Authors: Karen Rose
‘Like Demetrius and Alice,’ Marcus said. ‘They met the Bautistas at the airport and drove them to Cincinnati.’
Scarlett ticked off a second finger. ‘Then we have to find Tommy and Edna to find out if they can put that bastard Drake Connor on the street yesterday when Tala was shot. Third, we want to find out if Demetrius fits into the Woody McCord story.’
Marcus’s cell phone buzzed against the table. He grabbed it, read it, then closed his eyes, his shoulders sagging. ‘Oh God,’ he breathed. ‘Thank you.’
Scarlett looked over his shoulder, her smile bright. ‘It’s a text from Phillip’s sister, Lisette. Phillip just woke up and asked for Skyline Chili.’
‘You can take him a copy of the sketch,’ Deacon said to Scarlett while Marcus immediately called the victim’s sister. ‘See if he can ID his attacker.’
‘I’d rather wait till we have an ID and a photo we can put in an array,’ Scarlett said. ‘I don’t want any lawyers saying later that we led the witness.’
Deacon frowned. ‘You’re right, but it would be tidy to have IDs for all of yesterday’s shootings.’
Scarlett checked the time. ‘In another twelve hours or so we’ll have DNA on the shooter in Marcus’s apartment. The forensic vet got tissue from BB’s teeth. It won’t give us a name for this guy, but when we find him, it’ll give us corroboration.’
Both Deacon and Scarlett’s cell phones buzzed at the same time. They grabbed them, then cursed in unison. ‘
Fuck.
’
Marcus ended his call. ‘What? What’s happened?’
‘Someone took a shot at one of the ankle tracker makers as he was being taken into CPD,’ Scarlett told him. ‘He wasn’t hurt, but the agent next to him took a bullet in the arm when he pushed the tracker guy out of the way. No fatalities.’
Deacon breathed a sigh of relief. He was still shaken by his notification of Agent Spangler’s wife yesterday. Then his and Scarlett’s phones buzzed with a second text. They read the incoming, then looked at each other with wide grins.
Scarlett caught Marcus around the neck and pulled him down for a loud, smacking kiss on the mouth. ‘They caught the shooter who tried to kill the ankle tracker guy,’ she said.
Deacon’s phone buzzed alone this time. ‘From Kate. She and Agent Troy were the ones who caught the shooter.’ His grin widened. ‘Go, Kate. Pretty good for her second day.’
Deacon dialed Kate’s phone and put her on speaker. ‘It’s me. I’m here with Scarlett and Marcus. I hear congratulations are in order.’
‘Hell, yeah,’ Kate said. ‘Damn, I’m juiced right now. Shooter’s a female, blond, mid-twenties. She was on the roof of a building across the street from CPD. We surrounded her as she was squeezing the trigger. That’s why she missed the lab tech from Constant Global Surveillance. We yelled “Gun!” into the radio and the agents took the lab tech down. A few seconds different and we’d have been burying the guy. She had a direct bead on him.’
‘How did you know to look on the roof?’ Marcus asked.
A long pause, then a sigh from Kate. ‘We had a tip. That’s all I can say, for now anyway. Sorry.’
Scarlett looked at Deacon, her brows raised, and he knew they were both thinking the same thing – the man the Bureau had inside one of the organized crime operations had provided the tip.
‘Things are finally coming together,’ she told Kate. ‘We’re getting close to an ID on the shooter who took out Agent Spangler, the guard in Marcus’s building, who’s still unconscious, and Phillip Cauldwell, who’s just woken up.’
‘Excellent news about Cauldwell. I’m going to interview the quality tech right away. He’s so shaken up from almost getting shot that he should sing like a bird. So if you want to observe, you need to hurry. Deacon, I’d like you to do the interview with me. Like I said, I’m a little juiced.’
Deacon smiled at his phone. ‘I’ll be there in ten minutes.’ He sobered then, thinking of Agent Spangler. ‘What about the roof shooter? Was she using the same kind of rifle as the sniper who took out Spangler and almost got Marcus?’
