“I can call him if you want,” Lucy said.
“That’s okay. Don’t tell him where I live. We had a disagreement a couple of years ago, he can be a prick, you know—oh, don’t say I said that. He’s a very nice prick.”
Lucy was really enjoying this conversation. She couldn’t wait to call Jack and find out what had really happened with Barrow.
“We’ll go to my apartment,” Barrow said. “But, I’m not in any trouble, am I?”
“I don’t know, are you?” Lucy asked.
“What does Siobhan see in this guy?” Noah asked as he motioned for Barrow to walk in front of them.
“Siobhan? Why didn’t you tell me? Where is she? Is she okay?”
He walked back to the front of the building. An older woman was struggling with her door on the first floor while she juggled three grocery bags in gnarled hands. Barrow immediately went over and took the bags from her. “Hey, Miz T, I said to call me.”
“I didn’t want to be a bother,” the old woman said in broken English.
“No bother.”
The woman unlocked her door and Barrow went in with the bags. Lucy thought for a second that he was going to bolt again out the back, and so did Noah, who walked over to get a better look. But a second later Barrow came out. “Thanks, Eric, dear,” Ms. T said. “There was someone looking for you yesterday.”
Barrow immediately looked panicked. He was up to something, Lucy could feel it.
“Who?”
“Big guy. Tattoos.” She tapped her knuckles. “All over. No good.”
“Thanks.”
“Be careful.” She glared at Noah and Lucy, then closed her door.
Barrow led them upstairs. “I’m going to have to disappear for a while,” he said as he unlocked the door.
“I don’t think so,” Noah said.
“You don’t understand.” Barrow closed the door behind them.
The place was cluttered and Barrow immediately grabbed a bong and small bag of pot and put them in a cabinet. He could do nothing to diminish the scent of weed. He had a high-end computer on a desk that took up half his living room. There were books everywhere, mostly nonfiction.
“I know I haven’t done anything to piss off the FBI lately,” Barrow said, “but a little while ago I ran with a story that some people aren’t happy about. The guy with the tats on his hands? Bet it’s Gino Salvatore. I ran a story exposing his brother for taking bribes. Look it up, Salvatore was an ICE agent, turned his back on some nasty shit for money. How did Gino know where I lived? Fuck, I like this place. But I like my face more.”
There wasn’t much to like, other than it was quiet.
Barrow kept rambling, shuffling things around, seemingly haphazardly, but Lucy suspected he was hiding notes or drugs. “ICE was pissed off, too. Didn’t like having one of their own shown to be a bastard. I don’t much care, they probably knew about him, turned the other cheek. There’s few good feds, but some really rotten ones.” He glanced at them. “I’m sure you’re fine, being Jack’s sister and all.”
“Enough,” Noah said. He rubbed his head. “Sit. Now.”
Barrow sat at his desk and leaned back. “What’s up? You said Siobhan, right? Hot. I mean, we’re not involved—God, no, I mean, I would totally hit her up, but she’s off-limits. But she’s totally cool.” He looked concerned for the first time. Really concerned. “She’s not, like, hurt? You told me she wasn’t hurt or anything. She’s not in trouble, right?”
“Eight months ago you gave Siobhan a tip that one of the girls she was looking for was seen at a brothel in Del Rio,” Noah said. “She took you at your word, but you didn’t give her any real evidence. I want the evidence.”
Barrow stared at him. He might have acted the airhead stoner type, but he was shrewd and calculating.
“I gave Siobhan everything I knew about Marisol and Ana. I’m no saint, but I wouldn’t keep anything from her if it would help.”
“Photos,” Noah said. “You went undercover, you talked to the girls, you took photos. You didn’t get any of Marisol and Ana because the story you told Siobhan was that they’d come and gone by the time you got there.”
“It wasn’t a story. It was the truth. Someone else told me about Siobhan’s lost girls.”
“You published photos of the politicians that used the brothel. You must have taken others. We want them for an active investigation.”
“No.” He crossed his arms.
Lucy stepped forward. “No? Really?”