by Liliana Hart
I ran over to the knife and kicked it farther away as Jack got up and picked up his gun, training it on Lester Grimm.
“You’re under arrest. Roll over and place your hands behind your head. You have the right to remain silent.” Jack finished reading his rights and cuffed Grimm’s hands behind his back before he looked at me. “Nice shot, Tex.”
“It’s probably not a good time to tell you I wasn’t really sure what I was shooting at. There was two of both of you.” I still pointed my gun at Grimm and it weighed like lead in my shaking hands, so I put it back in my jacket pocket.
“Yeah, I probably could’ve gone without knowing that.”
“You’re bleeding.”
Blood dripped down Jack’s throat and stained the collar of his shirt, and I grabbed a dishtowel that was lying on the counter and went up to staunch the bleeding.
“I guess Lauren will be happy,” I said to try and distract myself from the fact my hands were shaking. “You’re bringing him in alive.”
“Yeah, he’s alive.” He hissed out a breath as I blotted at the wound. “But I wouldn’t feel too bad about it if he had an accident somewhere along the way.”
“You don’t need stitches. It’s just a knick.”
“Are you going to kiss it and make it better?”
I took his face between my hands and kissed him gently on the lips. “You scared me. Let’s not do that again.”
His arms wrapped around me and I buried my face against his chest. “If you want to know the truth I was pretty scared too. I’m probably going to need a lot of comforting later on.”
“We’ll comfort each other then.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
A couple of hours later we were all back inside the Federal Building. We’d been seen to by the paramedics and given clean clothes to change into. My body was starting to feel the aches and pains of being knocked to the ground and crawling through glass. I could only imagine how Jack felt. I’d seen the bruises already starting to show themselves from his run in with Grimm.
Jane Elliott had been the only casualty at the restaurant, the result of a well-timed military strike. Jesse Tydell had made the killing shot while Grimm had taken care of shooting the tear gas canisters and cornering Jack to eliminate him. They’d come close to eliminating one more name from their list. But they hadn’t succeeded, which meant they’d keep trying.
Jack and I were back in the same observation room we’d been in the last time we were here. Lauren and Carver stood next to us. As interrogation rooms went, I’d seen worse, but I was hoping after today not to see another one for a long while.
Agent Greer sat across from Grimm, but Grimm slouched back in his chair, ignoring Greer completely. His hands were handcuffed in front of him and his ankles were shackled. The shot to his leg had only been a flesh wound, so the paramedics had wrapped it up and sent him along with the FBI team that had arrived on scene. Grimm hadn’t said a word, and he didn’t look particularly worried to be there.
“You’re in a lot of trouble, Grimm. Maybe you can help us out with a few things and the FBI will consider lightening the charges.”
Grimm grunted but didn’t say anything else.
“You’re looking at two counts of first degree murder—the murders of two police officers and the attempted murder of another. Those are death penalty offenses. You’re going to want to talk to us.”
“I’m as good as dead anyway if I talk to you,” he said, shrugging. “I’d just as soon have the lethal injection and go out the easy way. I’ve heard it’s very humane.”
Grimm smiled, showing small even teeth that seemed abnormally white against his skin. The look in his eyes made me shudder, and I wrapped my arms around myself in comfort. His gaze was empty—completely soulless—and he stared at Greer as if he knew everything about him. Almost like a dare.
Greer acted as if he were bored. “You were pretty high up in the Vagos. In charge of your own territory. And you had a shot at being General but you blew it. You got caught and Lassiter was killed. That leaves Jesse Tydell.”
“He’s the new General. It’s his game now.”
“Like I said, Grimm, we’ll be willing to cut you a deal on some of the charges.”
“You gotta prove I killed someone first.” Grimm smiled again.
“Don’t flatter yourself. You’re not that smart. We’ve got your knife and we’ll find blood on it that belongs to the victims. You’re going to want to come clean before those tests come back. Once they do, the deals aren’t going to be so good. Who paid you for the hits?”
Grimm played with the length of chain between his cuffed hands, clanking it against the arm of the chair. “Don’t know,” he shrugged. “Don’t really care. The money showed up in the accounts when it was supposed to.”
“How’d you get your orders?”
“It was all electronic. Like I said, money showed up in each of our accounts and we got emailed instructions. Tydell’s good with the electronics, but he could never trace where it came from. Seed money showed up as a sign of good faith, but we didn’t take the bait right off. You’ve got to be careful with stuff like that. It could’ve been the cops trying to smoke us out. So we asked for a sign of good faith in return.”
“What kind of good faith?”
“I want immunity.”
“It’s not going to happen, Grimm. You killed two cops and tried to kill another. All I can do is lessen the sentence.”
“I want a low security facility and visitation rights. A man like me would be king in prison.”
“An attorney from the Department of Justice is waiting to talk to you after I finish here. You can take it all up with her. Now give me some information or I’m going to put you in a cell and throw away the key.”
Grimm stared down Greer, but Greer didn’t flinch. He just waited him out. When several minutes went by, Greer picked up his file and stood to leave.
