Page 43 of Go Now
Her phone rang.It was, in fact, Chen.
‘I’m just checking, are you guys coming back to base tonight, or can I go home?’
Kate rubbed her eyes.She was feeling sore and gritty, in need of a shower and a decent meal.
'I'm minded to say we should all get an early one,' she said, looking enquiringly at Marcus, who gave her a thumbs-up.'So is Marcus.So let's re-group at 8 am tomorrow.We'd be very unlucky if there were any more developments tonight.'
She could only pray that was true.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Typically, Chen was hard at work by the time Marcus and Kate arrived.They were at that point where 'well-rested' turns to 'sluggish', largely because they'd both, very suddenly, flooded their systems with a mountain of carbs, starch, and protein.They'd countered the damaging effects of the hotel's 'all-you-can-eat' buffet breakfast with large, four-shot Americanos from the adjacent coffee shop, a move which didn't so much remove the tiredness as add irritability and a fine tremor to their list of symptoms.
Life with the Bureau was like that, Kate thought, all the way.All or nothing.And nothing in moderation.You were either up all night for weeks on a case, or you were so under-employed that you were forced to shut the door to your office and play Jenga.Either you caught your perp so quickly that he might as well have been wearing an "I Did It" badge.Or the investigation dragged on into eternity.
'I've been following up a few leads,' Chen told them eagerly, as they took their seats.'I've got driver mugshots from Grubhub, JustEat, Doordash and half a dozen local pizza and taco businesses in Hoboken.Narrowed it down to five possibilities.'
She showed them the five drivers on her screen.
‘Nobody’s drastically overweight,’ Chen added.‘But this guy…’ She tapped the screen.‘And this one here on the right are both on the larger side.’
‘Both got bad skin as well,’ Kate noted.
‘Yeah, but it’s more like spotty than acne scars,’ Marcus pointed out.
‘The witness could be mistaken about that,’ Chen argued.‘If I order out, I’m just thinking about the food, not checking out the delivery person.’
Kate nodded.‘Also, if I see someone with some kind of facial…issue,’ she said, ‘I kind of go out of my way not to look.I don’t know whether that’s better or worse than staring at them.But it could explain why our eye-witness didn’t give a very accurate account.’
'Meanwhile, there's this gentleman with the headgear…' Chen pointed to a third man whose cap was tilted slightly to the right.'No scars… a bit of a double chin, though.And a Padres cap.'
‘Wait a minute,’ Marcus said.‘Can you zoom in?’
Chen enlarged the mugshot, so that the cap logo filled the screen.
'That's S and F,' Marcus said.'San Francisco Giants.It's the same format as the Padres logo, but with a different city.See?'
‘So what are we thinking?’Kate asked.‘That our witness was mistaken about the cap logo?’
‘Could be.Or he has a lot of hats.’
‘We’ve got a decent enough spread to show to Roy LaForge,’ Chen said.‘I can send them over to him right now.’
‘Do it, thanks.’
Chen scribbled a note on her pad.'I also spoke to Joseph Kiefaber, the private detective.He's ex-NYPD.Not only that, he's ex of the 62nd, my precinct, so we had a lot to talk about.He had an interesting take on why the search for Ray Blackstone suddenly ended.'
‘Go on.’
‘He thinks they ran out of money.’
Kate and Marcus both laughed in surprise and disbelief.
‘Right,’ Marcus said, sarcastically.
'Honestly.He spent a lot of time with the family, interviewing various relations and staff members.He came away with the distinct impression that the old man, Digger, left far less in the biscuit tin than they'd expected.So he did a bit more digging of his own.It seems the old man got caught up in some sketchy project to build a string of resort-cities on the Saudi Arabian coast.'
‘There’s nothing on the Saudi coast,’ Marcus said.‘Just flies and sand.’He hastily pushed away his own memories of that part of the world: the stifling heat of a tent, a bloated body, dead, yet alive with bluebottles.
