Chapter 14
Awake a few hours later, Bailey didn’t know if she should try for a shower. She was pretty sure Ice wouldn’t approve of it. Only her back was itchy, bloodstained and sore. She reached around, managed to rip off the bandage, twisting so she could inspect the inflamed flesh. It surprised her to see how well it looked. She knew in theory she was supposed to keep her stitches dry, but how the hell did that work? On impulse, she turned on the shower. When it was warm, she stepped in under the spray. And moaned in joy, immediately feeling better.
The hot water slid down her face to her skin. Her head was grungy and was desperately in need of a good shampoo. She glanced around, delighted to see several hair care bottles beside her. Moving slowly, she gently shampooed her hair several times. She knew she was soaking her stitches, and that was probably not a good thing, but she was past caring about that in her overriding need to get clean. By the time she was done, she felt brave enough to face everyone’s wrath for her actions.
She shut off the water, opened the shower and grabbed a towel. She dried off everywhere as best she could, then wrapped the towel tight around her to absorb as much of the water from her back as she could. By the time she made her way into the bedroom, she was feeling better but also tired. She would need a new dressing, and she didn’t have Ice’s phone number to call her.
She put on a second borrowed T-shirt. Just as she finished dressing and hung up the towel, she heard a knock on her door. She opened it to find Dakota leaning against the doorjamb, his arms across his chest.
His eyebrows shot up when he noticed the wet hair. “You took a shower?”
She nodded. “Please don’t be mad. I was just so grungy and needed to get clean.”
He frowned. “Not sure what that means for your stitches.”
“I was hoping Ice would put on a fresh bandage and tell me no harm done.”
“Then we better see what she says.” He waited for her to step out and to close the door behind her. At the elevator he asked, “Did you get some sleep?”
She nodded. “I didn’t think I would,” she confessed. “Once I lay down and realized just how sore I was, all the lights went out.”
“To be expected. You ended up doing a lot yesterday.”
He walked into the dining area. She headed right for the fresh pot of coffee that had just finished dripping and poured herself a cup. Turning around she saw Ice and Dakota talking in the doorway. Ice took one look at her, nodded and then crooked her finger at her.
Taking her coffee with her, Bailey obediently followed Ice downstairs to the medical clinic. There she carefully lifted her shirt.
Ice took her time examining Bailey’s back and put fresh antibiotic cream and a dry bandage on her. “I can understand you wanted a shower. Good thing it’s healing nicely. You didn’t cause any more damage. The next time ask me, and I’ll remove the bandage so you don’t have to tear it off. Your skin is red now.”
Bailey sat back up with a smile. “Thank you. Before I showered, I wished I had your number so I could’ve called you and asked.”
Ice pulled out her phone, brought up her contact information and held it out for her. Bailey accepted it with a smile, as she grabbed her phone and added Ice’s info to her Contacts. “Thank you.” Together they walked back up to the kitchen. “Did the detective take the prisoner?”
Ice nodded. “He did, indeed. But I haven’t connected with him since he left. I know he was exhausted, so I imagine he’s asleep. As soon as I get an update from him, we’ll take the next step.”
“And that is?”
“Figuring out who shot the mayor.”
Bailey gasped. “I actually forgot about that.”
“I didn’t,” Ice said, her tone grim. “It’s hard to know what that was all about, but it’s got to be connected. So we need to get to the bottom of this.”
“Isn’t that the detective’s job?”
She nodded. “Except they are pretty shorthanded, and it connects to our case. Although the police will be handling it, that doesn’t mean we can’t keep our own eyes and ears to the ground.”
“And is that a worst-case scenario for me, or does it actually improve my case?”
“Too early to tell. But a second shooting is not a good thing.”
“Right, somebody has to be getting desperate. It would make sense if it was the mayor’s right-hand man who shot the mayor.”
“It would make sense, but that doesn’t make it the answer.”
Ice headed to the dining room while Bailey went into the kitchen. She was delighted to find Alfred up. “Are you sure you should be in here?” she asked, not able to stop herself. “I can do lunch or whatever meal we’re heading into,” she joked.
Alfred shook his head. “It would be the sub sandwiches. If we prep everything, they can make their own.” He motioned at trays full of sandwich fixings. “But maybe you could carry that to the table or get one of the men to.”
“I’ll take them,” Dakota said as he stepped from the doorway where he’d apparently been standing. “She’s pretty exhausted from doing too much last night.”
Bailey turned to glare at him. “You didn’t have to tell him that. I don’t want him feeling guilty.”
Alfred chuckled. “I don’t feel guilty. It is what it is. She’s feeling better now, and so am I.”
“You didn’t get enough sleep to feel better,” Dakota said to Alfred.
Bailey smiled. “Nice to know you’re so close you can tease each other like that.”
Alfred smiled and patted her shoulder. “That’s what family is all about. We take each other to task. It’s either we overdo it or don’t do enough. The rest of the time we just tease. But it’s always done in good spirits and with a good heart.”
Seeing him slicing cheese, she said, “Why don’t I do that while you see about the next thing on your list?”