‘No,’ Kate said. ‘Different rifles, different bullets, different range. I have a feeling the chick will be a hard nut to crack. She’s got attitude to spare. I may save her for later. She hasn’t said a word other than the initial “Fuck!” when we spoiled her shot. She’s not giving her name. We printed her and I’d like to give Latent a little time to put ’em through AFIS. I want to know who I’m dealing with when I go into interview with her.’
‘Makes sense,’ Scarlett said, looking torn. ‘I really want to be part of the interview, but we have other priorities.’
‘We’ll record it,’ Deacon promised. ‘Go. Wear body armor.’
‘I absolutely will,’ Scarlett said fervently. ‘What with snipers shooting off roofs. Shit. Let’s plan on a debrief in Isenberg’s conference room at eighteen hundred. I’m going to check on the Bautistas before we head out. Bye, Kate.’
Cincinnati, Ohio
Wednesday 5 August, 2.30
P.M.
Alice was gone. Taken. In custody. Standing in the middle of his living room, Ken stared at the shattered picture window that had been the target of his immediate rage. Now he was numb. Drained.
What now?
What do I do now?
Hearing the crash, Decker ran from the upstairs bedroom, where he’d been tending Demetrius, to peer over the balustrade that ran between the twin spiral staircases.
‘Mr Sweeney!’ Decker shouted, running down the stairs as Ken stood unmoving. ‘
Get down
.’ He took Ken down in a tackle that was reminiscent of the time the young man had saved him a year ago. Except this time there were no bullets. No danger. Not here. Nothing to see except the destruction Ken had caused himself. Literally and figuratively.
After a second of dead silence, Decker lifted his head and frowned. ‘Wait. The glass is broken
out
. Not in. Crap.’ He leaped to his feet in a graceful movement and held his hand out to pull Ken up. ‘I’m so sorry, sir. Did I hurt you?’
Ken rolled to sit up, too spent from his tantrum to stand. He waved Decker’s helping hand aside. ‘No, Decker. I’m perfectly fine.’
Yep
, he thought sourly,
I’m perfectly fine, perfectly protected, while my daughter sits in jail
.
‘I thought someone was shooting at you. What happened here?’ Decker checked out the window that Ken had smashed to smithereens. A pedestal that used to hold a five-hundred-year-old Chinese vase was empty, pieces of ceramic strewn on the floor. The antique chair his mother had once loved now lay on the ground outside, covered in glass.
‘I threw the chair at the window.’
Decker’s expression became wary. ‘Why?’
Ken rubbed his eyes wearily. ‘Alice was arrested.’ He’d just gotten the news from Sean, who’d been equally devastated.
‘Oh no,’ Decker murmured. ‘How, sir?’
‘I sent her after the employee of Constant Global Surveillance who’d been taken into custody for supplying our ankle trackers. She was supposed to kill Demetrius’s contact before he went into CPD, but they caught her on the roof. Had her surrounded before she could set up her shot. She missed the bastard and got taken into custody.’
‘Oh shit,’ Decker murmured.
Ken turned narrowed eyes on the young man who could have been a model or a football player or anything else he’d wanted to be, yet had come to work for Ken for a paltry salary. ‘It was almost like they knew she would be there ahead of time.’
Decker went still. ‘Are you accusing me of something, sir?’
‘Maybe. All of this started when you called me yesterday morning. You’re new to my company, but you’ve ingratiated yourself into my service very quickly.’
Decker’s jaw was like granite. ‘No, sir. I do not agree. May I respectfully remind you that I’ve worked for you for three years. That I was your bodyguard for all but one month out of those years. That I walked in front of a bullet for you,
sir
. All of this started when your personal leadership team began to fall apart. Joel drinks like a fish. I was always fixing his mistakes on the legit books. I don’t even want to think about how he’s mucked up the real books. Demetrius snorts coke and generally goofs up anything that doesn’t require his fists, and Reuben, wherever the hell he is, is a sex addict.
That’s
how all this started.’ He was breathing hard, his nostrils flaring. ‘
Sir
.’
Ken studied the man dispassionately. Decker had just uttered more words at one time than he’d said in the last three years. ‘You seem to know quite a bit, Decker.’
Decker bristled. ‘I listen at the meetings, sir. I have eyes. I watch what goes on. But I didn’t know that Alice had gone after that employee of the tracker company. Had I known, I would have advised strongly against it. It smells of a trap.’
