Release Date: February 7, 2023
Chapter 1
Friday
FBI Special
Agent Kendall Black knew she’d been to one too many crime scenes when in the
midst of the bloodiest she’d walked into lately—this one in a convenience
store—she wondered who had the tedious job of washing off all the
blood smeared on the cellophane of a five-pack of Donettes. Or did
they throw all the blood-splattered items away because, well, they
were covered in blood? Maybe they put them on a clearance rack. But did they then have to disclose they were part of a murder?
Probably the
best thing would be to send the tainted snacks back to the station with
the patrol cops currently swarming the small store—what looked to be half
the force in Denver. None of them cared if the bag of Cheetos had some
spatter on the front. Free food. No law enforcement officer would pass up
gratis chips and donuts.
Mmm . . . donuts . . .
What she
wouldn’t give for a jelly right about now.
“Can I help
you?” a cop asked, sidestepping around her as she stood in the middle of
the doorway.
“Yeah.” She
flashed her badge. “Can you point me to who’s in charge of the
investigation?”
The cop peered
around the store and pointed to a man at the end of the checkout counter.
“There he is, dark suit, talking to the balding old guy.”
Kendall didn’t
need to see the lead investigator’s face to know it was Adam Taylor. The
two had met and worked together on a case, one near and dear to Kendall’s
heart—the murder of her best friend. During the investigation, Kendall
and Adam had grown close, and she counted him among her tight-knit posse
of confidants.
“Thanks.” She signed
the crime scene log and strode toward Adam and one of his sidekicks, Saul
Chapman.
“Don’t think
for one fucking second that catching this case means you won’t be helping
me move,” she said by way of greeting as she sidled up next to Adam.
“Oh, goody,
they sent you.” He gave her a sideways glance. “I’ve been looking
forward to your wit and charm all morning. What took you so long? Decide
on a bubble bath before coming in?”
“Full-body
massage with a hot Swede.”
“How was
it?”
“Hard.” She
tipped her head toward the body splayed on the floor in the middle of a
large pool of blood. “What’s the story here?”
“Dead guy,”
Saul said, pointing out the obvious.
Kendall
wrinkled her nose. “I don’t do dead guys. I do kids.” “Got one of those
too.”
“Dead?”
Kendall hated starting any day with a dead body, but a dead kid made it
ten times more revolting.
“No,” Adam
said. “But potentially a missing one.” “Elaborate.”
“Bad Guy”—he
pointed to the splayed body—“was trying to rob the store. Apparently had the
child with him. There was another customer at the back of the store by
the coolers, minding his own business. He hears a ruckus at the front of the
store. Bad Guy is demanding money from the cashier, who grabs for a
gun under the counter and aims it at Bad Guy. Things go sideways, Bad Guy gets
a shot off, cashier goes down. Bad Guy kicks cashier’s gun out of the way
and puts another round in cashier’s head.”
“Cops found
them down the alley. Some neighbour called about a guy with a little girl
hiding behind his garage,” Adam said.
“Hiding from
what?”
“Not clear on
that,” Adam said. “I don’t do lost kids. I do dead guys.”
***
Kendall mulled
over the information Adam had given her as she walked across the parking
lot of the convenience store to where police were talking to the Good
Sam. The sun was breaking through the cloud cover, beams of light
bouncing off windows and illuminating the city. This would be considered
a rough part of town. Boarded-up warehouses covered in graffiti and
store
fronts that
hadn’t been painted since they were first constructed competed with the
fast-food conglomerates that always seem to thrive in any community
regardless of the socioeconomics.
The Good Sam,
who looked to be mid-forties, possibly skirting fifty, slouched against the
back end of the police cruiser, one hand grooming his closely trimmed
gray beard. He wore jeans, a light-gray button-up shirt, and tan canvas
shoes. Seemed to be a normal guy, which always set off Kendall’s warning
bells. Most “normal” people she met in her line of work tended to be the
lowest forms of life. Shit dipped in gold. Shiny on the outside, just don’t scratch the surface.
As she
approached the car, the officer stepped forward. She flashed her badge;
he nodded and stepped out of her way. “Hi.” She stuck her hand out for the man,
who was now standing upright in front of her, an eyebrow raised. “I’m FBI
Special Agent Kendall Beck. I was wondering if I could ask you a few
questions?”
“FBI?” The man
asked as he scanned her badge, then met her gaze while shaking her hand.
“I already told the police everything about the shooting.”
“I understand,
Mr. . . . ?”
“Craig,” the
man said. “Melvin.”
“Melvin. I
know it’s hard to keep repeating a story that’s sure to give you
nightmares, but I’m more interested in the girl who was in the store with
you.”
“She wasn’t in
the store with me,” he said, placing emphasis on the word, most
likely to ensure Kendall understood there was a difference. “She was with that
scum of the earth who shot the cashier.” “I was told she was found with
you.”
“Yes, that’s
true,” he said, drawing out the words. “But I just happened to be in the
store. And she was in the store. But she came with the other guy. That’s
all. I don’t know who she is.”
Kendall
smiled, hoping to put the man at ease. She didn’t want the man on the
defensive when it appeared he was trying to help the girl. She had
learned a long time ago to start soft. Bring out the barbed-wire-covered
bat only as a not-so-gentle means of persuasion when necessary. “Perhaps
you should start from the beginning.”
Melvin pulled
his hand down his face and stroked his beard while letting out a long
sigh. “I stopped by to get a Mountain Dew and a breakfast burrito—my
usual breakfast. I was standing at the back cooler when the guy came in with
the little girl. He looked sort of sketchy—”
“What do you
mean by that?”
