Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Drive away. She was supposed to drive away!
She couldn’t. Well, she did follow Zeke’s instructions to a certain extent. She pulled away from the curb when the distinct sound of gunfire reached her ears, but she only drove around the block.
Craning her neck, she scanned the front of the brick house as she passed by. She didn’t see anyone, so she knew the gunfire must have come from the backyard.
Heart in her throat, she ended up right where she’d started, in front of the white house that butted up against Belinsky’s home. The angle was such that she couldn’t see enough of Toby’s backyard. Worrying her lower lip, she considered her options. Stay within the relative safety of the car or get out to find Zeke.
What if he was down? Bleeding from a gunshot wound? She couldn’t stand sitting there without knowing if Zeke was hurt.
Or worse.
She glanced at her phone, but of course, there was no message. Nothing since the one that instructed her to wait because Toby Belinsky had come home.
She killed the engine and pushed the driver’s side door open. That’s when she heard Zeke’s voice.
“Who hired you? Tell us who hired you?”
After a wave of relief at hearing Zeke interrogating the suspect, she moved forward. Was this it? The moment they’d know for certain her ex-husband had hired Belinsky to follow and attack her?
“Talk to me!” Zeke’s tone grew desperate. “Talk to me!”
The wailing of sirens indicated the local police were on their way. Feeling better about her decision not to leave, Sienna hurried forward.
“Zeke?” She gasped when she saw that Zeke and Grayson were crouched over the fallen man. Despite her calling Zeke’s name, neither man paid any attention to her.
“No pulse,” Grayson said. “Start chest compressions.”
Zeke’s expression was grave as he began to administer chest compressions. His hands were awash with blood as he pressed Belinsky’s chest down.
Even from where she stood, she knew their efforts weren’t going to help. Toby’s features were slack, and he didn’t respond to the painful thrusts on his chest. But she also knew they wouldn’t stop.
Shaking off her inertia, she rushed forward. “What can I do to help?”
Zeke flashed her an annoyed glance but didn’t say anything other than counting his chest compressions out loud. Grayson was doing his best to hold Toby’s airway open. She knew from learning CPR after having Bailey that mouth-to-mouth breathing was no longer required. Holding the airway open while chest compressions were performed was all that was needed.
“What’s going on?” Two uniformed officers came around the corner of the brick house. Sienna moved away so that Zeke and Grayson could fill them in.
“We announced ourselves as police officers and tried to ask a few questions,” Grayson said as Zeke continued to provide chest compressions. “He bolted out the back door. When I shouted at him to stop, he turned and fired a gun at me. I ducked and returned fire, striking him in the chest.”
The older cop’s eyes narrowed. “Are you from that Milwaukee tactical team? Working under a Rhyland Finnegan?”
“Yes.” Grayson reached over and picked up a bag. “This is his gun. I’d like to take it to our lab for processing. Oh, and I have his cell phone here too. I took it from his pocket.”
“Here we go again,” the older guy muttered harshly. “You’re stomping right over our crime scene and horning in on our case.”
“Look, we didn’t expect this guy to bolt or fire a gun,” Grayson said with annoyance. “All we wanted was to ask a few questions.”
“Well, it looks to me like you’re not getting any answers.” The younger cop jerked his thumb toward the victim Zeke was giving chest compressions to. “He’s not talking.”
Zeke and Grayson had mentioned the possible animosity they’d face by coming here, but Sienna couldn’t believe the Timberland Falls cops’ attitudes. As if this was somehow their fault.
Just then, two paramedics came into view, pushing a gurney topped with medical equipment over the bumpy lawn. Zeke continued to provide chest compressions as the two first responders began connecting equipment to the fallen man. Then they nudged him aside so they could examine the victim.
“Wait a minute, he has a gunshot wound to his chest?” one of them said incredulously.
“Yes. Shot at close range,” Grayson confirmed.
“I’m going to call this,” the other paramedic said. “CPR won’t work if his heart has been shredded by a bullet.”
