Dead Center

by Susan Sleeman

  So, what was holding her back now? Fear. That feeling from her childhood of being less-than. Oh, man, she couldn’t think about this now. Not with Sierra looking up at her.

  She dropped into the chair Reed had vacated. “Anything I can help with?”

  Sierra searched her gaze for a moment then shook her head. “Maybe you can provide moral support while I try to figure out where to place some of our more um…well…difficult family members.”

  A knock sounded on the door, startling Ainslie. “That’s likely Grady.”

  Drake got up. “I’ll get it.”

  As he strode to the door, Ainslie told Sierra and Reed about the explosion.

  Sierra clutched Ainslie’s hand. “Is he okay?”

  “Yes.” Ainslie hoped he didn’t prove her wrong when he walked in the door.

  But when she heard the male voice, she knew it wasn’t Grady.

  Blake strode into the room. He locked gazes with her and held up a folder. “I’ve got information from your brother’s case file.”

  She let out a silent breath and pasted on a smile. “Excellent. I can’t wait to get a look at it.”

  “Let me clear the table, and we can spread out.” Sierra shoved her little sticky tabs with names into the folder and moved the poster board to the kitchen island. She returned to her chair, and Blake straddled the one next to her. He opened his folder and someone else pounded on the door.

  Ainslie’s heart lurched. Now, this had to be Grady.

  “I’ll get it.” Reed went to the door this time.

  She kept her focus pinned on the entrance and was rewarded when Grady stepped into the room. Soot coated his face and clothing, and the caustic scent of smoke clung to him. She ran her gaze from his head to feet and back up again. His jacket was scorched, but when he took it off, his shirt wasn’t charred.

  She offered a prayer of thanksgiving and smiled at him. “You really are okay?”

  “Inhaled a bit of smoke, but otherwise fine.” His voice was raspy, but he smiled, and she had the urge to reach out and brush the soot from his face. His soft gaze lingered on her. Pulling her. Drawing her. She leaned closer. Nearly came out of her seat.

  Blake cleared his throat. “You look rough, man. And I’m not even going to ask why you smell like a chimney.”

  Grady jerked his focus to Blake and explained the fire.

  Blake looked at Ainslie, and she didn’t like the concern she found there. “Sounds like you really do have someone who’s trying to do you in.”

  “Yeah,” was all she could say without breaking down. She tapped the folder on the table and looked at Grady. “Blake brought us Ethan’s case file.”

  Grady sat in the chair next to her, the smell of smoke now permeating the air around him. He looked at Blake. “You get the CT scan for the bullet lodged in Wade’s head?”

  “No. That’s going to be harder to come by, but I’ll keep after it.” Blake opened his folder and pulled out the top page, the criminal complaint form. “As you can see, they’re stating that the forensic blood evidence found at the scene matches Ethan’s DNA located on the body. That, plus GSR on his hands and the fact that his 9mm Beretta could have fired the bullet lodged in the victim’s head, are the basis for the prosecution’s charges against Ethan.”

  “All things we expected,” Ainslie said.

  “True.” Blake held out the paper and pointed to a long section. “But we sure as heck didn’t expect this.”

  Grady stared at the paper and couldn’t believe what he was reading. If this document was right, Ethan was not only a liar, but he was also involved in illegal activities.

  Ainslie jumped to her feet and planted her hands on her hips, her breath coming fast and furious. “Ethan is not a criminal. He would never sell guns.” She took several long breaths and blew them out.

  Blake frowned. “Says here that Wade witnessed a gun sale between Ethan and known dealers. But Wade’s account is their only evidence.”

  “Wade is the dealer, not Ethan.” She crossed her arms. “So it’s his word against Ethan’s. Just like in the shooting.”

  “Then we need to prove that Wade is lying,” Sierra said.

  “Agreed.” Grady dug out his phone. “Starting with finding out what Nick has learned in his background checks on Wade and the swat call. I’ll text him to join us.” Grady fired off the message.

