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Cora took another bite. Flavors of beef, salty grease, and pickles exploded in her mouth. She swallowed before she’d even completed chewing and went in for another bite. “No problem,” she said conversationally. “I probably deserved it. So...about Karpov.”
As she said it, she realized, frowning, the seriousness of the issue.
“I didn’t say anything about him,” Saul shot back.
“No, course not. But...who is Isaac?”
“Nephew.” Saul hid it in a sneeze. In a way she found his attempts to assuage his conscience humorous. In another way, she wished he’d just spit it out.
“Wait, for real?”
“Cora, I can’t do everything for you,” he said crossly. Then, he paused, inhaling shakily. “I apologize, I’m just a bit agitated.”
Cora wasn’t quite sure what a tizzy was, or how one was able to get out of it. But at the same time, she felt a fondness for Saul. She didn’t want to put him into a difficult situation. But also, she knew from experience that if she didn’t check behind every door, things could get dangerous. Together, the two of them had made a name for themselves at the FBI. Their closure rate had been impressive. More than that, the way in which they went about the cases had often been efficient and effective.
And so, it was helpful to know the man with whom she was communicating. The two of them had spent so much time working together that she would have been stunned if she hadn’t been able to pick up the small breadcrumbs.
Karpov. Nephew.That much was obvious. But why was the nephew of a notorious drug Lord working for the mayor?
Whatever the reason, she wondered if perhaps it would explain things.
She hesitated, and then, from memory, recited the phone number that she had seen on the mayor’s phone. The one with the cryptic phone messages and the thinly veiled threats.
“Who’s number?” Saul said.
“I was hoping you could tell me,” she shot back.
“I’m sorry, Cora. I really can’t. Now, I have to go. And please, listen to what I said.”
Cora decided he must’ve meant the part she had missed when reprimanding the two skaters. But she didn’t have the heart to take this from him. By the sound of things, it had cost him a great deal of emotional turmoil to rebuke her. And though she wondered exactly what he had said, and how little she likely would have felt offense, given the source of the comments, she didn’t feel the need to ask him to repeat it.
It wasn’t like she didn’t have similar thoughts going through her own brain.
She knew she shouldn’t involve herself in something she couldn’t get out of. Knew that the more she dug herself into this, the harder it would be to escape without pissing off someone on both sides. In the past, working for law enforcement, there had always been the comfort of knowing that at least you had a bigger team on your side.
But now, Cora was on her boat again. The waves around her were getting bigger and taller. They were breaking, crashing towards her.
She smiled faintly. A spike of excitement. More apprehension. She didn’t know what this said about her. She had never considered herself an adrenaline junkie. She wasn’t much of a thrill seeker. But whatever this high was, she was determined to ride the wave.
“Does Alex still work out of the same nightclub?” She asked, referencing the Karpov patriarch who was still on the most wanted list.
“We never had that confirmed,” her old partner shot back.
Which, of course, was why she had phrased it that way. She could tell he was already at the end of his tether. And so, politely, she said, “thanks. I’ll talk to you later.”
“My phone is always on for you, Cora. For any social call you want to make,” he said, emphasizing the word social.
She chuckled. “Thanks, Brady.”
She hung up, polished off her sandwich with a few quick bites, tossed the trash in a ball of aluminum foil into the canister next to the kiosk, gave a little wave to the owner of the shop, and moved quickly back towards the idling taxi. The scent of cigarette smoke did little to dampen her mood.
The planetarium was a well-known nightclub in the area. She had encountered it more than once in the past, while training.
It was a case study in how a criminal could still be at large but avoid apprehension.
The most wanted list was more an expression of desire rather than efficacy.
A team of agents raiding the planetarium would eventually turn up something. But without probable cause, and without concrete information, they would be breaching evidence and the case would be thrown out.
