lose his mind if I broke into your house to get a brief,” Javi returned.

Eric would indeed do that.

It was neither here nor there now.

“Raye drove off the road,” I reminded him.

He glanced forward then back at me. “Woman’s got quick reflexes. She got us right.”

“That’s not the point,” I stated.

“I freaked you. You’re fine. Now I wanna know what you found out from the community,” he retorted.

I drew in a breath to get over all that had just happened, and told him, “Nothing. No one has seen anything.”

“Fuck,” he murmured.

“Though some dealer has been sniffing around,” I said.

He refocused on me. “Lotsa dealers plague the camps.”

“Mary and Connie both made note of him because they thought he had ulterior motives,” I shared.

Javi cocked his head to the side. “They give a description?”

“Young, early twenties. Dark hair. White. Skinny. About my height, maybe a bit taller. No facial hair. And he deals Fentanyl.”

Javi stared straight forward, clearly deep in thought.

I let him think then I poked him in the arm.

He looked at me.

“You know this guy?” I asked.

“Not a tight description, but sounds like it might be Lil Clown,” he said.

“Lil Clown?” I asked.

“Lil Clown deals goodfellas.”

“Goodfellas?” Luna queried.

“Opes. Blues. Dance fever. Apache. F. Fenty. Opioids. Fentanyl,” Javi explained.

I made a mental note to brush up on my drug slang before deciding it seemed like maybe Lil Clown was who we were looking for.

“I’ll take it from here,” Javi declared.

He would not.

Not with Jeff in his posse.

“We’ve got this,” I told him.

He turned again to me. “If this involves Lil Clown, you don’t.”

“We’re working with the Nightingale team,” I informed him grandly.

“They don’t know who they’re dealin’ with either,” Javi returned.

“Well, how about you have a sit down with them and share,” I suggested.

Javi shook his head. “They can take care of their business. I got the street.”

“Instead of pissing in corners, maybe we can all work together and get this shit done before anyone else disappears,” I fired back.

“I don’t work with anyone but my crew,” Javi retorted.

“Well then, I guess we’ll just have to hope, while we try to figure out what you already know, and you move forward not knowing what we might find out, someone else doesn’t get…” I finished that by doing what Mary did and drawing my finger across my throat.

Javi’s head cocked again. “You’re kinda a pain in the ass, you know that?”

“Why do men always ask that when they know a woman is right?” I inquired.

Javi flashed his megawatt grin. “More proof you’re a pain in the ass.”

“Because I was again right?” I deduced.

He chuckled.

I heard Harlow sigh.

Yeah, his amusement sounded way nice.

“Tell us about Lil Clown,” I demanded.

Javi’s grin died. “He’s in a crew that isn’t gonna last long.”

“Why?” Raye asked from up front.

“Aggressive expansion,” Javi told her.

“Are we talking more product and more customers, or are we talking more territory?” Luna inquired.

“Both,” Javi said. “That’s the aggressive part.”

“So they’re not gonna last long because they’re pissing off other players,” I noted.

“That, and they’re assholes,” Javi stated. “And yeah, you can argue they’re all assholes, and they are. These guys are just bigger assholes.”

“Fantastic,” I muttered.

“What do you think they’re doing to the people they take?” Harlow asked.

Javi turned to her, and it might have been because there was so much of him to give off a vibe, or it might have been the strength of his emotion, but it felt the whole atmosphere in the car turned gentle when he did.

And…

Damn .

I needed to give more than a split second to this Javi/Harlow gig.

“No clue, lil’ mama,” he said softly. “But it isn’t good.”

“Yeah,” she said softly back.

They lapsed into sharing another moment.

This moment was broken when Raye turned us around and headed back to where we came.

Javi noticed and said, “You can drop me anywhere. I’ll make my way.”

“We’re going back to drop Harlow. She’s on a surveillance shift in ten minutes,” Raye told him.

“Which one is Harlow?” he asked.

So, Super Street Man didn’t know everything.

“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t introduce everyone. Raye, the driver. Luna, front passenger seat. And Harlow’s sitting to your left.”

Javi didn’t even glance at Harlow.

He kept his gaze locked on the rearview mirror.

“Surveillance of what?” Javi asked Raye.

“The camp,” Raye said.

We all silently suffered the tectonic plates shifting as he processed this before he said, “The fuck she is.”

“I am,” Harlow piped up cheerily. “It’s my shift.”

Javi slowly turned his head toward her, and my eyes bugged out at Luna, who was still twisted around in her seat.

They were thus at the pounding displeasure filling the cab. Luna’s eyes were bugged out again too. A quick glance at the rearview mirror said Raye was having the same reaction.

“Chill, Javi,” I said soothingly. “Knox is up there, and Brady’s coming to relieve him. She’s not going to be alone.”

Just as slowly, Javi turned to look at me.

Mm-hmm.

Pounding displeasure.

“You sure you got this right?” he asked in a low voice.

“I’m sure Harlow’s a grown-ass woman who can make decisions for herself, and one she’s made is that she’s an Angel. So I don’t know why you’re asking me that shit when she’s sitting right next to you,” I replied.

“Yeah,” Harlow chimed in, and Javi turned back to her. “I don’t know why you’re asking Jess. I’m right here. And I’m an Angel. And I pull my weight.”

Her voice was getting higher on the last few words, which sadly made them sound cute rather than I-got-this badass.

Then again, nearly everything Harlow did was cute.

Javi didn’t have a chance to reply.

Raye decelerated, turned off her lights, and we were all silent as she crept into the abandoned, weeds-growing-through-cracks-in-the-pavement parking lot on the other side of the warehouse.

