Chapter 5: The Buy
Hailey usually wasn't someone to have vivid dreams and rarely ever remembered them in the morning, but that day's events brought forth a variety of dreams during the night which felt very real.
She was back at the club with Hansen, sitting next to Jay, but they weren't on an undercover mission. In the dream, Hailey wasn't a cop, and Jay wasn't her colleague and partner. Her name was Riley, Ryan was her boyfriend, and they were looking to buy her a luxury bag and him an expensive watch. Their cover story was her real life.
She heard the two men talking to each other but didn't care to listen in on the conversation. Her attention lay exclusively on the man sitting next to her, whose body she was pressed up against. As she stared up at his profile and let her fingertips run circles over his thigh, she turned her focus inward to the way she was feeling in that moment. Her insides were enveloped in warm and tranquil happiness. She felt light and carefree, secure and comfortable in Ryan's embrace with his arm draped over her shoulder. He noticed her watching him and turned his head to look at her. The emotion she found in his green eyes made her heart flutter. His gaze resting on her face was mild and affectionate, loving. Ryan reached out for her and let his fingertips trail down her temple to her cheek and along her jaw. When he reached her chin, he gently held it between his thumb and index finger and began leaning in closer. The anticipation halted Riley's breathing, butterflies stirred in her stomach, and she closed her eyes, waiting, yearning for the touch.
The deafening buzzing of her alarm clock pulled Hailey out of the dream. She slammed her hand down on top of it, ending the noise and dropped her head back onto her pillow. A wave of disappointment flooded over her and washed away the serene happiness she'd felt in her dream. It hadn't been real. She lay in bed motionlessly, taking a moment to deal with the disenchantment of the reality she lived in.
Her initial fear had become true. The case was blurring emotional lines that she'd worked hard to establish and maintain. As she forced herself to get out of bed and head to her shower, she reminded herself that she would only have to slip into her undercover persona with Jay one more time, and then the case would be over, and she could begin to redraw and rebuild the lines.
She showered longer than usual, taking her time to think, and when she stepped out of the shower and into the cool air in her bathroom, she had expelled every last remnant of the dream from her body and emerged as her usual confident and professional self.
Later that day, Jay and Hailey sat in the Audi again and were on their way to meet up with Hansen. He had texted them a time and the address of a parking lot a few hours prior.
The team had spent the first part of the day preparing for the meeting and had done research on the men that had been at the club with Hansen. Apart from Hansen's brother and cousin, there had been four other men. Two weren't in the system, and the other two only had minor offences on their resumes.
After Jay had made the last turn, he drove onto the parking lot and shot a glance at Hailey. Both had changed into their persona's clothes again, and Hailey was wearing another short and tight dress, similar to the one from the night before, with a different pair of heels. The video and audio from the necklace and phone had been good, so they'd decided to use them again.
Even though it had been late when Jay had arrived home the night before, he hadn't been able to fall asleep for a long time. Images of the way Hailey had looked at him and memories of how her hand had felt on his leg and how soft her skin had been under his fingertips had kept him awake. He'd enjoyed the undercover show they had put on at the club and had decided to make the most of their last moments of playing a couple.
"Are you ready to end this?" he asked after he'd parked the car and locked in the handbrake.
Apart from a few empty cars, the parking lot was deserted. Their colleagues had taken up their positions in the van and two buildings adjacent to the parking lot, and everybody was ready and waiting for Hansen to arrive.
"Never been more ready," Hailey replied with a smirk. "This should be fun."
Jay's eyes travelled up and down her face for a short moment before he looked back outside and smiled too.
They waited quietly until Hailey checked the time. "They're twenty minutes late," she noted, feeling slightly restless and decided to wait outside in the fresh air.
Jay got out of the car too and walked around it to stand in front of Hailey as she leaned against the side of the car's hood.
"You good?" he asked with a hint of hesitation in his voice.
Hailey's eyes met his. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"
Jay shrugged but didn't say anything else. Hailey had seemed a little off throughout the day, but he hadn't been able to put his finger on the reason just yet. He knew her well enough to pick up on the slight tension in her walk and movements.
The air had cooled down throughout the day, and a gush of wind that howled across the parking lot sent a wave of goosebumps down Hailey's skin.
