Headlights. A car’s headlights shone on them. She squinted to see the driver.
“Move,” Washington commanded.
The car engine revved as the lights came toward them.
Washington ducked behind the Volvo, dragging her with him.
Jamie wrenched free. Threw herself into the line of the car.
They were separated. She stood and ran, tripped. Fell onto her knees, cried out, crawled on before scrambling to get up again.
She turned back to see Washington raise his weapon and fire at the car. The car revved but didn’t move.
Then she heard gunshots from the other side of her. Three quick blasts.
She dropped, then rolled toward a cement post. A cry of pain burst from her lips as she tried to stand.
A muscle tore against her ribs.
She swallowed a scream.
Silence. She waited, listened. She stared in the direction of the headlights, then got down on the ground and searched for Washington. She saw him lying huddled on the ground by his car, still.
A car door opened. Shoes scraped on the pavement. She heard voices.
Someone bent over Washington, rolled him onto his back. She saw her gun in his hand. He didn’t move.
It was over. She closed her eyes, dropped her head to her hands.
Someone called her name.
“Here,” she said. “I’m here.”
She heard their voices, felt hands. Opened her eyes enough to see Hailey and Mackenzie. Mackenzie was holstering her gun.
“Nice shot, rookie,” Jamie croaked.
Mackenzie smiled.
Jamie thought she might have dozed off. She woke to the sounds of other voices, men shouting.
Time seemed to fade in and out. Through her fog, Jamie heard the onslaught of questions, felt Mackenzie try to help her up. She shook her head. Didn’t want to move.
“Jesus Christ, it’s Charlie’s Fucking Angels again,” a familiar voice said.
Jamie stared at Scott Scanlan. “Listen you—”
Hailey raised her hand. “Save your breath,” she told Jamie, pointing at someone walking toward them.
It took Jamie a minute to recognize that it was Bruce Daniels who emerged from the dark with two other officers.
Jamie recognized the others from her own IA experience—back when she had opened fire on Natasha and Tim.
Daniels gave Hailey a quick nod, turned to Scanlan. “Officer Scanlan, you need to come with us.”
Scanlan looked around, befuddled. Then he settled an angry gaze on Jamie.
Jamie smiled at him, the same shit-eating grin that he’d given her that first night when IA had come to his rescue. It wasn’t as satisfying, though, because the smiling hurt like hell.
As Scanlan was led away, she leaned back and listened to the whir of an ambulance siren, saw the spinning lights. Paramedics jumped out of the cab and jogged toward her.
“I probably don’t need to go to the hospital,” she said. “I’m okay.”
No one listened. They loaded her into the back.
She spotted Tony in the crowd.
“Are you all right?” His voice was pitched high. He was scared. It made her scared. She tried to reach out, couldn’t.
He took hold of her hand. “I’ll meet you at the hospital, Jamie. I’ll be there when you get there, okay?”
She nodded, her eyelids heavy.
Hailey climbed up into the back of the ambulance first, then offered Mackenzie a hand. They both sat down, waiting for the paramedics to load Jamie in.
“Only one can go,” one of the paramedics told them.
“Oh, no. We’re both going,” Mackenzie stated, leaving no room for argument.
The paramedic looked at his partner for support, but the other man shrugged.
Jamie lay back on the gurney, thinking she might take the Vicodin prescription this time. The idea of floating sounded so nice. No pain, no thoughts…
Or maybe not.
The women were silent as the ambulance bounced across the parking lot. Jamie squeezed her eyes against the pain that knifed her with every motion. The men up front spoke softly, the radio crackled.
Jamie knew they were all thinking about how close she’d come. She took slow breaths to manage the pain, tried to think of something amusing. Scott Scanlan was going to get it. That helped. Chip Washington was gone. And Marchek…
No, she couldn’t think about that.
Not yet.
She focused back on Scanlan, his cockiness. He was the easiest. Charlie’s Angels, he’d called them. Jamie looked up at Mackenzie then over at Hailey. Hailey smiled at her, the way a mother might smile at a child. It was soothing.
