“What do you think?” Cassie asked.
“Don’t look like anyone did any surgery here,” Hack said.
“Unless they cleaned up and are in the wind.”
Hack nodded. “You don’t believe that.”
“Nope,” Cassie said.
“What are you guys talking about?” Fowler asked. “Surgery?”
Cassie explained their current thinking on the subject.
“Since they couldn’t take the dude that got shot over at the Finley’s place to the hospital, they brought the surgeon to the victim?” Duckworth asked. “Something like that?”
“Exactly,” Cassie said.
“That’s actually pretty smart,” Fowler said.
“It is. If that’s the deal, we have a multiple murder, a kidnapping, and a robbery-slash-murder.”
“The trifecta,” Fowler said.
Cassie massaged one temple. “Just what we need.”
Hack offered her a smile. “See why I turned the chief job over to you?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Want it back?”
“Not a chance.”
“What now?” Duckworth asked.
Hack hooked his thumbs beneath his belt. “They aren’t here, and it doesn’t look like they ever were. That means they’re somewhere else.”
“We have to find them,” Cassie said. “Soon. I think the doctor is an expendable item. Once he’s done all he can do, or the bad guy with a hole in him dies, they’ll kill him for sure.”
Silence reigned for a full minute, everyone letting that fact sink in.
CHAPTER 30
Marla—shoulders hunched forward, head down—hugged herself as she walked up the street. She felt a deep chill, not from the cold drizzle, but rather from her fast-approaching crash. She waited for two cars to pass, scurried across the street, and turned toward the park. She actually prayed Jason would be there. Who knows, maybe the Holy Ghost was listening today.
As if to answer her prayers, she saw Jason. Leaning against the tree where he always hung out. He held his phone to one ear, but lowered it and slid it into his jean’s pocket as she approached.
“Well, well,” he said, “if it isn’t my new girlfriend.”
Prick.
“What can I do you for?” He looked her up and down. “I’d say you need to get well.”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Marla said. “Tommy was murdered and here you are being all jerky.”
“Look, I’m as freaked by this as you are. It wasn’t just Tommy. It was also Jennifer and their parents.”
“I know.” Marla swiped a sleeve across her nose. “Who could have done that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Fuck me.” Her face screwed down as she tried to hold back her tears. “What am I going to do?”
“You look a little strung out. Need anything?”
She sniffed. “You holding?”
“What do you need?”
“The usual.”
He smiled. “Same deal as last time.”
She slugged his shoulder. “Fuck you, asshole. I’m not going to blow you again.”
“If you don’t want my services, you can haul your ass on down the road.”
God, she wished she could. But Jason was now her only hook up. Did she have a choice here? Either deal with him, or crawl back over to Reverend John’s and ride out the pain. She couldn’t do that right now. She just couldn’t.
“I got money,” Marla said.
Jason gave her a smirky smile. “Then I’ve got what you need.” He touched her cheek. She flinched. “If you’re a little short again, we’ll work something out.” His thumb trailed across her lips.
She pulled away, wiped a sleeve across her mouth as if to remove any residue of his touch. “I got the cash.”
“Too bad.”
“Twenty of meth. Twenty of heroin.”
“My, you have had a good morning.”
She dug a wad of bills, mostly singles and a few fives, from her pocket. “Let’s get this done.”
He looked around, glanced back toward the parking area and the road beyond, then gave a quick nod. He unzipped his backpack and rummaged inside, coming out with two small baggies. She reached for them but he pulled them away.
“You got the forty?”
“Yeah.”
“Or we could still work out a discount.”
“Fuck you, Jason. I got it covered.”
She flattened the bills into a disordered stack, extracted the needed amount, and shoved the remainder in her pocket. She held the cash toward him. He counted the bills and stuffed them in his own pocket before handing her the baggies.
“I’ll be here later tonight,” he said. “When you use this up, come find me.” He actually laughed. “Who knows? Maybe you’ll be a little short on cash.”
She wanted to punch his face but knew she couldn’t. If he cut her off, things could get ugly. She clenched her teeth, and turned toward the park entrance.
That’s when she saw a large black SUV turn into the parking area. Dark windows so she couldn’t see who was inside. Was that the same one she had seen last night? The one that took the doctor? She veered to her right and melted into the trees, taking the long way back through town.
CHAPTER 31
At Cassie’s suggestion, Cain and Harper had grabbed rooms at the Beverley B&B, a converted two-story, white frame house, two blocks off Main Street. The tree-lined neighborhood was quiet, classic small-town America. The inn was in its third generation of ownership, having been founded by Beverley Whitelaw some fifty years earlier and now run by her granddaughter, Julia Mackey. Thirty-something and pleasant. She showed them to a pair of rooms across from each other on the second floor and gave them the lay of the land. The morning breakfast hours, the Wi-Fi password, the essentials.
To Cain, the bed looked inviting. After a night of poor, basically nonexistent sleep, a drive halfway across the state, and all they had seen and done this morning, a brief nap would be nice. Wasn’t going to happen. Buck was missing, the bad guys were out there planning something, and the clock was ticking. Fortunately, he, Harper too, was no stranger to sleep deprivation. Many of his missions had required being “in the field” for days. Hunkering down in the desert or some shithole village, waiting and watching before acting and then humping it to some secret extraction point. Sleep was either never, or in twenty minute bites here and there. So, they settled in quickly and headed
