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“Or maybe,” I add, “Charles Castille will grant you a few kisses.”
Blaine’s glare hardens. “Have you ever been with a guy who’s been shot before?” He asks, in an unfriendly tone.
I glare back at him. I can’t tell if this is the line he was planning when he came over here or if it’s something more. Does Blaine know who I’ve been seeing?
“I wouldn’t quite call getting shot an accomplishment,” I tell him.
Blaine leans slightly toward me and whispers, “You’d be surprised what I can accomplish.”
I’m not sure what he means, but it still makes my skin crawl. I don’t respond to him, but I don’t look away.
“Anyway,” Blaine pushes himself up off my desk and onto his crutches. He’s no longer whispering and his voice has returned to its usual fake cordiality. “I just wanted to let you know that we now have blanket access to phone records. Nicoletti got approval this morning. We can directly look up records of any phone numbers we want. I mean, any we need to look up. So, if you’ve got a boyfriend, or an ex you want to stalk… use it wisely.”
Blaine heads back to his own desk.
I pull up our internal wiki and look up the page we usually use for requesting a subpoena or court order for cell phone requests. Sure enough, it’s been updated. It looks like we’ve been granted access through the NSA to fast track requests for phone records from all the major carriers.
I can’t believe it. The FBI and the NSA are able to request phone records from phone companies without a prior warrant as a result of the 2001 Patriot Act. But that’s to focus on preventing terrorism. It seems insane to extend that ability to our entire office. Nicoletti surely pulled some strings. And it really looks like he’s using those strings to overstep boundaries.
18
MATEO
Monday nightI’m just about to go to bed. I have been able to keep myself from contacting Klein since Saturday. But it feels like a full-time job. I try to focus on my work, but as soon as I take a break, I check if there’s a message from her or I have to convince myself not to reach out to her.
I’m relieved that we are staying apart. But I also hate it.
I must have started drifting off to sleep when I hear a phone ringing. It’s not my day-to-day phone. It’s my emergency burner phone. I don’t think I’ve ever made a call on it. But I always keep it close by. My men have the number in case there is ever a major emergency, something really important that they need to talk about. It’s known that once I accept a call on this phone, it’s going to be destroyed and replaced.
I pull up the phone. It’s a basic flip-phone. Pre-paid, unregistered SIM. No GPS. But it’s location could still be triangulated.
It’s a number I don’t recognize. I answer the call.
“Hello?”
“Mateo,”the voice on the other line whispers. “It’s Elio…”
Fuck. It’s my cousin who was kidnapped at the attack on the courthouse.
“Elio! Are you okay?” I ask.
“I’m hanging in there,” he whispers again. “I’m locked up. I don’t know where. But I was able to pick this phone off one of the guys guarding us.”
“We’ll come get you! What can you tell me about where you are? Anything you notice?”
“It’s a warehouse. Concrete blocks. Smells and sounds like we’re near water. But I don’t think we’re in Philly. Based on how long they drove last time they moved us, we can’t be more than an hour away though.”
“Anything you can tell me about the men that took you? Were they Bratva?” I ask.
“No,”Elio confirms.“There’re three Russians with me and they don’t know anything about these guys. We’re all locked up together. The guys holding us speak English. They’re American. Usually only one or two guys watching us at a time. We’ve tried to find ways to break out, but we’re locked in pretty strong. No windows. Just a steel-doored cell.”
“What are they doing to you?” I ask.
“I think they’re just waiting. They haven’t been interrogating us.”I hear Elio take a deep breath. “But it doesn’t feel right…”
“Elio, I’ll find you. You hang in there.”
“I should hang up. A guard is due past here any moment. I can’t let him hear me or see the light from the phone.”