“We need him alive,” Zeke said, grabbing several cleaning wipes from their medical bag to rid his hands of Belinsky’s blood.
“Sorry, but we’re not miracle workers,” the first paramedic said. “There’s no way he’ll survive this. Compressing his heart is only going to cause him to lose more blood. I’ll talk to the doc at the local hospital, but if he agrees, we’re going to call it. Time of death at 1235 p.m.”
Zeke closed his eyes for a moment in a gesture of defeat before looking at her. He looked apologetic as he rose to his feet.
“Wait a minute. I remember you,” the older cop said.
“Yeah, I remember you too,” Zeke shot back. “We’ll give you our statements, then we need to get out of here.”
“Not so fast, we’re not giving this case up to your captain this time,” the older cop said with a snarl. “You’re on our turf. Again!”
Sienna watched uneasily as the four cops faced off with each other. Zeke looked angry in a way she’d never seen before. His hands curled into fists, and she almost cried out a warning, fearing he was about to punch the Timberland Falls cop.
But he didn’t. Instead, he blew out a breath and took a step back. Unclenching his hands, he faced his fellow officers with a calm expression. “We’ll have our captain talk to yours. In the meantime, we need a search warrant to go through this guy’s house and his phone records. Computer, too, if he has one.”
“What exactly are you looking for?” the younger Timberland Falls cop asked.
“We have reason to believe Toby Belinsky was hired to attack Sienna Reynolds.” Zeke gestured to her.
She stepped forward, offering a smile. “I’m Sienna, I have a two-year-old daughter, Bailey, and my ex-husband is Josh Allenton. Josh has a history of physical abuse, and I currently have sole custody of our daughter. But he is now fighting for joint custody, and I’m afraid he’s trying to scare me into cooperating with him.”
“Scare you how?” the younger cop asked. All hint of his previous animosity toward Zeke and Grayson seemed to have vanished. She was glad the officer seemed more concerned about the real crime here, not a battle over turf.
“It started with threatening anonymous notes but has escalated to several shooting attempts, the most recent taking place in Milwaukee while Zeke, er, Officer Hawthorne and I were in the parking lot of the seventh district police station.”
The tension between the foursome eased. Maybe it was God’s calming hand or the fact that none of the four men liked knowing a woman and child were in danger, but the older cop turned to look at Toby Belinsky who was being strapped onto the gurney. There was no medical equipment connected to him. As she watched, the paramedic pulled the sheet up to cover his face. The doc must have agreed that CPR was useless. “And you think that dirtbag ex-husband of yours hired this guy to shoot you?”
“Yes, that was our working theory,” Zeke said. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “Truth is, we didn’t have any hard evidence against Belinsky, just a video of him visiting a gas station near the scene of the crime. I wasn’t surprised he slammed the door in my face, but I had Grayson covering the back. I thought he might run, but I did not expect him to shoot at my partner. Under those circumstances, any cop would have returned fire.”
There was a long moment as the two officers looked at each other. Finally, the older one grimaced. “Okay, I get it. I wouldn’t be happy about a shooting going down outside the police station either. It would have been nice if you’d called us about your intent to interview this guy, though.”
Grayson nodded. “You’re right, we should have. But when we got here, he wasn’t home. No car in the garage, no one inside that we could see. We were about to leave when he pulled up. At that point?” He shrugged. “We didn’t want to lose the opportunity.”
It looked as if Zeke wanted to say something, but one look from Grayson had him closing his mouth.
There was another moment of silence. “Okay, we need to get the crime scene techs here to find the slugs,” the older Timberland Falls officer said. “But if we find them, we’ll want to match them with the gun.”
This time, Zeke didn’t hold his tongue. “After that last situation that unraveled here in your jurisdiction, we shared all the evidence with you and your DA’s office. And we were able to turn the ballistics report around relatively quickly too.”
