Half-Past Dawn (28 page)

“What do you say I go pick up dinner?” Bracato said to Holly and Stratton.

Holly looked up from her computer amid the stacks of paper and smiled in the affirmative.

“Sure, how about—”

The sound was muted, a dull pop, but Stratton knew at once what it was.

“Shit,” Stratton said as he drew his pistol. “Holly, go to the back corner, and stay there until we come back for you.”

The second muted gunshot sounded. Bracato pulled his gun and was already on the run up the aisle.

“Who the hell would try and shoot their way down here?” Bracato said. “They’ll never get in.”

Then the sound of the muffled explosion reverberated through the evidence room, the tinkle of shattering glass trailing off.

“Holy shit,” Bracato whispered as Stratton arrived at his side. They bisected the main aisle, hiding between the twelve-foot-high rows of shelves twenty feet from the main entrance door. Sounds of commotion drifted out from the office.

Bracato looked to Stratton for direction.

“No question, they’re coming in here. Stay lost among the shelves. If you take one out, quickly move your position so they don’t find you.”

A skinny red-haired man in a sportcoat rolled into the room, spinning into the first row of shelves. Bracato watched as he looked back, signaling a second, taller man who came in gun held high, sweeping the room. Bracato could see from the way they held their guns, the positions they took, that they were law enforcement.

Bracato stayed low, two rows back from the two men, watching, thinking. The taller man was obscured by the shelves, but Bracato could see over the evidence boxes, through the open spaces, as
the man took a few steps forward. Bracato could see his eyes focused. This man was not there to capture anyone. He was there to kill.

In that single moment, Bracato made his decision. He crouched low, creeping forward, his eyes fixed on the man through the slatted shelves, watching as he approached, only ten feet away now.

Bracato wrapped his fingers around the trigger. He could hit a small target at one hundred feet, so ten feet should be nothing. But he had never shot anyone; this man would be his first. And Bracato had no intention of shooting to immobilize, to take out a leg or an arm. He was going for the kill, knowing that the man would do everything to kill him if given the chance.

He lined up his sight, shoulder high, and waited for the man to appear in the open.

And the bullet exploded through Bracato’s chest, entering through the left of his back, piercing his lung, nicking his heart. Bracato collapsed face-first to the floor.

He never saw or heard the other man’s approach. He was so focused on the tall man that he failed to notice the other.

Bracato was roughly flipped over onto his back. The tall man, the one who had been the bait, leaned down and took the gun from his hand.

“Where’s your partner?”

Bracato stared up into the man’s eyes. His face was plain, an average-Joe kind of look that would get lost in a crowd, the type of face that so easily obscured a dark heart.

Bracato knew that he was dying, a minute, maybe two, left as his lungs filled with blood, and in those two minutes, he would do everything he could from his position to save his friend and the young woman with whom he would be missing a date next Saturday.

“He left,” Bracato struggled to say, stifling a cough. “He and Holly went to get our dinner.”

“When?”

“A couple of minutes ago.” Bracato could taste the iron flavor of blood in his mouth. “Maybe five.”

The man leaned down and looked into his eyes, searching for truth. Bracato did everything his crippled body could do to convey it. It was a moment, the two men assessing each other.

Then the tall man laid his pistol on Bracato’s brow. “You shouldn’t have hesitated. Lucky for me, I guess, or we’d be switching positions.”

And the man pulled the trigger.

J
ACK WATCHED AS
Charlie’s large body was violently hoisted up into a rolling desk chair by Cristos. Small rivulets of blood rolled down his friend’s face, pooling in the collar of his white shirt. But other than the small cuts and singed hair, he seemed to be all right. Jack couldn’t bear the thought of his friend dying at his expense.

Aaron stepped back into the office.

“Well?” Cristos said.

“We got one. He says the other two left to get dinner. We’ve swept the room, didn’t find anyone, but I’m not sure.”

“Then the two of you escort Keeler back there. We are running out of time.”

Jack looked around at the devastation, through what was left of the window into the vestibule, and could see the three bodies lying there in intermingled pools of blood.