  “We really need to get eyes on Wade,” Blake suggested. “Hopefully, he’ll lead us to his sources or buyers. Then we can put pressure on them to turn on him. I can handle the surveillance, but I can’t do round-the-clock by myself. Maybe someone else will offer to spell me so I can catch a few hours of sleep.”

  Grady shook his head. “We need you managing the investigation. Call Gage Blackwell. Get some of his guys on the job.”

  “Gage?” Ainslie asked, noticing for the first time several puncture wounds on Grady’s hand. She touched it. “What happened?”

  “This?” He looked at his hand. “The family had a dog, and she was afraid. No big deal.”

  “You rescued the dog, too?”

  Grady didn’t want to talk about the rescue and give her more worries. “So you asked about Gage. He’s a former Navy SEAL. Own’s Blackwell Tactical out of Cold Harbor. They train LEOs and conduct investigations for private individuals. They’re all vets or former law enforcement. Blake worked with them when he was a sheriff.”

  Blake nodded. “They’re not cheap, but they’d do a good job.”

  “I’ll be glad to foot the bill,” Grady said. “Can you give him a call?”

  “You got it.” Blake took out his phone before stepping to the far side of the room.

  Ainslie blinked as if her world was spinning out of control. “I can’t let you pay for that.”

  Grady ignored Sierra, who was watching them both carefully, and planted his hands on the table. “We have to do this. Not only do we need to get eyes on this guy for the reasons Blake said, but after the explosion we need to make sure he’s not the one trying to hurt you. You can’t put a price on your life.” He leaned closer, pinning an insistent gaze on her. “Please let me do this for you.”

  She glanced around the room as if looking for an answer. He didn’t want to put her in a position that he knew she didn’t want to be in, but he couldn’t live with himself if they didn’t do everything in their power to be sure she was safe. And to clear Ethan’s name.

  She turned back to face him, her expression resolute. She was going to say no.

  “It’s not charity,” he whispered. “I care about you and want to make sure you’re okay. A friend helping a friend. That’s all.”

  She sighed. “I’ll agree if you consider it a loan and let me pay you back with interest.”

  He wanted to say no. To say he had plenty of money and had no one else to spend it on, but her determined look told him to cave now and come back to the subject later. “Agreed.”

  “Thank you.” She smiled at him, a radiant number that had his heart kicking up.

  A knock sounded on the door.

  “Must be Nick,” Sierra said.

  “I’ll let him in.” Phone to his ear, Blake strode to the door.

  Nick plunged into the room like a bullet seeking a target and marched straight past Blake to the table. He straddled a chair across from Ainslie. “I don’t have any progress to report on the swat call yet, but I’ve got my team working on it.”

  “And the background checks on Wade and Bittner?” Grady asked.

  Nick slid a report across to him. “Wade’s details. Nothing much to go on here. He does have arrests for illegal gun sales like Ethan said. No social media presence, though. No pictures. His legal residence is still Greenburg, Texas.”

  “Your hometown?” Grady asked Ainslie.

  She nodded.

  Blake came back to join them. “Gage’s sending Coop and Jackson via their chopper. I’ll get them surveilling Wade the minute they touch down.” He looked at Grady. “Can they bunk at your place durin
g their downtime? I’d ask them to stay with us, but Emory’s pregnancy has her sleeping at odd hours of the day.”

  “Sure thing. Glad to hang with fellow army buds.” Grady looked at Ainslie. “Coop served as an Army Ranger and Jackson was a Green Beret.”

  “Impressive credentials,” she said.

  He nodded. “With the way Gage has been expanding his team, I’m glad to hear two of their top operators will be handling the surveillance and not one of their new guys.”

  “Agreed.” Blake sat.

  “We interviewed Ethan’s neighbors tonight,” Grady said, thinking this was the right time to bring Blake up to speed. “The woman and teenage daughter across the street have a video doorbell that might’ve captured the shooting. Anything in the file about them? Daughter’s name is Jayla.”

