Javier looked at me.
Abi intervened. “This is Reid Taylor. He’s personally investigating the shooting,” she explained. “It would be a huge help if you could answer any questions he has. He owns Taylor Securities. We’re using all his resources to find the attacker.”
“What did you just say, Javier?” I pressed again. “Yogi?”
He blew a long breath of air. “She must be bat-shit crazy. Didn’t get zen on that morning.”
I stood at the foot of the bed. “Are you saying you saw the shooter and it was a woman?”
Javier looked at me then Abi. “Yeah. I saw her. She was maybe twenty feet from us, standing between the cars. She had on yoga pants and a tank top.”
“And that makes her a yogi?”
He shook his head. “I saw her before she raised the gun because she had a fluorescent Namaste on her shirt. It was bright even at sunrise. In fact, if she hadn’t had that on I wouldn’t have had time to step in front of Abi.” He turned his gaze upward and she smiled at him.
What in the hell did this mean? The emails had been from a man. The gym video had been too blurry to distinguish any characters of the shooter, but we had all assumed it was a male suspect. What the fuck was going on?
“What else? What else do you remember? Did you recognize her from the gym? A client maybe?”
He rubbed his temple with his free hand. The other was strapped in a sling.
Abi gave me a stern look as if to say I was rushing him.
“No.” He shook his head. “I’ve never seen her.”
“Anything else out of the ordinary besides the shirt? Tattoos? Piercings?”
Javier paused. “She did have a tattoo on her wrist.”
“You saw that?”
“I probably wouldn’t have noticed it except it was on her shooting arm. I wasn’t close enough to see what it said.”
“But it said something?”
“I think so. I don’t know for sure.”
Abi patted his arm. “Can I get you something? Want some water? Or a protein shake?”
He laughed. “No. I’m good.”
I wanted to run through the analysis again. I needed to call Bex at the office. He was my lead agent and had updated me every hour. He never mentioned the shooter could have been a woman. We were certain it was an obsessed fan. Some lunatic who thought Abi had shunned him.
It had all the signs of a revenge attack. The emails seemed to confirm our theory.
But now I realized we had been wrong from the beginning.
“Abi, we need to go.”
“But, we just got here.”
I placed my hand on her shoulder and extended a hand to Javier. “Thank you for what you did. I hope you know it makes you a hero.” He shook my hand, gripping probably more than he should.
“Thanks, man.”
I squeezed her shoulder. “We’ve got to reassess the protocols tonight.”
“But tonight is the first award dinner.”