"He's here Keen," Ressler spoke as they both got back into his car, about to leave the neighborhood where they found Dembe. Liz's looked at him, half over excited, and half confused.
"What do you mean?" she asked turning herself to him. "How do you know."
"The man Dembe was talking about, the one who blew up the home, it was Reddington." His voice sounded so sure, but Liz still didn't understand. "Why else would Dembe be here? Just to rebuild some random guy's house? No it was Red."
Liz took a deep breath in trying to take it all in as Ressler kept talking. "Red probably told him not to tell you anything specifically about him, so Dembe just didn't use his name."
"How does that explain that he's here?" She asked as he pulled the car all too fast out of the neighborhood.
"Not here in Queens. Manhattan. He's trying to escape his past, this house was his past. Small town, not a lot of people. Very family orientated. Where would you go if you wanted to forget that. Where's the opposite? A big city. Where else than the heart of New York"
"Ressler, that is too big of an assumption to make." She said, although she so desperately wanted it to be true.
"I thought so too, but then I remembered the ambulance. I thought that was a coincident at first, but now, it's too much." He seemed really stressed all of a sudden, as everything began to fall together. "I know it's a huge hunch, but you have to trust me on this Keen."
It almost made her laugh. Could it be they were actually this close? She exhaled deeply as she had no other choice but to trust him. "Okay let’s say he's here." her heart skipped a beat at the words. "So what do we do now? We still have to find him."
"We start at the coffee shop. You heard the ambulance clearly when on the phone with him, so it means he was most likely on foot. So he's probably staying at a hotel in walking distance from there. I say first thing tomorrow we get up and talk to every hotel, with a picture and see if they've seen him."
"This really is a long shot Ressler.” Liz sighed, though not a sigh of distress, rather a sigh of ‘what the hell are we doing this is not going to work.’
“So was calling him.” He reminded her, and he did have a point. “It may be a long shot, but it’s the only shot we’ve got.”
* * *
The drive back to Manhattan wasn’t as pleasant as the ride there. There was no joking about falling asleep in the car. Ressler still seemed very tense, more than usual, and Liz herself couldn’t get her mind to shut up. Though she didn’t try to keep her thoughts quiet either. She just let them wander. Could he really be there? What would they do when they found him? What would he say? He obviously didn’t want to be found, even if it was Liz. Would she try to explain how she was feeling?
She was obviously feeling something. Ever since the case with Wujing, she noticed she’d get a little rush in her heart whenever Red had a case. Even a brush of hands, or a glance across a room would make her feel like screaming. At first, she just told herself it was just getting used to the new strange man, but as time went on, the truth slowly came out. The day in her apartment, when Ressler first pointed out the attraction between her and Red, was the day she hit rock bottom. The fact that someone else had noticed it, hit her hard.
If Ressler had noticed, had Red? Did he feel the same tension? What would he say if she told him? How would she tell him? ‘Hey so I think I might have feelings for you, but I’m afraid to tell you’ That’s like something a middle schooler would say. ‘I’m an adult, not a child. We’re both mature enough to handle this.’ she thought to herself, but she knew it was just a lie to herself. How do you even bring something like this?
Ressler slowly pulled up to her apartment, as they both seemed to feel a loss for words. There was a cold breeze that rushed in as Liz opened the passenger door.
“Keen,” Ressler stopped her. She closed the door a bit and turned to face him. “Please don’t go out and try and find him tonight. It’s way too late for the day, and we are still dealing with Raymond Reddington. Dembe said he was hiding for protection, so we never know who we will run into. Things could still be dangerous.”
She nodded. Honestly, she wished she could go out and search for him. But, she was falling apart. She’d not slept more than maybe 4 hours in the past 2 days, and she could feel it eating her up. As much as she wanted to find him now, she knew she had to wait.
“Promise me you’ll get some sleep tonight.” He said waiting for her response. “We’re close, that should give you some peace.”
She smiled nodding. “I promise.”
“Well then I will see you at the coffee shop, 6 am.”
She closed the car door behind her as she slowly got out of the car. She was so exhausted, yet her heart was still racing. Red was here.
