TWELVE

“Seth! You heard!” Ava yelled over the familiar scream of a police siren.

“I heard?”

“It’s Bella,” Ava said. “She’s been shot. Captain Ferguson called. That’s all I know.”

“Where are you?” Seth asked.

“Denver Health,” Ava said. “Cruiser escort. We just pulled in. Are you coming?”

“I’ll be there,” Seth closed his eyes to say a silent prayer of gratitude. He was about to hang up when he heard the sharp report of a handgun.

“Ah crap,” Ava said, and the line went dead.

Seth drove like a mad man through the streets of Denver. He desperately missed his Denver Police badge and bubble siren. Finally at the Denver Health parking lot, he had to wait until a parking space cleared before he could park.

“I have to go in,” he said to Clara.

She seemed to know exactly what was going on. He rolled the window down on her side. He ruffled her head and ran across the parking lot. He arrived at the entrance to emergency to find Ava’s mother and her older sister near the door. They were holding each other and weeping. Ava was standing near the desk filling out paperwork and talking to a uniformed police officer. Moving toward Ava, he noticed two U.S. marshals striding across the waiting room toward him.

“O’Malley,” the first marshal said. His booming voice caused Ava to spin in place. She ran to him. Her entire body trembled in his arms. She held him tight and pressed her face into the crook of his neck. He shifted her to his left side and looked up when the marshal approached.

“Jasper,” Seth said.

“What do you know?” Deputy U.S. Marshal Jasper asked.

“Nothing,” Seth said. “Was someone shot in the parking lot?”

“Fireworks,” Deputy U.S. Marshal Jasper nodded. “I thought it was shots too.”

“Celebrating a baby,” Deputy U.S. Marshal Jasper’s partner, Deputy U.S. Marshal Kowalski said. “You here to celebrate a baby?”

Seth’s eyes flicked to Ava.

“Your daughter?” Jasper asked.

“Fiancé,” Seth said.

Jasper gave him an assessing look. Seth scowled at him.

“She’s one of Alvin’s girls,” Kowalski said.

“Amelie?” Seth shifted Ava from him.

Her tear-stained face looked up at him. He gave her a soft smile. They both knew he would get more information without her there.

“I need to finish paying for . . . for . . .” She pointed to the desk where she’d been, and he nodded. She wrapped her arms around herself and went back to filling out the paperwork.

“Why are you here?” Seth asked.

“Alvin,” Jasper said. “He was one of ours.”

“Was?”

Jasper and Kowalski nodded.

“What happened?” Seth asked.

“He was having brunch with his youngest daughter,” Kowalski said.

“He wanted to see that woman . . .” Jasper said.

“Yvonne Smith?” Seth asked.

“Yeah, that woman he’s obsessed with,” Jasper said.

“You mean the woman he forced into prostitution and held captive for more than twenty years with threats to her wrongfully incarcerated husband,” Seth raised his eyebrows at Jasper. “That’s not to mention what he did to her daughter.”

“Yeah, her,” Jasper cleared his throat and looked away.

“She’s out of town,” Kowalski said. “Trip to the coast, care of the U.S. Marshal Service.”

“He settled for seeing his youngest daughter,” Jasper said. “The girl begged the office.”

“I thought . . .”

“Right,” Kowalski said. “He’s supposed to have zero contact with his family. Zero. We’d never heard of anything like it.”

“You have it in writing?” Seth asked.

“You better f . . . uh . . .” Kowalski looked around the room. “Yes, O’Malley, we have it.”

“Someone screwed up,” Jasper said.

“Or was well paid,” Seth said.

“What?” Kowalski shook his head at Seth.

“You first,” Seth said. “What happened?”

“Stashed him at the Hyatt downtown,” Jasper said. “He was due to testify this afternoon. The daughter came this morning, and we ordered room service. They were together . . .” Jasper looked at Kowalski.

“Ten minutes,” Kowalski shrugged.

“Ten minutes,” Jasper leaned close to Seth. “She gets there, they hug, we check the room, go over the rules, and step outside.”

“Their food hadn’t even arrived when . . .”

“Through the window from the office building across from the Hyatt,” Jasper’s voice was so low Seth wasn’t sure he heard it.

Seth gave a slight shake of his head.

“High-powered rifle; armor-piercing bullet,” Kowalski held two fingers to his heart. “Double. Straight through the heart.”

“Both of them,” Jasper said. “Bap, bap,  . . . bap, bap. The curtains were closed.”

“They were falling when we got the door open,” Kowalski’s voice dropped an octave. “We . . .”

“CPR – whole nine,” Jasper said.

“It was a hit,” Seth said.

“Or something,” Kowalski said.

“I’m telling you it was a hit,” Seth said. “When this happened, I was with someone who knows.”

The marshals turned their full attention to Seth.

“All of them,” Seth said.

The marshals’ faces flushed. They looked away from Seth.

“No brass?” Jasper asked.

“Tire weight lead,” Seth said.

“Have to wait for the coroner,” Jasper said.

“How?” Kowalski asked.

“A dying friend asked me to look into what he thought was a few cases in the nineties,” Seth said. “Murder-for-hire; three to five hits a summer in medium-to-small cities across the country; first one in 1913. I’m closing in on a name.”

“Your contact didn’t know?” Jasper asked.

“Didn’t say,” Seth said. “And Bella?”

Seth’s voice cracked, and he cleared his throat. Even though he hadn’t known her long, he’d been very fond of the spunky girl. He looked away to control his sorrow.

“Got her heart going again, but they couldn’t keep it going.” Jasper shook his head.

“She didn’t suffer,” Kowalski said. “Neither did he, the bastard. I . . .”

The U.S. marshals looked at each other. Jasper shook his head and Kowalski closed his mouth.

“Hate is not really a strong enough word when used for that man,” Seth said.

The marshals nodded in agreement.

“What are you going to do?” Seth asked.

“Clean up,” Jasper said. “We’re relieved of duty, which means we have piles of paperwork.”

“What are you going to do?” Kowalski asked.

“Catch the killer before he . . .” Seth nodded his head toward Ava.

“Good plan,” Jasper said.

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