Jay felt his ego twinge at what he knew he would have to do. For Stella, he would have to give up all of his pride, and even then, it might not be enough. Jay relaxed his fist to stop the USB from biting deeper into his palm.
The fact that Gary was now his only hope was a twist of fate he’d never expected. He couldn’t help but appreciate the irony as he prepared to leave and catch Gary at the one time he seemed to be alone every day.
***
Hector looked at the search he’d run and frowned. Had Jay not checked the facts himself? If he had, how had he missed this?
He let his hazel eyes lose focus as he thought of possible options. He dismissed calling Jay straight away. The man was notorious for getting annoyed at shoddy work. If he was going to raise those kinds of suspicions, then he needed to be sure, needed to have hard evidence. The man’s working history might be wrong, or maybe the company was just behind on paperwork.
He shook his head and took a look at the other posts. His finger flew across the keyboard as he ran a search for their addresses. His frown deepened.
Who spent their life flitting around the US? And what was a Seattle-born man doing speaking with a Louisiana accent and claiming Shreveport as his ‘hometown’?
Although, really, it was Jay who said that. Maybe he misspoke.
“You got a moment?”
Hector looked up to see his wife entering his office. “Of course. Have you found something yet?”
Natalie gave him a small smile, but it didn’t reach her olive eyes. “The box was as Jay had suspected. A complete jumble of fingerprints. I’ve gotten a few that are usable and run them through the system. Two belong to people who died in the Salisbury fires. A Stanley and Susan Porter. Owners of an antique store called The Bronze Rose.”
“Isn’t that where Jay got that box from in the first place?”
Natalie nodded.
Hector shut his eyes. In the four years that Jay had been imprisoned, he had spent the time going over every move his old friend had made in his bid to bring Myra Piers justice for her murder at the hands of Matthew Goldstein. Everything he had found had told him that his old friend had never stopped having his back, even when he was annoying him near senseless. He was backing him on this because he felt he owed him. If Jay had not been willing to step outside the law, to do the unthinkable and give up everything, his sister Myra would never have been given justice.
He opened his eyes to find Natalie watching, a small smile on her lips. “I can see what you’re thinking, and no, we’re not backing out now.”
“But if people are being murdered, Nat, we—”
“We,” she countered, “are already in too deep. You think that if all this is so carefully planned that the owners of The Bronze Rose were murdered as soon as they’d fulfilled their part, then how can you think they’d let us off?”
Hector heaved a heavy sigh. “You’re right. What else have you found?”
“Jay’s prints obviously and still running three more. On the bracelet I have found Stella’s and two others. One came back as some guy called Lloyd Bailen and the last aren’t through yet.”
Hector shook his head, making a note of the name. “I’ll run a check for Lloyd.”
Natalie opened her mouth then froze as both turned their heads in the direction of footsteps. It was far beyond normal working hours, and Hector was certain that only they had been left at the precinct. He would have preferred to work from home, but Natalie needed access to the lab and so they had stayed here.
He gestured for her to get behind him and unholstered his gun, aiming it at the glass door to his office. He was glad that the lights were on. It would be impossible for anyone to sneak into the bullpen without him seeing them first.
The footsteps stopped out in the hallway and they both tensed. Hector gave her a gentle nudge toward the window as the sound of someone shifting something heavy and metallic reached their ears. He couldn’t guess what their intruder might be doing, but he was certain that they were not a friend. Any one of his people would have seen the lights on and come to greet him.
Natalie moved half a step then crashed back into him, her hand muffling a scream. Hector turned his gun on the window where the outline of a very large man was visible against the street lamps. The man was making frantic motions towards the window while inside the scraping finally stopped.
Hector swallowed a warning as Natalie suddenly darted forward to unlatch the window.
“What are you doing?” he hissed in her ear. Holding her fast, he swiveled his gun between the window and the door, trying not to let the fear licking up his spine get the better of his common sense.
“Look at what he is holding,” she hissed back.
Hector followed her glance and saw the small stone pendant dangling from the huge man’s hand. It had once been Myra’s. She had gifted it to Jay, and Jay had given it to Hector when he was imprisoned. He had returned it to Jay the day he was released. He felt his grip loosen on Natalie’s arm, and she made quick work of silently unlatching the window.
“Finally,” rumbled a deep bass voice. “Thought I was going to have to leave you two.”
“How do you have that?” Hector asked, glancing once at the man, then back to the entrance where his gun was trained.
“I’m the man Jay asked to keep you two alive. He thought
