From Darkness (Hearts & Arrows Book 3)(44)
Josie raised an eyebrow. “Did you commit the list to memory?”
“Oh, hell no. I carry it with me. Check it out.” She dug around in her huge purse and pulled out a sheet of paper with a grid of photos and names printed on the front and back.
Josie took the sheet and looked it over, impressed. “Smart thinking, Trish.”
“Thanks.” Trish grinned and gave a little shrug. “I know a little Photoshop, so I put this together to hand out to the other girls. Lookit, I put that scum’s photo here,” she said as she glanced over the top of the paper and pointed, “and your number is at the bottom.”
“You’re a genius.”
“Why, thank you.” She tipped her head and popped her gum. “I got extras, if you want some.”
“Absolutely. Are you being careful?”
“Like always. I keep tellin’ the girls not to hang by themselves. It’s not easy though. We make more money solo, but maybe if everybody knows what the John looks like, we can avoid him and call you if we spot him.” She deposited the paper and exchanged it for a cigarette, a lighter, and a stack of fresh flyers, which she handed to Josie.
Josie looked over them and shook her head. “Trish, I don’t know how to thank you.”
“Girl, don’t thank me. We oughta be thanking you. Nobody really gives a shit about us.” She lit her cigarette and blew out a long line of smoke. “It doesn’t matter that I started taking college classes or that Gina works because her ma got real sick. It doesn’t matter that this isn’t what we want or that most of us are trying to get out of it. We’re not people to them, just a bunch of whores. But you care, and I’ll do whatever I can to help you.”
“You’re one in a million.”
“Psh, maybe a hundred thousand,” she said with a smirk. “So, how’s the business of chasing bad guys?”
“Slow, but the night is young.”
Trish laughed and bobbed her head. “That’s right. You keep that chin up.”
“You too, and call me if you hear anything.” Josie pushed off the wall.
“You got it, Josie. See ya around.”
Josie turned and headed to her car, feeling a little lighter knowing that Trish was heading up the effort to keep the girls on alert. She needed all the help she could get.
It wasn’t long before she was in her car and across the river for her surveillance job, which sounded so much less creepy than stalking. When she made it to Weehawken, she did a drive-by of his house. He was home, lights on, windows open, and she caught sight of him as he walked through his living room.
She rolled around the block and into the alley where she parked eight or nine houses down, facing his garage. Once Josie reclined her seat and turned on her portable speaker, she reached into her bag of candy in the backseat and pulled out a packet of Skittles with her eyes on his driveway and all the time in the world.
When Josie walked out of her building, Jon checked his watch to note the time. It was after seven, and the sun had just fallen, hiding him in the shadows where he leaned against an alley wall just down from her building. His legs were stiff as he pushed away and followed her.
He’d spent the day before digging up whatever he could on Rhodes, but he wasn’t any closer to seeing what Josie had on him. He couldn’t understand why she was after Rhodes; the guy was cleaner than clean. Jon didn’t have a lot of friends in the PD anymore, not after leaving Josie, so all he had to go on was the guy’s name, address, and little else.
Jon and Josie had worked together long enough for him to know just how focused she was when she worked a case, and this was no ordinary case. If Josie thought Rhodes had killed Anne, he could only imagine that she was obsessing, and that worried him. A lot. So he’d decided to tail her, hoping he could get some insight. It was day one, and so far, Josie had sat in her apartment all day while he chewed through a Louis L’Amour novel and scribbled out letters to her that she’d never see.
He kept his distance as she walked toward 8th, her hair shining bright as she passed under a streetlight and turned south. The thrill of seeing her coupled with the rush that came along with tailing someone made his entire body hum in the crisp, spring evening.
Josie stopped to talk to a girl in a sequined skirt, and he hung back, stopping at a newspaper stand to flip through a magazine. He stood just out of the light, trying to figure out what she was doing walking around Manhattan in circles on a Wednesday night. When she took off again, he followed, smiling as he passed the girl in the sequined skirt he assumed was a prostitute, which was confirmed when she catcalled him as he walked by.
Josie turned another corner, and when he rounded it behind her, he caught a glimpse of her walking into the parking garage where they each had monthly passes.
Jon trotted to one of the stairwells and to his car, hearing her engine turn over, the sound echoing against the concrete walls. He followed her out of Manhattan at a distance, able to get away with tailing her easily enough. As good as she was, he was her equal, if not better.
But as she made it across the river to Weehawken, his stomach crawled. Rhodes lived in Weehawken. He pulled up the address on his phone’s map, and the closer they got, he knew. His heart squeezed tighter when she drove past his house and turned the corner to the alley.
He drove around the block and pulled into the alley with his lights off, parking well behind her. When he killed the engine, he sat stunned in his Jeep, staring at the back of her head as she rummaged around in her car. She was following Rhodes, and he wondered why the hell she’d do such a thing and what in God’s name she had on him.