Serena snorted. “Too many dirty cops. Liggey always bragged he had the system in his pocket.”
“But you don’t know who the dirty ones are.”
The younger woman rolled a shoulder. “If he ever mentioned a name, I was too sloshed to remember.” She wrinkled her forehead. “He did like to laugh about having ‘it’ on a leash.”
“It? Not a person?”
Serena spread her hands that sported newly shortened but still brightly colored nails. “Never knew what he meant, but he thought it was a big joke.”
Their food came, and Daci left the subject rather than arouse Serena’s suspicions about her motives. They could talk more when they got together with Chase. Besides, the intense flavor of the Mexican cuisine commanded her full attention.
After the meal, Daci followed Serena to a nearby park dotted with trees and lined with footpaths. Daci pulled in next to Serena’s rusty Chevrolet. Glancing over at the younger woman’s vehicle, Daci’s eyebrows lifted. The infant seat in the rear of the car spoke volumes about the hope Serena held for reclaiming custody of her son.
Nodding approval of the proactive preparations, Daci grabbed her purse—heavier than usual with the bulk of her service pistol—and got out of her VW. Her gaze scanned the area. A few joggers were in view on the paths, and a trio of mothers watched small children play on equipment about fifty yards distant. To her left, a picnic shelter was vacant, but on her right, sunlight glinted off gazing globes mounted on pedestals that flanked a bench. A man dressed in chinos and a light jacket over a polo shirt occupied the seat. He was rolling a stroller back and forth in front of him while the occupant slept.
“Jaxton Williams!” Serena planted her fists on her hips. “What are you doing here with my son?”
Good question. Daci wanted to know the same thing. She also wanted to know what right a knock-’em-dead suit-and-tie guy had to look so good in casual attire, also.
Jax smiled innocently, shooting Daci a pointed glance over Serena’s shoulder. “The social services worker had something come up, so I’m filling in today.”
Daci smirked. Right! Something came up—like Jax calling to ask if he could substitute for the regular worker. Great thinking, though he couldn’t have known for certain that she would accompany Serena here after lunch. Now Serena and Chase were double covered by their presence. Triple, actually, since surveillance never left either of the subjects. In a vehicle somewhere inconspicuous a duo of PD officers or deputy marshals would be watching them. Boring stuff but necessary.
The baby suddenly awakened with a cry. A pacifier flew out of the stroller and landed at the base of one of the gazing globe pedestals. Grinning, Daci bent to retrieve the article. The pacifier would have to be wiped with antiseptic.
Above her lowered head, the gazing globe suddenly exploded, showering her hair with glass. A thunderclap instantly followed.
Daci’s heart rate plunged into overdrive.
Not a thunderclap. The report of a rifle aimed at her!
* * *
Shock-paralysis passed in an instant, and Jax lunged toward the women and the infant’s stroller, herding them behind the meager cover of the bench. As they crouched there, Serena found her voice and began to scream, which agitated Chase into wailing and kicking. Daci—showing the cool head he’d come to expect from her—was immediately on her phone, calling for help.
Jax pulled his pistol from his armpit holster, thankful that he’d listened to his protective instincts and strapped it on for this meeting. He ventured a peek around one of the gazing globe pedestals. No rifle shot greeted him, and no one was in view in the direction where the initial shot had originated.
Had the shooter taken off after the failed assassination attempt, or was he angling around behind trees and bushes, trying to get another bead on his target? On Daci.
Why was Daci still in danger when the man who’d tried to run her over and probably hired the drive-by shooters lay on a slab in the morgue? Clearly, they were missing critical information that would answer that question.
Jax glanced over his shoulder toward the women and picked up a flash of sunlight on metal from a set of distant bushes.
“Look out!” He tackled Daci flat onto her back as another shot rang out. A fist-sized hole opened in the back of the wooden bench, spraying all of them with splinters. Fresh screams came from the playground area. Hopefully, those mothers were gathering up their children and vacating the area, but he couldn’t turn around to check.
