Difiore sensed the undercurrent of tension when she and Quindica entered Dade’s office. She glanced at the FBI agent, who nodded imperceptibly.
She felt it too.
Matteo, Cruz, Estrada, several other officers from the task force, facing the chief.
‘Covarra was in that warehouse,’ the lead detective briefed them in a clipped voice when they occupied their seats. ‘We got that from some of our informers. We’ve also got some camera sightings from a neighboring unit. Images are blurry, but there’s no mistaking the gangster as he ran to his ride.’
‘What was happening in that place?’ Difiore asked. He and his team must have been up all night. Dade dismissed us around two am, but she, Matteo and the others were still at the scene when we left.
‘They must have captured Lasko somehow and brought him inside that warehouse.’ Matteo acted as if he hadn’t heard her. He nodded to one of his officers, who fiddled with his screen and projected a blank screen on the wall.
‘That’s the footage from CCTV.’ Matteo grunted as a video began playing.
Several figures ran out of the warehouse and headed to vehicles.
‘That—’ the lead detective used a laser to circle one man when his officer paused the footage, ‘—is Covarra. The man behind him is Salazar.’
The video resumed to show the bangers’ rides disappearing out of the screen. Just when Difiore thought that was all to the footage, a shadow emerged from the warehouse and went out of sight.
‘Male,’ Matteo said, ‘that’s all we could make out. He had his head bent and used the cover of vehicles to conceal himself. We don’t have a good view of him.’
‘Didn’t the cameras capture anything of the gangsters’ arrival?’ Quindica asked when the footage ended.
‘Nope. Those cameras are programmed to swivel periodically and cover the front and side yards of their unit. They must have been facing a different direction when the bangers, Lasko or that mystery man came.’
He uncapped a water bottle and drank deeply. Wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and resumed his briefing.
‘Lasko was found with a jacket draped over him. Technicians are still working on DNA traces, but it doesn’t look like there are any. The wearer was probably wearing gloves. We played around with the timeline,’ he continued. ‘It looks like Mystery Man was the one who called 911. He seemed to be the last person in the warehouse, with Lasko.’
A man’s voice came on when the officer played an audio clip.
‘A COP’S BEEN SHOT ON RIO STREET. HE’S IN CRITICAL CONDITION. HURRY.’
Difiore looked at Quindica, who shrugged. It wasn’t a voice they recognized. She turned to Matteo and was struck by his body language.
He knows something.
‘That Glock we found,’ the cop paused dramatically, ‘was fired into Lasko. Our lab’s been up all night, our technicians liaised with the hospital … there’s no doubt. Whoever pulled the trigger, shot our detective with that weapon.’
‘Any suspicions who that shooter is?’ Dade asked tautly.
‘No suspicions, ma’am. We know who it is. The Glock had prints on it that we traced easily. It was Cutter Grogan.’