Page 70 of Now or Never

“Yeah. Maybe two.”

“I went through Zoran’s house today. I couldn’t find any evidence that he’s returned since the laundromat killing. And before the killing he wasn’t spending a lot of time there. He was sleeping there but he wasn’t living there. I think he has a pad on Stark or Freemont. Probably Stark. That’s where the blood trail ended. That’s where he got his drugs and hung out. How do I find him? Can you access any street cameras on Stark?”

“There aren’t any government cameras on Stark. They keptgetting shot up, so they were removed. There might be some businesses with security cameras, but it’s not likely. I can have the control room check. For the most part, security on Stark is gang and mob controlled. We don’t have any clients on Stark. His drug supply was coming from the alley. We can try setting a camera there. I doubt anyone thinks to sweep the alley. The problem is that it will tell you what you already know. That he’s in the hood. It’s not going to help you catch him. He’ll be gone by the time you get there. The good news is that it might convince the police to put someone undercover on Stark. I’d put a man there for you, but I’m short right now. And it’s not really what we do.” He paused for a beat. “Is there anything else you need from me?”

We were no longer talking about work. This was foreplay, and he was a master at it. His voice was soft with a hint of a smile.

I smiled back. “A camera would be enough for now.”

“Babe,” he said. And he hung up.

I tried Eugene again. Still no answer. I called his mother’s cell, and she answered immediately.

“Mrs. Fleck,” I said. “It’s Stephanie Plum.”

“How nice to hear from you. Are you looking for Eugene?”

“Yes. I tried calling him, but he isn’t answering.”

“He never answers,” she said. “He turns the ringer off when he needs to concentrate.”

“Is he at home?”

“No. I believe he’s at the garage.”

“Saddle up,” I said to Lula. “Eugene’s mom thinks he’s at the garage.”

I took Hamilton to Liberty and parked around the corner from Martino Auto Body. We went to the door leading to the loft and found it unlocked. We climbed the stairs and knocked on the loft door. I knocked a second time and Eugene opened the door.

“Hey,” he said. “What’s up? Am I in trouble?”

“I have a favor to ask,” I said. “I need help with a photo. Can you do Photoshop?”

“Sure. Come on in. I was in the middle of writing software for a game. Can you give me five minutes?”

“Take all the time you need,” I said.

Lula went to the couch and opened an app on her phone. I prowled around, looking for hijacked goods. I didn’t find anything that might have been hijacked, but I found a stack of pictures of Kevin in action poses. I was paging through them when Eugene came over.

“We use them as references when we’re writing games,” he said.

“Where’s Kevin now?”

“He works in the body shop during the day. It’s a trade-off for use of this space.”

“Do you work in the body shop too?”

“No. But some mornings I work in the dog wash.”

“You have a lot of equipment here.”

Eugene looked around as if he was seeing it for the first time. “It doesn’t seem like a lot. It always feels like we’re missing something we need.”

“What exactly is the purpose for all this photo stuff?”

“We have a blog that’s seeing good growth. We started by taking selfies with our phones. That was okay, but it was limiting, and the quality wasn’t always great. We still do phone selfies but more and more we use the studio equipment.”

“And the drone?”

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