God, help us all!
“Get off!” Daci shoved at him.
Jax rolled over into a crouch and fired a shot toward the distant bushes. It was a futile move, pistol against long-range rifle, but he had to do something, if only to let the shooter know he wasn’t the only one armed.
A sharp smack of palm against flesh abruptly morphed Serena’s screams into whimpers. Daci was taking charge of the hysteria.
“Go, girl!” Daci’s voice commanded. “Get Chase back to his foster home. Drive away and don’t look back. It’s me they’re after.”
Jax gritted his teeth. The surveillance team was likely closing in on the situation right now. Hopefully, they’d intercept Serena and Chase and escort them to safety. Their presence would now be exposed, but there was no help for it in this situation.
Serena’s fading sobs and the rattle of the stroller moving away at high speed alerted Jax to the young woman’s obedience to Daci’s instructions. His heart lightened marginally. The fewer people in the line of fire the better.
He twisted and grasped Daci’s arm. “Let’s go for the picnic shelter before he gets you in his sights again.”
Without a word, Daci pulled her own pistol from her purse and took off, zigzagging in a crouching lope as they’d been trained to do. Jax followed, weaving a different trajectory toward the same location.
Crack! The shot reverberated through the park.
Daci stumbled and dropped her gun. Jax’s heart leaped into his throat. He closed the distance between them as she righted herself and staggered onward, minus her pistol. Throwing an arm around her slender waist, he half carried her into the shelter. A stone fireplace surround jutted from the far wall. He shoved her against it and took a position facing outward in front of her, sweeping his gun and his gaze from side to side.
“Come on, you coward,” he muttered. “Show yourself.”
A pair of gunshots sounded from the direction where the shooter had been crouching. The distinctive sounds indicated pistols, not a rifle. The surveillance team assigned to Serena must be getting in on the action. Probably they hadn’t been near enough to the scene to intercept Serena and Chase, but were providing cover for her getaway. Hopefully, they’d take the sniper out or at least drive him away.
The shrill of sirens began closing in on their location. Soon, the area swarmed with uniformed officers and an armed-to-the-teeth SWAT team. Jax hollered for medical help.
He turned toward Daci and caught her as she slid down the wall, leaving a red trail on the stone. “Where are you hit?”
She seemed to struggle to focus on his face. “Feels like a hive of hornets have taken up residence in my right side.”
The words came out slurred. Jax yelled again for the medical team. A moment later, he was pulled away from her to make room for a pair of EMTs.
Time that had crawled during the minutes when they were under fire seemed to speed into overdrive as many things happened at once. A plainclothes detective, not Herriman, was in his face even as he tried to monitor what was happening with Daci. He gave his terse account of events while she was tended and loaded onto a gurney. Her eyes were closed in a ghastly pale face, and she lay unnaturally still.
Jax’s lungs constricted. Please, Lord, pull her through!
The medical team began wheeling her toward the waiting ambulance, and Jax took a step in that direction. A bi
g hand closed around his biceps, halting his progress. He whirled on the person who was attempting to keep him from Daci’s side and came face-to-face with DC Reynolds. Of course, their boss been called in.
“She’s in good hands,” Rey said. “If you want to protect her, we’ve got to get to the bottom of who is after her and stop him.”
Jax’s shoulders wilted. “I know.”
Rey’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not falling for her, are you?”
“Get real! She’s in law enforcement. I can’t! You know that better than anyone.”
His old partner’s face folded into grim lines. “I remember, but attraction has amnesia.”
A change of subject was in order. “Did Daci call you yet about the murder of her uncle last night in Boston?”
Rey’s eyes narrowed and his jaw tensed.
“Clearly not. We were sidetracked by another dead body this morning.” Jax’s gaze followed the ambulance as it tore out of the parking lot, lights and siren activated. “I need to head for the hospital.”
