"Ninety-seven names in twelve minutes." I stared at the slips of notepaper spread across the desk. "Solomon has that many enemies?"
"Most of them won't be any credible threats," said Delgado. "They're just some disgruntled people shooting their mouths off."
"But this is just off the top of everyone's head!" I pointed out. "How many more names are going onto the list in the next twenty-four hours? Or by the end of the week?"
"What do you want me to do with the names?" asked Delgado. He, Fletcher, Flaherty, and I sat around Lucas's desk, with Lucas hovering behind me.
"Copy all of these names and give the original lists to Garrett. I don't want to interfere with MPD's investigation."
"We can do it ourselves, said Fletcher. As an ex-CIA man, he could probably have gone to all kinds of places I couldn't imagine but it didn't seem like the right step.
"They can go places we can't. Plus, they can arrest whoever did it and ensure he spends the rest of his life behind bars."
"I was thinking six feet under," said Fletcher, tapping his gun.
It entered my mind too, but I was pretty sure that also wasn't the way to go. While I occasionally crossed the line between legal and not so legal, it was usually for the benefit of someone. I couldn't guarantee killing the lowlife who shot Solomon would be for the benefit of anyone, or anything but my own satisfaction. "No," I decided, a little unsure if Fletcher's bravado was shining through or if he really meant it. Either way, I had to make sure he knew I didn't agree with him, at least from a legal perspective. Personally, I had no issue with mercilessly kneecapping the scumbag. "No, we need to make sure the shooter is caught and can’t possibly get away with it when it goes to court. Plus," I added, when another thought popped into my head. "What if the shooter doesn't have an issue with Solomon? They might have just been a hired gun. If someone else ordered this hit, we need to find a way to get to the original source. Can't do that if the shooter is lying in a shallow grave."
"I could make them talk first," said Fletcher. I shook my head at him and his jaw clenched.
"If this were truly a hit, then we're looking at money. Solomon would be a high value target, and not easy to surprise," said Delgado.
"He thought he was answering the door to the pizza delivery guy," I said.
"Could your phone have possibly been tapped?" asked Flaherty.
"I don't know. I hadn't considered that. Lucas, is there a way to find out?"
"On it," said Lucas. He stepped forward, then stopped. "I'll wait until you're done," he said. "I'll know within the hour. I'll make these copies first," he added, scooping up the notepaper.
"How much do you think a hit on Solomon would be worth?" I asked, and a wave of nausea filled me at saying the words I never thought I'd ask.
The three men looked between them, having some kind of silent conversation that involved a nod of the head, an eyebrow raise, another one, and then a sharp intake of breath. "A million plus," decided Delgado.
"A million dollars?" I yelled. All heads turned towards us and I ignored them, asking again in a quieter voice. "Are you serious? A million dollars to shoot a man?"
"A million plus. Chump change for a few names on the lists," said Fletcher.
"Who did you see?" I asked.
"A Texas oil magnate, an airlines owner, and an Arabian tycoon," said Delgado.
"He and the tycoon already made up," said Fletcher. "He got into a pickle and Solomon helped him out two years ago so now they're good."
I blinked at them, completely at a loss for words. "Do I want to know more?"
"Probably not," said Delgado. "But it involved an oil tanker, the tycoon's son, a python, and three ladies of questionable morals."
"I guess I do want to know now. Keep the name on the list until he's ruled out," I decided. Mentally, I formed a very strange image but I wasn't sure what to do with the python.
Lucas returned with the photocopied lists. "I made a copy for each of us," he said. "And your brother is at the door right now, scowling."
"Go let him in and put these copies away," I said. Standing up, I called out, "MPD incoming. Screen sensitive please." Around the room, screens went dark before Garrett stepped in. He spotted me and walked directly over.
"These are the initial names of people who might bear grudges against Solomon," I said, handing him the slips of paper.
He took them, scanning them quickly. "How many names are on here?"
"Ninety-seven. There will be more now that everyone's thinking about it, but these are the top names."
"I'll get someone on it. We'll need to rule every single person out."
"Some are probably dead," said Fletcher.
Garrett raised his eyebrows. "That would be helpful."
"There's an idea floating around that it could have been a hired killer, rather than someone who just turned up with a grudge," I said.
