Chapter 165: The First Move

The rain had almost stopped when they stepped out of the building.

Liam walked toward the car without looking back.

Dexter was already on the phone. Jack followed a step behind, his usual ease gone, replaced by something tighter, more alert. Nobody brought up Harrison again not yet.

There was something more immediate to deal with.The gray sedan.

Dexter ended his call. "My people are checking every camera along its route."

"How long?"

"Five minutes."Jack pulled open the passenger door. "You really think we’ll find Harrison through that car?"

"No."

"Then why chase it?"

"I’m not." Liam slid into the driver’s seat. "I’m finding out who was driving it."

The sedan had been abandoned in a narrow service road behind a shuttered shopping complex no witnesses, no security, no obvious way out.

Dexter’s men were already there when Liam pulled up, the driver’s door hanging open like an invitation.

Jack got there first. "Empty."Dexter circled the car once. "Plates are registered to a rental company."

"How long?"

"Two weeks. Cash."

Liam crouched by the front tire, where fresh mud clung thick to the wheel well. He touched it. "Where did this come from?"

"There’s construction three blocks east," one of Dexter’s men offered."Not there." Liam pointed at the mud, darker and wetter than anything a dry construction site would leave behind. "This is river district."

Jack frowned. "You can tell that from mud?"

"I can tell it isn’t from the construction site."

Dexter gave a short nod. "Good enough." He was already dialing.

"Check every camera around the river district. Start with the access roads." A pause, then his phone rang again almost immediately. He answered, listened, his expression hardening.

"Send it." He hung up. "We have something."

A photograph filled Dexter’s screen a gas station near the river, the gray sedan parked beside a pump, timestamped less than an hour before they’d arrived at the first scene.

But the sedan wasn’t what mattered.

It was the man standing beside it.

Derek.Jack leaned in. "That’s the guy you recognized."

"Yes."

"Derek Cross," Dexter said, watching Liam’s face. "You know him well?"

"Well enough."What was he doing there?

"Meeting someone."

"Who?"

"I don’t know." Liam turned from the car. "But Derek doesn’t show up around people like this by accident."

"That makes two names," Dexter said. "Harrison. And now Derek."

"Possibly connected."

Dexter allowed himself a faint smile. "We’ll know soon."

The gas station was nearly empty, a cashier standing under the flicker of a silent television. Dexter walked in first, didn’t raise his voice, didn’t need to the man straightened the moment he saw him.

Dexter set the photo on the counter. "This man." The cashier glanced at it, then at Dexter. "I don’t know him." A beat, under the weight of the silence. "I mean I don’t know his name."

"Better." Dexter tapped the photo. "When was he here?" Maybe an hour ago.

"Alone?" No.Liam stepped in. "Who was with him?"

"A woman."

"What woman?"

"I don’t know." The cashier’s eyes flicked toward the door not the look of a man lying, but of one frightened.

"Describe her."

"Blonde. Maybe thirty. Expensive clothes. Wasn’t there long."

"What did they talk about?"

"Couldn’t hear."Liam’s gaze drifted to the camera mounted over the entrance. "Sound recording?"

"Just video."

"Show me."The footage rolled backward. Derek entered first, the woman a step behind.

They stood near the counter under two minutes. Then Derek pressed a small envelope into her hand; she slid it into her handbag, and they left in opposite directions.

Liam watched it twice.

"Stop." The cashier froze the frame. "Back three seconds."

The footage crept forward again. Derek’s hand reappeared and this time Liam caught the second thing that slipped between his fingers before the envelope.

Small. Silver.

"Zoom."The image blurred, sharpened just enough. A keycard.

"Hotel?" Dexter asked.

"Could be." Liam turned to the cashier. "Where did they go?" "Different directions."

Dexter was already dialing. "Find every hotel and private residence using this access card within the river district."

Outside, Jack fell into step beside Liam. "You think that card leads to Harrison?"

"Maybe."

"And if it doesn’t?"

"Then we keep pulling threads." Liam looked toward the water, dark and restless past the rooftops. "Eventually something breaks."

Twenty minutes later, Dexter’s phone rang again. He listened, then his eyes cut to Liam. "Found it. Private apartment complex." He named it.

Liam knew the place by reputation alone — private, expensive, the kind of address where a person could vanish without anyone asking a single question.

Jack pulled the car door open. "Let’s go."

"No."Jack looked back. "What?"

"We’re not going there."

Dexter understood before Liam finished the thought. "If Harrison expects us to follow the trail"

"He’ll be waiting."

Liam stared at the photo still glowing on Dexter’s screen Derek, the woman, the keycard slipping so conveniently into frame. Too clean. Too easy. They had been allowed to see Derek. Allowed to see the exchange. Allowed to find the card.

"They want us looking at that apartment."

Jack nodded slowly. "So what’s the real target?"

Liam looked at Dexter. "Find the woman."

Dexter’s smile came back, thin and satisfied. "Already doing it." His phone rang again almost on cue. He answered, listened and the smile vanished. "She’s gone."

"When?"

"Seven minutes ago."

"From where?" Her apartment.

Liam went still. Seven minutes. Just enough time for someone to know exactly what Dexter was looking for, and exactly when he’d started looking.

Which meant this wasn’t a single watcher trailing him through a party anymore. Someone was tracking the investigation itself, in real time.

"They know what we’re doing," Liam said.

Dexter’s jaw tightened. "Then we have a leak."

"Not necessarily." Liam looked out toward the skyline, the pieces finally sliding into place. "They don’t need someone inside your organization."

"Then how?" Jack asked.

"Because they expected us to investigate the gas station in the first place."

Silence settled over the car. Then Dexter exhaled, understanding dawning cold and clear. "They’re watching the watchers."

"Exactly."

For the first time that night, Liam saw the shape of the enemy whole. Harrison wasn’t throwing threats from the dark and hoping they’d land.

He was building an operation Derek moving pieces, someone feeding them false trails, someone else watching every move they made in response.

Liam pulled the door shut and started the engine."Now we know how they work."

Jack dropped into the passenger seat. "What next?"

"We stop following their trail." He pulled away from the curb, the city sliding past the windows once more. "And start cutting off their exits."

Behind them, Dexter’s men fanned back out into the night. For the first time, Liam wasn’t hunting for Harrison.

He was going after everything Harrison had built around him.