“Fuck!” Mitch cried, as the two of them raced toward him. “Riverton!” Mitch yelled into his iPort. “Officer down! I repeat, Officer down! Outside hub 9! Send help now. Hurry!”
Salvi reached Beggs and dropped to her knees. His body was visibly broken in places and he semi-consciously groaned in pain.
“Beggs!” she said. “Beggs! Don’t move. We’ve got you. You’re gonna be alright, okay?” His eyes fluttered open and closed, but no words came to his bloodied mouth.
They heard sirens in the distance as the officers on the graveyard shift began to exit the hub doors and run toward them. Mitch was beside her, his weapon drawn as he turned in circles, watching their perimeter for more vehicles.
“Hold on, Beggs!” she said, holding his hand. “Hold on!” She looked up at Mitch. “We gotta get to Hinde before that autocab does.”
“He’s already dead,” Mitch said. “The question is, why did they want Beggs dead? What does he know that we don’t?”
As the other officers gathered around them with a first aid kit and blankets, Salvi stood. “Take care of him.” She tapped her holo-badge. “Officers Brentt and Grenville. We’ll issue statements to the department’s AI, but right now we’re pursing the suspect.”
The officer pressing bandages against Beggs’ bloody wounds nodded, and the two of them raced back toward the Raider.
Within twenty minutes, Riverton reported that Drone-29 had located Hinde’s vehicle. The Raider raced toward the location, on the edge of the Presidio. As they neared, Mitch slowed the Raider. Hinde’s car lights were on and the driver’s door was open. Two marked cars were already there and had blocked off the road either side of the vehicle, while the drone, on protocol, circled the perimeter searching for body heat signatures in the park.
Salvi and Mitch exited their Raider, tapped their holo-badges, pulled their guns and approached the vehicle carefully.
“He’s dead,” one of the officers told them. Salvi’s shoulders slumped as she peered inside the open door of the vehicle.
Hinde had a single bullet wound to the head. She knew the wound was not self-inflicted. Hinde’s hands were empty. His gun was still in its holster, and there were no other weapons visible. She looked at Mitch, who shone his weapon’s torchlight into the backseat of the car.
“The ghost is scared,” she said, unable to hide the concern in her voice.
“Is he?” Mitch asked, glancing at her, then at the uniformed officers who had beaten them to the scene. “Or is he just still cleaning house?”
“We need to know what Hinde knew. I’ll call Ford.”
“And Sorensen,” Mitch said. “Get all of them in. It’s time for everyone to lay their cards on the table.”
Salvi watched as the whole team gathered in the empty office tenancy: Ford, Noble, Sorensen, Shadid, Bronte, Hernandez, and Mitch. By the time they had arrived, Riverton had located the autocab, abandoned on the side of the street near the city centre. It had been hacked and remote controlled.
“What the fuck is going on?” Ford asked Sorenson, folding her arms. “If you know something you better tell me, because we got another dead detective, and I’ve got one of mine in the hospital in a real fuckin’ bad way!”
Sorenson raised his hands. “I don’t know what this was about.”
“Was he working this case for you at Floor to Ceiling?”
“No.”
“Was he working another case at Floor to Ceiling?”
“He might have been chasing a lead–”
“Might have?” Ford asked. “Our AI has pegged him twelve times in that place over the last month. That’s as far as Chaney’s surveillance went. God knows how long he’s been frequenting there.”
Sorenson exhaled, clenching his jaw. “I don’t know anything about it. I guess I had a cop that liked the sleazy life. I can’t control what they do off duty. How’d he make it into the club in the first place?”
“I guess he had friends in the right places,” Ford said, then turned to Noble. “You know anything about this?”
He shook his head. “No. He was helping us with this money laundering case, said he’d been hitting the club scene, but he never mentioned the Ceiling.”
“Kara?” Salvi asked. “You never saw him there?”
Kara looked edgy. “I saw him once. I asked him about it afterward and he said he’d followed a lead there. I didn’t think anything of it.”
“When was this?” Ford asked.
“A couple of weeks back. Before Caine died.”
“Did Caine see him?” Salvi asked.
Kara looked edgy again. “I don’t know.”
“Did Hinde ID Caine as a cop to our ghost?” Salvi asked, trying to control the fire that was shooting through her veins. “Because if he did…”
“I don’t know!” Kara said. “But if he did, then why didn’t he ID me?”
“Kara?” Sorensen asked his detective. “Is that everything you know? Do not fucking lie to me. We’ve got countless shields out there undercover. If they’re in danger too..?”
“I swear!” she said vehemently. “I liked Caine, alright. I would never betray the badge!”
Ford turned back to Noble. “If he was working the money laundering case, then what link brought him there?”
“I don’t know!” he said. “We’re stripping our digital files looking for whatever we can. As soon as we know something, I’ll tell you.”
“Fuck this shit!” Ford barked angrily. “People are hacking autocabs now!”
“Hey,” Sorenson said. “I know one of your guys is in the hospital, but don’t forget that one of my detectives has been murdered. Innocent until proven guilty, huh? Maybe he liked it seedy, fine, but maybe he also saw something he shouldn’t have.”
“Then he should’ve reported it!” Ford said.
“He didn’t report it,” Bronte said carefully, “because he knew it would implicate himself and he might lose his badge.”
“What’s Riverton got to say about the conversation between Beggs and Hinde at the hub?” Sorensen asked Ford.
“Hinde said nothing,” she said. “Beggs did all the talking.”
“Yeah, your guy handled things just great, by the way,” Noble said. “We could’ve had Hinde here