“You said no one was going to die. You’re going to kill my wife and me as soon as you get the box, so why should I get it? Why should I help the man who is going to kill me?”

Cristos stared at Jack. “I’ll make a deal with you.”

“I’ve seen your deals.”

“I made no promise about people not dying. Collateral damage, you remember what that is? You remember those teens who died in your pursuit of justice?”

Jack hated this man.

“I give you my word, I’ll let Mia live,” Cristos said.

“You have no word to give.”

“On the contrary. If you get me what I want, she will live.”

Jack said nothing, not believing the word of the man before him.

Aaron and Donal stepped over to Jack, flanking him. They looked to Cristos for guidance.

“Or how about this?” Cristos said as he drew out his gun, laying it on Charlie’s thigh.

“I’ll let you choose: your friend here or Mia. Could you make that choice in front of your friend?”

“Jack, don’t let this guy mess with your head,” Charlie said as he looked up.

“Say it, Jack, who would you choose? Could you watch the eyes of your friend here as he suffers and dies so that your wife may live? Does he even know her? Would he be willing to make the sacrifice for her?”

Jack’s mind was spinning. He couldn’t bear to look into Charlie’s eyes. They both knew the choice Jack would make, what any person would do for the one they love.

“If you don’t want to be faced with that choice, you’ve got one minute to go get me my case.”

R
EMAINING IN THE
shadows of row Q, Stratton watched at the far end of the evidence room as three men walked through the main door into the room. He couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw Jack Keeler. Stratton did not know the man, since he and Bracato were based out of the Washington office, but he had seen his file not twelve hours earlier when he was assigned to babysit this place.

Keeler was being escorted by the two men who had killed Bracato. Stratton heard the gunshot too late, rounding the corner to see his friend lying on the ground. He had tried to take a shot but had no clear angle, and by the time he did, the two men had lost themselves in the rows of shelves, only to slip out the door.

Stratton watched as the taller man shoved Keeler forward. He was their prisoner and there was no doubt that he was leading them to the mythical box everyone had been searching for all day.

As he watched the three men walk down the aisle, he had a clear shot, and he was certain that he could take one of them out. But that one kill could lead to Keeler’s death, Holly’s, and his own. The second man could disappear into the oversized rows of shelves and later come back at him without warning, striking him down just like Bracato. And he had no idea how many more were outside.

But all moves be damned. He could overthink a simple decision. He held his gun in a two-handed grip, lined up the sight on Bracato’s killer, and pulled the trigger.

D
ONAL’S HEAD EXPLODED
in much the same manner as those people he had killed in the last five minutes. Sounding like a smashing melon, the rear of his head bloomed into a red mist that splattered onto Aaron’s face.

Instinctually, Jack and Aaron dove for cover in opposite directions away from the carnage. Jack’s eyes scanned the direction the shot had come from but saw nothing. Grateful for the help, he didn’t know how much of an ally the gunman really was or how long he would live as he came up against Aaron and Cristos. Not waiting on a savior, Jack looked back at Donal’s body and saw the gun he had been holding when the bullet pierced his right eye. It lay not two feet from his outstretched dead hand.

But then Aaron was there, quickly snatching it before Jack could react and disappearing back into the row across from him like a rat stealing food. Without further delay, Jack scrambled backward into row J and raced out the other end into an adjacent aisle.

• • •

S
TRATTON WORKED HIS
way up to row C just fifteen feet from the entrance door. He knew the momentary confusion would shield his movements and that the space where the gunshot originated would soon be searched.

He focused his hearing, careful to stay within the shadows, watching and listening to both his front and his back so as to avoid the same fate as Bracato. He could hear a man speaking with a distinctive, polished accent, its origin unclear. There was no question a second man was there, no doubt a captive, as the conversation was one-sided. He couldn’t make out what was being said but caught intermittent words: “death,” “box,” and “Keeler.”

He could see through the door into the small hallway that led to the main entrance and its offshoot into the office. Shards of blood-laden glass were scattered over the cream-colored carpet, looking like rubies in the sand. He could smell burnt air, the odor of residual C4 thick in his nostrils.

