They found a table by the window and sat down, waiting for their order to be called.
Bronte yawned. “It could take us weeks to get to the Ceiling.”
Salvi nodded. “We can’t just work the club. We need to keep working our other cases. Tell me about yours.”
Bronte ran his hand over his closely cropped skull. “Well, with the body behind the dumpster, the fight over the parking space, I think the guy was definitely on drugs. Knowing what we do now about Fyte, I’m sure they’ll find that in the guy’s system. When they find him.”
“So you haven’t found him yet?”
Bronte shook his head. “Guy’s disappeared.”
“Where was the parking lot?”
“A few blocks from here. Next to a club called Bounce.”
Salvi nodded. “And what about your case in the ‘Mission? The store owner who caught a bullet.”
Bronte nodded. “Security footage in the area has been wiped.”
“Of course,” Salvi said flatly.
“The family is saying nothing’s been stolen, but I don’t buy it. I think they know something but they’re not talking.”
“Sounds familiar,” Salvi said thinking about Myki Natashi. “What did the store sell?”
“It was pawnbroker specializing in retro tech.”
“Yeah?” Salvi asked. “How retro? Like centuries old or just pre-Crash?”
Bronte looked at her. “Anything past last year. Most of the items were secondhand but they do sell some new stuff there, made by the guy who got killed and some other select suppliers.”
“Who were the other suppliers?”
“Riverton was trying to obtain a warrant for us to find out. The family weren’t cooperating. He left behind a son and daughter who ran the store with him.”
Salvi nodded. “We need to keep our minds open. This might be more than drugs we’re dealing with here. My photographer had taken photos of some women on the Ceiling and one of them looked to be wearing a neural device. Now, I can’t be entirely sure it wasn’t just some edgy jewelry made to look like neural tech, but if it was the tech then maybe there’s some connection with your case in the ‘Mission… Clubs, drugs and tech… Which in turn might just link up a lot of our cases. The body behind the dumpster, Kelto’s Diner…” She paused, tracing her mind over her conversation with Mitch. “Even Mitch and Caine’s case with that Langford guy who owned the auto accessory store. All the security footage in the area had been hacked and wiped. Just like your ‘Mission case, and just like the house AI at Barker’s apartment.” She sat back in her chair, staring at him. “I don’t think these were random acts of violence. I think these were intentional. Who knows where this thing begins or ends. Is it the drugs? Is it something to do with the clubs? Or is it something else like the tech? What exactly are they doing in this basement that makes people disappear or wind up dead?”
Bronte nodded in thought. “There could well be a connection.”
“I’m pretty sure Barker’s girlfriend was on Flyte. That’s why Narcotics locked her file.”
“Right. So what about the two dead guys in the diner? How do they fit in?”
Salvi sat forward again. “The first guy who died owned a cleaning business with several contracts for Sensation clubs, including Floor to Ceiling.”
Bronte nodded. “Shit. So what does that mean?”
Salvi shrugged again. “It means everything right now is circumstantial. They were in or around the Sensation club scene. They mostly look to be targeted hits. A lot of security footage has been hacked and wiped. Riverton hasn’t been able to track any of the hackers yet, which means they’re good. Very good. Which worries me.”
“They said in the Trident briefing there could be powerful people involved.”
“That worries me too.”
“Until we figure out what’s going on,” Bronte said, “everyone who steps foot in the Sensation is at risk.”
“Yeah,” Salvi nodded. “Including us. We need to narrow down a list of suspects and fast.”
Salvi and Bronte made their way to Taskforce Trident’s designated debriefing spot to meet with the key players – Ford, Sorenson, Noble and Shadid. The meeting place was an empty office tenancy in a building in the heart of the city, that had several different entry points. Each team member was assigned a different entrance and a different time of arrival, and Riverton was the only one who knew all the details.
“I think we made a splash,” Salvi said, then smiled. “At least Bronte did.”
He pulled his sunglasses down, then pushed them up again with his middle finger.
“But I think I found a way into the next floor,” Salvi said. “There was a guy paying me some attention before he flashed his card and moved upstairs. He made sure I saw him do that. If he’s there again, I’ll see if he wants to take me with him next time.”
Ford nodded, then turned to Kara. “And you?”
She exhaled and rubbed the back of her neck. “I’m closer, I think. I’m in with a bunch of rich girls who know somebody with a pass to the Ceiling. I’m like their pet or something. I furnish them with drugs, so they keep me around.” She shrugged. “I’m working it best I can, but I can’t push too hard.”
“Riverton?” Ford said, enabling the hologram function on her iPort. Riverton appeared in its shimmering gold form. “Request update. Anything on any of our cases connected to the Sensation.”
“Detective Lieutenant Ford,” Riverton said, “the man believed responsible for the body behind the dumpster in Hernandez and Bronte’s case has been identified as Clarence Jabbour, a DJ who worked the Sensation club scene.”
Everyone seemed to straighten a little at the news.
“Which clubs?” Ford asked.
“He had long-running gigs at Bounce nightclub and Little Minx.”
Salvi had just been talking with Bronte about Bounce, as that was the club near where the body behind the dumpster had been found, but she racked her brain trying to place
