Beyond Limits (Tracers #8)(53)

“Where are you?” she demanded when he picked up.

“On my way to see Lexi.”

“Who?”

“The dancer from the Pussycat who spent time with our boy Zahid.”

“We need you here at the dock. You haven’t even given a statement yet.”

“This is more important, Liz. This woman spent time with Ameen. She might have picked up some info about him while she was giving him a lap dance.”

“She probably did, and this is exactly why we need to debrief you. If you’d bothered to give us a statement, we could have interviewed her already.”

“Yeah? And who’s she more likely to talk to, me or some suit with a stick up his ass?”

“You are not an investigator.”

“Hey, if you really want to get her talking, why don’t you send Potter over with his legal pad? I’m sure she’ll loosen up real quick.”

“Derek—”

“Tell you what, lemme take a shot at it first. I’ll let you know how it goes.”

And that was it. Gone.

Elizabeth glanced over at Gordon, who was still on his phone, but from the look on his face, he’d figured out the problem. He ended his call as she walked over.

“I just spoke to Lieutenant Vaughn,” she said. “He’s following up with the dancer at the nightclub, the one who spent time with Zahid Ameen.”

“He’s interviewing our witnesses now? What else is he doing?”

“I don’t know,” she said, and Gordon’s gaze narrowed.

“Does he know where Ameen is? Let me tell you something, LeBlanc. If Vaughn knows his whereabouts and withholds that information from the task force so he can go out on his own—”

“That’s not what he’s doing, sir.”

“—he’ll be charged with obstruction so fast his head will spin. And his SEAL days will be over.”

“I can assure you—”

“Don’t waste your breath assuring me anything. Get him the hell back here, or get him in custody. Tonight.”





* * *





Elizabeth navigated the streets of northwest Houston, where a surprising number of people were still out enjoying the airless July night. Her phone chimed from the cup holder.

“You find him yet?” Lauren asked.

“No.”

“I thought you traced him to Palicek’s apartment?”

She switched to speaker so she could use the tracking app on her phone. “I did, but he didn’t stay long enough for me to get there. Now he’s on the move again.” She glanced at the screen and watched the glowing green dot that represented Derek’s pickup. Lauren had installed a tracking device on Derek’s truck while Elizabeth distracted him at the jogging trail. As she watched now, the dot exited the freeway.

“Any idea where he’s going?”

“Not really,” she told Lauren, although that wasn’t true. She had a very good guess where Derek was going, and with every second that ticked by, he was proving her right.

She got off the phone, fuming. What did he think? That he could blow her off for hours and then just come knocking on her door? Hey, babe, sorry I left you in the lurch back there. Want to go grab a drink? Or since the bars were closed, maybe he’d show up with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and some crude suggestions.

The green dot came to a stop at her hotel. Elizabeth’s temper festered. She exited the freeway and wended her way there. It was after three A.M., and the hotel parking lot was full, but she didn’t see his truck. Cars, SUVs, pickups, but no gray F-150. She touched her phone, zeroing in on the green dot as she combed the parking lot. Finally, she slid into an empty space and walked up to a gray Ford Taurus bristling with antennas.

“Son of a bitch,” she muttered.

Potter walked out from the vending-machine alcove. He carried a computer case in one hand and a bag of Doritos in the other.

“You find Lieutenant Vaughn yet?” he asked.

“Were you just at Palicek’s apartment?”

“I did a drive-by,” he said. “No luck. Why?”

She stalked back toward her car.

“LeBlanc?”

“Forget it. Good night.”

She jerked open the car door and grabbed her purse and cell phone. Derek’s number appeared on the screen. Somehow in the thirty seconds she’d been out of her car, she’d managed to miss his call. She listened to the message as she crossed the lot.

“Hey, I caught up with Lexi,” he drawled. “No new leads, and she doesn’t know where Ameen’s staying. But sounds like he may know where she is. She’s worried he followed her home from work the other night, so you need to get some agents over there, ASAP. She’s staying someplace else for now, but the girl’s spooked.”

Elizabeth reached her door and jabbed her keycard into the lock.

“Oh, and one more thing,” he said. “Tell Lauren next time she plants a Snitch on a vehicle, she needs to slide it under the chassis. Wheel well’s a little too obvious.”

Elizabeth shoved open the door and flipped on the light. She wanted to hurl her phone across the room, but instead, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Staking out the dancer’s apartment was a good idea, and she should have thought of it hours ago. She sent Lauren a text message and asked her to talk to Gordon.