The Alibi

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The Alibi Page 46

by Sandra Brown


  He was given the authorization to engage. With their assault rifles and one submachine gun, in the hands of the wounded ATF agent, they went on the offensive. The barrage lasted for seven minutes.

  Return fire from the house decreased, then became sporadic. The commander ordered a cease-fire. They waited.

  Suddenly, a man bleeding from several wounds, including a head wound, charged through the front door, screaming invectives and spraying rounds from his own submachine gun. It was a suicidal move, and he knew it. His reason for doing it would soon become apparent.

  When the agents ceased firing, and their ears stopped ringing, they realized that the house had fallen eerily silent except for a loose shutter that clapped against an exterior wall whenever the wind caught it.

  After a tense sixty seconds, the commander said, “I’m going in.” He levered himself up into a crouch as he replaced his spent cartridge with a fresh one.

  Headly did the same. “I’m with you.”

  Other team members stayed in place. After checking to see that they were loaded and ready, the commander crept from behind his cover and began running toward the house. Headly, with his heart tightly lodged in his throat, followed.

  They ran past the body sprawled on the wet earth, took the steps up to the sagging porch, and then stood on either side of the gaping doorway, weapons raised. They waited, listening. Hearing nothing, the commander hitched his head and Headly barged in.

  Bodies. Blood on every surface, the stench of it strong. Nothing was moving.

  “Clear,” he shouted and stepped over a body on his way into an adjacent room, a bedroom with only a ratty mattress on the floor. In the center of it, the ticking was still wet with a nasty stain.

  In less than sixty seconds from the time Headly had breached the door, they confirmed that five people were dead. Four bodies were found inside the house. The fifth was the man who’d died in the yard. They were visually identified as known members of the Rangers of Righteousness.

  Conspicuously missing from the body count were Carl Wingert and his lover, Flora Stimel, the only woman of the group. There was no sign of the two of them except for a trail of blood leading away from the back of the house into the dense woods where tire tracks were found in the undergrowth. They had managed to escape, probably because their mortally wounded confederate had sacrificed himself, taking fire at the front of the house while they sneaked out the back.

  Emergency and official vehicles quickly converged on the area. With them came the inevitable news vans, which were halted a mile away at the turnoff from the main road. The house and the area immediately surrounding it were sealed off so evidence could be collected, photos and measurements taken, and diagrams drawn before the bodies were removed.

  Those involved realized that a thorough investigation of the incident would follow. Every action they’d taken would have to be explained and justified, not only to their superiors but also to a cynical and judgmental public.

  Soon the derelict house was filled with people, each doing a specialized job. Headly found himself back in the bedroom, standing beside the coroner, who was sniffing at the stain on the soiled mattress. To Headly, it appeared that someone had peed in addition to bleeding profusely. “Urine?”

  The coroner shook his head. “I believe it’s amniotic fluid.”

  Headly thought surely he’d misheard him. “Amniotic fluid? Are you saying that Flora Stimel—”

  “Gave birth.”

  Look for These Thrilling Sandra Brown Novels!

  Low Pressure

  Lethal

  Mirror Image

  Where There’s Smoke

  Charade

  Exclusive

  Envy

  The Switch

  The Crush

  Fat Tuesday

  Unspeakable

  The Witness

  The Alibi

  Standoff

  Best Kept Secrets

  Breath of Scandal

  French Silk

  Look for Sandra Brown’s Thrillers

  * * *

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  For more about this book and author, visit Bookish.com.

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Welcome

  Saturday

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Sunday

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Monday

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Tuesday

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Wednesday

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Thursday

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Friday

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  About the Author

  A Preview of Deadline

  Also by Sandra Brown

  You Might Also Like…

  Newsletters

  Copyright

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2000 by Sandra Brown Management, Ltd.

  Excerpt from Deadline copyright © 2013 by Sandra Brown Management, Ltd.

  Cover design by SOS Creative

  Cover photograph by Stephen Alvarez/National Geographic/Getty Images

  Cover copyright © 2013 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Grand Central Publishing

  Hachette Book Group

  237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

  hachettebookgroup.com

  twitter.com/grandcentralpub

  Originally published in hardcover by Warner Books

  First ebook edition: August 2013

  Grand Central Publishing is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The Grand Central Publishing name and logo is a trademark of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

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  ISBN 978-1-4555-4639-8

 

 

 
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