“I’m uncomfortable when people are behind me.”
Crystal laughed, “You can relax, I’m harmless.” She saw Hunter looking at the hand in her pocket. “Really, see?” Crystal pulled a phone from the pocket.
A sudden yell from the wash tunnel drew their attention. Guereca came out of the tunnel like a sprinter, cutting at a right angle across the parking area and away from the wash.
Hunter recognized him and started to give chase.
Crystal glanced at the tunnel as their pickup emerged, with Samir motioning her to come to him. She jumped in the passenger seat as Samir rolled down the window and told the dryers to move. He sped away and turned on Montrose, heading south.
Hunter stopped her chase after twenty yards and turned to check on Danny. He was nowhere in sight. She hurried into the tunnel and saw him struggling to rise from the wet floor, but making a poor effort of it. She grabbed him under one arm and helped him to his feet, and then pulled out the barbs in his neck. Danny leaned his back against the wall for stability.
“Hunter?” Danny said as he realized who helped him to his feet.
“Are you okay? He shot you with a Taser.”
Danny winced as he raised one hand to touch the back of his neck. “I was opening a door when I suddenly hit the ground and nothing would work.”
She checked his neck. “The barbs went on either side of your spine, and with you being wet, I bet it was a hell of a jolt.”
He took a deep breath to help clear his head and said, “What are you doing here?”
“Let’s get outside and find some sun so we can dry out.” Danny’s legs were wobbly, but he made it out of the tunnel, with Hunter staying close behind him in case he fell. The men with the drying towels eyed them for a moment, then went back to work as if this was an everyday thing.
They moved into the sun and Danny asked again, “What are you doing here?”
“I wasn’t sure you were going to check the information, so I drove up to do it. When I saw you at the car wash, I didn’t want to interfere, so I sat back and watched.”
Danny rubbed his neck again. “Well, I missed it, whatever it was. I caught a glimpse of someone in the wash wearing a yellow slicker, but I didn’t see what he was doing because of all the water and the moving equipment.”
“It was Guereca, I saw his face when he ran out of the wash.”
“Damn. And you couldn’t catch him?”
“I saw you down on the ground, so I came to you.”
“I guess this was a total bust, then,” Danny said.
Hunter said, “If he was delivering something, if this was a drop, it had to be to somebody. Did you see anyone else in the wash near him?”
“No.”
Hunter looked into the tunnel, “Was there a vehicle getting washed that was close to him?”
“Yeah, a pickup. I saw it when I went into the tunnel. It was a newer model GMC, I think, and gray.”
“Did you see anybody in the truck?”
“One guy, dark haired, slender, maybe early thirties.” Danny rubbed his temples.
“You getting a headache?”
“Yeah. Too much electricity, I guess. I’m all right, I can take some aspirin in a minute.”
Hunter said, “There was a woman here that acted all hinky.”
“How?”
“Trying to chat me up outside the tunnel, getting behind me when I didn’t want to talk, which made my alarms go off.”