No One Left to Tell (24 page)

‘Oh.’ That stung. ‘So you knew everything about last summer before I told Stevie.’

‘I haven’t read the file. I wanted to learn about you on my own. And I did. I looked for Peabody’s food when you were asleep. I thought maybe it was in your spare room.’

She wanted to frown, but didn’t. ‘It’s not.’

‘I got that. There have to be a hundred trophies in there.’

‘A hundred thirty-five. I used to compete on the US and world circuits. Weapons and
kata
. Did a little fighting, too.’

‘And now all those trophies are sitting there collecting dust.’

‘Past life,’ she muttered. ‘Onto something new.’

He looked at her for a moment. ‘Why?’

‘Because,’ she said impatiently, ‘I’m done being Super Karate Woman.’

‘Because of what happened last summer.’

‘Yes,’ she said evenly. ‘Which, I imagine, is in the file your assistant created. If not, you should hire a new assistant.’

‘I didn’t hire her, which is a good thing.’

She blinked. ‘What? Why?’

‘Because if it’d been my call, I wouldn’t have given her a chance. She’s brash and bold and . . .’ He shrugged. ‘Damn good. If I’d listened to myself, I would have lost out.’

She narrowed her eyes. ‘And aren’t you the clever armchair shrink?’

He grinned, so artlessly that she couldn’t stay mad. ‘My sister Zoe is a shrink, so I learned it honestly.’

‘How many sisters do you have?’

‘Three. Lisa, Zoe, and Holly. Then there’s Joseph, our brother.’

‘They’re all Carters? No other Smiths?’

His grin all but disappeared. ‘They’re all Carters. My mother and I are Smiths.’

‘Then how did they come to be family?’

‘My mom and I came to live with the Carters when I was a kid,’ he said carefully. ‘We were just about homeless when Mrs C gave my mom a job. We became close. The Carters are wonderful people.’

‘They sound like it. Why were you homeless?’

‘Because my dad left us.’

She knew there was a lot more story there. She wanted to know it all, but his expression had tensed and she decided to ask more about his father at another time. ‘What did Mrs Carter hire your mom to do?’

‘To be a nanny. Holly was a newborn with health problems. Mrs C needed help with the other kids. She offered us the apartment over the garage and, seeing as we had no home, Mom jumped at the opportunity.’ He hesitated. ‘By the way, she wants to meet you. My mother, I mean. She’s invited you to dinner tonight.’

Paige bit her lip, guilt pricking her conscience.
Yes, I know
. ‘Grayson, about that . . . I need to tell you something.’ A loud thud from the apartment above shook the walls. Her teacup clattered on the nightstand and a photograph fell off the wall.

Peabody sprang from his crate, once more crouched and growling.

‘What was that?’ Grayson said, looking up.

‘Peabody, easy.’ Paige glared at the ceiling. ‘It’s those idiots that live upstairs.’ Another thud had her whipping back the blanket and throwing open the closet door.

‘Holy shit, Paige,’ Grayson hissed. ‘What the hell
is
that?’

He pointed to the shotgun propped against the closet wall. She rolled her eyes. ‘I’m not going to shoot them, for God’s sake.’ She grabbed the next tool in the closet.

‘Okay,’ he said more calmly. ‘I repeat. What the hell is
that
?’

She brandished her weapon of choice, a mop to which she’d bungied a heavy book. She jumped on the bed, grasped the handle in both hands and banged the book against the ceiling. ‘Shut up!’ she yelled. ‘Just shut the hell up!’

Grayson watched, astonished. ‘I take it they make noise often.’

‘Five times a week. The mom has this boyfriend who only comes over at night. They’re either having really rough sex or doing the polka. Unfortunately she also has a kid, who’s only fourteen. I’d feel sorry for him if he weren’t such a damn creep.’ She gave the ceiling another pounding for good measure. ‘That’s for taking video of me and sending it to that rat bastard Radcliffe.’

‘The kid upstairs took the video? You knew all along?’

‘Sure. Logan’s taken video of me before. Kid’s a stalker. I told him if he didn’t stop, I’d sic Peabody on his ass. I didn’t see him taping me again, but obviously he did.’

‘Why don’t you complain to the building manager?’

‘I have. Many times. He just says boys will be boys. One of these days . . .’

Another crash from above shook the walls. ‘What are they doing up—’

A gunshot cracked the air, followed by a terrified scream.

Paige stared at Grayson for a split second before jumping off the bed and grabbing the shotgun. She ran to the front door, Grayson right behind her.

