bad. Decent enough security.” Hailey glanced around the interior of the bar as she and Jesse strode inside.
Brick walls, high ceilings, vintage-style paintings all set a mood along with the dim lighting and sleek wood bar area lined with barstools—most of them occupied. The lighting of the place set off a soft glow, really helping people work those beer goggles. Most of the high-top tables were filled as well, and there was a rowdy bunch near the stage where someone was singing karaoke.
They headed to the bar area instead, took two of the only free chairs. Luckily, it seemed most people were turned toward the stage where someone was doing a terrible Tina Turner rendition. The woman had been a queen, and there were some songs that no mere mortals should ever try to mimic. Doing her best to tune out what could only be called noise, Hailey scanned the bar, Jesse right next to her.
“How do you want to handle this?” she asked him as a bartender with a charming, toothy grin approached. She didn’t like him on sight.
“What can I get for the two of you?” His grin was firmly in place, which, yeah, made sense since the guy was in a customer-facing role. But his vibe was all wrong, and if there was one thing she’d learned growing up in the system—and in a war zone, trying not to get her ass blown up—it was to trust her gut.
Jesse placed a wad of cash on the bar, palm up. Oh wow, the man was just getting right to the heart of it, something she could appreciate. Sometimes a situation didn’t need finesse, but an angry hammer. “I’ve got two grand for you if you can give me a copy of some of your security feeds.”
The guy eyed them both, scanning her quickly, then looking Jesse over with a discerning eye, his gaze lingering on Jesse’s watch. “You a cop?”
They both made scoffing sounds.
“Do we look like cops?” Jesse’s tone was dry.
The bartender’s gaze flicked to the cash before Jesse tucked it away. “What security feeds?”
Jesse gave him the dates.
And something in the guy’s eyes flickered with a sort of knowing. “Someone already paid me to destroy the feeds from those dates. And since my boss is a cheap ass, our feeds are local, not sent off to a company. We just use some standard shit ordered online.”
Well, this has been a bust.
“But…” He eyed that watch again. “He was shady, so I kept the downloads just in case. So. That watch for the recordings.”
Hailey blinked at the balls on the guy. The watch was worth at least twenty grand. In the big scheme of things, Easton’s life was worth a hell of a lot more than that. But this asshole couldn’t know that.
Jesse didn’t pause, simply slipped the watch off and slid it across the bar.
The bartender blinked in clear surprise, then his gaze grew calculating.
Oh, hell no. “If you try to renegotiate, I’ll burn this bar down with you in it.” Hailey’s voice was low, blade sharp.
The man looked at her in surprise, as if he’d forgotten she was there. Then he took her in, really looked her over, and whatever he saw in her face must have convinced him of the truth. He glanced down at the other bartender. “Cover me for a few, Kelly Ann.” Then he looked back at them. “Give me five.”
“If he runs off with that watch…” She gritted her teeth, not bothering to finish that sentence because really, there wasn’t much she’d actually do. Her only concern was finding Easton safe and sound.
“She’s pretty good.” Jesse chin-nodded to the stage.
“What?” Frowning, she looked past him at the barely dressed woman singing a song often performed in strip clubs. “She’s terrible.”
He just shrugged and gave her a ghost of a grin.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you talking about something other than her voice?”
“Jealous?”
“Maybe.”
He blinked in surprise, then grinned. “I was just trying to distract you. She’s got assets I’m sure, but singing isn’t one of them.”
“The crowd of men at the front table disagrees,” she said, snickering as they started whooping loudly. Did one of them just throw money on stage?
“That guy’s gonna ask for your cash too.” She knew it was coming as soon as the bartender returned.
If he returned.
“I know. Not that I care about the cash, but I already separated out half of it because screw this guy.” Jesse’s jaw ticked, and for the first time she saw the annoyance in his expression.
And she didn’t think it was about the watch, but the bartender himself. Glancing at her phone, she frowned. “He should be back by now…” She trailed off as the guy pushed through the swinging door to the back, which was presumably the kitchen.
His expression was more reserved now as he showed that he was holding a USB, then slid it across the bar. “Sorry it took a bit. I added the feed from earlier tonight as well. The guy who originally asked me to delete the feeds was in here tonight, but he didn’t come up to the bar. He sat at one of the back booths and tried to be incognito. Probably would have worked, but I remembered him from before. Plus I’m good with faces. So.” He shrugged. And he also didn’t ask for the cash, probably realizing he’d pushed hard enough.
To her surprise, Jesse slid a folded wad of cash across the bar. “Thank you for your time. If this doesn’t have what we asked for—”
“It does, I swear.” The guy held his hands up, palms facing them, all easy charm.
Jesse simply nodded, then wrapped his arm around her shoulders before they headed out into the crisp night air.
Once they got into the SUV, she plugged the USB into her laptop. She had a program that isolated unknown hardware and media, so she wasn’t worried about this thing corrupting her computer if the guy was trying to scam them.
As Jesse drove, she fast-forwarded through the first video, looking for Beeker. Luckily the guy wasn’t trying to hide from the cameras, and it was clear he was a well-known customer when the bartender slid a beer in front of him before he’d ordered. She kept the feed moving until a man in a ball cap approached. The guy didn’t say anything at first, just ordered a beer—same as Beeker’s—then waited before striking up a conversation.
There was no volume on the video, but she could see the moment Beeker’s body language changed, stiffened. Using a program, she pulled various angles of the man’s face, then moved on to the next video and grabbed more angles. There were a couple from the exterior when the guy arrived, but he’d been looking down so nothing good.
“I’m not sure if I’ll be able to use this,” she murmured, realizing she hadn’t said anything in a while and they were almost back to Jesse’s place. “But I put together what this guy’s face might look like. He was really skilled at looking down, keeping his face turned more toward the ground than anything, but I was able to pull some angles and compile something. I’ll run it through our facial recognition program. And if I don’t get a hit, I’ll expand and use some others.”
“Don’t bother. I think I know who that is. Name’s Adam Berch. He’s essentially a fixer for Senator Henry Silva.”