I figured that meant that he wasn’t going to tell us that part. Good thing I picked it up anyway. Now I had to decide if I should tell Bates. I glanced his way and nodded. “I think we’re done here.”
“You sure?”
Since he didn’t think it could be that easy, I had some convincing to do. “Let’s chat outside.”
“Oh… right.”
He followed me into the hall and shut the door. “He’s telling the truth. Whoever killed Tommy came from outside his gang. It wasn’t one of them.”
“That’s what I thought.” He hadn’t thought that at first, but he could see it now because of the car.
“The BMW, right?” Oops. Luckily, Bates just thought we were thinking along the same lines.
“Yeah. A BMW means it was someone with money. I’ll have the techs do a sweep of the traffic cameras in the area and see if we can pick up a BMW at that time of night. If we can get a license plate, we’ll have our killer.” He was thinking it looked more and more like a hit, but tying it to the mob was going to take a miracle… or me.
“Sounds good.” I glanced up, catching sight of a man watching me and Bates. He’d come from the observation room and must have listened to our interview of the kid. He studied me with interest, and I picked up that he’d been eavesdropping on our conversation. He noticed me staring and quickly disappeared back into the observation room.
“Who’s that?” I asked. Bates glanced up, but the guy had already slid back into the room. “The guy in the observation room. He must have watched the interview.”
“Oh right,” Bates said. “He’s in the gang unit and just wanted to observe. We’d better get back in there.”
“I can’t. I’ve got an appointment right now, but let me know if you find something with the car, okay?”
“Yeah… sure.” Bates was already thinking about the lead, and eager to find the car. If it belonged to someone in the mob, this was his lucky day.
He hardly noticed me walking away, but I needed to send a text to Ramos and alert him to the BMW, adding the extra tidbit that it was gray. I didn’t know who drove what in Uncle Joey’s organization, and I had to let him know, just in case. I was probably bending all kinds of rules, or maybe even breaking the law, but I was in too deep to stop now.
I skirted the detectives’ desks and took the elevator to the third floor. On the way, I sent the information to Ramos, hoping my phone records never got subpoenaed, or I’d be a goner. Maybe I should get a burner phone for stuff like this?
Just thinking about that sent a wave of guilt over me. Crap. Had I just taken the first step on the long road to hell? Was this what it meant to be Uncle Joey’s successor, and that I’d chosen the dark side once and for all?
Bob’s door stood open, and he sat at his desk, working on his computer. Seeing me, he stood with a smile. “Shelby. Come on in. I’ve been looking forward to our chat. How are you doing?”
“I’m good.” I closed the door and took a seat in front of his desk. I took a cleansing breath and tried to clear my mind. I sure didn’t want Bob to pick up on the guilt I carried.
“Good. I sent a report of our last visit to Leslie Gilman.” At my widened eyes, he continued, “Don’t worry, it’s nothing personal. I just told her you’d been cleared to get back to work. She wanted me to ask if you’d like to take the course on gun safety.”
“Oh yeah… I guess.”
“Good. It’s two days a week for three weeks, or you can go once a week for six. Whatever works best for you.”
“Okay… probably once a week would be best.” Did I really have to commit to this right now? It was just one more thing on my plate, and it could be enough to push me over the edge. Wasn’t coming here supposed to relieve my stress?
Bob turned to his computer and pulled up the schedule. “What night works best? It looks like we’ve got an opening on Wednesday or Friday.”
“Uh… put me down for Wednesday.”
“Okay. You’re all set for Wednesdays at seven. Do you know where the shooting range is?”
“No.”
He explained that it was in the building adjacent to this one, in the basement, and I put it in my phone calendar. With that done, he sat back in his chair and looked me over. “So… did you get a start on a barf journal?”
Oops. I’d forgotten all about that. “No. But I got a pad of paper and a pencil.” That wasn’t exactly true, but I was sure I could find one in the office at home.
“Well… I guess that’s a start. What about the meditation app? Did you try that out?”
Oops. “Uh… I got the app, but I haven’t tried it out yet. I guess I had so much on my mind last night that I totally forgot.”
He nodded, but couldn’t hide his disappointment, thinking that, with so much on my mind; it would have been helpful to use it. Didn’t I want to feel less stressed? “Okay… is there anything you want to talk to me about?”
“Uh… yeah, sure. A couple of things… but… actually, I can’t think of what they are right now. I guess I should have written them down. Just… let me think for a minute.” Damn. I was the worst patient
