Beyond Limits (Tracers #8)(58)
He spotted Jimmy Torres eyeing him from beside a stairwell leading to what he assumed was the victim’s apartment. Derek walked over.
“How’s it going?” he asked amiably, although he knew for a fact that Torres didn’t like him. Some of that was just the usual territorial bullshit, but he was protective of Elizabeth in a way Derek didn’t much like.
“It’s going.”
“Lauren said I’d find Elizabeth around here. You seen her?”
“She’s inside.” He jerked his head toward the stairwell, where two agents were tromping up. They wore dark blue windbreakers with yellow letters on the back: FBI.
“Where’d they find the body?” Derek asked.
Torres watched him silently, probably deciding whether to tell him anything. Derek returned his stare and waited for him to realize that if it weren’t for Derek’s legwork, they wouldn’t even have this guy, not to mention any new leads on Ameen.
“In a ditch off the Southwest Freeway,” Torres told him. “HPD got the call about five. He had his wallet on him, ID inside.”
“Murder weapon?”
“Something high-caliber, maybe a forty-five. We’ll know more after the autopsy.”
“Any sign of the gun?”
“Nope.” Torres glanced up as a pair of agents came down the stairs. Still no Elizabeth. “Could have belonged to the vic, though. He has a big cache up there, all the serial numbers filed off.”
“I’d like to have a look.”
“It’s all tagged and bagged.” Torres pulled out his phone and brought up a digital picture.
The photo showed a row of guns lined up on the carpet, presumably in Palicek’s living room. He had an array of pistols, some short-barrel shotguns, half a dozen machine guns.
Derek looked at Torres. “That a Honey Badger?”
“Yep. Fully automatic,” Torres said, reading Derek’s mind.
“You got a picture of this guy?”
Torres flipped to another photo, and this one looked like a mug shot. “This is Palicek. He got popped for drunk driving a couple years ago.”
“Mind sending it to me?”
“Yeah, no problem.”
More footsteps on the stairs, and Derek glanced up to see Elizabeth. She looked quite a bit different from when he’d last seen her, starting with the fact that she wasn’t naked. She wore a crisp white blouse, and her look today was all business. Her gaze landed on him as she reached the sidewalk.
“Are you here to give a statement?” she asked.
“Already gave it back at your office.” He studied her face, trying to read her expression. “You have a minute?”
“Sure.”
He followed her across the lot to her car. She tossed her purse inside and turned to face him. Her hair was pulled back in a smooth ponytail, not a strand out of place.
“What are you doing here?” she asked coolly.
“Information gathering.”
She cast a look over his shoulder. Clearly, she didn’t want her boss to see him here.
“I hear he has a pretty good stash up there,” he said. “Any idea who his gun connection is?”
“We’re working on it. I can’t really talk right now, though. I have to go.”
“Where?”
“The office. I may have a lead on where Ameen’s been staying, but I need to run down the details.”
Derek held her gaze. Silence stretched out until he could tell she wasn’t thinking about the case anymore. “Sorry about earlier,” he said.
“Forget it.” She looked away.
“Your phone was going crazy on the table, and I figured someone was going to show up looking for you. I didn’t want to get you in trouble.”
“It’s fine.”
Still no eye contact, and he knew it definitely wasn’t fine. The hot, eager sex goddess from last night was long gone, replaced by this buttoned-up federal agent who wouldn’t even look at him.
He eased closer so she had no choice but to lift her gaze or stare straight at his chest. “I want to see you tonight.”
“I’ll probably have to work late.”
“After work. Whenever you’re done. I’ll take you to dinner.”
“Tonight’s going to be really busy.”
“Tomorrow, then.”
Something sparked in her eyes, but then they went cold again. “Tomorrow’s busy, too.”
“So what, then? That’s it?”
“Derek—” She blew out a sigh. “Aren’t you leaving in a few days?”
“Yeah. In the meantime, I want to see you.”
“I’m busy.”
“I want to see you when you’re not busy. It can be late. After your work wraps.”
She shook her head and glanced away.
“Liz, look at me.”
She did.
“Last night was incredible.”
She turned away.
“We were off the charts together,” he said, and she still wouldn’t look at him. “If you tell me you don’t want that again, you’re flat-out lying.”
“Derek—”
“Look at me.”
“Fine. God.” She looked up at him now, eyes blazing, and he saw a glimpse of the woman he’d had sex with all night.