A Chip and a Chair (Seven of Spades, #5)(31)

They were so close. Levi felt it as an itch in his back teeth, a restless squirming in his gut. It had been too long since he’d been this motivated on the job.

The one fly in the ointment was the contempt radiating from Leila as she swept past him on her way out of the room.



Dominic’s phone rang while his hands were covered in Doritos dust. He hastily wiped them off on his jeans, then grabbed his phone off the truck’s dashboard and smiled at the caller ID.

“Hey, baby,” he said, pushing Rebel away with his free hand as she tried to lick the orange powder off his jeans. “How was the meeting?”

“Good. Some interesting developments, actually, but I’ll fill you in tonight.” Levi paused. “Are you staking out that house again?”

“Yep.” Dominic had shared the whole story with Levi a couple of days ago.

“You’ve been there all week. What are you going to do if McBride finds out?”

“Hey, I can multitask. As long as I’m getting my officially assigned work done, she won’t care where I’m physically located while I do it.”

A put-upon sigh gusted over the phone line. “Why don’t you let me send a couple of uniforms to check out the house?”

“Oh yeah? And what are you going to base the warrant request on?”

Silence.

“That’s what I thought.” Dominic glanced up the block at Carson’s house. He knew Carson was home, and that Maggie Spencer had been in there for a couple of hours, but all was quiet.

“Just be careful,” Levi said. “And don’t do anything illegal.”

“I make no promises.”

“Ugh.” Levi hung up on him.

Dominic grinned and tossed his phone back onto the dashboard. God, he loved that man.

In all honesty, he wouldn’t be able to continue this stakeout much longer. Not all of his work could be done via computer, and the more time he spent parked on this street, the likelier he was to raise suspicions. He’d give it one more day, and then he’d have to rely solely on the camera he’d planted across from Carson’s house.

He passed another hour splitting his focus between his target and the asset research on his laptop. Bored with the sleepy neighborhood, Rebel curled up on the seat with her head on her paws and watched him work.

They both snapped to attention when a car drove by-an event worthy of notice on a street as quiet as this one. Dominic narrowed his eyes as the car turned into Carson’s driveway. He reached for his camera, a higher quality model than the one he’d used to spy on Bishop in the park, and zoomed in for a clearer view.

The car wasn’t one he’d seen here before, and neither was the man who got out. But Dominic could swear he knew this man from somewhere . . .

It took a few moments, but when the recognition clicked, he realized the delay had been because he’d never seen this man out of uniform. The guy was a beat cop from Levi’s substation-Officer Daley.

Dominic frowned. Was the LVMPD already working an undercover op here? It would make sense, and Levi wouldn’t know anything about it. Gang Crimes and Organized Crime weren’t just separate bureaus from Homicide; they belonged to a different division altogether.

Daley didn’t go inside the house. He remained in the driveway, leaning against his car, cell phone in hand. Within a minute, Roger Carson came out the front door, and the two men fell into a quiet but clearly intense argument right where they stood.

As Dominic watched and snapped pictures, his unease increased. The vibe of this encounter wasn’t what he’d expect from a cop working undercover. Daley’s clenched jaw and thunderous glare spoke of genuine anger, while Carson’s body language came off as more placating than anything else.

The men were still deep in conversation when Maggie Spencer emerged from the house, lugging two full garbage bags that she tossed into the can by the curb.

Daley whirled on her with several emphatic hand gestures. She threw her head back like an exasperated teenager, then began wheeling the can around the side of the house to the backyard.

All sorts of alarms were going off in Dominic’s head now.

Daley left shortly thereafter. Spencer returned from the backyard and exchanged a few words with Carson, and then they both got into her car and drove off as well.

For the first time since Dominic had begun his stakeout, the house was empty-at least, as far as he knew. But since he’d had the place under video surveillance 24/7 for days, he was as confident of that as he could be.

Wasting no time, he grabbed a pair of heavy work gloves, pulled a baseball cap low over his eyes, and transferred Rebel to the truck bed so she could act as lookout. He headed for the house with the confident, casual stride of a person who had every right to be there.

The backyard was well screened from the neighbors, so he didn’t hesitate to throw back the lid of the trash can. With a flick of his keys, he sliced open the first bag.

Underneath an unremarkable layer of junk mail and discarded food, the bag was crammed with dozens of empty bottles of hydrogen peroxide.

Dominic froze, hunched over the can. Based on Daley’s reaction, he’d assumed there was something incriminating in here. But this-this was so much worse than anything he’d imagined.

The second bag had the same contents as the first. He straightened up, shut the lid, and stood still for a moment as a sense of calm purpose smoothed out his thoughts. There was only one course of action he could take, and it had to be done quickly.