“Yeah,” Grayson said. “We’re not trying to steal your collar. He’s dead anyway, right? If you could just allow us to take the slugs and the weapon to our lab, I promise we’ll share everything with your team.”
“Please,” Sienna said, injecting herself into the conversation. “I really need to know if that man was hired by my ex-husband to shoot me. I can’t bear the thought of losing the custody hearing. If Josh hurts Bailey. . .” Her voice trailed off.
“Okay, okay.” The older cop threw up his hands. “We’ll handle this as a joint investigation. Give me a minute to get that search warrant.”
“Thank you.” She relaxed when Zeke and Grayson turned toward the house.
Now that the danger was over, she couldn’t help but wonder how long it would take for the officers to find evidence linking Josh to Toby Belinsky.
An hour? The rest of the day? By morning?
She’d be satisfied with any of the options. As long as it was enough to put Josh away for the rest of his life.
Maybe she wouldn’t have to find a way to buy fake passports after all.
Zeke was not happy that Sienna hadn’t followed his instructions as she’d promised. But it was hard to stay angry when she’d managed to pull off a truce with the Timberland Falls Police Department.
A feat he hadn’t thought possible.
He was fairly certain her stunning beauty and charm had been the deciding factor. Well, that and the way her voice had trembled when she’d explained about her ex-husband’s physical abuse and the shooting outside the precinct.
Maybe this truce wouldn’t last long, but he planned to take advantage of the opportunity to see what was inside Belinsky’s home.
Hopefully not Louise in a freezer, but rather phone records, bank records, or other evidence that Belinsky had been hired by Allenton.
Zeke was convinced the name of Sienna’s ex was what Belinsky had tried to say. That he’d been hired by Allenton. What else could he have meant by uttering the syllable al ?
Now he had to hope and pray they could find the paper trail they needed to prove it. This would have been easier if Belinsky hadn’t died, but he couldn’t change that outcome. He’d done his best to keep him alive.
He tugged Sienna’s arm, pulling her off to the side of the crime scene. “I’m going to ask one of my teammates to head out here so you can get back to the safe house.”
“I’m fine waiting here,” she said. “I’m sure you’ll get the search warrant, right?”
“I don’t see why the judge wouldn’t grant it, but you can’t just sit here and wait. This could easily take hours.” He hesitated, then asked, “You weren’t planning to do a rehearsal tonight, were you?”
“That was my original plan, but I don’t really need to. Unless you tell me the danger is over for good.” She frowned. “I don’t want to leave you and Grayson. I’ll go crazy sitting around the safe house wondering about what’s going on.”
“You’ll go even more crazy sitting around here with nothing to do,” he argued. “Trust me on this. Spend some time with your daughter. Maybe go over your play list or something. Leave the police work to us.”
She didn’t look happy, but he wasn’t backing down on this.
“Please, Sienna.” He took both of her hands in his. “You didn’t drive away at the sound of gunfire like you promised. Please do this for me.”
“I did drive away,” she said. “I went around the block, and when I didn’t see anything out front, I returned to the original parking spot. I heard you talking to him, so that’s why I came to find you.”
“That wasn’t part of the deal.”
“I know.” She grimaced. “I couldn’t leave. Not when I thought you were the one who’d been shot.”
It was nice to know she’d cared enough to rush over. Yet if he had been shot, Belinsky could have gone after her too. For now, he decided not to push the issue of what she should have done.
He needed her to cooperate with him on heading back to the safe house.
Sienna glanced around at the scene. It might look chaotic to a civilian, but he was glad to see how the Timberland Falls officers were placing small evidence markers on key areas, like the blood stain on the ground where Belinsky had fallen. And it also looked as if Grayson was showing them where he’d found the guy’s gun.
“Okay, I’ll go back.” Sienna’s expression was resigned. She gently squeezed his hands. “I need you to call me the minute you find any evidence that Belinsky communicated with Josh. I won’t be able to relax until I know.”
