Caribbean Rain (31 page)

Don’t be ridiculous
.

He jumped. The deep voice ringing in his head had startled him.

“I know you’re right, but . . .” he said.

There are no damned buts. Don’t forget what your mother looked like at the bottom of those steps
.

That image was eternal. He still saw her on every turn and in every dream. He grasped the handle of the valise and squeezed.

Not to mention the, well, let’s call it what it is, the bloodlust. Have you ever felt anything so right? So perfect
?

He hadn’t.

Then the voice was gone. But that was of no consequence. He’d accomplished his goal; the game was on and in full glory. Tonight would be a night that Puerto Rico and the rest of the world would never forget. Life was full of tradeoffs, and tonight he’d switch one icon for another, his way.

Moving through the front door, he gingerly placed the case on the front seat, strapped in with the seatbelt, and smiled as he backed out of the driveway.

Chapter-60

Another shot smashed into the dirt beside Manny’s leg, and the spray from the dark soil peppered his arm, stinging like so many angry insects. He rolled on his back and slid down the small embankment that sandwiched a tiny tributary running to the La Mina River, hopefully out of sight of the shooter. Then he pulled his Glock, glancing at Braxton. The big man was motionless, and the blood had begun to form a small pool around his shaved head.

The next shot caused Braxton’s body to lurch from his resting place as the bullet hit him in the back.

Shit. He strained to see if Braxton was still breathing, but couldn’t tell.

Manny had always told Jen that life had defining lessons and not all of them would be the kind that made us feel good. Some would separate us from the comfort we enjoyed and force us to either embrace or reject our convictions, completely or in part. How could he expect her to accept that as truth if he didn’t live it himself, so right now he was about to do just that. He couldn’t leave Braxton out there. He was probably already dead, but maybe . . .

A fourth bullet splintered the root of the Tabonuco tree to his right, a foot from his head, immediately releasing the pungent smell of its sap.

Now was the time. There had been at least a few seconds between shots. He scrambled out of the ditch. A moment later, he had Braxton’s shirt in both hands and was pulling with all he had. The man was an easy three hundred pounds, but adrenaline was magic.

The next shot went high; maybe three feet, and he and Braxton tumbled into the alcove, Braxton on top. Blood still was coming from the first wound, but not as heavy. Manny pushed, managing to roll him over on his back, while another shot echoed through the clearing. Except . . . this one sounded different. That’s when he heard the shouting. A few more shots erupted, accompanied immediately by a scream of pain that caused a visit from the Goose Bump Fairy. Straining, he thought he heard a woman yell. The source was much closer than the first shouts, and then he saw her. Chloe was swearing in Gaelic, a trick she said she’d teach him. She called someone a name, then began shouting Manny’s name. He couldn’t help thinking about the reputations redheads have for losing their temper. He reminded himself, again, not to walk on that wild side.

“I’m here, and we need an ambulance,” he yelled. “Now.”

Chloe burst around the bend leading to the bridge, Josh and Sophie right behind, followed by an unexpected fourth. Alex was panting, but running just the same.

“Are ya hurt man? ‘Cause if you die on me, I’ll kill ya.”

“Not me. Braxton here has been shot twice. We ne—”

Leaping into his arms, Chloe held him tight, trying to stifle a sob he guessed was born of pure relief. He understood. He almost lost it.

Is there anything better than the love of a good woman?

“I’m okay. A little shook up, but okay,” he whispered.

She nodded without taking her face out of the crook of his neck. “Don’t smell all rosy, though, do ya?” she said, her voice gaining strength.

“What the hell happened?” asked Sophie as she bent to Braxton. “And why is Fogerty’s Goliath your new best friend?”

Chloe stepped back, running her finger under her eye. Good God, she was more beautiful each time he saw her.

“He’s undercover with the DEA.”

“That explains what the shooter was doing,” said Josh.

“Damn, he looks dead,” said Sophie.

As if to answer Sophie’s statement, Braxton moaned. It was like music to Manny’s ears. Then his hand reached for his head. Sophie grabbed it. “Don’t touch that, big man, your meat hooks are dirty. We’ve already sent for help.”