“Maybe we could sell the story rights to Hollywood…,” Jamie whispered.
Hailey leaned in to hear her. “What?”
“Sell the story to Hollywood, make a million dollars.” She took small, shallow breaths. “Retire.”
“We can be stunt doubles,” Mackenzie said.
“God, no,” Jamie croaked. “Let’s just consult.”
Mackenzie grinned. “Who’s going to play you, Jamie?”
“Probably Lucy Liu.”
Hailey laughed.
Jamie glanced from one to the other. “After all, she looks the most like me.”
She heard them laugh—big belly laughs—and she did too. She stopped, because it hurt too much, but at least she could.
She could laugh and feel and breathe.
It was like she told people about her victims—she might never be okay, but she was definitely going to survive.
Epilogue
Twelve weeks later
Tonight was about fun.
Jamie sat back and drank her second Pepsi. Or was it the third? Her pants were fitting better. She was probably going to have to start monitoring what she ate before she outgrew them. Or maybe she’d just buy new ones. She paid more attention to the boys than the game.
They were infinitely more interesting. All she needed was some cotton candy. How could a professional team not offer cotton candy? They’d eaten everything else—hot dogs, pretzels, nachos.
Jamie glanced over at Z. He was glued to the basketball court fifteen rows below them, his eyes shifting only enough to move up and down the court. And every time a player named Stephen Curry made a move, Z launched out of his seat like a rocket. Tony wasn’t much better. They’d been jumping in and out of their seats throughout the game though the Warriors were beating the Spurs forty-seven to twenty-three.
Since Tony had gotten back from rehab, he’d been seeing Z as often as the foster parents would allow. He drove up to Sacramento to spend a couple hours with Z after school when he could.
Jamie joined, too, when she could. Z always seemed so happy to see them. She was amazed at how wonderful a kid could make her feel.
When Z was laughing, nothing else mattered.
It wasn’t all easy. They’d had some tough conversations about Shawna too. About drugs and sadness, about how sometimes things got to be too much, even for grown-ups. She and Tony had agreed to talk about it whenever Z brought it up.
The third quarter ended and Z jumped up. “Can we get some popcorn?”
Tony’s mouth dropped open. “You’ve already had two Cokes, a hotdog, and nachos.”
“And a pretzel,” Jamie added. “But no popcorn yet.”
Z grinned back at Tony. “Yeah, no popcorn yet.”
Tony laughed, rubbed Z’s head. To Jamie he asked, “You want anything?”
“No, thanks.”
Tony led Z out of the stands and she watched them disappear into the crowd. Jamie scanned the people, watching as the group on the court launched T-shirts into the crowd using giant rubber bands and gave away free pizzas to whoever could make the most noise. She wasn’t jumping around much. The pain in her back wasn’t completely gone, although it was nothing compared to those first few weeks. She was on leave for almost eight weeks, the next four on desk work. Next week, she had the okay t
o go back to active duty. She was ready.
For the moment, she was content not to be running the chaos. She dealt with plenty of it, but not tonight. Her caseload was heavy, but the stress would be nothing like it had been with Marchek. She and Mackenzie and Hailey had attended Chip Washington’s memorial services the Saturday after he died. His death had been treated as an accidental shooting. The department had promised Washington’s wife and the press that a full investigation would be conducted, but she knew there would be no investigation. Washington’s wife would receive his pension and death benefits.
She would never know the dark side of the man she’d married.
Maybe that was true for most marriages.
Natasha’s murder would remain officially unsolved. Hailey would get no credit for solving it. The result was better for the department. After all, Natasha’s death was an accident. The press would continue to hound. That was what the press did…until the next story broke.
During her leave, Jamie had been talking to a therapist, something she never thought she’d do. Lately, she’d been doing a lot of things she never thought she’d do. Almost all were with Tony and Z.
She had also said no a lot. No to going out with Tim again. Even as friends. She did talk to him on the phone a couple of times, listen to him complain that some of his old pals were no longer so friendly. He needed to make new friends. He would.