"We raised the same idea at MPD."
"And you didn't tell me?" I asked.
"You weren't in any state last night, plus, it was only hypothesized this morning. These names will give us a good place to start. Thank you. Lexi, are you ready to go back to the hospital?"
"A few more minutes," I told him. "I need to make sure the business runs smoothly in Solomon's absence. Everyone here is available to talk to you, if you want to ask around while I tidy up some office business."
"Let me know when you're ready to go. My detectives will be here in a few minutes and I'll come back after I've taken you to the hospital."
"I can take Lexi back," offered Delgado.
"No, I'll take her. Thanks anyway, Tony. I'll go find someone to talk with while you finish up whatever you're doing," said Garrett.
"Thanks." I waited until Garrett was gone and pulled out the photocopied sheet of names. "How fast can we rule these names out?" I asked.
"Pretty quick," said Lucas. "If I can use a couple more techies to help run them, we can get through many of these by the end of today."
"Good. Use whomever you need. I want to know who we can rule out. The dead are the obvious ones. Then, I think we need to know who is out of the country and couldn't physically have done it, even if they could have paid to have it done. Then all the people who couldn't pay to have it done, but could have done it themselves. Then..." Then I ran out of ideas.
"Don't worry about the details," said Fletcher. "We've been doing this for a long time."
"Can you all work your contacts? Find out if there were any rumors circulating about a hit?"
"Already taken care of," said Delgado.
"Lucas, can you look into the dark web? See if anything came up that sounds like it might be related at all?"
"Sure," said Lucas.
"I'll also need you to look into traffic camera footage in the area of our house last night. I saw a motorcycle racing away from the house after Solomon was shot. It might be unrelated but I still want that motorcycle found. The rider could be the shooter, or they could have witnessed something. We need a plate and the registration information."
"On it," said Lucas.
"Can someone speak to the delivery guy from Monty's? He arrived shortly after Solomon was shot. See if he saw anything or had a camera in his vehicle. I don't know if he delivers by car or by bike but some people have those little cameras for insurance reasons."
"I'll find him," said Flaherty.
"And Garrett mentioned something about the neighboring houses potentially having cameras. We need that footage too. There might be an image of the shooter," I said, trying to think ahead for anything else.
"If they're connected to a wireless network, I'll get them," said Lucas.
"If they're not, I'll get hard copies," said Fletcher.
"Garrett is running a ballistics report on the bullets. As soon as I find out the type of gun that was used, I'll let you know, but I figure it had to be a handgun since it was..." I trailed off, out of breath. Thinking was exhausting me. I checked my watch again. It had been too long now. I needed to get back to the hospital. My mother hadn't called so that had to be a good sign.
"We have this covered," said Delgado, leaning towards me and resting his hand on my arm. "You don't need to do anymore."
"Yes, I do," I said. "This is exactly what I need to do."
"Let's get to it," said Delgado. He scraped back his chair.
"One more thing," I said, motioning for him to sit down. "I realize I'm at a disadvantage as to how each of you know Solomon. I mean, really know him, not just the nice, neat, little version of how he met you through work or you were old buddies. I need the real background stories. I need to know everything."
"I think you know my story already," said Lucas. "He caught me hacking. He could have sent me to jail, but instead, he put me on the right path to develop an actual career. We stayed in touch and when he set up the agency, he asked me to join."
"What were you hacking?" I asked.
"Um..." he paused.
"No secrets," I reminded him.
"Banks," he said softly. "I ripped off a bunch of money."
"How much?"
"A few million. Okay, five hundred million."
Delgado whistled. "I knew you were good but not that good!"
"I'm not that good," pointed out Lucas. "I got caught and I got lucky. If it weren't for Solomon, I'd be wearing orange and living in a five-by-five cell for the rest of my life. Instead, I have a job, a fiancée, and I can go outdoors whenever I want."
"Anything else to the story?" I asked.
"Like what?"
"Where were you living at the time, for one thing?"
"Los Angeles."
"Solomon, too?"
"I don't know. I never asked. I guess I figured he did."
"How did he get whatever charges you faced dismissed?"
"No clue. Knew people in the right places I guess, and, no, I don't know exactly who they were. I was too grateful to ask."
