Chapter Sixteen
ANDRE WATCHED THE officers during the interview process. Both men behaved like professionals and treated Angie with sympathy and, to their credit, moved the interviews along faster than he expected.
Reagan said to Angie, “Expect the detectives to visit you at the hospital. It’s just routine, Mrs. Whitmore. All you have to do is tell them the same things you told us. Add in any details that you might have forgotten. You’ll probably be back home before midnight.”
“Will Mom have to go to jail?” Brett asked.
Reagan stared. “Why would you think that? She’s obviously the victim here. Unless she lies to the police, and I can’t imagine that happening, she’ll be fine.”
The teen stared. “But the police take people to jail all the time.”
“If they’re guilty of a crime, sure. We don’t arrest innocent people and put them behind bars.”
“Are you finished questioning my wife?” Whitmore lifted the towel from his wife’s arm and flinched. “I need to take her to the hospital.”
Reagan stepped back. “Go ahead. If you see or hear anything out of the ordinary in the next few days, call us. Since we don’t know what’s going on here, you need to be careful.”
“Will do. Brett, let’s go. We need to help your mom to the car.”
“What about the window? It’s busted. We can’t leave the house open like that.”
“We’ll take care of it.” Reagan motioned toward the front door. “Take your mom to the ER, Brett. We’ll secure the place before we leave, but the crime scene team will be here for a while.”
A minute later, the Whitmore family was on the way to the hospital.
Reagan and his partner turned to the Fortress operatives. “We have your statements, but the detectives will want to talk to you. They should be here soon.”
“We’ll wait outside so we don’t contaminate the crime scene more than we already have.”
“Officer Green will accompany you to keep an eye out in case our shooter returns.”
Andre stared at Reagan. Really? Did he think that excuse would work to hide his real motive, to prevent the operatives from taking off or to come up with the same story to tell the detectives?
Iona’s eyebrows soared. “Do you expect the shooter to return?”
Reagan shrugged. “I wouldn’t return here, but you never know about criminals. They don’t make good decisions.”
Andre signaled Iona and Elias to go to the SUV. He and Riley fell in step behind them, with Green bringing up the rear.
Knowing the young cop would be antsy if they climbed into the SUV and talked outside of his hearing, Andre opened the passenger door and seated Riley. Elias did the same with Iona, seating her in the backseat.
Andre leaned against the frame of the SUV, positioning himself to cover as much of Riley as possible from a shooter’s bullets. His teammate did the same for Iona.
“What are you doing?” Riley’s voice had a bite to it.
“Protecting you from a sniper’s bullet. Deal with it.”
She and Iona exchanged glances. Both of them glared at their Echo partners. Iona folded her arms across her chest. “Since when are we to be treated as less capable of protecting ourselves than you are?”
“You aren’t less capable,” Elias said. “You’re special.” He frowned. “No, that’s not the right word. You’re everything to us, and we protect those who are ours.”
Iona blinked, remaining silent.
That must be a first. Andre couldn’t remember a time when Iona had backed down on something important.
From what he had observed in the past few days, Elias would have his hands full keeping Iona safe.
Artemis’s leader was as fiercely protective of her team members as Seth was of Echo.
As a leader, Iona was more likely to put herself in danger than to take the safe route for herself.
Officer Green cleared his throat. “Uh, please don’t talk to each other unless I can hear you. I’m supposed to make sure you don’t collaborate on your stories, and I don’t want to get into trouble.”
“No worries, Officer Green.” Iona smiled at the rookie. “We won’t talk about the shooting.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
“How long have you been on the job, Green?” Elias asked.
“Six months, sir.”
“Do you like the work?”
Green hesitated. “Most of it.”
“What part don’t you like?”
“The death notifications.”
Sympathy rolled through Andre. He and his teammates had been responsible for informing many families that their loved ones were gone. Green was right. That was the worst part of being a cop. “We understand.”
“No offense, sir, but you can’t know how bad it is until you do it.”
“We have. Elias and I were on the job until a few months ago.”
The rookie straightened. “You were? Why did you quit?”
“We took down a dirty cop and ended up with targets on our backs. Turns out the other cops on the force felt that we betrayed a brother in blue. Working black ops missions for Fortress is safer than answering calls in our hometown with no backup.”
Green gave a soft whistle. “That’s rough.”
Understatement of the year. They’d paid a heavy price for doing the right thing, losing their careers.
A moment later, a plain four-door sedan that screamed unmarked police vehicle parked a few feet behind the SUV. Two men dressed in suits and ties got out of the car and approached the rookie.
The tall one said, “Green, what do we have?”
He motioned to the Fortress operatives and explained the shooting and their responses.
Tall man narrowed his eyes. “Are you kidding me? You went after the shooter?” His eyes glittered as he stared at Andre and Elias. “The shooter could have killed you.”
“We were on the job until a few months ago,” Andre said.
“Homicide detectives,” Elias added.