The man
scratched along his jaw, his eyes squinting just slightly, and Kendall
figured this was a subconscious act. “Well, he wasn’t the kind of guy you
expected to have a little girl with him. His clothes were dirty, his hair
was long, and he looked a bit scraggly. Probably could’ve stood to
shower, you know what I mean?”
Kendall
nodded. She’d met many a sketchy dude in her line of work.
Craig returned
the nod and continued. “And the little girl looked scared. So I kind of
hung back and just watched them. Then the guy tells the cashier to give
him all the money from the register. Next thing I know, both of those
idiots had guns, and then the shooting started.”
“So, just so I
understand, both of them were shooting and you decided to get the girl?”
Craig looked
up and away, as if trying to recall the scene in his mind. “I don’t
remember if they both were shooting—I think the guy shot the cashier
first and she dropped her gun.” “And is that when you decided to pick it
up?”
“Yeah—I don’t
know what I was thinking—the little girl was screaming and I was afraid
the guy was going to shoot her. So I just . . . acted on
instincts, I guess.” He shrugged and looked down at his feet as he rocked
from one to the other.
Kendall gave
him a moment. It was never easy to kill people. Even law enforcement
agents had a tough time dealing with taking a life. This guy might have only
ever shot a gun at a range, taking out a paper man on a target. Not even
close to the same experience. Paper men didn’t bleed. And they didn’t cry
out in agony. It was a whole different ballgame when the shooting involved live flesh and blood. “What happened after you shot the
man?”
Craig looked
at Kendall, then swallowed, staring over her shoulder at the front of the
store. “I just took off. I knew I had to get the girl out of there—she
had already seen too much.” He ran his hand over his beard again, and
Kendall decided it was a nervous tic he probably didn’t realize he was
doing most of the time. “Truth be told, I was a little shaken up as well.
I’ve never seen anyone die. And there was just . . . so
much blood.”
There was a
great deal of truth to the statement. She had been to many violent crime
scenes during her career with the FBI, and it was still unnerving to
actually see how much blood the human body contained. “So why were you
hiding when the police started canvassing the area?”
He inhaled
through his nose and rocked back on his heels. “Honestly, I think I was
in shock or something. I truly thought they were trying to hurt us.” He
shook his head, seemingly somewhat disgusted at the memory. “I know it sounds
silly, but I was just really freaked out.”
“It doesn’t
sound silly at all,” Kendall reassured him. “Even the most seasoned
veteran on the force gets shaken up in a gunfight. You did just fine.” She
glanced back at the store. “You said it’s your routine to come here every
morning, is that right?”
“Not exactly,”
he said. “I am not usually in this part of town. I live in Arvada and go
to the store there.”
“Where is that store? Do you know the cross streets?” “Yeah, it’s off Kipling and Ridge.”
Kendall made a note. “So why were you on this side of town this morning?”“I had a
meeting with a client, but he didn’t show up. So I decided to go into the
store and grab breakfast before heading back to my office.”
“What do you
do for a living?”
“I’m a small
business owner. Sort of a courier. I do all the running around for
businesses whostill deal in documents and stuff. Mostly lawyers, but
today I was supposed to pick up some paperwork for a general
contractor.”
Kendall hadn’t
really considered there were still businesses out there that didn’t do
everything electronically. Didn’t seem as if there would be enough work
to make a living out of it. But then again, if he was one of only a few
who did that type of work, he might be highly sought after by businesses
who needed that service.
“And you’re
certain you don’t know either of the people in the store?”
The man shook
his head and dropped his gaze. “No. Like I said, I’m not usually on this
side of town.”
“And you don’t
know the little girl—at least you didn’t before this morning?”
“Don’t know
anything about her,” he said quickly and firmly, looking Kendall in the
eye.
“Okay, thank
you,” Kendall said, fishing a business card out of her pocket and handing
it to him. “If you think of anything else, please give me a call.”
“Am I free to
go now?” There was a slight edge of irritation to his voice. Weird, but
perhaps the day’s events were starting to catch up with him. There were
many instances where a person went through stages—killing a man was one
of them. Craig was probably going through the stage where he was getting
pissed at everyone associated with this event, especially the person he
shot. But it was difficult to get angry at a dead guy, so he was going
to turn it on the next available living human.
Kendall was
not up for being in his line of fire. It was too early in the day.
“Best to check
with the officer,” she said, and turned away. She wasn’t going to get
into a pissing match with Melvin Craig, and she had no idea whether Adam
still needed to talk to him. Let the uniform deal with Craig and his
attitude. It was good for young pups to learn how to overcome
adversity.
As Kendall
walked back to the c-store to find Adam, she hit the speed dial for her
partner, Jake, and listened to her phone ring until he answered. Loud
chatter and children’s squeals nearly covered his “Hello.”
“Where the
hell are you?” she asked.
“I had to drop
the kid at daycare.”
“They let you
in with a gun?”
“They’re not
happy about it. I get lots of dirty looks.” “That’s not necessarily because you
have a gun.”
“Did you call
for a reason beyond damaging my fragile male ego?”
“Yeah, I’m at
a crime scene. Looks like we found a possible missing girl.”
“Alive?” His
voice was tentative. It sucked having to start the day finding a dead
kid.
“Yes, but I
haven’t had a chance to question her. Apparently, she’s not talking. Adam
had her taken to the PD, so I’m heading over to see if I can at least get
a name and inform her parents.” “What do you need from me?”
“I’m going to
send you some info on the guy she was with. It appears he’s the reason
we’re not investigating her murder. I need you to do some background on
the guy, see if the info he gave me checks out.”
She heard the sound of a car door closing and a vehicle engine starting. “Heading to the office now.”
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I hope you are having a great day
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