“I will absolutely tell you the moment I find any connection between them.” He tugged her closer, then released her hands so he could wrap her into a hug. “I’m sorry Belinsky died, but we’ll get to the bottom of this.”
“I know.” She rested her head on his shoulder for a moment before stepping back. “You have a job to do, so I won’t keep you. Make your call. I’ll wait in the SUV.”
He pulled out his phone and called Rhy. After filling his boss in on the sequence of events that had unfolded in Timberland Falls, he asked, “Is there someone that can head out here to take Sienna back to the safe house?”
“Cassidy was just leaving, hang on a minute.” There was a pause as Rhy had a muffled conversation that he couldn’t hear. Then his boss returned to the call. “Cass is on her way.”
“Great, have her get the address from Gabe. He was digging into Belinsky’s background for me too.”
“I’ll check in with him, but it sounds like you’ll have better luck with the search warrant,” Rhy said. “Cassidy should be there in fifteen to twenty minutes.”
“I’ll let Sienna know. Thanks, Rhy.” He lowered his phone. “Cassidy is on her way. Why don’t you drive the SUV around front? It will be easier for Cass to find you there. Leave the keys in the cupholder. No one will steal it while the squads are parked outside.”
“I will.” She held his gaze for a moment, then surprised him by stepping in for a brief but sizzling kiss. “I’m glad you’re not hurt,” she added, before turning away.
He wanted to call her back, to tell her how much he loved her, but didn’t. This wasn’t the time or the place to discuss his feelings for her.
Evidence first , he reminded himself. He turned and walked over to where Grayson was describing for the third time how Belinsky had bolted out of the back door, turned, then fired at him.
The crime scene techs arrived a few minutes later. Zeke was itching to get into the house but spent some time looking for the slug that had missed Grayson. To his surprise, he found it embedded in a large oak tree.
“Here’s the slug,” he announced.
“Good eye,” Grayson said, coming over to join him. His teammate’s expression sobered as he realized the slug was at the same level as his head. “I don’t think I should tell Eve how close I came to being hit.”
Dr. Eve Shaw-Clark was Grayson’s wife and a microbiologist specializing on finding a cure for diabetes.
“That’s up to you. Women seem to have a way of finding out things, though.” He gave Grayson a one-armed brotherly hug, then turned as the older cop, an Officer Alexander, crossed over to them.
“Got the search warrant.” He lifted his phone. It was nice in this age of technology that paperwork could be expedited through email. “Let’s head inside.”
Zeke was more than ready to follow his Timberland Falls brothers in blue into the home of Toby Belinsky. The back door he’d bolted from was not locked, so that was how they entered. Zeke had to smile when Grayson headed straight for the freezer that was too small for an adult woman’s body.
Thankfully, Louise wasn’t inside.
Zeke moved through the house quickly, searching for a computer. There wasn’t one. He turned to Grayson. “We’ll need to get a rush on those phone records.”
“Yeah, I will,” Grayson agreed. “But we still need to look around. Belinsky could have jotted a few notes down as he talked to Allenton.”
Anything was possible. He donned gloves offered by Officer Alexander, then began searching the primary bedroom. To his dismay, there wasn’t a single note or slip of paper to be found in the main bedroom. Just the usual assortment of clothing.
When he found a brown uniform hanging in the closet, he paused. Belinsky must have worked as a truck driver delivering packages at some point. He pulled out his phone to call Gabe. “Hey, was Belinsky a delivery driver?”
“Yes, still employed from what I can tell. Why?”
“I found his uniform in the closet. Can you find his boss? I’ll need to interview him to find out his schedule.” Zeke felt a glimmer of hope that he’d learn Belinsky had been off for the past two days.
“Anything else,” Gabe asked.
“I’m not sure, so keep your phone handy. Thanks.” He pocketed the phone and continued to search. Finding nothing unusual, he headed into the bathroom.
And found nothing of interest there either.