Jay watched the wind stir up her hair and saw her shiver. "Do you want my jacket?" he asked, moving to take it off.
She stopped him by resting her hand on his arm. "That's alright. Look," she said and nudged her head towards the SUV driving onto the lot.
"Here we go," Jay told his unit, looking directly into Hailey's necklace camera before leaning against the car next to her and placing his hand on her hip.
The car pulled up parallel to theirs, and Hailey and Jay exchanged a confused look when neither of the two men who got out was Hansen.
Hansen's brother, a stout and short man with a receding hairline, stepped towards them while one of the unidentified men stayed by the car.
"Did you bring the money?" the brother asked, skipping over any form of a greeting and came to a stop a few feet away from the detectives.
It was easy to tell that he and Drake Hansen were brothers. They had similar face shapes and the same dark and empty eyes.
"Where is Drake?" Jay spoke up. "We don't know you."
"I'm Asher, Drake's brother. He's at a different location and has asked me to take you to him. So, do you have the money?" Asher replied with a husky, even voice.
"We have the money, but we're only making the deal with him not with you," Jay argued.
"That's fine. I'm here to take you to him. Get in," Asher replied and motioned towards his car.
"Why doesn't he just come here?" Hailey objected and stayed where she was.
Asher dropped his arm and puffed out an annoyed breath of air. "Because he's at a safe location with the merchandise."
Jay stepped in front of Hailey, turning his back on the men and blocking her from their view.
"This wasn't the plan. We aren't prepared to go mobile. The team might not be able to follow us," Hailey whispered so only Jay could hear.
"I know, but if we don't do this now, the deal might fall through completely. We have the wires and the GPS on the phone. Should the team be unable to follow us, we can do the deal and will have enough proof to arrest everyone later," Jay urged.
Hailey stared up at him sceptically, going over their options in her head as his eyes bore into hers, hopeful that she would agree.
"Alright," she sighed and nodded at him. "Let's do this."
He pressed his lips into a thin line approvingly for a short moment, happy with her decision, then walked around the car to get the bag with the money.
Hailey studied Asher Hansen carefully as she waited for Jay to return. They were taking a large risk by getting into that car, but she trusted her partner and would follow him anywhere.
Jay slammed the door shut, locked the car and took Hailey's hand. Together, they approached the SUV, and once again, Jay was patted down for weapons before he and Hailey climbed into the backseat, and the car set in motion.
As soon as they had left the parking lot and were driving down the main road, Asher turned around in the passenger seat and held out a metal box to them.
"Phones and car keys," he ordered.
"What? Why?" Jay spat, his brows snapping together.
"Simple safety measure," Asher shrugged, unfazed.
"You know, I really don't like how complicated this is getting," Jay hissed. "I thought this would be an easy businesses interaction from what Drake and I arranged yesterday, but now you're taking us to a different location and want our phones?"
"If you've changed your mind about doing business with us, we can stop the car and let you get out right now," Asher said, still calm and unimpressed by Jay's outrage.
Hailey placed her hand on Jay's forearm soothingly, prompting him to look at her. "It's alright, baby. We'll just give them the phones. I really want that bag," she said softly, playing with her necklace.
Both of them knew that her necklace could only record audio and video, and if they put the phones into the box, their unit wouldn't be able to track them anymore, but apparently, Hailey thought that it was too late to backtrack and drop the mission.
"This had better be the last surprise you have in store for us," Jay huffed and got his phone and car keys out of his pocket to put them in the box.
Hailey did the same with her phone, and Asher closed the box, then turned around to face the front of the car again. Jay and Hailey exchanged a discontent look amongst each other. They may have just put themselves in great danger.
Hailey slid closer to Jay into the middle seat, wrapped her arm around his, and grabbed his hand. The windows of the back seats were tinted, so she tried to point the camera out of the windscreen to help the unit follow their path.
When they took a left turn, Jay glanced out of the window to see if any of the unit's cars were following, but the street behind them was empty. They exchanged another look and Hailey nodded, indicating that she'd seen the empty street too.
"Look, baby!" she exclaimed and pointed out of the window. "There's the Little Blue Kitchen! Their cheesecake was amazing, remember?"
