Free What You See by Hank Phillippi Ryan Page B

to like it.
    “Jane? I’m serious. There’s been a crime committed. We’re looking for a suspect. I don’t have time for—”
    “I know, Jake. It’s complicated.” She paused, seemed to be considering again, then held up the device in her hand. “Detective Brogan? You’re looking for a suspect? Can you tell us what happened in Curley Park?”
    “Is that a camera, too? Are you fre—” Jake paused, trying to sort this out. She had a camera and was asking questions. Why? Whatever the reason, anything he said was about to be recorded, and that meant he needed to evaluate everything that came out of his mouth. He’d started to say, “Are you freaking kidding me?” then stopped. He narrowed his eyes, shading them from the sun with one hand. Jane still pointed that thing at him. “Ms. Ryland? Are you here in a capacity as a reporter?”
    She lowered the camera. “Yeah, actually. I am. Listen, Jake? I have some pretty interesting news, but I promise I won’t shoot what you say, okay? See? Camera’s down? The paparazzi kid told me he’d seen two cops, I guess one of them was you, running after someone. So I figured I’d—I mean, were you running after someone? Was that the person in the ambulance? What happened?”
    “Are you asking as you? Or as a reporter?”
    Her face changed again. “I work for Channel 2. For now, at least.”
    “Jake!” his radio crackled in his back pocket. “Get back here!”
    “Crap,” Jake said. He turned toward the dead end, where he’d left DeLuca, Hewlitt, and the kid. If the kid was somehow in cahoots with Hewlitt—could that be?—there’d be a damn three-ring circus about to go down.
    Jake pointed at Jane. “Stay right here.”
    But no. She could not be here, this was potentially a disaster. He had no idea what DeLuca needed or why, but it was no place for Jane. He couldn’t even process what she’d just told him—she worked at Channel 2? Since when? Right now, it made not one shred of difference.
    He pointed the other way, toward the alley entrance. “No. Get out of here. Now. Go! ”
    “Jake!” DeLuca’s voice again. “Hewlitt!”
    He turned, drew his Glock again, and powered back into the dead end.
    *   *   *
    Hyoolit? What did DeLuca mean by Hyoolit? Like, haul it? Hurry? Had he wanted Jake to hurry? What was going on down there?
    Jane watched Jake’s back for about ten seconds. She contemplated his order to get out. Stay? Or go? Safer to go back to civilization, but safe didn’t make headlines. She checked the camera. According to the digital readout, it still had forty minutes of power.
    Stay or go? She frowned as she leaned against the wall again, trying to hear, closing her eyes as if that would make her other senses more acute. Nothing. No noise from the dead end. No yelling. No gunshots. That had certainly been DeLuca’s voice calling for Jake. So they had been the “two cops” Bobby had seen. But what—or who—led them into the alley? Whatever or whoever it was, seemed like someone had been carried away in an ambulance, and someone was still down there. If she stayed right here, behind her friendly neighborhood air conditioner, she could wait, keeping still, and see what happened. She nodded, agreeing with herself. Jake would have no way of knowing she’d ignored him until whatever happened was already over. And then it would be too late for him to care. Hiding was the answer.
    Her phone rang.
    Kidding me? She had turned the volume to the highest possible level to make sure she didn’t miss a call. Now the stupid thing was giving her away. She pawed into her bag with both hands, managed to whap the thing to vibrate before it could ring again. So much for her plan to hide.
    She paused, listening again. Voices, certainly, even raised. In anger? In fear? But nothing she could understand. Traffic rumbled from the surface road a block away, a few seagulls yelled at each other, the air conditioner’s droning now familiar. She dropped back