He handed her the cheese slicer. She quickly sliced a plateful of cheese slices. She turned in time to see Alfred pulling fresh loaves from the oven. She chuckled. “You do spoil them.”
“I did feel bad about not making breakfast.”
The oven had been turned off already. The buns had been sitting inside to stay warm. She put them on a rack for a few extra minutes of cooling while he finished preparations for everything else. When it was all ready, she loaded the large trays on a rolling cart and wheeled them into the dining room. Then they all sat down to eat.
Ice was late coming in with a grim look on her face. She sat down at the table. “I just spoke to Mannford. The prisoner was delivered successfully. Everyone is now currently looking for the shooter Bailey identified. His name is actually Jim Haskell.”
“They should pick him up fairly quickly then,” Levi said.
Ice shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“Why not?” Bailey asked. “There can’t be too many places in the city for him to run. It’s one thing for him to shoot one person, but he also shot me, and then the mayor.”
“If he shot the mayor. He’s definitely guilty of the first two, but we can’t guarantee he did that last one.”
“It makes sense though,” Dakota said. “He’d be covering his tracks. Maybe the mayor got nervous or tried to blame him. All you have to do is take care of the mayor, and nobody would be around to say otherwise.”
Ice turned to look at him. “Except for Bailey.”
Dakota lowered his sandwich and stared at Bailey. “She needs to stay here for the next week at least.”
Bailey shook her head. “I have a job. I used to have a place to live. I need some clothes. Besides, I can’t spend my life running from him. He could even leave the country.”
“It’s all too possible that he would do that.” Dakota shook his head. “But it doesn’t matter. Until he’s caught, you’re not safe.”
“You really think more people are involved?” she asked curiously.
He shrugged. “No way to tell but we do know an active shooter is out there. We had the intruder in here—an intruder, by the way, who says he was not hired by the mayor although when questioned he wasn’t sure who paid the final bill.”
Levi turned to look at Ice. “But then he would say that, wouldn’t he?”
Ice shrugged. “Potentially he could also have been hired by the mayor’s henchmen, not the mayor himself.”
Levi nodded. “It’s all semantics to the killer. As long as he gets paid.”
“Well, hopefully they will pick him up today so I can go back to my apartment.”
“And do what? How many days off do you have?”
“This week, then it’s back to work.”
“Good. That means you stay here for the week.”
She scrunched up her face, opening her mouth to refuse.
He lowered his voice. “And help out Alfred for a few days.”
Her mouth closed as she considered it, and then she nodded. “As long as he doesn’t object.”
“It doesn’t matter if he objects or not,” Levi said, his voice hard. “He needs the help right now.”
She snorted. “It doesn’t matter what you say, it’ll be Alfred who determines what help he needs.”
Alfred gave her a glimmer of a smile. “Make sure it’s what you want.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “It’s not exactly a hardship to help.”
But she knew it wouldn’t be that hard to get him to agree. Alfred really was a sweet man. And he could use her help.
As soon as lunch was over and the kitchen cleaned up, she asked Alfred, “Did you eat a sandwich?”
He shook his head. “No, I’m not terribly hungry. I was planning on just having another half of a cinnamon bun.”
At the counter she took the only cinnamon bun left and placed it in front of him. “You should have said something sooner. I would have saved you more. Once I brought them out, they disappeared quickly.”
He chuckled. “All food does.”
She studied his features, seeing the pale look on his face. “You’re still not feeling well. You sure you don’t want me to make dinner?”
He glanced at her. “You’re just as injured as I am, even more so.”
“But I’m several days into the healing, and Ice said my stitches look good.” She frowned at the fridge. “I think I saw a couple briskets in there. Was that for dinner?”
“Yes, to roast them, serve them with horseradish.”
They fell into a discussion of recipes and timing. She said, “Why don’t you sit here? I’ll get up and prep them, put them into the oven because we want a slow and long cook.”
And that was what she did. By the time he was done with the last cinnamon bun, she had the briskets already in the oven, with him directing her where to find the equipment she needed.
By the time she had the kitchen cleaned, she felt a little on the weak side herself. Determined, she straightened up and said, “Now to see if I can persuade Dakota to take me shopping so I can get some clothes. But that’s only if you agree to go lie down. Everything’s prepped and ready until about an hour before dinner.”
He smiled and said, “Deal.”
And that was what they did.
She tracked Dakota down in the office. She stood hesitantly at the doorway, having never seen this space before. Sienna had her own desk; Ice and Levi were there with another half dozen desks in the large room. Dakota sat at one. She walked over to him.
He looked up in surprise, but a smile broke across his face. “What’s up?”
“I was wondering if I could borrow a vehicle and go shopping.”
“No way.”
“I need clothes. Remember my apartment? Nothing was salvageable.”
He glanced at his watch. “We’ll go shopping. If you’ll be ready in about ten minutes, I should have this done by then.”
In her bedroom, she grabbed her purse off the table. She quickly checked her account to see if she had money and how much she had to spare. Which wasn’t much, considering she had no idea what her expenses would be going forward. By the time she made it back downstairs wearing Sienna’s T-shirt, Dakota waited in the foyer for her. He led her out and helped her into the small truck. She asked, “Why this truck?”