His eyes were glassy, but he tried to sit up, cringed, grabbing his back, and seemed to think better of it. “Damn, dat wasn’t funny.”

Moving Sophie out of the way, Alex looked at the wound on his head, pulled out a pair of latex gloves, and began to gently touch the area where Braxton had been hit.

“Gloves? Still?” chided Sophie.

“Bite me. They come in handy, right? Anyway, I think it’s just a graze. It looks much worse than it is. He’ll make it, I think.”

“Whoa. What about the shot in the back? That made me sick when it hit you.” said Manny.

“Dat Kevlar is good stuff,” Braxton responded. “I’ll be sore, but living.”

He began to sit up again, seemed to think better of it, and laid back down. “I’ll just wait for dat ambulance.”

“It’ll be here in a few. There’s one up by the hut with the four bodies,” said Alex.

“Good,” said Manny. He motioned toward Josh.

“You said something about explaining the shooter. I suspect I wasn’t the main target, but two for the price of one? And why are you all here? Not that I’m complaining, mind you.”

“We had some inside info that Fogerty probably knew where we all were this morning and took it from there.”

“Inside info?”

“Ruiz. Seems he was talking to Fogerty and his people real often,” said Josh.

Raising his eyebrow, Manny stared at Josh. “Ruiz? I didn’t have him pegged for that. He was a little nervous, then the whole thing about his daughter seemed to have him more than distracted. What else did he say?”

“Ah, not much. He’s gone. Fogerty again. Ruiz was able to give us that much before he died, plus we sent Dean to pick up some evidence Ruiz said he had at his house that would give us names and places,” said Josh.

Manny bowed his head. It was hard not to think that Ruiz’s torture regarding his daughter, and maybe life in general, was over. He hoped that the detective really was residing in that “better place.”

“Sorry to hear it, truly. His life hadn’t seen too many bright spots the last few years.”

“No, it hadn’t. Maybe a little peace now, huh?” said Chloe.

“I hate to seem cold, and I always say we can cry tomorrow, but it’s true. So, what about the shooter that kept Braxton and me company?”

“Must be Fogerty figured something out about Braxton and sent the man up here to make sure Braxton took care of you, then he would be next. We called Alex to see what direction you’d headed and were on our way to the first scene when we just happened to hear a shot,” said Josh.

“Yeah. What a dumbass,” said Sophie. “You could almost see him from the curve where we parked. It didn’t take long to find him, and we were up his butt. And then he got dumber.”

“What do you mean?”

Sophie smiled at Chloe. “She figured out in a heartbeat what was going on, that maybe you started from the last to the first, and she was right. She beat us to the shooter and told him to stop, he took another shot, then she took one of her own and hit him in the left cheek, the one below his waist.”

“Didn’t want to kill him, but the next one would have ended his miserable life. I would’ve tracked Fogerty down if this one had done his job,” said Chloe.

“I bet you would have,” said Manny.

Fogerty.

“Oh shit. I just remembered.”

“What?” asked Alex.

“Braxton got a call from one of his agents. Fogerty’s dead.”

“Dead? How?” asked Josh, surprised.

“Dey got him trying to escape. Dat’s all I know,” said Braxton, eyes still closed.

“I guess that’s good enough for now,” said Josh.

The ambulance crew came around the bend hauling a stretcher and two medical kits and quickly went to work on the big man. Manny smiled. He didn’t know how they were going to get him on that stretcher and back to the vehicle, but it was going to be a show. He was as large as the two EMTs put together.

He bent down to Braxton. “We’ll talk more later, but we’ve got to go. We’ve got a bead on a few things with this crazy bastard, and we have to compare notes.”

“You can bring me flowers, but you’re right: you need to find dis one. He don’t feel straight.”

Sophie volunteered to go get the other SUV. Ten minutes later, Manny was standing by his vehicle with Dean and Chloe, who wouldn’t let him move two feet from her. Sometimes smothered is good.

Josh was on the phone, trying to reach his office and then Dean. Alex had followed Josh’s lead and wanted to see if the lab had anything for him, plus a status on the latest murder site processing from the local CSU.

Out of nowhere, Sophie tore into the parking lot steering the FBI’s SUV, skidded to a stop, revved the engine, and then hopped out.