“Let’s go together,” Rey said. “Ride with me, and I’ll have someone bring your car over later. You can fill me in about Daci’s uncle on the way.”
Jax didn’t argue. Anything to get to the hospital pronto.
There was so much to tell, including a discussion about Daci’s recognition of the murdered man in the RAV4, that he and Rey had scarcely finished going over the basics when they arrived in the hospital parking lot. Jax jumped out of the car and hustled inside.
At the registration desk, Rey caught up with him, and they were directed to the surgical floor, where Daci had been taken. The nurses at the floor desk could tell them nothing except that Daci was alive and in surgery. Prognosis wasn’t on the radar yet. Nor did the charge nurse have any idea how long the surgery would take.
Jax’s gut churned as he and Rey entered the waiting room. He had no interest in sitting down. He turned toward his boss, who hovered in the doorway as if about to leave.
“You’ll be stationing a guard at her door, right?”
“You know it. The deputy who is bringing your car will stand first watch. Since the Naylor sighting in Boston, the hunt is mostly going forward from that office, so I’ll be able reassign a couple of Springfield deputies to dig into these attempts on Daci.”
“Sounds good. Could I be one of those reassigned deputies? I think I’ll go nuts if I have to sit and do nothing for who knows how long. Turn me loose to follow up on some leads.”
“No can do.” The other man shook his head. “The Marshals Service brought you on for the Naylor case in a narrow capacity where that case intersected with Serena and Chase’s well-being. While we were speculating that the attempts on Daci might be Naylor trying eliminate an obstacle between him and Serena and his son, I gave you latitude to investigate. But I can see no reason to go on thinking that Naylor has any connection with the attempts on deputy marshal Candace Marlowe’s life. It makes more sense to believe the perp is the same as the one who murdered Conrad Meyer and Samuel Clayhorn. Sorry, but that takes you out of the equation.” Rey put a hand on Jax’s arm. “Let us do our job. We’re good at it.”
“So was I. C’mon, Rey! One of our own as been shot.”
“Our own? Listen to yourself, Jax. Don’t get sucked into this life again. It’s not what you want. Hang tough. I will keep you informed.” He smacked a palm against the doorjamb, jerked a nod and walked away.
Staring after him, Jax furled and unfurled his fists at his sides. Frustration didn’t begin to describe this moment. He was not sitting around a hospital waiting room, tapping his toes and twiddling his thumbs. So, he was relegated to matters involving Serena and Chase, was he? Well, then, he would go talk to her. Reassuring himself of her and Chase’s well-being offered a plausible reason to interview her as a witness to today’s incident.
Jax went to the nurses’ desk, explained that he was Daci’s partner and left his card with instructions to call him when she got out of surgery. Heading for the elevator, he found a uniformed deputy coming toward him, holding out his car keys. A new guy he didn’t recognize from his days with the Marshals Service.
“It’s in the main lot,” the deputy said.
“Good timing,” Jax told the man. “Take good care of Daci, now, will you?”
“That’s for certain.” The deputy nodded and headed onward toward the nurses’ desk.
In his car, Jax got on the phone to Chase’s foster parents, where Serena was supposed to have taken him. No, they told him, she and the baby hadn’t shown up yet. The corkscrew in his gut wound tighter.
“Serena, what are you pulling now?” he muttered under his breath and tapped her number.
The phone call went to voice mail. He left a terse message to call him back ASAP. People were worried about her.
Driving toward Serena’s apartment building as fast as he dared, he activated his Bluetooth and called Rey. At least it was Saturday, so traffic was lighter than on a workday.
“Reynolds,” the DC answered the call.
“Serena hasn’t delivered Chase to his foster parents, and she’s not answering her phone. I’m on my way to her apartment now.”
Rey mumbled an angry word. “Her surveillance team is still debriefing about the shooting at the park. I’ll send someone to meet you at Serena’s and put out an APB on her vehicle.”