She flipped the three deadbolts, freezing when Grayson’s hand came down hard on the door. ‘Wait,’ he said. ‘Let’s see what’s out there before we go off all half-cocked.’

He bent to look through the peephole. Then took her shotgun from her, saying, ‘Call 911. The kid upstairs is being dragged down the stairs by a guy in a ski mask.’

He opened the door and slid through before she could utter another word. She ran back to her bedroom to get her cell phone and the .357 from her nightstand drawer.

She described the situation to the 911 operator as she ran to the front door. ‘Tell the cops it’s the same building where the woman was shot by a sniper this morning.’

She headed down the stairs to Grayson but stopped at the sound of a tormented cry. Logan’s mother was on the landing above, covered in blood, clawing her way across the floor.

Paige pressed the phone to her ear. ‘Are you still there?’ she asked the operator.

‘Yes. Emergency responders are about two minutes from your location.’

‘My neighbor’s been shot. She needs an ambulance. Fast.’

‘
Stop
,’ Grayson shouted. ‘Let the boy go or I’ll shoot your damn head off.’

The man abruptly halted on the sidewalk, holding Logan in front of him, a gun pointed at the boy’s head. Logan was bleeding from his leg.

‘Drop the shotgun,’ the man snarled. ‘Put it on the ground and step away.’

Grayson weighed the options, wondering where Paige was, hoping she’d stayed inside where it was safe. ‘If I drop the gun, you’ll kill us both. I like a little leverage.’

The boy started to whimper. Grayson tried to ignore him.
Focus or he’ll die
.

The man in the mask jerked the boy to his toes, jamming the gun hard against his skull. ‘I don’t have anything to lose here. I didn’t want to hurt him.’

‘Then why did you?’ Grayson demanded. ‘You shot him.’

‘No, I didn’t. His mother did by accident when she shot at
me
. Look, I just want to get outa here. Unload the shotgun, then drop it and I’ll let him go.’

‘Please,’ Logan whimpered. Tears ran down his face. ‘Please don’t kill me.’

‘I don’t want to kill him,’ the man said fiercely. ‘I don’t want to hurt you.’

Grayson drew a breath. Desperate men did unpredictable things. Carefully he unloaded the shotgun, hoping to defuse the situation until the cops arrived.

‘Throw me the cartridges and drop the shotgun,’ the man said. ‘Now.’

Keeping eye-contact with the man, Grayson complied. He bent his knees and laid the shotgun on the ground. ‘I put it down. Now let him go.’

‘Go over to that lamppost. The broken one.’

Grayson didn’t move. ‘Let him go.’ Sirens were faint in the distance.

‘I will shoot him in the head. Do you want that on your conscience, Counselor?’

Grayson started.
He knows who I am
. ‘No. I don’t.’ Slowly he backed away and the man drew an unsteady breath.

‘Fine, take him.’ The man shoved the boy forward and on a howl of pain, Logan’s leg collapsed beneath him.

Grayson caught the boy and eased him to the ground then took off after the man, crouching behind a car, flinching when the man fired a shot that deliberately went wide.

‘Damn it, Grayson, stay back,’ the man shouted. Then he ran, disappearing into the darkness of the business complex in the next block.

Gone. He was gone
. ‘Dammit.’

Logan was groaning pitifully. Grayson knelt, inspecting the wound. It was bleeding sullenly, and he could see leg bone protruding from the skin. Afraid of making it worse, he didn’t touch the boy’s leg. Instead he took his hand, wincing when Logan squeezed.

‘Logan, my name is Grayson. We called for help. Why did that man grab you?’

Logan’s face was deathly pale. ‘He wanted my computer. But I didn’t have it.’

‘Why? Why did he want your computer?’

‘For the video.’ Logan was rocking in agony, tears rolling down his cheeks. ‘It’s worth money. TV stations wanted to buy it off me. But I sold it already. I sold the exclusive and I gave the guy my computer.’

‘Who? Radcliffe?’

‘Yes, that sonofabitch. He promised to give it back in a day, when he’d gotten a twenty-four-hour scoop. He didn’t want me sending the video to anyone else.’ He gritted his teeth and moaned. ‘My mom. He shot her. Where is she? Is she okay?’

‘I don’t know.’ For the third time in twenty-four hours Grayson watched the flashing lights of emergency vehicles approach. He looked over his shoulder, expecting to see Paige, but she wasn’t there. ‘We’ll find out. For now, stay still. Help is coming.’

