“Get your ass out here. We need to talk.”
Nick dropped his head as the doorknob rattled. “I swear to god, I’ll kill him and they’ll never find the body,” he muttered. He limped to the door and threw it open. Students hovered in the hall, whispering behind cupped hands as a handful of officers looked on in amusement. Nick pulled the door closed behind him, leaving it cracked. I spotted Vero in the crowd. Our eyes caught through the narrow opening.
I peeked out as Nick grabbed Joey by the collar. “The next words that come out of your mouth had better be the most important ones you’ve ever spoken.”
Joey answered with the only two that mattered. “Zhirov escaped.”
CHAPTER 27
I braced myself against the doorframe of the maintenance closet, mirroring Nick’s shock as a hush fell through the hall.
Nick blinked at his partner. “What did you just say?”
Joey lowered his voice. “They think Zhirov escaped early this morning. Correctional officers said they saw him in his cell before lights out last night. This morning, he refused to get out of bed, claiming he had a headache. The officer on duty said he never got a good look at whoever was in the bunk, but when they opened his cell this afternoon, the guy wearing Zhirov’s jumpsuit didn’t match any of the inmates on record. They’re still trying to ID him, but they suspect he’s a Russian national.”
I felt the blood drain from my face.
Nick released Joey’s collar. “Has anyone talked to his attorney?”
“Kat’s slinging the usual crap. Claims she had no idea. She’s spinning it around, citing negligence on the department’s part, crying to anyone who’ll listen that her client had been receiving threatening letters and was probably abducted while he was in custody. She’s demanding an investigation.”
Nick raked a hand through his hair as he paced. “She’s full of shit. She and Zhirov are working this whole blackmail angle to their advantage. It’s all smoke and mirrors. Kat probably orchestrated the whole damn thing.”
“Careful,” Joey said, darting glances at the other cops lingering in the hall. “She’ll sue you for slander and take you for every cent you have.”
“Thanks for the advice.”
“Want some more? Button up your shirt and fix your goddamn tie. The commander called. He’ll be here in an hour.”
Nick shot Joey a look as he fastened his button. “What’s he coming here for?” he asked, cinching his tie around his throat.
“He probably wanted to be the one to break the news to you. He knows how hard you’ve worked on this case.”
“Zhirov could be anywhere by now. There’s no way we’ll get him back in custody before his trial date.”
“Everyone’s looking for him,” Joey assured him, “including the feds. If he’s still on US soil, they’ll find him. Here,” he said, passing Nick a folded piece of paper. “This ought to make you feel better.”
“What is it?” Nick asked. I angled closer to the gap in the door, struggling to hear them as they lowered their voices.
“Sam’s been monitoring all the network traffic, looking for outgoing emails to that same address the crime scene photo was sent to last night. She found this one today.”
Nick’s eyes brightened as he read it. “There must be fifty businesses listed here.”
“Shell companies. All local.”
My fingers tightened around the doorframe. Shell companies. Like the one that owned the Aston Martin. The one Feliks set up in my name. Was FD Consulting on that list?
“What’s this number?” Nick asked.
“Sam thinks it’s an offshore bank account number. Looks like someone’s getting impatient. The blackmailer threatened to mail the list to you if Zhirov doesn’t comply.”
“When was this sent?”
“Around midnight last night. Whatever Feliks saw on this list must have spooked him.”
Nick shook his head. “Feliks doesn’t get spooked. He gets angry. Our blackmailer will be lucky if he’s not dead by morning.”
Joey’s phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen. “I need to grab this call. I’ll ask Roddy and Georgia to help cover your next class. Take a few minutes and pull yourself together before the commander gets here.”
“Thanks, Joe. And hey,” Nick said as his partner turned to go, “I’m sorry I flew off the handle just now. I shouldn’t have.”
Joey’s eyes skated to mine through the crack in the door. “We’ve all done a few things we probably shouldn’t have.”
His footsteps retreated down the hall. The closet door opened abruptly, and I fell through the opening into Nick’s chest. He looked down at me, one eyebrow raised. “Did you get all that?”
I nodded, mustering a sympathetic grin. “Kind of hard not to.”
He held the door open for me, turning off the light and closing the closet behind us. The hall had emptied with the exception of a few stragglers. Vero stood off to the side with Roddy, their heads bent close, their faces sober.
“Where do you think Feliks will go?” I asked Nick.
“Not far. Zhirov’s too cocky to tuck tail and run. He’ll want to stay near his business.”
I wrapped my arms around myself. This was exactly what I feared he’d say. Not only was Feliks free, but he was probably close. And Feliks was far too proud to let EasyClean get away with playing these games with him. He would want this resolved quickly. The citizen’s police academy was over in less than two days, and if I didn’t deliver EasyClean soon, I was certain Feliks would come looking for me.
“Hey,” Nick said, dipping his head to look me in the eyes, “I don’t want you to worry about Feliks. You and the kids are safe here. I promise.”
“Detective Anthony?” Nick and I turned as a uniformed officer rounded the corner, his face ruddy from the cold. “Sorry to interrupt, sir, but there’s a problem at the front gate. Some guy showed up, claiming he’s registered for the citizen’s academy and demanding to come in. I checked his ID but he’s not on the roster. The guy gave me a bogus license and he’s driving a rental car from New Jersey.” Vero and I locked eyes across the hall. “A couple of officers attempted to escort him off the grounds, but he got belligerent. When we searched him, he was carrying.”
Nick rubbed his eyes. “Where is he now?”
“Detained at the front gate.”
“I’ll be right there.”
“I should go find the kids,” I said. Nick took my hand as I tried to slip away.
“Hey,” he said in a low voice, “are we going to talk about what just happened in there?”
“Later,” I assured him, backing out of his reach. Someday, maybe we would talk about everything that had happened today—all the small truths I spilled and the big ones I probably should have but didn’t. For now, all I wanted was to find my kids. Nick was wrong. None of us were safe here.
* * *
When I left Nick by the maintenance closet, Vero and Roddy were nowhere in sight. I rushed across campus toward the gym. Police lights swirled by the security gate. Beyond the fence, a group of uniformed officers was gathered beside a patrol car. A large man was detained in the back seat. His eyes found mine through the window, trailing me as I pulled my hood over my face and hurried to find my kids.