“Thanks.” Jax ended the call.
Fifteen minutes later, he pounded on the cracked and peeling door of Serena’s apartment. Odors of stale grease and dilapidation assailed him, and thin walls made him privy to an argument going on in the apartment next door.
One of the goals before uniting Serena with her son was to get them into better housing, but if she had taken off with her baby for parts unknown, once the authorities caught up with her she might permanently lose her chance at custody. Very sad, but he preferred that scenario to the prospect that Serena and Chase might have been taken by thugs in Naylor’s employ.
Jax pounded on the door again. No response. Silence from within.
At the sound of footsteps approaching up the hall, he turned. It was Steve Green, one of the deputies he’d worked with several years back. The guy was as linebacker husky as ever.
“Good to see a familiar face,” Jax said. “Serena either isn’t here or isn’t answering the door.”
“In light of the shooting incident, we can make a case for probable cause to suspect foul play and enter forcibly.”
“That’s what I like to hear.” He sent the man a shark grin.
Green scanned the door up and down. “Shouldn’t be too difficult to pop this one.”
He gave it a flat-footed kick with a booted foot. The door popped open and slapped the wall with a soft bang. Jax rushed in, pistol at the ready. The place might be shabby and small, but at least Serena was keeping it neat and clean, according to the requirements of her rehabilitation plan. However, neither she nor Chase were in evidence as Jax and Green searched through the bedroom, bathroom, and postage-stamp kitchen.
Jax holstered his gun. “I don’t think she’s been here.”
“Which means she’s in the wind.” Green pulled out his phone. “I’ll let the DC know.”
Jax’s cell sounded, and he walked into the hallway, tugging it from his shirt pocket. Not a number he recognized. Could be the hospital. His heart leaped. Please, God, let it be good news.
“Williams,” he said.
“Mr. Williams,” answered a pleasant female voice, “Ms. Candace Marlowe is under medical supervision in the recovery area now. She’s stable and should be ready to be transferred to a private room in about an hour.”
A buoyant sensation filled his chest. Daci had made it through the surgery! “Thank you for calling.”
He could hug someone, but Deputy Green might find that expression of emotion a little over-the-top.
/> Had anyone notified her siblings she’d been shot? He didn’t have their numbers. They’d be in Daci’s phone. When he went back to the hospital, if she was conscious he’d ask her permission to use her phone to give them a call. She’d been balky about telling them of the threats to her life so the news might come as an abrupt shock, but it had to be done.
Green joined him in the hallway. “DC’s pulling in full staff to work on finding Serena and Chase because of their connection to Naylor. All roads out of Springfield, but especially toward Boston, are being watched. If his goons are taking them to him, and we can follow, we might nab him. Protection for Daci is being handed over to the PD as of this minute. Hospital security has agreed to look after her until an officer can get there.”
Jax ground his teeth together. Not that the police department wasn’t fully competent, but it went against the grain for the Marshals Service not to spare a deputy to protect one of their own.
“I guess I’ll return to the hospital, then. They just called to say she’s out of surgery.”
“Good news!” Green smiled. “But the boss said to ask if you know anyone Serena might turn to if she was doing a runner or being pursued.”
“I have a list of Serena’s known friends and associates on my office computer. I can stop there on my way and email it to the duty clerk for dissemination.”
“Great! Thanks.”
They headed to their separate vehicles.
Driving to his law office, Jax prayed for Serena and Chase’s safety. How did situations get to be such a mess with all questions and no answers?
After performing his task for the Marshals Service, he arrived back at the hospital a little over an hour since they’d called him. She might be in her own room by now. The front desk confirmed her transfer and said she’d only just arrived in that room.
Jax smiled and hurried along. His might be the first familiar face at her bedside. He would have it no other way. How pathetic was that desire for a guy who didn’t dare allow their relationship to continue past this case? The mental scolding had no power to slow him down.
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