Whitaker slouched and leaned into Taylor, putting her head into his chest.
“Shit,” she said. “How the fuck did I end up here.”
“You were trying to help someone. You couldn’t have known Fredrick was mixed up in something shady. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Whitaker didn’t sound convinced but let it drop. Taylor kept rewinding and watching the ten seconds that Graf was visible. Rewind and play, over and over again. Taylor appreciated that Whitaker let him think and didn’t barrage him with questions. They’d worked together long enough that Whitaker knew when Taylor had caught a hint of something being out of place. Instead of questions, she just patted his shoulder and headed towards the bathroom.
A piece of Taylor’s brain was aware of her as she walked away and closed the door. The sound of the shower started a few moments later. The rest of him was focused on the video in front of him, rewinding and playing, over and over again. He’d noticed something, but he couldn’t put his finger on it, like a word on the tip of the tongue that is just out of reach.
Eventually, he paused the image on Graf as he stared up at the camera, talking on the phone, pausing before he walked into Freida’s building. He was still sitting there, staring at the screen when Whitaker came out of the bathroom, towel wrapped around her. His focus finally shifted when Whitaker stood behind him, leaning against his back, the familiar way she smelled out of the shower bringing back memories.
“Figure it out yet?”
“No. I don’t even know if it’s important, but it’s all I’ve got right now. If we don’t find something beyond just proof that Graf was at the scene at the time of the murder, we’re stuck.”
“You’ll figure it out, you always do. We should call Joe. He won’t be able to help us, but he can set things up to get us a pass on everything else, if we can prove Graf’s dirty. He’ll need a head start if we don’t want to spend time in prison.”
“Will he try and chase your phone?”
“No. Even if he did, it’s the oldest, crappiest model I could find with the fewest features available. With no GPS chip or Wi-Fi, it’s left to triangulating off the closest tower, which would get them a mile radius or so. I don’t think he’d sell us out, though.”
“Still, it’s a risk. Joe’s a by the book guy and believes in the system. His advice will be to turn ourselves in and trust in the system since we’re innocent. Let’s call him in the morning after we’ve done everything else. We can shut the phone off after then and head out. By the time they get anyone down here, we’ll be gone. If we’re making calls, we should also call Kara.”
“Joe might have someone watching her if he’s actually worried about us. Again, I don’t think so, but if we’re being careful…”
“Her living with a presidential candidate’s daughter, I don’t think he’d take the chance. He may be a true believer, but at his level, he’s also a politician. Still, you’re probably right. We’ll call her in the morning, too.”
“Fine. Why don’t you take a break for a little bit, come back to it with fresh eyes?”
Taylor rubbed his face hard and turned around in the chair.
“Sure, I was starting to go cross-eyed anyways. Did you want to look it over while I take a break?”
“No,” she said, dropping her towel.
Chapter 11
The sun was still peaking around the edges of the thick motel curtain when Taylor woke up. Turning, he found Whitaker already awake, propped up on one elbow, staring at him.
“I missed this,” she said once he looked up at her.
“Me too.”
She rolled over, draping her body over half of his, her head nestled in the crook of Taylor’s arm.
“Have you talked to Kara since you’ve been here?”
“A couple of times.”
“She’s going to be thrilled.”
“She’s going to accept it as us coming to our senses and take it in stride.”
“Maybe. Any luck figuring out what you were missing in the video.”
“No. It’s still right out of reach.”
“Then let’s call Kara now.”
“Sure,” Taylor said.
Whitaker rolled off him, and both began to pull on clothes.
“Hello?” Kara’s said, answering with the cautious tone of someone not recognizing who was calling them.
“Hey,” Taylor said.
“What number is this?”
“A disposable Whitaker’s using for the time being.”
“You found her?” Kara said, her voice suddenly getting excited.
“Yep,” Whitaker said.
“Will you be coming home soon?”
“Not yet,” Taylor said. “We have some things to take care of first. You might not be able to get a hold of us. Things have gotten a little tricky, so I’m going to have to keep my phone shut down for a while.”
“Can I be calling you back on this number?”
“No, since we’ll also keep it off unless we have to, but we’ll call you from it or another disposable when we can.”
“So you are in trouble again, yes? Switching phones to stay hidden?”
When he didn’t answer, Whitaker looked up at Taylor.
“John?”
“Kara, sorry, we have to go. We’ll call you again in a few days.”
“Okay,” she said, her voice sounding a touched concerned at Taylor’s tone. “Be careful.”
“We will. Bye,” Taylor said.
He disconnected the cell phone and dropped it on the bed, getting up and moving the few steps to the rickety hotel desk, opening the laptop, and powering it on.
“You figured it out?”
“Yes.”
Taylor pulled up the video
