Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 88290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“Well, honestly, sir,” Mabe began, “we were thinking that your deputy director, Ian Doyle, is a sniper.”
“And since he works for you,” O’Meara went on, “perhaps––”
“Perhaps I was aware of the threat before you just told me and sent one of my men to neutralize the threat to my child.”
“Yes,” Mabe said flatly. “I mean, if I had a daughter, I would do whatever was necessary to protect her.”
“As I would and do,” Sam agreed. “But I would never endanger the freedom of one of my men by asking him to kill for me.”
O’Meara squinted at Sam. “You understand that we have to investigate.”
“Certainly,” Sam concurred with a nod. “This happened last night?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Okay,” Sam said, taking a breath. “Ian Doyle is in Washington, D.C., speaking at a conference on interagency—I dunno—clusterfucks or something.”
All of the detectives couldn’t help but smile.
“You can check that. He’s been there for the past three days.”
“We will,” Hall told him.
“And I’m guessing next on your list, who actually should have been first, is Hannah’s bodyguard, George Hunt.”
“Who is deployed at the moment,” Hall informed him.
“And you have confirmation on that?”
“We do.”
Sam squinted at O’Meara and Hall. “As far as I can tell, you came here to tell me that my daughter was in danger, but isn’t now through no help from Chicago PD, the DEA, or anyone else. She’s okay because someone took out the men who were sent to kill her. Is that the gist of this visit?”
O’Meara leaned forward. “We need to know if you spoke to Jared Colter at Torus Intercession about Hannah.”
“Who?”
“Retired Colonel Jared Colter?”
“I’m actually the one that knows Jared Colter,” I chimed in. “My company, Harvest Design, does the design and branding work for his company. My husband’s only spoken to him once about an issue with his husband.”
“What?” Sam asked me.
“A while back you were worried that Aaron had dropped the ball on protection for Owen, his husband, and so were worried that he might fail Hannah if––”
“Oh that’s right,” Sam said, nodding. “I remember. That was about the whole Thailand or China thing.”
“What are you talking about?” O’Meara asked Sam.
“If you want clarification on something pertaining to Mr. Colter, you should probably go and ask him,” Sam suggested.
“That’s fine but that doesn’t answer my question.”
“Which was?”
“Did you speak to Mr. Colter about your concerns with Hannah?”
Sam scowled at him. “Son, I didn’t know that there were concerns with Hannah until you just told me. How am I supposed to ask someone to take out guys from a cartel sent to kill her, when I had no idea anyone was trying to kill her?”
He yelled the last part but they deserved that.
“You need to think logically,” I chimed in.
“Yes, but we don’t know when you became aware. Perhaps you knew before we arrived and if that’s the case, then if you didn’t contact Mr. Colter directly, perhaps you had Ian Doyle, who has been on missions with the Colonel in the past, contact him.”
“Good luck trying to make that connection stick,” Sam told him. “Colter is retired and so is Doyle, but before that, you’re talking about black ops shit there. I have no idea who would confirm that for you.”
“We believe that––”
“Why would it matter if I spoke to Jared Colter about my daughter? Is he a sniper?”
“No, sir, but––”
“He knows people is what you’re saying.”
“Yes.”
“Did it occur to you that the men that were killed were taken out because another cartel didn’t like them here in Chicago to begin with?”
“Yes, sir.” O’Meara sounded patronizing then, which wasn’t great. “But the fact of the matter is that we have confirmation that there was a party going on at the time the men were killed. Someone killed three men in a crowded room and hit only them. There is a handful of people in the world that are skilled enough to do that.”
“Like who?” Sam asked him.
“People Colonel Colter calls friends.”
Sam nodded. “Okay, so lemme see if I understand all this. Your thinking is that I did actually know there were people in town to kill my daughter and because both Ian Doyle and George Hunt are out of town—I went to see Colonel Colter to ask him to intercede.”
“We––”
“No, no,” Sam shut O’Meara down, “we’re just getting to the good part.”
He exhaled sharply, and Hall looked like she was in pain.
“Then, because Colonel Colter likes me, he calls up one of his friends who live in the shadows, and that person kills the three men who were going to kill my daughter.”
Mabe was rubbing his temples, Salazar looked uncomfortable, and both O’Meara and Hall were simply staring at my husband.
“That sounds like the plot of a really good movie,” Sam threw out. “I’d watch that.”
O’Meara groaned.
“But in all seriousness, is Hannah still in danger?” I asked O’Meara. “Will people keep coming after her?”