Chapter 9 - THE WAREHOUSE
Titan could barely stand.
I wasn’t bringing him anywhere.
Vale didn’t know that.
SWAT surrounded the Harbor Island warehouse within forty minutes.
I sat inside the command vehicle listening as negotiators tried to establish contact.
No answer.
Lucas Bennett might be alive.
Or the photograph might have been hours old.
Harris looked at me.
“You stay here.”
“I know.”
“Say it like you mean it.”
“I’ll stay here.”
He didn’t believe me.
Neither did I.
A tactical officer entered.
“We have movement inside.”
“Bennett?”
“Unknown.”
Then gunfire cracked through the night.
Three shots.
Every officer outside moved.
The radio exploded.
“Shots fired! South side!”
“Entry team moving!”
“Possible suspect exiting north!”
I stood.
Harris shouted, “Jack!”
A man burst from a side door fifty yards away.
Gray hoodie.
Dark cap.
Vale.
He sprinted toward the industrial yard.
Two officers chased him.
I stayed where I was.
For about three seconds.
Then I saw what he was carrying.
A plastic carrier.
My mind flashed to the park.
To the porch.
To Titan collapsing.
“Damn it.”
I ran.
Vale disappeared between stacked shipping containers.
I followed the sound of his shoes on gravel.
“Ethan!”
He stopped.
I rounded the corner.
He was standing twenty feet away.
The container sat at his feet.
His right hand held a pistol.
“Don’t.”
I raised my hands.
“Okay.”
“You brought him?”
“No.”
His face twisted.
“Where’s the dog?”
“In the hospital.”
“You’re lying.”
“He nearly died.”
Vale’s expression changed.
For half a second, satisfaction.
That made me want to hit him more than anything in my life ever had.
“You liked hearing that.”
“He deserved it.”
“He’s a dog.”
“He ruined me.”
“You ruined yourself.”
Vale raised the pistol.
“You think you’re better than me?”
“No.”
“You wear that badge like it makes you different.”
“I wear it because someone has to stop people like you from putting rattlesnakes beside children.”
His hand shook.
“That girl wasn’t supposed to be bitten!”
“But she could have been.”
“He was supposed to attack!”
“He protected her.”
“Shut up!”
His finger tightened near the trigger.
Then we both heard shouting behind him.
Police.
Vale panicked.
He kicked the plastic carrier.
It flipped.
The lid cracked open.
Something thick spilled onto the gravel.
A rattlesnake.
Vale stumbled backward.
The snake coiled.
His gun swung toward it.
“Don’t shoot!” I yelled.
The gun fired.
The bullet struck metal.
The snake struck Vale above the ankle.
He screamed.
Dropped the pistol.
I kicked it away.
Vale collapsed.
“Help me!”
The rattlesnake recoiled under a shipping pallet.
I grabbed Vale by the coat and dragged him clear.
He stared at me.
“You’re helping me?”
“I’m a cop.”
“You hate me.”
“Yeah.”
I dragged him farther.
“That doesn’t mean I let you die.”
SWAT officers reached us.
Paramedics followed.
As they loaded Vale onto a stretcher, I grabbed one officer.
“Bennett?”
“Alive.”
I exhaled.
Then the officer continued.
“But he told detectives something.”
“What?”
“He says Vale didn’t come up with the plan.”
I stared at him.
“What are you talking about?”
“Bennett says someone paid Vale.”
“Who?”
“He doesn’t know the name.”
The officer hesitated.
“But the money came from someone connected to the Carter family.”
Emily’s family.
May you like
And suddenly the case became much worse.
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