Jessica stretched, then rolled to a sitting position and looked at Faith.“Nothing?Seriously?”
“Nope,” Faith replied.“How was your sleep?”
“Forget my sleep.Where the hell is this guy?Did he flee the area?”
“Maybe.If he’s the guy, then running is probably the best thing for him.”
Jessica sighed and started to pull on her boots.“Okay, so should we widen the APB?”
Faith’s phone rang before she could answer.She raised her eyebrow.“Maybe not.Let’s see what Baltimore PD has to say.”
She answered, and Lieutenant Suresh informed her, “Craig Daniels just showed up for work.”
“Outstanding.We’re on our way.”
“Do you want our officers to approach him?”
“No, thank you, just keep eyes on him.Call me if he leaves.”
“Will do.”
Faith hung up and turned to Jessica.“Okay, he’s at work.Let’s go.”
The three of them made the drive back to Port Covington.In morning traffic, it took close to twenty-five minutes to reach the warehouse where Craig Daniels worked after losing his TSA job.
Despite being in a down-and-out neighborhood, the warehouse seemed busy enough.There was a line of fifteen semis waiting for a turn at one of seven loading docks.Workers busily stacked crates within the trailers while drivers sat in their cabs and ate breakfast sandwiches or lounged against the front fenders and smoked cigarettes.Everyone who saw the FBI agents approached stared with a borderline hostile gaze.
She smiled pleasantly, hoping that politeness would help soften some of the tension she detected.She approached the nearest loader, who was passing crates along assembly line fashion into the back of a trailer that belonged to CONTINENTAL SHIPPING!Speed, Quality, Trustworthiness since 1984.
“Hi!”
The loader looked at her and sighed resignedly.“Hi.”
“We’re looking for Craig Daniels.Is he here?”
“Don’t know.”
“Bummer,” Jessica said, planting her hands on her hips and pulling her shoulders back.
The action caused her shirt to stretch invitingly over her breasts, but if that titillated the loader at all, he didn’t show it.Jessica flashed a dazzling smile, and while a few of the drivers shared grins and thrust chins her way, the loaders remained stoic.
“Think you could help me out?”Jessica said.“I’d appreciate it.”
The loader chuckled.“I’m sure you would, but I don’t know where Craig is.”
“Well,weknow he’s here,” Faith said.“So who can we talk to who might know where he is?”
The loader set the final crate down and sighed.He looked at Faith with mild frustration, lifted his hands, and let them drop.“Look, I just show up and load trucks, okay?That’s all any of us do.If something’s going on—”
“We need to talk to Craig Daniels,” Jessica interrupted, still smiling but speaking firmly now.“Can you tell us where he is?”
“It’s okay, Gabe,” a voice said.
The owner of the voice stepped out of the warehouse.He was big, a comfortable six-three and probably two hundred thirty pounds.He was decent-looking with green eyes and dusty brown hair that sat in a youthful style on top of his head.A small scar split his right eyebrow in half, giving him a permanently intense expression.
Other than the eyebrow, his expression was a mix of annoyance and melancholy with a soft, simmering undercurrent of anger.Faith could easily imagine that anger exploding into murder and just as easily imagine it smoldering for hours as he fashioned his bomb and imagined placing it in the hands of his dead target.
This man thrust his chin past the agents and said, “Over there.These guys are working.”