As Logan crushed his hand, Grayson stared in the direction the man had gone. That someone would break into the kid’s apartment in the middle of the night to steal the video at gunpoint for money wasn’t completely impossible, but he didn’t believe it. Logan believed it, clearly, and that was probably best for now.

Because Grayson had the very bad feeling that he’d just looked into the eyes of the sniper who’d killed Elena. Who might have attacked Paige and even killed Delgado.

Worse yet, the man’s voice was familiar.
He knew me. He called me by name
.

And I let him go
.

Wednesday, April 6, 4.15
A.M
.

Stevie sat on the sofa as Paige wearily twisted three deadbolts. Grayson was pacing the floor, uncharacteristically disheveled. His feet were bare and dirty and the shirt he wore was untucked and buttoned only halfway.

Paige didn’t look much better. Her nightshirt was smeared with blood and she looked even paler than she had after finding Delgado’s body.

Stevie knew the two of them had already given statements to Morton and Bashears who’d been called to the scene, but she couldn’t ask the other detectives for details. Not without generating questions she didn’t want to answer. ‘Take it from the top.’

Paige looked at her bloody nightshirt. ‘I’m going to change. You can tell her, Grayson. I’ll be back.’ She disappeared into the bedroom, leaving Grayson staring after her.

‘Anytime would be good,’ Stevie said.

The look Grayson shot her was miserable. ‘The kid’s in surgery. He might lose his leg. His mother died on the way to the hospital.’

‘Shit.’

‘The kid said he and his mother were asleep when they heard Paige scream. He said they ignored it, because she screams most nights.’

‘She has nightmares,’ Stevie said. ‘Understandable.’

‘And terrifying. I had to wake her up out of one. Logan said he couldn’t go back to sleep, so he got up to get a snack and found the guy with the mask looking through his things. The intruder tried to run, knocked over a table. Paige and I heard the crash.’

‘Okay.’

‘Logan said his mother came out of her room, half-drunk and waving a gun. The intruder grabbed Logan and the mother fired. She hit Logan’s leg. The intruder shot the mom in the chest. We heard Logan’s scream, but only one shot.’

‘So one of them had a silencer.’

‘The intruder did. We gave Morton and Bashears a statement. Except . . .’ He met her eyes, his haunted. ‘He knew me, Stevie. And I knew him.’

‘The shooter?’ Stevie sat up straighter. ‘Why didn’t you tell them that?’

‘Because I don’t remember where I knew him from. I recognized his voice. I know lawyers and cops. I don’t have many friends outside.’

‘So do you think this guy was a lawyer or a cop?’ Stevie asked carefully.

‘I don’t know. He called me “Counselor”. Cops call me that.’

Cops
. Stevie needed a moment to consider how she wanted to probe this. That he hadn’t told Morton and Bashears was significant. ‘Paige had blood on her nightshirt,’ she said, changing the subject.

‘Logan’s mother’s. I stopped her from running after the intruder. Paige stayed with the mother, tried to stop her bleeding before the EMTs came, but it was too late.’

‘Plucky thing, isn’t she?’ Stevie asked and he closed his eyes.

‘She’s going to get herself killed,’ he said hoarsely.

And that would kill Grayson, Stevie thought. She’d met a few of the women with whom he’d had relationships over the years. Knew he’d held back a part of himself with each one and had no idea why. But he wasn’t holding back with this one and Stevie wondered if he knew it.

‘Does she know you think you know the shooter?’ she asked.

‘Yes. I told her after Morton and Bashears left.’

‘Do you think you’d recognize the guy if you heard him again?’

‘Maybe. I don’t know. His voice was pretty thin and desperate.’

‘Then how did you recognize him?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said, frustration in his voice. ‘I’ve been wracking my brain, trying to remember. It wasn’t “Hey that’s Joe Blow”. It was more like a feeling.’

‘Then we’ll leave it for now.’ This was a Grayson she didn’t know. Rarely did he show so much emotion. He felt it, she knew. He just didn’t show it very often. Only with his family. And now with Paige Holden.

‘Did the shooter say anything to Logan? Before the shooting started?’

‘He wanted Logan’s computer. He wanted the video, the one of the minivan crash.’

‘And of Paige,’ Stevie said. ‘Hell. So what do you want from me?’

‘I want to ID the shooter.’

‘Duh.’ Stevie rolled her eyes again. ‘Specifics, Grayson.’

‘He wants video and audio clips,’ Paige said from behind him. Grayson stepped back, his eyes searching Paige’s face. ‘I’m okay,’ she said. ‘I’m more worried about you.’ She ran a hand down his arm. ‘Sit down. Please.’