“That thing moves, I got to tell ya.”

“You’re going kill yourself one of these days,” said Manny.

“Maybe, but not today.”

“Good ta know,” grinned Chloe.

Sophie turned to Manny. “Alex said you found something at that last murder scene. What was it?”

By then, Josh and Alex had joined the rest of them.

“It looks like he left the number ‘2’ on the ground at the murder site, but you really couldn’t see it until you got up ten or twelve feet.”

“How’d you think of that?”

“It sort of popped into my head. I just remembered something from a class a long time ago.”

“But the question is: did he do it at the other murder scenes or am I smoking dope?”

“Let me answer that,” said Alex. “I took the liberty of sending two CSIs to the tower after I got your message and I’m waiting for those images. Meanwhile, I got one of the blues to climb the big tree near the south end of the hut. Look at these.”

Alex opened up his tablet and flashed to the pictures.

On the right side of the hut, closest to the sun, was a distinct “1” carved into the embankment.

Chapter-61

“We’ve got a boatload of information to share, and we’ve not exactly been in a place to do that until now,” Josh announced, standing at the head of the table inside the conference room at the Federal Building.

Josh turned to Crouse. “How’s your relationship with your ex?”

“What? What the hell does that have to do with anything?”

“Just tell me.”

Crouse folded her arms in that familiar position of rebellion. “Not a relationship at all. I haven’t seen him for at least a year. We were married for five months and nothing worked for us. The sex was good, but I loved being a cop more than I loved him. He loved his work and that stuck-up fencing club more than me. Tell me why that’s important.”

Sophie shared the information about the fencing clubs and their conversation with Donald Flores.

Crouse snorted at the part about putting Samuel Crouse on the top of the list. “He never liked Sam much. He was better at the game than Flores and had more money. Plus, they didn’t like each other from some political shit at the University that cost Flores a class or two. He didn’t need the money, but his ego is bigger than a cruise ship.”

“What about the part about your ex losing his mom? I’d bet you a million this unsub had an event that triggered this spree,” said Manny.

She shook her head. “His mom passed over a year ago. I went to the funeral in Miami and that’s the last time I saw Sam. Not a few months ago, if that’s what he said.”

“We’ll have Flores picked up to talk some more, but we finished checking out his story, and were able to verify that he was out of town when the murders started,” said Josh.

“Anything else?” asked Manny.

“That’s it. Except how he loved those old swords he spent a fortune on. It all added up to a perfect storm for divorce and not being in each other’s world. Oh, wait. He’s a suspect, isn’t he?”

“Yes. A viable one.”

Manny leaned closer. Chloe had filled him in, she hadn’t mentioned names.

The phone in Josh’s shirt pocket rang, and he answered. It didn’t take long for the expression on his face to reflect a new development. “What do you mean he’s dead? Son of a bitch.” Josh spun away from the table, then spoke into the phone. “Okay, get a team out there. Alex and Dean will be busy for a while.”

Punching the stop button, he tossed the phone on the table. It rattled and then stopped in front of Manny.

“Who’s dead?” Manny asked.

Rubbing his face, Josh scoped the table and stopped at Julia. At that moment, his boss appeared older than Noah after the flood.

“Sam was a suspect, along with a few others, but not anymore. I sent two agents over to talk to him, and they found him inside the front door. It wasn’t pretty.”

“Sam’s . . . dead?” Crouse stammered.

“I’m afraid so. I’m sorry to have to tell you this way.”

The rest of the room grew silent. Their faces displayed the same mixture of surprise, anger, and sadness that Josh was feeling, and none of them had ever met the man. Cops would always feel deeply for another cop’s loss, because they knew they were only a call away from the same fate. Manny recalled the day his old partner Kyle Chavez had died, and then Louise’s face flashed across his mind. There really wasn’t any escaping those ghosts. Julia would have to learn what he already knew: you live with them and hope they don’t visit too often.

Exhaling, the San Juan detective stared at the table, then got up and paced back and forth, struggling to find poise that was doing its best to elude her. Manny hated that feeling.

“You should leave . . .” said Josh.

She stepped around the room, then sat down, jutted out her chin and swore in Spanish, smacking the table with the flat of her hand, tears smearing her makeup.