“South Carolina is an electric chair state,” Greer said as he opened the door to leave. “That’s where you killed Detective Price. Don’t think that’s going to be an easier way to die than whatever your new General can do to you.”
“Arnie Mays,” Grimm said, before Greer could leave the room.
Greer closed the door and sat back down across from Grimm, and Carver opened his laptop beside me and ran the name through his database.
“What about Arnie Mays?” Greer asked.
“He was the sign of good faith.”
“Got it,” Carver said into the earpiece Greer was wearing. “Arnie Mays was a cop working out of the South Bronx before he got caught for corruption, bribery, and illegals. IAB has a full file on him. Mays went off the grid and was suspected of being swept up by the Vagos as a soldier. His body washed up in San Francisco last December.”
“So they killed Arnie Mays. Why?” Greer asked. “He was one of your own.”
“Mays was undercover. All that bullshit in the IAB files and the charges filed against him were all a set up. He slipped up and it was noticed. We’ve got too many ex-cops in our organization for a plant to not be caught. Mays managed to fly under the radar for more than ten years though. He was good. But we’ve got guys who are better. There was a reason Mays never warranted his own territory with that many years in. Why he was slow moving up the ranks. We never really trusted him.”
“So as a sign of good faith, you asked whoever gave you the orders to show they were serious by taking Mays out of the game?”
Grimm shrugged, but the smirk on his face was admission enough.
“Thanks, Grimm. You’ve been very helpful.” Greer left the interview room and a moment later he came inside the observation room.
“What’s the status on Paris Spencer and Grace Lieber?” he asked.
“They’re both en route,” Lauren said. “About another hour or so.”
“You going to try and shake them up a bit?” Jack asked. “Maybe they need to accidentally run into each other and see that the game is over.”
“Exactly what I was thinking, Sheriff Lawson,” Greer nodded. He turned to Lauren and said, “Go ahead and do what you need to do with Grimm and then call Agent Donaldson. Let’s make sure Paris Spencer and Grace Lieber see each other on their way in. I also want them to catch sight of Lester Grimm. They would’ve done their homework, so they’ll recognize who he is and wonder how much he told us. I want to see who rolls first. One of those women is guilty of ten counts of murder. The other is an accessory.”
***
“There’s got to be someone else to do this,” I said twenty minutes later. Jack had changed into a pair of black cargo pants and a black T-shirt that had been dug up from somewhere, and he ran his hands over the rifle in the case in front of him.
“I’m the best person for the job at the moment. I can shoot the long distances. I have the training.”
“Only you don’t work for the FBI and we’re not in the same state where you’re sheriff. Last time I checked, you need a badge for this sort of thing or you get arrested.”
Carver came in at that exact moment and slapped a piece of paper on the table in front of Jack. “Sign here. You’re authorized for temporary duty.”
“Nice,” I said, throwing up my hands in resignation. “If you’re going up there, then I am too. And don’t even try to argue about this with me.”
Jack took the rifle from the long black case and methodically checked it. “This is the perfect opportunity to catch Jesse Tydell. We probably won’t get another chance like it. We’ll have Grimm, Lieber, and Spencer on the front steps of the Federal Building. Tydell will want to eliminate Grimm because he already knows he’s had time to talk to us. Chances are he knows one of the women is the one giving him the kill orders. He’s very intelligent, and our profilers say he wouldn’t want to share any information he might find out on his quest to make General. He thinks he’s calling the shots, and he’s cleaning up loose ends.”
“We’ll have Grimm in a controlled environment,” Carver said. “This is on our terms. We’re presenting him with the opportunity. Jack will be invisible on top of the Federal Building, and he’ll have a perfect line of sight to all the buildings where Tydell might be hiding. All Jack has to do is spot him and let the teams know which building to block off.”
“What happens if Tydell shoots before the teams can stop him?”
“Jack will stop him first. Lauren only needs one of the Vagos alive.”
“You don’t have to go up with me, Jaye. I’ll be perfectly safe and it’ll be over before you know it happened.”
“I’m going up with you. If you can see Tydell through your scope that means he’ll be able to see you too, if he’s looking. It never hurts to have another pair of eyes.”
Jack nodded and his lips twitched a little. He was having fun. “Grab a pair of binoculars from Carver. You can be my spotter.”
***
I found myself on top of the Federal Building flat on my stomach, looking through the binoculars at the three buildings across the street that Tydell might be hiding in. The sun beat down overhead and my clothes melted into the rooftop while the back of my neck blistered.
“Are you sure he’d do something like this in the middle of the day?” I asked. “There are people everywhere. How’s he going to go unnoticed?”
“He’ll blend in. The buildings across the street are all businesses. He’ll be wearing a suit and have a briefcase hiding his rifle. He’ll have walked right in with the lunch crowd. He’s already found his place and is set up. We’ve shut down all of the empty offices that have windows. He’ll have to use the rooftop.”
Sweat snaked down my back as I looked for movement on any of the rooftops. We only had a matter of minutes before Grimm, Spencer, and Lieber had their run in on the front steps. If we didn’t find Tydell before that, someone was either going to die, or Tydell would be scared away for good.
