“I’m going with you.” She sliced a hand in the air through his objections. “I’ll stay out of sight, but first let’s finish the cleanup.”
“Do you have any cotton swabs and plastic bags? I want to take a sample of this blood in the kitchen and in the sink.”
“I do.”
They spent the next hour collecting blood samples and cleaning up. When they finished, Clay handed April’s phone to her. “Try calling Kenzie again.”
As Clay took out the trash, April called Kenzie on Adam’s phone. She didn’t remember Kenzie’s own number. The call rolled over to voice mail, but April decided not to leave a message. She didn’t trust that phone and didn’t much trust Kenzie, either. That girl was flakier than a Paris pastry.
Clay returned to the apartment, rubbing his hands together. “I’m just going to wash up, and I’m going to flush those drugs down the toilet while I’m at it. You finish packing your stuff and we’ll get something to eat. I want the cover of darkness on my side when we go out to Jimmy’s place.”
April packed the stuff she wanted to take back with her to Paradiso. She’d officially give notice and move out once everything was settled with Jimmy and she’d found Adam—dead or alive.
She said, “I know a good barbecue place where we can pass the time. It’s not far from Jimmy’s.”
“He’s not going to suddenly show up there, is he?”
“Too down-home for him. He prefers upscale steak houses and cocktail lounges.”
They loaded her bags and suitcases in the truck, and she directed him to Benny’s Big-Time BBQ.
An hour later, seated across from each other with a pile of ribs between them, April asked, “What’s your plan?”
“I’ll sneak onto the grounds, disable the security system, if I have to, and surveil the scene. See who’s there, including Adam.”
“You’re not going to know who’s who without me.”
“Draw me some pictures.” He aimed a rib bone at her. “If I get caught, I can make up some story. If you’re with me, that story’s gonna be a lot different.”
“You know what Gilbert looks like, right? You remember the booking photo of Jesus that Espinoza showed us. That’s pretty close, except Gilbert added a goatee to that moustache.” She tore open a wet wipe package and dangled the wipe from her fingers. “Do you think Espinoza has already contacted Gilbert?”
“Probably not. If he wants to do any kind of search when he finds him, he’ll have to secure a warrant. It’s going to take him a few days before he can formally question Gilbert and search his possessions.”
“Then Jimmy and his cohorts won’t know anything.”
“They’ll know their mules didn’t make it. I’m sure they had some sort of communication set up for when the women got across with the drugs. If he never heard from them, he’d know something went wrong.”
“The heads were in the news. If he cared to check, he’d find that out.” She swiped the last bit of barbecue sauce from her fingers and crumpled the wipe in her hand. “Did those news reports mention any names—like mine?”
“No, the location of the recovered heads was kept out of the news. Jimmy shouldn’t know that you’re involved in this at all. Even the identification of Elena can be explained by her fingerprints and her police record connecting her to Jesus.” Clay dug his fork into his potato salad. “I suppose Jimmy knows you’re from Paradiso if Adam already told him the story about your father.”
“He knows that...but not much else—at least, not from me.” She’d never told Jimmy about Clay. It had seemed almost sacrilegious to share any details of her and Clay’s relationship with anyone else.
She couldn’t imagine Adam would’ve told Jimmy that his fiancée had once been engaged to a Border Patrol agent. That wouldn’t have meshed with Adam’s plans of securing himself a drug-dealing brother-in-law.
Clay grabbed her hand with his sticky one. “Are you okay? Are you sure you want me to do this?”
“Yes. I’m just surprised you’re willing to go to these lengths to find Adam. I know he’s not your favorite person.”
“He’s not my favorite person because I don’t like how he twists you all up. Look, I’m sorry the kid found his mother like that, but you don’t owe him a lifetime of chances because of it. He needs to get off drugs and start seeing a good therapist.” Clay disentangled his fingers from hers and handed her another wet wipe. “Sorry.”
“I’ve told Adam that a million times. He tried therapy once or twice, but it didn’t work for him.” She shrugged. Adam was the only immediate family she had left. She couldn’t sit by and watch him self-destruct, but she’d never get pulled into one of his schemes again, and she should’ve recognized the setup with Jimmy as a scheme. She hadn’t been thinking clearly at the time. She hadn’t been thinking clearly since the day she left Clay.
“You’re familiar with rock bottom, right?” Clay shoved his plate to the center of the table and planted his elbows on the linoleum.
“Yes, of course.” She’d even hit it herself maybe once or twice.
“Adam hasn’t hit yet because you won’t allow him to. That’s why he can’t hear the therapist. That’s why he can’t get clean. You’re not doing him any favors, April.”
“And yet here you are ready to rush into danger to save him.”
“I’m not doing this for him.” Clay’s eyes glowed with an intensity that made her stomach flip-flop.
She wrenched her gaze away from his and tapped the window. “Is it dark enough for you?”
“It will be once I take a bath with these wet wipes and pay the bill.” He ripped open another little packet and scrubbed his hands. “You direct me to Jimmy’s and a place to park where we won’t stand out. I’ll go in on foot and do some reconnaissance. I’ll keep my phone on vibrate, so you can serve as an early warning system in case someone