When we came to a stop, Javi leaned forward, tipped his eyes up and checked out the warehouse.

He sat back and looked at me. “You got a setup up there?”

I nodded.

“Respect,” he murmured.

Apparently, they’d set it up without him knowing.

This made me proud, not knowing why, since I wasn’t on the Nightingale team, and I had nothing to do with it considering the men had taken over that part. If it had been us, there was a good likelihood even the president would know of our maneuvers.

Still.

Harlow got out but stood there and girlie waved into the car. “Later, guys.”

“I’m walking you up,” Javi stated, forcing her out of the doorway as he got out.

“I can walk up some stairs,” she told him.

“Woman. I. Am. Walking . You. Up ,” Javi stated very clearly.

“All righty,” Harlow whispered, her head tipped way back so she could stare up at him.

She was at least a foot shorter than him, and I couldn’t see all of him, since head and shoulders were cut off from view by the car, but I still thought they looked cute together, which was again terrifying at the same time awesome.

“Later,” Luna and I called to get them moving along since we both sensed they could stand there all night, gazing at each other.

“Text when you’re safely in position,” Raye ordered. “We’re not leaving until we get it.”

“Gotcha,” Harlow replied.

Javi shut the door carefully, so it didn’t make a noise.

And we all sat and watched as they headed to the dark building, Javi with his hand at the small of her back, Harlow’s jaunty step making her ponytail sway side to side…yeah, like she was a grown-up cheerleader.

“He doesn’t know where they’re heading, why is he guiding her?” Luna grumbled.

“Because his other option is to morph into a complete caveman, throw her over his shoulder and take her to his lair in order to both save her from a man’s job of surveillance at the same time have his wicked way with her,” Raye answered sardonically.

I gave voice to my feelings. “They’re cute together, and terrifying at the same time.”

“I think they’re just cute,” Raye put in her vote.

“I think they’re terrifying,” Luna said. “Jess already lost her brother to this shadow crew. I don’t want Harlow needing to live off the grid or whatever.”

We all pondered that point until all of our phones vibrated with a text.

I looked at mine.

I’m in. Brady’s already here . Harlow.

Is Javi still there? Me.

He melted into the shadows when we caught sight of Brady and Knox . Harlow.

Rad . Raye.

Be sharp. Be smart. Luna.

Of course, silly . Obviously, Harlow.

Raye didn’t move and we all kept watching the warehouse, even though Harlow was in place.

I knew why we did it.

We were waiting to see if we could catch Javi leaving.

But he must have found some exit not on our side of the building, because either he was sticking around, or he’d escaped into the night sight unseen.

Eventually, Raye put the car in gear and did a circle in the parking lot, pointing us toward the city.

“You’re right. He’s muy guapo ,” Raye stated.

“Yep,” I replied.

“He’s also muy macho ,” Luna put in. “Did you notice how he sidestepped the whole working together thing when, if he came onboard, we’d totally get this done faster. I mean, the man can’t even troll the camps because they’d make him, and he had to wait for us to find out what we got from our questioning. And we didn’t give him shit about asking, we just told him what we found out, even if it wasn’t much. We all play a part in this. He needs to get with the program.”

I couldn’t argue that.

I looked down at my phone and texted Harlow, Did you get Javi’s number?

I texted it to the string, and no one said anything, Raye just kept driving as we waited for a response.

Harlow’s return text came in, and both Luna and I looked down at it.

“Jess asked if she got Javi’s number,” Luna explained to Raye. “And Harlow said, ‘No! Why would you ask that?’”

Because we might need to get hold of him, I texted, and Luna recited it when it hit her phone.

“‘Oh, I didn’t think of that. Sorry!’” Luna again read Harlow’s reply out loud, climbing way up on the last word in a great imitation of Harlow.

“I’ll call Joshua. Get him to get a message to Jeff to get a message to Javi that we need to continue our talk,” I said into the cab.

“And I’ll email Arthur to see if he can get comms on this guy,” Luna added.

“I know Harlow will probably tell Knox and Brady, but can someone text Cap? Or Jess, text Eric, and let them know about this Lil Clown character?” Raye requested.

“On it,” I said, and turned back to my phone.

I gave Eric the highlights, including Javi, and hit send.

Raye kept driving.

Eric texted back.

“He said, ‘Got it,’ and ‘Good work,’ and ‘We’ll get on it and give the heads up to Tex and Duke to keep an eye out for this guy,’” I told them.

“Well, at least the night wasn’t a bust,” Raye said on a sigh. “We got a possible lead, and Harlow might possibly get laid by an enormous but gorgeous vigilante.”

I’d bet, with all that bulk, Javi had learned how to be gentle in bed.

Which reminded me, we’d already made plans and Eric was picking me up at 3:30 for our stakeout shift. And while we did that, the icebox cake would be sitting lonely in its pan in my fridge, and my vagina would be sitting lonely in my jeans.

“This guy better team up,” I complained. “Because if his pride drags this out, and I don’t get laid by a muscle-bound, gorgeous PI, and soon, it’s gonna piss me off.”

“Sounds like she’s already there,” Raye whispered to Luna.

“You have Cap. He gives it to you regular. How fun was it, the delay you two endured before you connected?” Luna replied.

“Copy that,” Raye said.

I let out a breath, sat back in my seat and looked out the window at the city passing me by.

I did this wondering what drug dealers would do with a bunch of homeless people.

I came up with no answers, except the fact that, whatever the answer was, it was nothing good.