  Blake shook his head.

  “Can you follow up with Flores?” Grady asked. “See if she talked to them and recovered the video from that device?”

  “Sure thing.”

  “I asked the girl to have her mom call me or Ainslie, so hopefully she will,” Grady said. “If not, I’ll go back by there to talk to her.”

  “Or I can do it if you need me to. Just let me know.” Blake turned a page in his folder and handed a sheet to Grady. “Ethan’s phone records. Flores highlighted calls made to the victim. Ethan called him twice the night of the shooting.”

  A deep frown marred Ainslie’s face. “Ethan never mentioned that, but maybe he was too drunk to remember.”

  Was that the reason? Grady hoped so. Because he didn’t like to think that Ethan was hiding things from them.

  Nick looked at the report. “Does it say anything about tracking GPS for Ethan’s phone?”

  “How will that help?” Ainslie asked.

  Nick’s expression perked up. “Phones routinely ping off nearby cell towers, and the phone company will have a record of his whereabouts at a given time. By looking at his GPS records, we should be able to determine his movements on the night of the shooting.”

  Grady looked at the report. “Nothing here on that.”

  Blake flipped through the file. “Nothing here either. Flores gave me everything the DA authorized her to provide. If we want more, we’ll need an attorney to request it.”

  Grady looked at Ainslie. “Do you have confidence in Ethan’s attorney?”

  “I don’t know.” Ainslie swallowed. “He hasn’t come through with my last request, so I don’t know how good he is. But it doesn’t matter. We don’t have the money to hire anyone else.”

  Sierra looked at Grady and Blake. “What about Malone?”

  “My sister?” Reed asked from the sofa, proving he was listening in.

  Sierra faced Ainslie. “She’s a criminal defense attorney. A very good one.”

  Reed strolled over to them. “I can ask her to take on Ethan’s case pro bono.”

  Ainslie twisted her hands together on the table. She was probably thinking about the offer of help and equating it to more charity. “You all have done so much already. I can’t ask for more. The cost—”

  “You want what’s best for Ethan, right?” Grady didn’t want to put her in a difficult position, but he knew in the long run that she would be glad they asked Malone to help. Only question was, would Ainslie forgive him for pushing her into making that decision?

  She nodded slowly, looking sick to her stomach and telling Grady just how much her past still had a hold on her. He wanted to fix it for her. That’s what he did. He was a fixer. Get to the problem. Attack it head on. Solve it. Well except his big secret. He opened his mouth to encourage her, but Reed stepped closer, taking her attention.

  “Let’s ask Malone,” he said. “If she doesn’t want to do it, she’ll have no problem saying so.”

  Ainslie pressed her hands flat on the table. “I’m not saying yes, but it won’t hurt to ask.”

  “I’ll call her right now.” Reed stepped away.

  Ainslie trained her focus on Grady, and her terse expression said she didn’t appreciate his interference. So he’d won one battle and lost another. A good trade off in his mind. Helping her brother came before winning her affections.

  10

  The morning sun shone brightly over Ethan’s rental place, and Ainslie desperately wanted to join Sierra at the house. Or what was left of it. Charred and blackened debris smoldered under Sierra’s feet as she slowly walked the scene with her video camera strapped on her head, recording horrible images that screamed of a near death, and streaming the images for Ainslie.

  Ainslie took a breath and watched the video play on her computer, her heart in her throat. She was safely tucked in the lab with Grady standing next to her, but the burned ruins brought back their close call, and a shiver ran over her body. Still, despite the fear, she would head over to Ethan’s house in a heartbeat. Not because she had any affinity to the place. It was a furnished dump that she’d encouraged Ethan to move out of plenty of times. But to search for a much-needed lead.

  Sierra passed the old recliner Ainslie had given to Ethan. The top half was blown away, the bottom charred. His favorite chair. If he’d been home…

  No. Don’t think that way.

  “Looks bad,” Grady said. “But Sierra’s got this. She’ll capture it all. And if there’s a lead to be found, she’ll locate it.”