The charges against him had been dropped and he had received an official apology from the department as well as full pay and comp time for his days spent in jail. It didn’t relieve the embarrassment, and nothing would restore his reputation. Jamie knew all about that. She remembered how things had changed after she’d shot at him and Natasha.
It would probably get easier eventually, she had told him.
Probably.
Jamie wasn’t the only one breaking new ground. Tony had been out of rehab for three weeks and was sober. He went to his AA meetings religiously, sometimes twice a day. Z was settling in to his second foster home. The first one hadn’t gone too well. Tony didn’t think this one would, either. But, Tony picked him up every weekend for an overnight at Jamie’s. Tonight—the game. Last week, Tony and Z had rented Men in Black I and II and they’d done a doubleheader that would have been torture for anyone who had taste in movies. Thankfully, Jamie wasn’t one of them.
Tony was also teaching Z how to use the computer. They’d started by searching for Z’s name and found Zephenaya, spelled Zephaniah, was a book in the Bible. Tony said that was news to him. To Jamie, too, though they’d both been raised Catholic.
The three of them sat by the computer and looked up the book of Zephaniah. Tony read from Zephaniah 1:3, where God preached to the people to have patience and mercy. God promised that the wicked would be punished for their sins and revenge would come to them.
Z had listened intently and made Tony repeat it.
Then he had looked up, his small brow furrowed, and asked, “Does that mean God will punish whoever hurt Shay?”
She’d seen Tony’s eyes grow glassy. She had no idea how to answer. Instead, she leaned down to kiss Z’s head.
Tony wrapped an arm around Z. “I think it does.” Then he’d met Jamie’s gaze over Z’s head and she’d considered how hard it was to answer a child’s questions.
After that night, Tony had decided to pay for weekly grief counseling for Z. Tony worried that Z didn’t talk enough about Shawna. Jamie assured him that sometimes it took decades to work through that kind of grief. She thought Z had a big head start with Tony on his side.
Tony was also pushing to get approval to become Z’s foster father. Jamie had been more hesitant at the beginning, but it hadn’t taken long to see Tony was right. Z was impossible not to love. He made them better. Jamie had stopped smoking. Tony was vigilant about his AA meetings. They were becoming a family. Amazing, as Jamie never thought she’d have one.
Jamie saw Mackenzie and Hailey as often as possible. Hailey was already in the middle of a new high-profile murder case, thanks to her father-in-law, and Mackenzie had gotten her cast off and was back to her beat. The rookie had her name down on the lists for Sex Crimes and Homicide, though she was years away from being eligible for either. She was joining their Rookie Club dinners too. No surprise that she fit in perfectly.
Jamie had heard through the grapevine that while she was recovering, Scott Scanlan had been dismissed from the department. In the course of the investigation, he had confessed to logging into Jamie’s chat room using her ID. He wouldn’t be tried for any of his crimes, but he was no longer a cop, probably wouldn’t be one again. That was enough.
According to the rumors, he’d also moved out of state. Tonight’s tickets had been a gift from Deputy Chief Scanlan. She’d been getting a number of things from Deputy Chief Scanlan recently. He’d paid her vet bill and sent a three-hundred-dollar gift certificate to a restaurant called Boulevard, where she’d taken Z and Tony.
They had eaten expensive food, declined the wine list and cocktails, and decided next time they’d rather go to Chevy’s at Embarcadero. Three weeks later, Scanlan had sent another restaurant gift certificate, and she’d sent it back. He’d sent tickets to the game instead.
Jamie knew there were strings attached. Deputy Chief Scanlan wanted to be sure she didn’t talk to the media. That wasn’t her style, but she hadn’t told the deputy chief that. Not yet.
He could sweat a little.
Lord knew she had.
She spotted Tony and Z hiking back up the stairs. Tony held a big tub of popcorn and another soda. She wondered if any of them would sleep tonight, and figured it didn’t matter much. There was always tomorrow.
Both boys were grinning.
“What did you guys do?” she asked.
