Unseen (Will Trent / Atlanta Series)

junkies—probably because her uncle was one. Hank was clean now, but that didn’t change his basic, junkie personality. Everything about him asked,
What’s in it for me?
    “Here we go.” Paul pointed at one of the monitors. A white car pulled into a parking space near the door. The emergency brake was pulled. The windows rolled shut.
    Lena asked, “Does he have his mic on?”
    DeShawn twisted the dial on the tuner that picked up Snitch’s transmitter. They heard his car radio playing an ad for a pizza place. The sound cut. Keys jangled. The car door opened.
    Snitch was short and wiry and needed a shave. His ballcap was pulled low on his head. Dark sunglasses wrapped around his face. He was dressed in black jeans and a black T-shirt. He kept checking over his shoulder, looking left and right, as he walked toward the restaurant.
    “Moron,” Paul groaned. “He couldn’t just get a neon sign?”
    Snitch kept looking around as he entered the restaurant. He stood in line at the counter. A woman steered clear of him as she headed toward the side exit. Lena had scheduled the meet for just after the lunch rush, but a few stragglers were waiting around for refills. She heard soft conversation under the rustle of clothes. Snitch moved up in line. He ordered an iced tea. He kept scratching himself, shifting from one foot to the other.
    “Junkie needs his pills,” DeShawn noted.
    Lena said, “Junkie needs to do what he’s supposed to do before I pull his immunity.”
    Mr. Snitch waited at the counter. He kept twitching. Lena wanted to reach through the monitor and make him stop.
    Their entire operation depended on this junkie scumbag. For almost two weeks, Lena’s team had been surveilling a shooting gallery off an anonymous tip. They didn’t want to just shut it down. They wanted to decimate Sid Waller’s operation. The job had quickly become an exercise in futility. Normally, there was always some lowlife who was willing to flip for cash and prizes. This time was different. No one would turn on Sid Waller. No one would wear a wire while they made a buy. No one would go on the record about the drugs and guns.
    No one, that was, until Mr. Snitch.
    Paul seemed to read her mind. He asked, “You still think Snitch is working both sides?”
    “I don’t know,” Lena admitted. Mr. Snitch had asked for her by name. She’d been leaving the doctor’s office when the call came through. Her celebratory dinner with Jared had turned into takeout at the station. “It’s weird that he showed up right when our case was falling apart.”
    Paul asked, “How would he know it was falling apart?”
    Lena shrugged. “Snitch was locked up for less than two hours when he told the guard to get me. How did he even know my name?”
    Paul and DeShawn guffawed. Lena liked to break balls. Every junkie in town knew her name.
    “All right, all right,” she allowed. “Still, we’ve all been at this long enough to know that nobody does you any favors.”
    “I dunno,” Paul said. “Scrawny guy like that, his first time behind bars—two hours sounds like the right amount of time for him to freak the fuck out.”
    DeShawn added, “Oxy’s hard to come by in the pokey.”
    “Not if you suck enough dick.” Paul held up his hand for a high-five. DeShawn readily obliged.
    “Where’d he go?” Lena leaned forward, scanning the monitors.
    DeShawn worked the cameras again, toggling through the different views. “There he is.”
    Lena saw the top of a door closing. Snitch had gone to the playground. Brightly colored plastic slides and swings circled around a sandpit. Two kids were playing on the rope climb, a boy and a girl. There were more cameras on the playground than inside the restaurant. Every corner was on display.
    Snitch sat down on a bench. The sun was on his face. He stretched his arms out along the back like he had all the time in the world. They heard him humming through the microphone taped to his chest.
    “They’re gonna kick him out,” Paul said. “Grown man ain’t allowed on the playground without a kid.”
    “I think he’ll be okay.” Lena could see the staff moving lethargically behind the counter. They had all downshifted for the post-lunch lull. One of the kids tossed a cup in his hand. The others watched him with a mixture of boredom and exhaustion.
    “Looks like Mom’s not gonna be a problem.” DeShawn pointed to a lone woman sitting in a booth. She was typing on her iPad while simultaneously