"Yeah, we should go there again sometime," Jay agreed and squeezed her hand, content with the hint Hailey had just given their team.
They spent the next ten minutes of the drive pretending do reminisce about random stores, cafés and restaurants they saw outside, hoping their colleagues were listening and following. Eventually, the car drove into an industrial area and stopped in front of a large warehouse.
The two men in the front seats got out, and Jay and Hailey followed. They walked close together, holding hands tightly, but were too alert and on edge to savour the touch.
While the unknown man trailed behind, Asher led the way up a set of rusty, clanking stairs to a metal door and behind it, down a concrete hallway. As their steps echoed through the narrow space, Hailey couldn't help but start to regret that they'd come here. She could think of two ways in which this deal would go well. Either they'd make the buy and their unit would come in to arrest everyone or they would make the buy and leave to arrest everyone later if their team hadn't managed to follow them. But the situations that lingered in the forefront of her mind were the million ways in which things could go wrong. None of the people involved could be trusted, and she and Jay didn't have their weapons to defend themselves with if something went sideways.
Jay seemed to have sensed the tension building in her grip on his hand, and he squeezed it a few times to reassure her, even though he was going through every possible scenario of what the next few minutes might hold as well.
They reached a door at the end of the hallway which opened up into a huge warehouse space where dozens of ceiling-high, metal shelves, packed tightly with crates and boxes, stood lined up in parallel rows. Asher led them along the long wall of the warehouse, and both Jay and Hailey glanced down every aisle they passed to familiarise themselves with the space. Eventually, Asher turned right into a wide aisle, and the detectives spotted Hansen and his cousin waiting for them about halfway down the long walkway.
Hansen rose from the crate he'd been sitting on and approached Hailey and Jay to greet them. "Ryan, Riley, good to see you again. I'm glad you made it," he said and reached his hand out to Hailey first. "I apologise for the slight inconvenience my safety measures may have caused you, but I'm sure you can understand."
Once again, he kissed Hailey's hand, staring at her in an unpleasant manner before moving on to Jay and shaking his hand. He was wearing the same suit as the day before but had exchanged the black shirt for a white one.
"Can't say that I'm happy with the change of location, but as long as we get our phones back and there won't be any more surprises, we're good," Jay replied.
"No more surprises. I promise," Hansen smirked. "Come."
He waved for them to follow him and walked back to the crate he'd sat on and stood behind it next to his cousin.
The middle-aged cousin with black hair and dark circles under his eyes picked a bag up off the floor. One after another he got out a green watch box with a golden crown on it and a beige dust bag and set them down on the crate.
"May I?" Jay asked, glancing at Hansen who replied with a nod.
Jay laid the envelope with the money aside to pick up the watch box and open it before taking out the watch and inspecting it closely.
Hailey watched him for a moment, then opened the dust bag in front of her and pulled out the Birkin handbag. It was black, made out of crocodile leather, and equipped with gold hardware. Hailey turned it around in her hands and opened it to confirm that it was indeed the stolen bag from the last robbery and also checked it's authenticity. She'd spent a good hour that morning reading up on how to identify a real Birkin bag.
"What do you think?" Hansen asked after a while of silence.
Jay looked up from the watch. "This is beautiful. I think I'll be able to forgive you for the hassle you put us through," he smirked and tried the watch on. "What do you think, babe?" he asked Hailey.
She smiled at him and ran her hand up and down his arm. "It looks amazing on you. My handsome man."
The last part had nothing to do with the watch, but she couldn't keep herself from saying it. Jay's smile softened as he stared at her for a moment longer.
"How do you like the bag?" he asked in a gentle tone.
"I love it! It's perfect," Hailey cooed, and Jay chuckled on the inside because he knew that the real Hailey couldn't care less about a bag like that.
"Alright. Let's do this," Jay concluded and took off the watch to place it back into the box. "How much-" He stopped mid-sentence when he spotted a man round the corner at the very end of the aisle and head towards them. "Is he with you?" Jay asked with concern in his voice and jutted his chin out towards the man.
Hansen glanced over his shoulder, then raised his hand calmingly. "Yeah, he's my associate. Relax."
While Jay's posture eased, Hailey's didn't. She felt the adrenaline spike in her blood, and her mind sharpened, already thinking of an escape plan.