“If it were you, where would you shoot from?” I asked Jack. I had no idea how he stayed still and focused for so long. All I could think about was the heat of the rooftop burning into my stomach and the dizzying height.
“The one on the far right. It’ll be a harder shot for him to make, but that doesn’t matter. He’s good at what he does. It’s the building that has the least security, and all of the angles of the roofline give good cover.”
“The car with Lieber is just down the street,” Greer said. I heard the drone of his voice through the listening device in Jack’s ear. “Grimm’s being brought out the front to the waiting police van at the curb so he can be taken to the courthouse for booking. You have a minute to find Tydell or this mission is aborted.”
I swung the binoculars to the building Jack suggested and moved slowly across every peak and valley of the roof, the seconds ticking off in my mind.
“Come on, Jaye. Give me something.”
“I’m trying, dammit. I don’t see anything.” And then I did. Just a glint of the sun off a piece of glass or metal, but it was enough. “Got him.” I relayed the information to Greer so they could have agents move into place.
“Give me the distance measurement from the lower corner of the binoculars.”
I rattled it off, the adrenaline pumping through my veins as the seconds wound down, and I felt Jack make a tiny adjustment next to me. The shot wouldn’t be easy to make. I could only see the side of Tydell’s face and part of his arm.
I held my breath and watched through the binoculars as Jack pulled the trigger. The shot was loud and I heard people on the streets below screaming, but I kept my eyes trained on Tydell as the bullet made contact and he crumpled to the rooftop.
Chaos erupted below us, and I watched as agents swarmed from everywhere to contain the scene.
“You make a pretty good spotter, Doctor Graves.”
“Maybe so, but I think I’d rather be up to my wrists in a chest cavity than ever have to do that again. Much less exciting.”
“But now you have all that adrenaline to work off. I bet I could help you out with that.”
“Jesus. Only a man could think of sex at a time like this.” I was drenched in sweat, filthy from the rooftop, and sunburned.
“It’s a special talent. Like a superpower.”
“All I can say is that it’s a really good thing I love you. But maybe we could have a shower first before you show me your superpowers.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
We stayed the night in DC and spent most of the next day giving statements and signing official documents, so it was well after dark by the time we drove back to King George County. We rode in comfortable silence mostly, each of us lost in our own thoughts.
Having Paris Spencer and Grace Lieber see each other and Lester Grimm had worked out exactly as the FBI planned. They couldn’t wait to turn on each other in hopes of a lighter sentence. Not that it would work. Murder was murder. And they were both going away for a lot of years.
But in the end it was Grace Lieber who had masterminded the entire scheme—forming the charities for funding, finding someone to commit the kills, and cold bloodedly deciding to end the lives of all the men who had taken her sons away from her. She wanted revenge and she’d have stopped at nothing to get it. She’d stated for the record that she’d gladly do it all again. Her only regret was she hadn’t been able to see the contract fulfilled with Jack and Wolfe’s death.
Paris Spencer had pleaded to lesser charges of accessory, fraud, and cybercrimes since she’d been handling the money and technology end of things. She’d do time, but it wouldn’t be for a lifetime like Lieber.
I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with Lester Grimm. Lauren had taken custody of him and whisked him away to the Department of Justice building. My only hope was they wouldn’t put him back out on the street to gather information. I had a feeling a man like Grimm held grudges a long time, and I didn’t always want to be looking over my shoulder. They’d need to keep a tight leash on him, and I hoped they didn’t regret whatever deal they’d ended up making with
him.
All in all, I was glad to be back in our small slice of the country. I’d had enough of the FBI and the city for the moment, and I was happier than I thought I’d be to get back to the slow life. Maybe I’d gotten used to it.
To my surprise, Jack had turned down another job offer with the FBI. He was going to take his vacation and then see what happened with the next election. He wasn’t going to rush into anything and he wanted to take a break. I couldn’t say I blamed him. I was looking forward to taking that break with him and spending some time together as a couple without the interference of crime scenes and bodies. We were being selfish. And it felt pretty damned good.
“We’re getting married in a week,” I said. It was really starting to hit me.
“That’s the rumor going around. When I talked to mom this morning, she said she had everything taken care of. All we have to do is show up. And you need to find something to wear.”
“It’s a shame she can’t do that part too. I’ve never been very good at picking out clothes.”
“I don’t think it really matters. They’re all going to end up on the floor by the end of the night anyway. It’s what you wear underneath that really matters.”
I grinned and then something in the distance caught my eye. “What’s that?” Brightly colored lights pulsed and flashed in the sky about a mile down the road.
“Looks like a carnival of some kind. Why don’t we stop and check it out? I’m on vacation after all.”
“As long as you buy me some cotton candy and try to kiss me on the Ferris wheel.”
“I’m up to the challenge.”
“You always are,” I said, thinking of the night we’d spent together.
The streets were packed with cars and once we got through the gates it was nothing but wall-to-wall people. It seemed like everyone in the county had the same idea as us. We moved with the traffic, jostling back and forth as we made our way toward the Ferris wheel.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up just before my father moved in front of us and stopped us in our tracks. I barely noticed the people who bumped into me from behind.