I assumed he’d been talking to Gina.
“Come by the shop at 5:30 to get some morepractice in. Idiot girls. I don’t know why he insisted I bring youon.”
There was some silence on the line until itsounded like they climbed into a car and started to drive.
Jericho swore every other word, calling thegirls all sorts of horrible names. “If you embarrass me like thatagain, I’ll have to really hurt you. If you think what happenedtoday was harsh punishment, you haven’t seen anything, yet. Afterschool, I’ll need to see you in the shop. Be ready to work and nomore excuses.”
“Was Mikado still there?” I asked.
“He was,” Jeremy said.
“So we lost the car again?” I leaned back inmy chair.
“Actually, thanks to Halluis’s sweetshadowing ability, he stayed with them on his motorcycle.” Aceleaned back in his chair as if he were responsible for Halluis’sgreatness. “Followed them all the way to a shop in SunsetPark.”
“Where’s Halluis now?” I asked.
“Last we heard, he’d done a perimeter check,and the place didn’t seem big enough to hold a bunch of cars. Butthey could be underground. He was going to try to find a wayinside. He should check in soon, and then we’ll know more. I’mbetting he finds the car, drives the thing out of there, and we canbe done with this whole business.”
“That would be sweet. I really don’t want tobe anywhere near Jericho again if it can be helped.”
That’s when Jeremy’s phone rang. “Yes?”After a minute of him listening intently, he sighed and said, “Allright, come on back, then.” He hung up.
“That was Halluis,” he said, rubbing hishand over his tired face. “There wasn’t anything at the shop—justthe cars they took tonight. Definitely no Mercedes 300. It’sprobably a temporary storage location, not where they’re keepingall the cars.” He bit his cheek and looked at his feet.
Ace grumbled a curse. “So we got nothingtonight?”
“Well, not nothing,” I insisted. “We learneda lot about how the gang works, and who’s really going to bevaluable. I realized tonight that those two girls would get menowhere. I need to either go after Shareweather or one of the boys.Neither of which is appealing.”
Jeremy shook his head slowly. “I don’t thinkShareweather is the answer. I think he’s just a hired hand, a gruntreally. He’s not the one calling the shots, and he’s not likely tolead us to anything really useful. Sure, he’s Jericho and Mikado’sdirect supervisor, but there was someone more important thatJericho was talking to on that recording.”
“You’re probably right,” Ace said, his headdown. “When I was looking through Shareweather’s financials, itappeared that he makes a significant deposit to his account everyfour weeks. And it appears he makes an even bigger deposit to anoff-shore account that same day each month. They probably pay himper car each month. He may not even know exactly who he is workingfor.”
“Lackeys like him rarely ever meet theimportant people,” Jeremy added. “It stands to reason that ifJericho is able to call this person, whoever it is, he must have anin with the real organization.” He pushed through the recording andpulled up the call. The voice on the other end was no one familiar.Certainly no one we’d been tracking at the school. “Ace, could yougo to Division HQ to work on isolating the voice on the phone forus?”
Ace nodded.
“Can we take a break for a second?” I asked.“I’m starving.”
“All right,” Jeremy agreed. “We shouldprobably wait for Halluis to get back before we move on,anyway.”
I stood up and started raiding the fridgefor something more substantial than the party fare I’d eaten at thedance. I settled on making myself a giant sandwich and had justfinished polishing it off when Halluis arrived. We filled him in onour discussion, and he immediately jumped in with his opinion.
“Unfortunately,” Halluis looked at medirectly, “it sounds like Jericho is the one you’re going to needto get to know. Sure, you still want to see if Shareweather willnotice you enough to recruit you, but then you’ll just be apeon.”
Jeremy turned his head away and stifled agroan that only I seemed to notice.
“Ah,” Ace said, setting his elbows on thetable and leaning forward. “I think you’re on to something. Christycan easily get Jericho’s attention as a girlfriend and then weaselher way in from there.”
“Easy is a relative term, you know,” I said,stiffening. I could probably get him to like me, but I didn’t wantto. “He’s so creepy and disgusting. I’ve never met anyone asarrogant as he is. You should have seen him at the dance. He—”
“Sounds like you already have caught hisattention then,” Ace said, grinning. “Our little girl, turningheads and making waves.”
I rolled my eyes. I thought about my badbehavior to Jericho and hated the idea of having to eat crow and benice to him. Maybe I could approach Mikado. He seemed like a morecivil option. “What about Mikado?”
“Does that guy ever talk?” Halluis said.
“He’s not the one who called that person.”Ace yawned. “As much as you hate it, it has to be Jericho.”
I put my head in my hands and sighed,resigned.
“I still don’t like it,” Jeremy said. “I’drather limit her exposure to that sociopath than increase it, but Isee no other option, yet. Halluis, just stick with Christy and giveher the protection she needs. And Christy, there’s no need tobecome his girlfriend. Just…get close to him.”
“She’s already got his attention, why not gofull force and get as much from him as she can?” Halluis argued.“She’ll be able to get a lot closer to him as his girlfriend thanas an acquaintance.”
Strain registered on Jeremy’s face. Anargument ensued, with Halluis trying to shout over Jeremy’sconcerns. I turned to Ace for some support. Ace gave me anapologetic look, but kept his mouth shut.
Jeremy hit his hand on the table and said,“Enough!” Then he turned to me. “Get in the good graces of Jerichoas fast as you can. Not as his girlfriend. At the same time, workhard on Shareweather and see if you can’t entice