“But you aren’t cops now?”
“We’re in black ops.”
“That job is more dangerous than law enforcement,” Short man said.
“Not if you have targets on your back for taking down a dirty cop.”
Tall man straightened. “Wait a minute. You worked for the Ardmore Police Department, didn’t you?”
“Good news travels fast.” Elias folded his arms across his chest. “Look, do you want to know what we discovered across the street or not? If you don’t, I have plans with this beautiful lady that don’t include you.”
Short man moved closer. “You contaminated a crime scene?”
“Chill. Am I informing you about what we found or not?”
“Tell us,” Tall man ordered.
Andre scowled. “How about introducing yourselves with your credential wallets first? I’d prefer to know who we’re talking to.”
Tall man showed his credentials, as did his partner. “I’m Jay Nicholson. My partner is Drew Conley. Now talk. What did you find across the street?”
“Spent shells and plenty of bruised and broken branches and stems from bushes plus footprints leading away from the crime scene.”
“Show me,” Nicholson said. “Green, monitor the ladies.”
“No need. The ladies are coming with us.” Andre stared at the detective.
Even with the extra protection of the SUV, Andre didn’t want to chance the shooter or his partner coming back and shooting the women.
Besides, Riley and Iona would pitch a fit for being treated as delicate flowers incapable of protecting themselves, which they most definitely were not.
“Whatever. Follow me.” Nicholson’s voice was a near growl. “Conley, bring up the rear.”
The operatives trailed behind Detective Nicholson, who followed Elias’s directions to the shooter’s position.
After they reached the place where the shooter had set up, Andre wrapped his arms around Riley from behind, making sure his body covered hers. Although he hadn’t seen signs of the shooter repositioning for another shot, the skin on Andre’s nape prickled as though someone watched from the darkness.
Elias pointed out the spent shell casings littering the ground, and the broken or bent grass blades and foliage. The footprints showed the shooter had known Elias and Andre were hunting him and he’d left in a hurry to avoid being exposed.
Nicholson examined the items Elias pointed out to him and turned to look at his partner. “This is where the crime scene team should start.”
“I’ll let them know. What do you want to do now?”
“Follow the trail, except we can’t leave the Whitmore house unattended until the crime scene team descends on the place.
No one in their right mind would attempt to break in and damage things or perhaps plant something inside with a bunch of crime scene investigators examining everything in the house. ”
“We can split up. One of us will stay at the house while the other follows the trail.” Conley eyed Elias and Andre. “I would imagine one of these gentlemen would be a great help, especially if their girlfriends are here under my protection and Green, too.”
Iona rolled her eyes. “Ever heard of women’s lib, buddy? Riley and I can take care of ourselves. Go with your partner. We’ll hang out here until you get back.”
“Pass.” Nicholson glared at Iona. “I don’t know what your game is, lady, but I’m not falling for it.”
“No game. Just a desire to go back to the hotel and take a nice, long and hot bath.”
“Come on, Iona.” Riley turned toward the Whitmore home. “Let’s go back to the house. We’ll let the powerful men go on the dangerous tracking mission while we hide in the house like delicate hot-house flowers.”
Andre flinched. Oh, man. Iona and Riley were not happy about the arrangements.
While he agreed with them, the detectives didn’t know the capabilities of the women.
If he had to guess, Andre would say Iona and Riley were better trained than the detectives.
Too bad the women couldn’t show the men what they were capable of.
He bent and brushed a kiss over Riley’s mouth. “Stay alert. We won’t be long.” He stepped back. He watched them walk across the street and return to the Whitmore home. Within a minute, they were inside.
Elias clapped him on his uninjured shoulder. “Let’s get going. I don’t want them out of our sight for long.”
“Yep.” Although Andre preferred not to have anyone behind his back that he didn’t know and trust, he joined Elias and they set off on a parallel path to the trail left behind by the shooter. The trail stopped at a curb on a street on the next block.
“He had a vehicle parked here.” Conley looked around the area. “There’s little chance of finding a security cam covering this part of the street.”
“Check the traffic cameras,” Nicholson said. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and see more than a blur. Come on. We need to go back and bring the CSIs here to process the trail our shooter took.”
“They’ll have a fit since the scene is spread out over two blocks.”
“They’ll do their jobs, or else.”
Andre rolled his eyes. This exchange didn’t fill him with confidence that the police department would solve this case and nab the culprit. “Need us for anything else?”
Nicholson shook his head. “Stop by the station tomorrow morning to sign your statements. The station is on the corner of Fifth and Main.”
“We’ll be there.”
He and Elias crossed the street and entered the Whitmore house. Iona was looking over Riley’s shoulder, staring at her phone screen. The look on Riley’s face told him something was wrong. “Riley.”
Saying nothing, Riley held out her phone to Andre.
He read the email forwarded from the general Fortress address to Riley. His gut knotted as saw a picture of Micah’s house and read the warning. “Your boyfriend is next.”