Jake cursed to himself as they covered the councilman’s face and zipped up the bag. Far too many bodies; he’d seen far too many lately. He’d never expected the asshole Dennis Lee to go after Annie. They’d set the trap for the councilman using the mayor as bait.
Jake and Elliot had thought they had things contained.
There was a leak somewhere in the TSP. Jake was absolutely convinced of it now.
This shouldn’t have happened, shouldn’t have gotten so close to his family.
Not Annie. They’d come too close to losing her for his peace of mind. He loved her almost as much as he did Izzie. Jake didn’t take what had happened lightly.
That she was hurt tonight royally pissed him off.
Hell, Jake was exhausted. He’d suspected someone on the city council had been involved. He’d even suspected the mayor was a target.
But Annie? Never would he have risked her—or let anyone else risk her. Not her. Hell. This shouldn’t have happened.
He hadn’t even known she was involved with that damned Barratt. Not like this. Not that deeply. He knew her well enough to know this was the real deal with the mayor.
Annie was in love.
Jake wasn’t too thrilled that he’d missed so much with his family lately. He’d have to change that.
He looked at the man next to him. “This is getting way out of hand. I don’t think it was just him. There’s more to it than this. One man couldn’t be responsible for everything that we suspect.”
Elliot Marshall nodded. He was a good man. A few years older than Jake. Jake trusted Marshall probably more than he did anyone else other than McKellen on the force. He and Daniel McKellen had been partners back ten years ago. They had had each other’s backs then and they still had them now. “Evers called. Wallace Henedy’s son was shot in his front hallway tonight; Callum and Evers pulled the case. He got out of surgery an hour ago. No one knows why he was targeted. With his mother being on the council with Arnold, there could be a connection to this tonight.”
Jake swore. That made a hell of a lot of sense. With Izzie’s connection to the Henedys, that was going to mean trouble for Jake. Damn it. He needed a vacation. When all of this was over, he was going to tap into his savings and take Izzie to Italy for a while. See their family. It had been far too long. “What’s going on here?”
“Keep digging, Jake,” Marshall said. “I want to know everything that Arnold had his grubby little fingers in. There are more connections going on than we think.”
“I’ll keep on it.” This was only the beginning. Every instinct Jake had was telling him exactly that.
He stepped back as the evidence tech, Chuckie again, nodded and stood. She made such an odd sight in the paper coveralls. Her boss, Haldyn, stood nearby, giving orders. They were good at what they did.
Nothing would be missed. Jake had complete trust in this forensic team.
Not that Jake needed the evidence to tell him what had happened. Annie made one hell of a good witness.
He’d never forget the sight of her tonight. Nor would he ever forgive.
A cell phone rang nearby.
From the body bag.
Chuckie unzipped the bag quickly. She pulled the cellphone free of the man’s breast pocket.
It was the second phone they’d found on him. Who needed two phones? Jake wished he didn’t even have to carry the one. Chuckie looked at Jake. “You want to do the honors? Or should I?”
She never looked at Dan. She was one of the very few women who didn’t seem to get along with Dan. She far preferred Jake.
Jake could handle that. When all of this was over, he was going to ask the woman out. Nothing serious, but…he was tired of dealing with the darkness all the time. When this case was finally over and all of his hard work over the last year and a half paid off, he…was going to do some reevaluating of his life. See what he wanted to do now. “You go ahead, Chuck.”
“It’s Councilwoman Jennifer Henedy, boys. Anyone want to speak with her?”
Jake shook his head. There were a million and one reasons a councilwoman would be calling a councilman. “The only real question is why is she calling him at one a.m.?”
“That’s something Callum and I will ask in the morning,” Dan said.
Marshall nodded. “Jake, if we find out she’s involved, hand this over to Callum and Evers. They just finished with the Talivois case.”
Jake bit back a retort. He got where both men were coming from. That didn’t mean he had to like it. Things were starting to look a little too connected to him for this case. There had to be a reason for it.
He stared at the man’s body for a long time. He knew one thing was for sure.
Those responsible for making a cluster fuck of the hospital where his niece and Annie and their friends worked were on borrowed time. Jake was coming for them. No one threatened his family and got away from it.
No one.
He owed them for Annie now, too.