  Ainslie resisted sighing, as she was thankful for Sierra and didn’t want to come across as ungrateful. “I know, but I feel like I’m adding to her workload when my job is to ease it.”

  “She understands. She just wants you to be safe, like we all do.” Grady searched her gaze.

  She struggled to look back at the screen. “I guess I also don’t want to think this is because of me.”

  “It isn’t because of you at all.” His vehemence surprised her. “We have a nutjob who blew up a house in an attempt to kill you. It’s all on him.”

  Still, she felt guilty and would record these hours along with ones she’d been trying to keep track of. “I just wish I knew why he’s trying to kill me. I spent a sleepless night trying to figure it out, but didn’t come up with anything.”

  “Maybe the person coming after you thinks Ethan told you something, and he doesn’t want you to talk about it.”

  “But there’s nothing I know about Ethan’s case that isn’t public knowledge.” She sighed and looked at him, her mind racing for answers. “What if we’re way off base here and it wasn’t about killing me at all? What if it was an attempt to destroy evidence in the house?”

  “I considered that, too. But if so, why wait to drop the Molotov cocktail? Why not just start the fire right after releasing the gas? Or maybe it’s not about Ethan at all.” Grady frowned. “I know this is way out there, but what if you accidentally captured someone in a snapshot you took, and they don’t want you to have the pictures?”

  She tapped her finger on the lab table to release some of her nerves and gave his comment some thought. “First, I haven’t taken many photos outside of work, so it’s not likely. And second, wouldn’t they target my place instead of Ethan’s?”

  “Yeah. Like I said. It’s out there.”

  “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to review my files.” Her phone chimed in Sierra’s ringtone, and Ainslie answered.

  “Thanks for doing the video,” she quickly said so she could make sure Sierra knew she appreciated her help. “And I’m sorry about the extra work.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Sierra said. “I’m glad to help. I talked to the arson investigator. The gas line for the stove was disconnected. Definitely arson. I told him I would process the scene for him. With his limited resources, he jumped on it.”

  After the Molotov cocktail, a ruling of arson was no surprise, but hearing it had been made official sent Ainslie’s stomach clenching. She swallowed hard.

  “I’ll be here for most of the day, and I need a favor,” Sierra continued. “Could you prepare the photos for the Randall trial? I need to get the overall photographs combined for the
DA.”

  “Absolutely.” It would feel good to repay some of Sierra’s kindness.

  “Thanks and let me know if you run into any problems.” Sierra ended the call.

  Ainslie clicked off the video and looked at Grady. “I need to get to work now.”

  He looked at her with a hangdog expression.

  She liked that he wanted to stay with her, but that was exactly why she needed to send him away. “I’m perfectly safe here. You can go.”

  He searched her gaze. “Would it bother you if I said I don’t want to go? That it’s not about keeping you safe all the time? That I also like hanging out with you?”

  A few days earlier, she’d have been bothered by his presence, but now… Now he felt comfortable. “I have to get these photos done for Sierra, so I can get over to see Ethan again.”

  He raised an eyebrow, likely over the fact that she didn’t really answer his question. But how could she without leading him on?

  “Come down when you’re ready to go, okay?” he asked. “And I’ll drive you.”

  She knew it would do no good to argue so she nodded.

  A big smile crossed his face, and he seemed unreasonably happy for such a simple promise. Maybe he thought her easy acquiesce meant more. “I’m very thankful for your help. I hope you know how much. But I haven’t changed my position on getting involved.”

  “Don’t worry.” He held up his hands. “Message received, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like being with you.”

  She didn’t know what to say, and thankfully the door opened and Blake strode in with two other guys before she had to come up with something. Both men were dark-haired, but the first one was bigger and well over six feet tall. He was built like a tank, his powerful shoulders and biceps filling out the black jacket he wore with cargo pants. The second guy was buff too, had a short military haircut and a jaw darkened by a thick five-o’clock shadow, even though it was morning.