As Hugo led the way, she scanned the employees’ faces, looking for any that matched the mug shot they’d seen. Ronnie had pock-marked skin and a shaved head, with brown eyes and a nose that looked like it had been broken more than once. His file said he was twenty-two and that he’d been convicted twice and served two separate stints in prison totaling fourteen months. He’d also been arrested twice more, once for burglary and another time for vandalism, though he wasn’t convicted on those charges. Jessie wondered how someone with that record had managed to get a job here in the first place.
She was about to ask Hugo that very question when Ronnie came into view. He was folding blue towels at a large table stacked high with them. Even though his back was to her, she knew it was him because of the tattoo of a cross that took up his entire left forearm, just as described in his file. Like everyone else working in the laundry, he wore a white t-shirt and white slacks. He wasn’t a big guy, maybe five foot seven and 140 pounds, but he had a coiled, wiry build that suggested he ought not to be taken lightly.
“Hi Ronnie,” Hugo said as he stepped into the man’s sight line.
Ronnie looked briefly startled before replying.
“Hi, Mr. Cosgrove,” he said hesitantly, “what’s up?”
His eyes were bouncing around and he had a twitchy, unsettled manner that likely explained why he had a job in the laundry rather than something more guest-facing. Jessie wondered if that was his natural state or if he might be high right now.
“Ronnie,” Hugo said casually, nodding at Jessie and Ryan, “I have a couple of folks here who wanted to ask you a few questions.”
Ronnie took one look at them and his eyes narrowed.
“I’m pretty busy here,” he said. “Can it wait?”
“I appreciate your work ethic,” Hugo told him, “but this takes priority. Don’t worry. I’ll clear it with your supervisor.”
Ronnie still didn’t look enthusiastic but without any more reason to balk, he shrugged and put down the towel he was folding. Then he leaned in close to them so he didn’t have to yell over the noise from the machines.
“Could we at least talk somewhere more private?” he pleaded. “It’s really loud in here. Plus I don’t want the other guys to think I’m in trouble or something.”
Hugo glanced over at Jessie and Ryan, who both nodded.
“Let’s go to the laundry manager’s office,” Hugo suggested, pointing at a door at the far corner of the room. They started that way, weaving in and out of several other tables piled several feet high with freshly folded blue towels, all monogrammed with a large cursive “P.”
They were just reaching the end of the maze when, without warning, Ronnie turned and hopped onto the table behind him, sending towels flying everywhere. Before Jessie totally processed what was happening, he had leapt from that table to another one, and then a third, heading back in the direction they’d just come from.
She was about to shout to Ryan when she saw that he had already started moving, running back the way they’d come, in and out of the tables. Jessie took the long way around, sprinting around the edge of the section of towel tables, hoping to make up for the extra distance with an unobstructed path. Hugo followed the same route as Ryan.
As she ran, she kept an eye on Ronnie, who continued to jump from one table to another with impressive skill. When he got to the second to last table before reaching a clear path to the exit, he glanced back to see where his pursuers were. It was a mistake, as he lost his balance and tumbled to the floor.
For a moment, Jessie thought they had him, but he popped right back up, darted around the final table, and made a break for the door. Ryan, still weaving in and out of the tables, was a good thirty feet back and Hugo was well behind him.
She was about the same distance away from Ronnie as Ryan, but with no obstacles in her way, she could go all out. She focused all her attention on the back of Ronnie’s shaved head as her legs pumped hard, closing the space between them. By the time Ronnie reached the exit, she was less than fifteen feet away from him.
He must have sensed her presence without looking back because as soon as he passed through the door, he grabbed it and slammed it shut. Jessie had to pull up hard in order to avoid crashing into it. She glanced back to see that Ryan, laboring slightly, was just now clearing the labyrinth of tables. She couldn’t wait for him.
She yanked the door open with her left hand while she undid the snap on her gun holster with her right, ready in case he was hovering on the other side, ready to pounce. Instead, she saw him bounding up the stairs, two at a time, to the main level. She did the same. Only with her long legs, she was able to take three steps at once.
When she reached the top, she caught sight of him rounding a corner out of the staff only hallway, through a pair of swinging doors, into what she knew was a large courtyard that was popular with guests. The last thing she needed was a desperate Ronnie Nance plowing through innocent bystanders. She forced herself to run even faster.
When she pushed through the doors, she saw him at the far end of the courtyard, about to pass under an archway that led out to the expansive lawn used for weddings. In fact, in the distance a large group was out there now, rehearsing the procedure for their ceremony later that evening.
People nearby in the courtyard stared open-mouthed at the action. Jessie dodged an older woman with a glass of champagne and a waiter carrying a cheese tray, before picking up speed again.
Ronnie had just made it onto the lawn when someone appeared from off to the right, blindsiding him with a tackle before rolling over him and popping upright. Jessie slowed to a jog as she processed who the attacker was: Kat.
Her friend brushed grass off her blue dress as Ronnie lay on the ground, moaning and hugging his ribs. A few of the people from the wedding party glanced back at the sound of the commotion but Kat quickly stepped in front of Ronnie, blocking any clear line of sight to him. When they turned away again, Jessie bent down, pulled out her cuffs, and snapped them on Ronnie’s wrists. As she stood up and tried to catch her breath, Ryan arrived, followed closely by Hugo.
“Hi folks,” Kat said amiably, as if they’d she just bumped into each other on a relaxing stroll.
“How the hell did you—?” Jessie panted before Kat waved her off.
“Take a second, ma’am,” she said, apparently still pretending not to know her.
“Really?” Jessie asked once she’d taken a few big gulps of air. “You think after that display, anyone’s still going to think you’re just a lady who lunches and plays middle linebacker?”
“Probably not,” Kat conceded. “But I like to commit to the role.”
“You just happened to be in the perfect spot to nail this guy?” Ryan asked though gasps for air.
“First of all,” Kat said. “Hello, Ryan. It’s nice to see you again, and looking so spry.”
“You too, Katherine,” he parried. “It’s been too long. And I’ve never seen anyone in a party dress make a tackle like that. But still—.”
“I know,” Kat interrupted. “You’re dubious about my ability to be in the right place at the right time. It’s possible that when I hugged Jessie earlier, I might have put a tracker on her. And it could be that when I saw her moving so fast just now on my phone screen, I suspected something was up and headed to where she was. Good thing too. If I wasn’t around, that guy would have plowed through that wedding party and be halfway to Long Beach by now.”