The Wrong Side of Dead

And like a predator, she followed.

Still panting, Luis crouched behind a fence of corrugated metal and peered through slats. He shifted his gaze to split his attention between his vehicle, parked close by, and the woman who sat in the van down the road. After he’d made it back, he fought the urge to unlock his car and jump inside, waiting for the unaccounted-for female to show at the van.

But something had stopped him. He sensed a presence more than he saw or heard one.

Growing up streetwise on the streets of Chicago had honed his skills, and he knew when to lay low. He’d cut a wide swath back to his car, feeling his way through a maze of alleyways, unsure where he was going.

But now something didn’t feel right. And it didn’t take long for him to understand why.

One of the women emerged from the shadows a half block down. He slowed his breaths, trying not to give himself away. It looked as if she’d been waiting for him to make a mistake, thinking he was home free. There were other cars parked on the street. She had no way of knowing he was hiding nearby or that the dark blue Chevy Impala was his. All he had to do was be patient and wait her out.

But now she moved toward the spot where he hid. She didn’t make a sound as she crept closer. And under the bluish haze of moonlight, he caught the glint of her gun and froze. ?Ay, Dios mio! Would he have to defend himself…and could he shoot a woman to do it? Resisting the impulse to move, he took a deep breath and gripped his weapon as sweat trickled down his spine. What had he gotten himself into?

Earning bonus money meant nothing if he wasn’t alive to spend it.

CHAPTER 21

Alexa sensed she was being watched, but nothing gave her any indication where she should look. And time played a part in her decision to move on.

She might already be too late.

The shutdown of the surveillance video at the storage complex had run its course, and the security company responsible might have dispatched a patrol car to check the outage. She kept her eyes alert, watching for any signs of movement on the street as she retrieved the countersurveillance device from her knapsack, the one that had jammed the video signal. She was close enough to bring the video cams back online and worked the controls to get it done. When she looked up again, she gazed down the street to see the murky silhouette of Jessie in the van, waiting.

If someone had been watching them, the few cars parked nearby had the best vantage point. But something caught her eye.

By a dark Chevy Impala, the butt of a cigarette was still lit. It had burned down, leaving a long snake of ash with a spiral of smoke drifting into the still night air. Someone had lit up and changed their mind in a hurry, tossing the discarded cigarette to the ground. With a faint smile on her face, she made a note of the license tags for the cars parked along the street and headed toward Jessie.

When she got back to her rental car, she ditched her knapsack in the backseat and slipped her gun into a holster she carried at the small of her back. The streets looked quiet, with no security patrols in sight. She headed for the van and opened the passenger door to lean inside and update Jessie.

“I didn’t see anyone, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have company.” She told her about the cigarette butt and the license tags she’d acquired from the cars parked behind them.

“The Surgeon General was right,” Jessie said without a smile. “Smoking can be hazardous to your health.” She looked tired, and Alexa could see she was hurting. Deep-rooted pain from a beating wasn’t easy to mask.

“Keep your eyes on the rearview mirror going home,” Alexa advised. “Play it safe. Whoever it is is real cagey.”

Jessie nodded, but Alexa reached across the passenger seat and grabbed her arm to make her point more clear. “Get some sleep. I got a feeling we’re both gonna need it.”

Sitting behind the wheel of the rental car, she watched the van pull from the curb and waited with her eyes on the rearview mirror to see if anyone darted for the cars parked down the street. After giving Jessie a good head start, she pulled away and hit the gas.

By tomorrow, she’d know who owned those vehicles. And she hoped one of the names would stand out as a clear winner for her undivided attention.

Late afternoon

A dark, gloomy day was taking shape, with storm clouds gathering. Even burrowed under the covers of her bed, Jess knew this, but she hadn’t arrived at this conclusion by psychic powers. She heard the rumble of distant thunder. And her room was as dark as night, even though she had a general idea what time of day it was.

“Great,” she whispered. “Just what I need.” Thunder made her edgy.

She flipped on a lamp and looked at her alarm clock. Nearly four o’clock, later than she thought. She’d have only a few hours before she’d stock up for another night of surveillance and hit the road once rush hour died.

After pulling an all-nighter between her stakeout of the nursing home and her criminal romp with Alexa, Jess had slept a few restless hours, still feeling the aftereffects of the beating. But since her mind wouldn’t turn off, she got dressed and grabbed some coffee while she checked for e-mails from her new partner in crime, Alexa. Good as her word, the woman had sent the electronic file for Beladi’s assets, an expansive list that would take time to review.

And she had sent an e-mail with another interesting follow-up to last night.

Dark Blue sedan, Chevy Impala—registered to a private investigator named Luis Dante. I think he’s our stalker, but won’t know until I talk to him. Be on the lookout.

“Yeah, right. You’re gonna ‘talk’ to him?” She chuckled, reading between the lines of Alexa’s e-mail.

But why would a PI be tailing her? The face of Nadir Beladi flashed through her mind in answer to her question, sending a prickle down her spine. It had to be him. She’d have to be more careful. The last thing she needed was another psychopath finding out where she lived.

Jess downloaded the financial file on Beladi and had started the printing process when her cell phone rang. She checked out the phone display before answering and recognized the number.

“Hey, Sam. What’s up?”

“I wanted to let you know we had to kick Jason Burke loose. He lawyered up, and we didn’t get enough from him for an arrest. Wish I had better news.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Jess had been thinking about how she’d tell Sam what they had found in Burke’s storage unit. It would have been nice if the timing of her tip had been different, and Alexa could have confirmed the man was in possession of stolen goods by actual serial numbers, but with Burke a free man, things had changed.

“I just got an e-mail from Alexa. Burke had some noteworthy items on the financials she dug up.” Jess knew she’d have to be careful about how much to tell Sam.

Harper needed the cops to find another viable candidate in Mandy’s murder. And it seemed a plausible scenario that the girl could have found out about Burke’s side business and tried blackmailing him. Yet telling Sam outright about her break-in at Burke’s storage unit would not only put her friend in the middle and compromise her job, it would taint any evidence the cops might acquire as “fruit of the poisonous tree.” Anything the police found, as a result of being tipped from the break-in, would be inadmissible in court.

She’d have to find a way to guide Sam’s efforts without saying that she and Alexa had already laid eyes on what looked to be stolen goods.

“Burke had a safe-deposit box and paid for an upscale storage unit using automatic withdrawals from his bank. I figured you could get a warrant to take a peek. Maybe Mandy caught him in a side business he wasn’t reporting to the IRS, something the cops might see as motive.”

“You got an address on his storage?”

“Yeah, sure.” She gave her friend the address and unit number.

Sam was smart and would know how to work it. Jess had a feeling Burke’s enterprise would land the guy back in police custody, and he’d have plenty of explaining to do. And it wouldn’t hurt Sam’s career to look good in front of police brass.

“Anything else?” her friend asked. “Didn’t Alexa do other background checks for you?”

Jess wanted time to look over the information she’d just received. And until she did, she opted to stall Sam