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She stuck her arm inside the drawer and grabbed the file. It was crushed and twisted and starting to rip. But she didn’t have time to be gentle. She pulled, and after a second’s hesitation, the file folded and sprang free. Cassie almost cheered in victory.
Harris grabbed her wrist and pulled her along the back wall. They hid behind a stack of empty pallets. Cassie could hardly control her breathing as a group of men approached the filing cabinets. She had closed all the drawers but the bottom one.
There was a beat of silence before one guy spoke.
“Looks like someone’s poking their nose where it don’t belong.”
22
Cassie held her breath as she listened to the group of men standing just a few feet away from their hiding spot. It sounded like there were at least four or five.
Someone popped open a can, and Cassie could hear him chugging from where she was crouched behind the pallets. He let out a massive belch before talking. “Those pieces of junk were empty, anyway. What’s it matter?”
“It matters because I said it matters,” the first guy said. None of the others argued.
Harris bent down and picked up a chunk of broken metal off the ground. The detective scuttled forward until Cassie was sure someone would see her, then reared her arm back and lobbed the piece of metal over the guys’ heads. When it landed, it must’ve hit something metallic because the collision echoed around the building with a tinny ring.
“Go, go!” the first guy shouted, and Cassie heard the group race toward the other end of the building. She didn’t have time to think about what to do next before Harris grabbed her wrist and hauled her toward the door.
But one of the guys must’ve stayed back to keep an eye on the filing cabinets because as soon as they emerged from behind the pallets, Cassie heard one of them give a surprised, “Hey!”
“Don’t look back,” Harris hissed, tightening her grip around Cassie’s wrist.
Cassie had no desire to disobey orders. She kept an eye on her feet and made sure she didn’t trip over anything while the detective dragged her along. By the time they made it to the door, the others had realized they’d fallen for the trap and started shouting after them.
But it was too late. Harris burst through the door with Cassie on her heels. As soon as the detective dropped her arm, Cassie scooped up the metal pipe she’d used to break the window and shoved it through the handle to lock the door from the outside. There were plenty of other exits, but at least it would slow the men down.
By the time they reached the car, Cassie was wheezing and her fingers were so frozen, she could barely operate the door handle. When she did finally crawl inside, Harris didn’t bother turning on the heat. She put the car in drive and hit the gas.
Cassie slammed back into her seat, scrambling for her seatbelt. “Where are we going?”
“Away from here.” Harris checked her rearview and visibly relaxed. “I don’t want them to know who’s been poking around.”
“What if they saw the car already?”
“We’ll deal with that when it comes back to bite us in the ass.” She threw a significant look at the folder on Cassie’s lap. “Go on, let’s see what’s so important.”
Before Cassie could so much as reach for the folder, her phone started buzzing. “It’s Jason,” she said. Cassie got her breath back under control before she answered. “Hello?”
“Hey, what’s going on?” Jason asked.
“Not much.” She looked back at the warehouse diminishing in the distance. “You know, just a typical day.”
“Typical, huh? Are you safe?”
“Always.” Cassie hated lying to Jason, but there was no point in getting him worked up. “You got something for me?”
“Actually, yeah. Harris with you?”
“Yeah. Hang on.” Cassie put Jason on speaker, then cranked up the heat until it was blasting her in the face. “Go ahead.”
“Detective.”
“Jason.”
Cassie didn’t let their awkwardness hang in the air any longer than necessary. “Did you find something out about Don Reed?”
“Nothing you couldn’t already guess. Plenty of arrests. No convictions. He’s had his hands in a lot of dealings over the years, and most of them have been less than reputable.”