"When was this?"
"Eight years ago."
"Do you know who Solomon worked with?"
"I saw a couple guys but I wasn't formally introduced. They picked me up one day, very quietly, and took me to a black site and Solomon showed me all the evidence they had against me. He gave me a choice and I took it."
"What happened to the money?"
"I handed over the account numbers and passwords and let them deal with it."
"Do you know if it was ever returned?"
"No. I knew better than to ask anymore."
"If that money disappeared, someone could have five hundred million reasons to want to ensure it stayed hidden. They would also want to eliminate anyone who knew anything about it," said Fletcher.
"Eight years later?" I asked. "Seems a long time to suddenly remember that Solomon might know something. Lucas, can you look into it? See if anything comes up?"
"Do you want me to look through his emails in case someone contacted him?"
"That's the only place I can think of, so, yes, but I don't think he'd ever get an email saying ‘Hey, how about that five hundred mill?.’ Check into that angle while you look for any other threats that might have been made to him. Delgado?" I asked, turning to him. "What about your history with Solomon?"
"Not much to tell. We're old friends. We met when we were in the Army. Solomon rose through the ranks and became a major by the time he left. I was just a captain."
"He was a major!" I gasped. "I didn't know that."
"He was probably cowed by your own illustrious Army career," said Delgado as he winked.
"Hah-hah." I laughed at his teasing. My career in the Army had been the very opposite of illustrious. In an impulsive move, I joined the Army as my ticket out of town after finding my ex-fiancé cheating with my former sister-in-law. All I wanted to do was get as far away as possible but I'd only made it a few weeks into boot camp when it was not-so-politely suggested that the Army and I weren't compatible in the short term, never mind the long term. I still kept in touch with a few people from back then and none of them ever regretted my leaving.
"Did you serve in the same division?" I asked Delgado.
"Yeah, for a while. We were in a war zone a long time back and things were... it was rough," he said, his eyes glazing over as he spoke. "Bad things happened over there. People got a little crazy. Some people became corrupt. There were rumors that financial aid wasn't making it to the right people. Some guys from our unit got implicated in a plan to steal a hundred million dollars. Solomon caught them. There was a shoot-out and he saved my life and those of several other men."
"What happened?"
"We were told to observe and collect data on where the money was going. One of the crooked guys from our unit got wind of what we were doing and tipped off the others. Solomon had an idea of who was involved but not how many, and these guys went to move the money before they could load it up and send it back to the US. We exchanged fire and caught them. It went to military court and after that, I don't know. It all got hushed up and, I gotta be honest, I didn't want to know the outcome."
"So that's another hundred million reasons why someone might want payback?" I asked.
Delgado shook his head. "This was years and years ago."
"But they might be out of jail now and looking for payback."
"I'll make some inquiries, but I don't like doing them for that."
"What happened after you got home?" I asked.
"After our tour? Thankfully, that was the last deployment for me. Solomon left the unit a couple months later."
"But not the Army?"
"No. They wanted him somewhere else, but he never said where. Even though we were friends, he was always cagey about whoever he worked for. I think he was in some specialist unit. I know he left a year later."
"That must have been when I met him," said Fletcher. "He joined the CIA directly after he left the Army. My boss recruited him and we..."
"Hold on," I said, putting up my hand for him to stop. "Solomon was in the CIA?"
"Yes. He was one of our best operatives. He worked financial and cyber crimes, amongst other things. You know I can't tell you anything about those cases but I can tell you that he definitely annoyed some very bad people."
"I'm going to need their names," I told him.
"I need to make some calls. Can you trust me to not give you the names, but still check into them?"
"Do I have a choice?" I asked.
"No," said Fletcher.
"Then do it, but don't expect MPD not to push," I warned. “What can you tell me?”
"You know I can't tell you much, but I can tell you that Solomon worked all over the world as well as from our bases on American soil. That’s a lot of ground to cover. It might take some time, but I'll call in any favors wherever I can. Solomon managed to create a lot of goodwill when he left the agency."
"You worked with him until he left?"
"No, but I saw him here and there. He left my division after a few years and I know he was working on something covert. I can't tell you about that because it was a mystery."
