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The phone woke me hours later. I groped for it blindly, then realized I’d actually left it in my bag, which was still sitting on a nearby chair. But before I could muster the energy to move, it appeared in my right hand.
I opened a bleary eye, and came face-to-face with Azriel. “It is Rhoan,” he said, rather unnecessarily. The ringtone informed me of that much.
“Let’s hope he has some good news for a change,” I muttered, then hit the ANSWER button. Rhoan’s face appeared onscreen, and the high-pitched wail of a siren just about blew my eardrum out. I hastily turned down the sound and said, “Please tell me you’re on your way to catch the bastard.”
“We hope so.” If the dark circles under Rhoan’s eyes were any indication, he’d been getting even less sleep than me. “And not only do we have a possible location, we have a name.”
“How the hell did you discover that?”
“Do you remember suggesting we investigate the warehouse?”
“Yes.”
“Well, inside we discovered a marijuana crop that had to have a street value of at least four million. Naturally, there was all sorts of security to protect this investment, including cameras.” He smiled. “Actually, your presence must have spooked them, because they were in the process of dismantling and bagging when we arrived. We caught all of them.”
Well, at least some good had come out of Dani’s death. “I’m gathering the cameras also picked up the coming and going of our killer?”
“Yes. And he wasn’t alone.”
“If he’s blind, it makes sense he’d have an assistant.” I paused. “He did have a face, didn’t he?”
“And a butt-ugly one it is, too. Actually, that could apply to him as a whole.”
Which made you wonder how he was hooking his victims. But then, sometimes it wasn’t about looks. Sometimes it was about aura and power. And from what I’d seen on the astral plane, our killer had those in spades.
“So who is he?”
“He’s going by the name of Zane Taylor, but we can only trace his existence back about five years, which is when he landed in Australia. We’re currently checking the Croatian and Slovenian databases to see if we can find a match.”
“What about his buddy?”
“He’s a man by the name of Jason Bright. He’s an IT specialist with a history of hacking into high-profile companies and then selling their information on the black market. He’s served a smattering of time, but he’s been flying under the radar since he was released five years ago.”
If he was an IT specialist, why wouldn’t he have done something about the cameras to stop them from recording their presence? It wouldn’t have been that hard for someone who knew what they were doing—Stane could have managed it with his eyes shut.
“Meaning the two of them somehow hooked up when Zane arrived in Australia?”
“More than likely.” He glanced sideways, said something to whoever was in the car with him, then added, “We’re on our way to Bright’s last known address now.”
“What about Zane?”
“The address listed in the system was for an apartment that was torn down years ago. But his bank records show activity in the same vicinity as Bright’s house, so we’re hoping they share a residence and we can nab them both.”
It wouldn’t be that easy. No way, nohow. Our faceless killer might now have both a name and a face, but he seemed way too smart to leave such an obvious trail.
“You’ll call me after you raid the place?”
“Yes. But I’m sending through pics of both men, just in case this is little more than a diversion and they’re actually coming after you.”
A shiver ran through me. He was coming after me. I knew that for a fact, but at least knowing what he looked like would give me a small advantage.
Not that it would matter if he came in astral form.
“Be careful, won’t you? I’d hate to see—”
“Risa, I’ve been doing this for more years than you’ve been alive.” Amusement and warmth filled his voice. “Even if Taylor and Bright were aware of the cameras and have done a runner, they won’t have had time to clear away all the evidence. We’ll find them.”
I wasn’t worried about Rhoan and the Directorate finding them. I was worried about our killers finding him. After all, he was the one who’d pointed out how little respect Taylor seemed to have for the Directorate—and maybe that was because he was always one step ahead of them.