Stratton moved back through the aisles, eyes darting to and fro, making sure that he was not in anyone’s gun sight. He worked his way back to the far corner to check on Holly, finding her crouched in a corner, her head tucked into her knees, sitting motionless.

“Holly,” Stratton whispered as he approached. But she didn’t respond, frozen with fear.

Stratton turned his back to the corner, looking around as he stepped backward toward her. “Let’s go. I’m going to tuck you somewhere safe, up into the shelves. You’ll be fine, I promise.”

But there was no response.

Stratton bent down, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder.

And she tumbled over. Blood coated the front of her white shirt. The slash across her throat had nearly bled out.

Stratton recoiled in shock, seeing the girl he had pined over for the last eight hours so brutally murdered. With the horror of death witnessed for the second time, his mind was distracted. He never saw the small charge of C4 in her lap. It never occurred to him that she
would be booby-trapped. The charge tore him and Holly apart before he had any chance of escape

C
HARLIE WAS SITTING
in the office chair, still struggling to get his bearings. The ringing in his ears had died down a bit, but he still had the sense of being underwater. The sounds of the world were muddled and distant. He felt as if he had just been hit by a train. His skin burned from the heat of the blast, but he was thankful that nothing appeared broken and that somehow he was still alive.

Aaron slipped into the room, his gun at the ready. “Someone else is in there. They took out Donal. Now Keeler’s slipped away.”

Cristos grabbed Charlie by the hair and pulled him out of the chair, slamming him against the wall. “You know why we’re here.” It was a statement, not a question.

Charlie smiled at Cristos. It was a knowing smile, a fuck-you smile.

Cristos slammed him against the wall again. “Where is the case brought in here by Jack Keeler?”

“I moved it,” Charlie said with a grin. “Jack doesn’t even know. Once I heard he was killed, I had a feeling something like this would happen. And you, my friend, will never find it.”

“Then I guess I have no need for Jack anymore,” Cristos said as he threw Charlie back into the chair. He shot a knowing look at Aaron.

The statement was like smelling salts, pulling Charlie to full alertness.

“If you value not only your life but theirs, you’ll tell me.”

Charlie stared up at the man, ignoring the pain of the burns, the stinging of the glass in his face. When Charlie woke up this morning, showered, dressed, and kissed his wife, Lisa, good-bye, he’d had no idea it would be the last time he would see her. He valued his life, something he knew the man before him did not, and he knew that it would quickly end once he got what he came for. Charlie resigned
himself to death and in doing so would take the location of the box with him.

“Keeler’s loose in there,” Aaron said as he tightened the strap of the black bag on his shoulder.

“Relax. He’s got nowhere to go.” Cristos looked at his watch. “But we don’t have much time.”

Aaron looked at the computer on the side desk, its monitor cracked. “Not a chance we’re going to find it in there.”

Cristos stared off, his mind spinning, then, without a warning, he turned and shot Charlie in the foot, the sound of the report deafening in the small space.

Charlie grimaced as he instinctively tried to lift his now-mangled foot. But Cristos restrained his hands as he glared at him, letting the shock of the wound fade and all of the pain pour in.

“You’re going to tell me where the case is—” Cristos leaned in close, eye-to-eye with Charlie, staring at the tiny pieces of glass under his skin, at the pain in his eyes. Charlie’s eye lids began to flutter; he was near passing out. “Because every man has his breaking point.”

Cristos pulled an EpiPen from inside his jacket, removed the needle cover, and jabbed it into Charlie’s neck.

Charlie’s body went rigid, his eyes flashing open as his heart began to race.

“No passing out on me now,” Cristos said. “The epinephrine and adrenaline will keep your ass wide awake and your senses on fire, so you’ll feel everything I’m about to do to you.”

“I may be wide awake,” Charlie said as he gritted his teeth, “but I’ll bleed out before you find out what you need. The only person I would ever tell is the one the box belongs to, and we both know that is not you.”