Tony nodded to Z. “Show her.”
Z pulled a bouquet of pink and blue cotton candy from behind his back.
“I thought they didn’t have cotton candy,” she said. “Where’d you get this?”
Z smiled proudly. “We bribed it off a vendor who had some in the back.”
“You’re a tricky one, aren’t you?”
Z nodded very seriously. Then he slid into his seat and turned to her. “Since I was so tricky, you gonna share it with me, right?”
Jamie laughed out loud. “Maybe a little,” she said, winking.
“Half,” Z said.
“Thirds,” Tony cut in, leaning in with his hand out.
Jamie ripped it open and they all tore at it, shoving big strands of blue and pink fluff into their mouths. This was one of the good things, she thought.
Tony winked, the gums around his front teeth blue. He nodded as though he were reading her thoughts.
Maybe he did. Maybe better than anyone, Tony understood.
She thought she did—better now than ever before.
The Rookie Club Cast, in order of appearance:
Hailey Wyatt, Homicide Inspector (also in Dead Center, Dark Passage, Grave Danger, and Everything to Lose)
Hal Harris, Homicide Inspector, partner to Hailey Wyatt (also in Everything to Lose)
Cameron Cruz, Special Ops Team/Sharpshooter (featured in Dark Passage; also in Grave Danger)
Linda James, Precinct Captain (also in Dark Passage and Everything to Lose)
Jamie Vail, Sex Crimes Inspector (featured in Everything to Lose; also in One Clean Shot, Dark Passage, and Grave Danger)
Jess Campbell, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) (also in Dead Center and Dark Passage)
Shelby Tate, Medical Examiner (also in Dead Center)
Ryaan Berry, Triggerlock Inspector (also in Dark Passage and Grave Danger)
Roger Sampers, Head Criminalist, Crime Scene Unit (also in Dead Center, Grave Danger, and Everything to Lose)
Prologue
Standing in her in-laws’ kitchen, Hailey Wyatt removed the red bell pepper from the steamer with a pair of tongs.
Her eyes burned with exhaustion. She just wanted to be home, catching up on her sleep
so she could face another day tomorrow. And hopefully make a break in this case—the murder of a couple in San Francisco and a death in Sacramento that had previously been ruled a suicide. There was some connection between the deaths and gun politics. That was as much as they knew. That and the killer liked to leave them strange clues.
One night off and here she was, at the senator’s house. She’d be back on the case tomorrow, banging her head against the walls in Homicide. This was supposed to be her night to relax. She’d wanted a quiet evening at home, with her children.
“A family dinner,” John had pressed when she balked at the idea of going out. “My parents want to spend time with us and their grandchildren.” She’d never known her grandparents. Hell, she had never even met her father. Of course, she wanted Camilla and Ali to be close to John’s parents.
But wasn’t it fair to want time with her family? Just her and the girls and John?
And since they’d arrived, the girls weren’t even spending time with their grandparents. Not Ali anyway. And Hailey was alone in her in-laws’ kitchen, making chicken parmesan.
Her mother-in-law, Liz, was helping Hailey’s older daughter, Camilla, get dressed for their evening out. Liz had bought tickets to take each of the girls to dinner and a show, and tonight was Camilla’s turn to see Wicked. In a few weeks, Ali would get to see the Lion King with her grandmother, but she was already feeling left out. In the last half hour, she’d moped through the kitchen twice, complaining she was bored.
To make matters worse, Hailey’s husband and her father-in-law had shut themselves in the den, planning for John’s first political campaign. John had been an attorney in the DA’s office for almost six years. The time was right.
According to Jim.
Jim had won his bid for senate, and now the focus was to get John on the next ballot for state representative. What was supposed to be a family dinner had turned into a campaign meeting.
That happened a lot these days.
Lately, Hailey’s priorities and John’s were rarely aligned. He commented more frequently about her retiring from Homicide. Even Jim had started dropping hints.
California state legislators did not have homicide inspectors as wives.
The Rookie Club Thriller series Box Set Page 28