"Do you know anything? How long this covert op was? Or where?"
"I think six months but I don't know where. I know he got vaccinated around that time so it had to be somewhere exotic but I can't be more specific. I do know when I next saw him, Solomon was very unhappy. He said he didn't like what he was doing and he was thinking of leaving. I told him to follow his heart and he wouldn't make a wrong choice. He did leave and I know he freelanced a little while before he set up the agency. That was a few years ago."
"Is that when you met him?" I asked, turning my attention to Flaherty.
"Nah. I've known Solomon since before he joined the Army."
"That long?"
"That long," agreed Fletcher, a small smile on his face. "I met him when he was twenty-one or twenty-two and I was just promoted to detective in homicide. His parents were still alive then and he was thinking about what to do with his life. He'd just graduated from a university, a good one too, when his parents were killed, and he had to start raising his sister and brother. He was thinking about joining the police force before that. We got to be friends and I tried to look out for him."
"How come he didn't join?"
"I don't know. He would have made a good cop. I think he did something with computers that allowed him to stay with Anastasia and Damien. He looked after them, got them both into universities, made sure they led good lives despite losing their parents, and when they were ready to look after themselves, he joined the Army. When I got shot a few years ago and retired from the force, I didn't know what to do with myself. He asked me to join him here." Fletcher paused. "I've known Solomon a really long time, and some of the stuff about the CIA I didn't know until much later, but I can't say he's ever come to me about receiving any threats. The Solomon I know has a lot of people in his debt."
"What about everyone else here?" I asked, looking around at the team that worked on this floor. "Do they all have some kind of background with Solomon?"
"My guess is some of them do," said Lucas. "But you could take a look at their employee files."
"I will," I agreed, wondering why I hadn't thought of that before. "Where are they?"
"On the secure server. Only Solomon has the password," he said.
"Break it," I said.
"There's probably some files in his office too," said Delgado. "I think he keeps them in one of those filing cabinets."
I checked my watch. I'd been away from the hospital for too long, and I had too much information to scour through. It was all starting to fuse together in my head. I needed a break and I needed to see Solomon. "I’ll check on my way out," I said.
"Leave everything else with us," said Delgado.
"Thank you. Make sure MPD have access to all the employees and I want a written report on everything they're told by the end of today. Have them emailed to me, please," I added. I got to my feet and waved to my brother. He came over promptly.
"Ready to go?" he asked. "Or did you work something out?"
"I'm ready to go. Can you take me back to the hospital? Delgado will help you with anything you need here."
"What about running shifts?" asked Fletcher.
"Do what you need to do here first," I replied, "and then decide who's coming over first."
I took a few minutes to search Solomon’s offices for the files but found nothing. It didn’t surprise me that Solomon hadn’t kept hard copies available. Garrett and I drove quietly to the hospital and he parked directly out front but didn't get out.
"What's up?" I asked.
"I'm afraid this is going to be the biggest case my division has ever handled. All I'm getting from his employees is that Solomon has been everywhere, knows everyone, and has his fingers in many pies. Did you know all that about him?"
"Some things are new to me," I admitted. The conversations ran around in my head and I wasn’t sure what to make of all the new information.
"You two are going to have one helluva conversation when he wakes up."
I smiled. "I hope so."
We walked into the hospital and through the doors, which beeped loudly. A security guard approached us and put his hand up, forcing us to stop. "Do you know why you set off security?" he asked.
Garrett put a hand to his forehead. "That was me. I forgot to take off my gun." He produced his badge and put both it and the gun in the tray, then stepped through the metal detector again. "These new?" he asked.
"Yes, sir. Have a nice day, Lieutenant."
"The world's gone crazy when the hospitals need metal detectors," said Garrett. He tucked his gun into his waist holster and made for the elevator. As I pressed the call button, I realized my gun was still under my jacket. No one patted me down and no one made me go through the detectors again. I thought about pointing that out, but then decided not to.
I stopped at the nurse's desk and inquired after Solomon. "He's stable and all his vitals are looking good," said a nurse I didn't recognize. "You can visit with his family briefly. I'm sure his wife will be glad of the support."
I gulped and blinked. Did I hear that right? "His... his wife?" I stammered.
What else didn't I know about my future husband?