In Plain Sight

5. Delicate Approach

POV: Kelly

I got  home after my date with Sam and took a shower before getting ready for bed. As I turned the lights off my phone rings.

"Hey Cynthia." I laughed because I knew curiosity had been eating her alive the whole night.

"Heeey. How was it? Tell me everything." She said excited. 

"You couldn't wait until tomorrow morning? I was going to come to the coffee shop for breakfast anyway." I asked knowing full well it's a losing battle.

"Oh girl I know that, but I could not go to sleep without atleast getting a little bit of a teaser. Now give me something." She said making me chuckle.

"It was amazing. The food was delicious and the company even better. Will this bit of information hold you until the morning?" I asked laughing. 

She wanted to say something but I cut her off when I see that Sheila was calling.
"Cynthia let me call you back." I hung up before she could protest.

"Sheila, talk to me." I answered her call.

"Well, we might have a problem." She said and I sighed.

"Which is?" I asked anticipating bad news.

"My contact came back to me and said there was a new task force formed to arrest some high level dealers, smugglers and cartel leaders." She stated.

"Okay. How does that affect us?" I asked with a little confusion.

"We've worked with 3 of the 5 guys. They believe if they can find you aka J.R, you can lead them to their targets." She explained.

I laughed. "Find me how? And why would I do that? They have nothing on me. Besides no law enforcement knows my face just the alias."

"That's the other problem. They seem to have a grainy surveillance camera photo of you in New York 2 years ago." She said and my stomach dropped.

"That's a real problem. Fuck. How bad is it?" I asked frustrated standing up from my bed to pace around my room. 

"It's a bad quality image. I'm sending it to you now. It's so grainy and even at an angle you can't tell that it's you. The FBI are of the belief, however, that they may have finally caught J.R on camera."

"Okay Sheila. Let's talk tomorrow. I need to think about my next move." I said not wanting to down my mood even further.

"No problem. In the meantime we'll use secure communication and most importantly don't let him in your house until I have sent someone to put surveillance in and sweep for bugs. And I'm sorry for downing your mood." She apologised but it's not her fault. It's my mess.

"It's alright. Thanks for the heads-up anyway." I said.

"Oh before I forget, you had a date tonight. How did that go?" She asked trying to sound excited.

"Great. I had a lovely time." I said and after we catch up on my date we hang up. I didn't even have the energy to call Cynthia back so I sent her a text instead.

This is bad Kelly, this is bad. I think to myself. I looked at the image Sheila sent me and she was right. It's terrible quality and not enough to go on but if someone is really determined they'll find a way to make it work.

I laughed to myself thinking about how the FBI thinks I can turn into a snitch, informant or whatever they want, same shit to me. The bottom line is that it will never happen.

In my line of work anonymity is my currency and selling point. Without it I might as well close shop and retire to an island or worse, hand myself in to the police.