Battling frustration, he joined Grayson and the Timberland Falls officers in the main part of the house. “Get anything?” he asked.
“Nothing.” Grayson scowled. “Not even the smallest slip of paper. Who doesn’t have sticky notes?”
“I think your wife has bought all the ones available in within the entire metropolitan area,” Zeke joked. Eve was known to have packs upon packs of sticky notes. “Belinsky is a package delivery driver. Gabe is going to shoot me his boss’s name and number so we can talk to him.”
“Yeah, that might help,” Grayson said. “I’m not seeing anything useful here.”
The execution of the search warrant was depressingly futile.
“I found his stash of bullets,” Officer Alexander said. He lifted the box for them to see. “This should help us match the slug that was taken out of the tree.”
The one that had been embedded at the same level as Grayson’s head.
A sense of urgency washed over him. They still had nothing to tie Belinsky to Allenton. While he felt certain there was a reason their perp had fired at Grayson, they needed something concrete to take to a judge.
Through the living room window, he saw Cassidy pull up next to the SUV. He watched as Sienna slipped inside. Soon, the two women were out of sight.
His phone rang, and seeing Gabe’s number on the screen, he pounced. “Please tell me you have something.”
“The name of Belinsky’s supervisor is Milton Hardy. Here’s his number and the address of the company.” Gabe recited the information slowly enough that he could plug the digits into his phone.
“Thanks, I’ll probably head over there next.” He met Grayson’s gaze. “Unfortunately we haven’t found anything else.”
“I’m waiting for the cell phone records,” Gabe said. “I asked the company to put a rush on it. They promised to have it to me in an hour.”
That was better than he’d hoped. “Excellent. I know you’ll work on cross-referencing the numbers. If you find a link to Allenton, let me know.”
“Will do. In the meantime, I’ll keep digging into Belinsky, but you should know I’ve got nothing. If he’s a crook, he’s been flying under the radar.”
“That’s interesting.” In Zeke’s experience, guys didn’t just go from working a job to shooting at people over night. And if the financial judgment was five years ago, why was Belinsky working for Allenton now? He didn’t like that the pieces still didn’t fit together. “There must be a connection between Josh Allenton and Toby Belinsky. We just have to find it.”
“Working on it. Later.” Gabe ended the call.
He turned to Grayson. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Where are you going?” Officer Alexander asked suspiciously.
“To interview Belinsky’s boss.” It wasn’t easy, but he added, “Do you guys want to ride along?”
“No need as long as you keep us in the loop,” Officer Alexander said.
“I will. Thanks.” He gestured for Grayson to follow him out. Grayson still had the evidence bags containing the cell phone and weapon. “We’ll swing by the lab first. Then to the delivery company.”
The trip didn’t take too long, but Zeke was still antsy by the time they were speaking with Milton Hardy. After introducing themselves, Zeke asked, “How well do you know Toby Belinsky?”
“Not very. He’s quiet, does his job, doesn’t give me any trouble.” Hardy shrugged. “Why, what’s the problem?”
“He’s dead.”
Milton Hardy’s eyes bulged. “He was murdered?”
“No one said anything about murder,” Grayson said, his voice testy. “He fired a weapon at a cop, who returned fire. We think he’s responsible for several attacks against a woman.”
“Really?” Hardy looked shocked. “Look, I don’t know what to tell you. When Hardy asked for a couple of days off because he didn’t feel well, I didn’t argue. He rarely takes time off. But attacking a woman? Shooting a cop?” Hardy shook his head. “I never would have guessed him to be capable of something like that.”
“Is he having financial trouble?” Zeke asked.
“Maybe. He took out a loan at the bank a few weeks ago,” Hardy said. “I had to send the bank paperwork about his pay and how many hours he works.”
Money could be the motivation, but they needed more. How did Allenton find Belinsky? They must have known each other at some point.
From here, it was up to Gabe Melrose to find the irrefutable connection they needed to keep Sienna and Bailey safe from Allenton’s long reach.