He looked at her, surprised at her suggestion, but Jo knew what she was talking about. She’d been blindfolded before, and she’d been trained to pay attention to her surroundings. The one time it’d happened to her had been a harrowing experience, when she and a few others had been waiting to talk to a potential target who had intelligence for her. The group had been blindfolded, then led down an alley. Jo had been able to see under the blindfold, just a slit.
She could still clearly picture the ground, the hardened dirt, the type of old, rundown boots the men they’d been talking to had worn. She’d even made out some of their dusty clothing. She’d also noted how the empty street had looked, and tipped her head back to get a glimpse of the lower part of the small building they’d walked into. It had helped them later.
Jo had been trained to be acutely aware of her surroundings, to know what was going on at all times to whatever degree was possible. Rico had not.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I guess I saw the tile floor.”
“What happened next?”
“That main one talked some more, and then he slammed down the phone.” He jumped, as if he’d heard the noise again right there in the bar. “The other two grabbed me, and I heard the entrance door unlock. They pushed me forward, and suddenly we were out in the main lobby of the building. I could tell because even your footsteps echo. I don’t think anyone was in there, just us. They hurried me away from the main doors of the building and into a stairwell. We went to the parking garage.”
“How many flights down?”
“Two.”
“Did they do anything to disable the stairwell door, to keep the police from coming through?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think,” she urged him.
“All right.” He thought for a moment and shook his head. “It was loud, with our footsteps on the metal stairs. I didn’t hear anything else.”
“Did the police follow?”
“No. Those guys walked me through the parking garage. It had an . . . oily smell? You know, like a mechanic’s garage. We stopped by a concrete pillar.”
“How did you know?”
“Because that’s where I was when the police found me.”
“They left you there?’ He nodded, and she went on. “Then what?”
“They turned me around and shoved me against it.” He touched his cheek. “The concrete was cold. I . . .” He drew in a breath, and when he spoke again, his voice warbled. “One of them put a gun to my head, and he stuffed something into my pants pocket. He said if I made any noises, if I yelled or if I moved, that a bomb would go off. Then I heard their footsteps as they ran off.”
“What did you do next?”
“I stayed where I was. I don’t know where they went.”
“And?”
He stared at her for a long moment. “I pissed my pants.” He glanced away, ashamed. “I was so scared. I did as they said. I didn’t move a muscle. Finally, I heard yelling, the police coming. They told me to stay where I was, and I told them about the bomb.” He could barely find his voice. “I thought for sure it would go off, and that would be it. Some bomb squad people arrived, and they were careful when they searched me, and when they took it out of my pocket.”
“What was it?”
He ran a hand across his nose. “Some kind of box. Turns out it was fake. I didn’t have anything to be worried about, at least with that. But I didn’t know.”
“No, you didn’t. You couldn’t have.” As they’d talked, Jo had come to the conclusion that he’d been telling her the truth, that he hadn’t been involved in the bank robbery. It would take an incredibly good actor to fake the emotion that he’d been displaying. She softened her voice and told him to go on. Before he did, a waiter brought a plate with a burger and fries. He set it down in front of Rico, glanced at them curiously, and walked away. Rico reached for a fry and stared at it.
“I was starved when I got home, but now I don’t feel like eating.”
“You should,” Jo said.
He popped the fry into his mouth, then took a bite of burger and ate slowly for a moment. Finally, he went on.
“The police made sure I was okay, and they began asking me a bunch of questions.” He eyed her. “The same ones as you, I’ll bet. I told them everything. I don’t know who those guys were, and I don’t know where they went.”
“While you were in the parking garage, did you hear any doors opening, or the sound of a car?”
He shook his head. “There was no car.”
She thought about that. “They must’ve left through some kind of tunnel system.”
Rico nodded. “I’ve heard about tunnels that connect some of the buildings, so that could make sense.”
“Did you hear any other voices, somebody else with them?”
“No. As far as I could tell, it was just the three men.”
“Once the police searched you, what happened next? Did the police go through any doors, anything like that?”
“No. They were running around, but I don’t know what they did in the garage. After their questions, they took me down to the station and put me in an interrogation room. They had me write down everything I remembered, and I waited a long time before a detective came to talk to me.”
“Holton?”
“Yeah. He wasn’t very nice.”
“Why do you say that?”
