Page 46 of Phoenix

“I don’t remember parts of that night. I remember walking in. I remember Tommy getting hit. I remember the two of us diving for cover. I think I remember getting shot, but after that, it’s a complete blank. I don’t have any recollection of firing at the shooter or hitting him or leaving the building. The next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital.”

Jule tried to look sympathetic as he nodded.

“I know how this is going to sound, but I was only partly kidding when I said desk duty is making me crazy. Staying cooped up in here is doing a number on my head and I keep thinking about that night, trying to remember everything and not being able to, and then today I came across something.”

“What’s that?”

She rubbed her lips together. “Narcotics is understaffed, as usual, and I have nothing but time so I’ve been helping them out, listening to recordings from bugs they haven’t had time to get to and today I heard something.” She shrugged. “It’s probablynothing, but it was captured less than an hour before we got to the warehouse.”

“The warehouse was bugged?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I shouldn’t be telling you this and you absolutely cannot tell anyone, okay?”

Jule nodded.

“No, seriously, Julian,” she whispered. “You have to promise. Like if a case goes to your office related to this place, you can’t tell whoever’s assigned. I could lose my job.”

“Marcie.” He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. “I won’t tell anyone in my office. You have my word.”

She nodded. “I wouldn’t do this, but I can’t talk to people here because they’ll think I have PTSD or something and keep me on desk duty for longer. You were the only other person there and you remember everything so…” She sucked in a deep breath and pulled out her phone. “I shouldn’t even have this on my personal phone. It was taken at a place called Jimmy’s, which is a car wash that’s a front for a plug slash fence slash…who knows. The point is, Narcotics has it bugged. Like I said, this was recorded not too long before we got to the warehouse. Listen and tell me what you think.”

“Sure.” Brow furrowed, he leaned toward the phone and she hit play.

There was a moment of indistinct background noise and then a deep voice spoke in a hoarse rush.“I heard some people talking and I think your boy’s in trouble. Remember Roy? Where he worked. You need to hurry. If I leave now, they’ll be suspicious, but if you can’t make it, I’ll go anyway. Hang up if you’re good.”

The recording stopped and Jule realized he had been holding his breath. He forced himself to let it out at a steady pace and keep his expression calm.

“Well?” Marcie asked.

“Is that all of it?” His mouth was dry.

“Yeah.” She sounded disappointed.

“I couldn’t hear the person on the other end.”

“I’ve listened to this a hundred times by now and I’m pretty sure they didn’t speak at all. There wasn’t time for them to get a word in with as fast as he was talking and did you notice he said to hang up if the listener was good? It’s like he knew they couldn’t respond.”

“Uh-huh,” Jule said. “Weird. Who’s Roy?”

“No idea.” She shook her head. “I looked into the employment records for the warehouse and there’s nobody named Roy.”

“The caller didn’t say much,” Jule pointed out, not mentioning that, to him, that recording said everything because it explained the only thing he actually cared about from that night: why Tor was there.

“I know.” She sighed.

“What about the conversation he says he overheard? Did you get that?”

She shook her head. “It could have happened outside or out of range from the surveillance equipment.”

“Got it.” It took all of Jule’s concentration to keep his demeanor neutral. “Have you identified the caller?”

“No.” She sighed. “I listened to everything from the days before and after and this is the only time I heard his voice. Or at least it’s the only time I think I heard it. He was whispering so it’s a little hard to tell.”

“Right.” Jule hoped his relief wasn’t evident. “Tell me again why you think this is related to what happened to us. Is it just the timing?”

Looking defeated, she nodded. “I sound like one of those weird conspiracy theorists, don’t I?”

He winced and shrugged.