‘Really?’ Ken said coolly. ‘How so?’
‘What better way to draw out your opponent than with such an important prisoner?’ he said acidly. ‘The tracker supplier would know who he was selling to, so the cops knew you’d want him silenced. He was too tempting a prize. Therefore it was a trap.’
And I should have thought of that
. ‘I have to get her out of there.’
‘With all due respect, I don’t think that’s necessary, sir. Certainly not if you’re considering something as drastic as a jailbreak.’
Which is exactly what I was considering
. Ken’s silence was answer enough.
‘She won’t break, will she, sir? She won’t give your name?’
‘No.’ Of that Ken was sure. ‘Of course not.’ Unless they offered her a deal she’d be too smart to refuse. His daughter was not stupid.
‘She doesn’t have a record, right? No prints in the system? She’ll experience a bit of discomfort in lockup, but you’ll get her a good lawyer. She’ll be out soon.’
‘Perhaps.’ But he didn’t think so. She’d been caught with her finger on the trigger. Someone had known she was there, of that he was certain. But he was running out of people to suspect. Ken rolled to his feet without Decker’s help. ‘How is Demetrius?’
A quiet exhale. ‘He’s dead, sir. He lost too much blood. A surgeon might have been able to save him, but . . . I’m sorry. I was coming to tell you when I heard the window smash.’
Ken had felt panic and fury when Sean had told him about Alice’s arrest. Now he felt . . . absolutely nothing. Which was preferable.
‘Clean up the mess . . . here and upstairs. Thank you.’
‘Should I dispo— I mean, what should be done with Demetrius’s body?’
‘Same place you put Chip and Marlene Anders. Oh, and kill the Anders girl too. Demetrius was supposed to set up an auction and I don’t want to do that now.’
‘What about the guard who got shot at Anders’s house yesterday morning? He’s still sedated. And what do you want done with Burton?’
‘Whatever you want to do with them. I don’t care. I just don’t want Burton talking. If the other guard is loyal to Burton, dispose of him, too.’ Ken walked to his office and closed the door. He poured himself a stiff drink and dropped into his desk chair. Then he called Sean.
‘Dad . . .’ Sean sounded as numb as Ken felt. ‘What are we going to do now?’
‘What I should have done a long time ago.’ Ken pushed the glass of bourbon aside and opened his gun safe.
I’m buying a one-way ticket to Bora Bora. I’m going to kill Marcus O’Bannion
.
Cincinnati, Ohio
Wednesday 5 August, 3.45
P.M.
Scarlett gave Marcus a sideways glance from the driver’s seat of the department unmarked car after leaving her Audi parked in the CPD garage. He was being a little too quiet. ‘Do you want to go see Phillip first?’ she asked him. ‘I understand if you do.’
‘No. We need to answer these questions about Demetrius. Lisette’s with Phillip now, so he’s not alone.’ He looked out the car window. ‘I’ve remembered more of what happened when I was in the hospital. It’s starting to freak me out a little.’
Ah
. ‘Tell me.’
‘I realized that I’d actually remembered it before, but I thought it was just a bad dream caused by the morphine.’ He grimaced. ‘That stuff gave me the worst nightmares.’
‘What do you remember, Marcus?’
He sighed. ‘There was another person there. A woman. I didn’t see her face.’
Scarlett had to swallow back her rage. ‘Because your face was covered with a pillow.’
‘There was that,’ he said sarcastically, then paused for a few beats, his forehead furrowed. ‘She told him to hurry, that someone was coming. I think that was why he didn’t finish with the pillow. They must have left because the charge nurse came in. The machine had been beeping like my IV got pulled.’
‘Well it wasn’t like you were almost suffocated or anything,’ she muttered. ‘Thank goodness for the machines.’
‘The nurse fixed my IV and I didn’t say anything. Couldn’t if I’d tried. I think he came back a second time. Had a hypo filled with God knows what and had injected it in the IV bags that were staged to be next in line. I remember needing to tell, but being so out of it that I couldn’t. Like that dream where you’re screaming in your mind but nothing comes out. I think I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming or not. Or even sane,’ he added a lot more quietly.