“It’s cheaper on gas, and we aren’t picking up anything large enough to warrant one of the bigger ones.”
She chuckled. “Makes sense.”
In the nearby little town of Wildon, they went to several stores where she picked up a couple T-shirts, a pair of leggings and a pair of yoga pants for around the house. At another store she bought underwear. She stared down at her feet. “Wish I could’ve saved some of my shoes.” She glanced at him. “You think we could go back and take another look?”
He shook his head. “No, there wasn’t anything there. Remember the paint? So, what’s the next store you want to go to?”
She groaned. “A second-hand one would probably do.”
“I don’t have a problem with second-hand anything,” he said. “But you don’t need to buy second-hand shoes. You might as well invest in something you can wear long term.”
Following his urging she went to a popular store several blocks away and picked up a pair of sneakers and a pair of slip-ons on sale. As they walked back out, she said, “Perfect. Now we can go home. And thank you very much for driving me.”
“As always you’re welcome. You don’t need to thank me for every little thing.”
She chuckled. “Yes, I do. That’s how I was raised.”
“Your grandfather again?”
She nodded. “No good deed should go unnoticed. Why don’t we go to the police station in town? I’d like to get an update on the police report, and I have to go in and sign statements. It’d be better to get it all done before we head home.”
He shrugged and pulled out his phone, punching in the detective’s number. It went automatically to voice mail. He shrugged. “Apparently he’s busy. We’ll put it off for another day.” He turned the truck in the direction of the compound.
“Mind if I turn on the radio?”
“Go right ahead.”
She played with the remote until she picked up a new station. Over the airwaves they heard, “Breaking news. A prisoner picked up earlier, after breaking and entering a house where he attacked two of the residents, has escaped. Details are slim, but, at this time, the police have posted his photo saying he’s armed and dangerous. Do not approach.”
“Goddamn it.” Dakota pounded the steering wheel. “How the hell did he get loose?”
“Is that the intruder from our house?” She stared at him in shock. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“It depends where he escaped from. But he was a pro. He would know the ins and outs of the system and how to free himself again.”
“Is he coming back after us?”
“I don’t know.” Dakota pulled off to the roadside and dialed Levi. “You need to check with the cops. We just heard an alert saying our intruder may have escaped.”
Levi’s hard voice filled the truck. “We just heard. Yes, it’s him. We can’t get Mannford on the phone either. Can you run to the Houston police station and see if he’s around? If you can’t find him, determine when he was last seen.”
Dakota pulled the truck back into traffic and made a U-turn. Still on the phone, he asked, “Are we thinking Mannford’s involved?”
“Or missing,” Levi snapped. “Ice didn’t speak with him directly, but she had a message on her machine. She’s been trying to get a hold of him since then, but there’s been no response at all.”
“Give me his home address, and we’ll head there first.”
Levi rattled off the number and the street.
“I’ve got it. I know where that is.” Dakota turned the truck to the left, then back right. “We’ll call you after we arrive.”
He put the phone down on the seat beside him. “We need to see if Mannford’s around. Levi’s afraid he’s gone missing.”
“With the assailant or dead because of the assailant?”
“We can’t go there yet.”
With nothing else to do, she sat back and watched, waiting. Inside, her nerves were knotted down tight. This was not what she needed to hear. They picked up one assailant and were looking for the guy who supposedly had shot the mayor. What she didn’t need to hear was that both men were on the loose.
*
Dakota pulled up in front of a series of brownstone townhomes. The detective’s was the end unit. With Bailey at his side, he walked up the steps to the front door and knocked. He followed that up with a ringing of the doorbell. They stood and listened. Nothing. He motioned down the stairs and said, “Let’s go around to the back.” There he repeated the knocking.
With no answer, he tried to peer through the kitchen window. Bailey did the same on the other side of the door.
“I can’t see anything,” she exclaimed.
He studied the layout and then his gaze recognized something he knew all too well. “I do,” he snapped. He reached into his pocket, pulling out the tool he wanted. He’d picked the lock on the back door in seconds.
“Can we do this?”
He pushed open the door and bolted inside. As he went around the corner of the kitchen he stopped and fell to his knees. Detective Mannford was on his back, blood under his shoulders and neck. Dakota reached down to check for a pulse, his phone automatically in his hand. He dialed emergency and said, “We have a police officer down.”
He stared grimly at the man who’d just been at their place only hours earlier. While still on the phone, he said, “Two bullets, one high at the base of his neck.” He got off the call and placed a second call to Levi. “Mannford has been shot in his townhouse. He’s still alive, but he’s in bad shape. Emergency services are on the way, but I don’t feel he’ll make it.” He glanced over at Bailey and said, “I’ve got Bailey here. I would like to get her home and out of this situation as soon as possible.”
“Wait there until the ambulance and the police arrive. Deal with the police, and then we’ll look at what’s next. Are the premises secured?”
“I haven’t had a chance to check,” he answered. “I’m holding pressure on one of the wounds. Although it’s probably too late to be worried about it.”
“Watch your six. You know this is bad news.”