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When he was finally cleared to leave the destroyed suite, he didn’t quite know what to do with himself. He had his car keys, his wallet and badge, and his clothing. The rest had been confiscated.
He managed to tuck his bandaged foot into his boot, leaving the laces undone.
“You made quite a mess, Nichols,” Ross Carpenter said from the doorway.
“Thanks. I try,” Dale replied. “Running late?”
“Maybe, but at least I’m running.”
Dale shook his head. “What brings you by?”
“Just checking in. Didn’t Morris tell you about our night?”
“No.” Deputy Morris had been worried about his sister, and rightly so. Dale looked around the room, guilt swamping him. This had been a close call. Too close. “She hid under the bed,” he blurted. She was so damned clever. And one hell of a good shot.
“They didn’t look?”
“They did.” Dale had watched them. “That box thing,” he tapped it with his boot, “it’s fake.”
“Good for her.”
“Good for both of us.” He stood up, decided the pain was manageable. “I screwed this up.”
“Not from where I’m standing. You brought down a major crime syndicate. Singlehandedly. That tip on Zelnick clinched it. We can’t shut him up.”
“There were two of us,” Dale snapped. He should be happier about what Ross was telling him, but he was increasingly furious that Heather’s efforts might get overlooked.
Ross held up his hands. “Two of you. Got it.”
“Heather broke the code. The players and locations. She broke the whole thing wide open.”
“Smart woman.”
“She’s brave too,” Dale said, limping toward the elevator.
“She’d have to be to impress you,” Ross replied. “Don’t you want to hear the rest?”
“You turned the guard?”
“Well, the sheriff did. Once he got the email.”
“What email?”
“She sent a text with her password for a picture dump online.”
“When?”
“Sometime this morning. J.C. called me back in to confirm where and when I picked up the suspect. They were able to put him at the scene thanks to a secondary security camera at the shelter.”
“A camera set up by Heather.” Another precaution she hadn’t mentioned. “She didn’t tell me that.”
The elevator doors parted and Ross matched Dale’s lumbering pace out to the parking garage. “What are you going to do about it?”
“The case?”
“To start.”
Dale sighed. The case was all he knew, all he ever wanted to know. “I’ll let the prosecutor handle it from here.”
