Chapter 8
Louise studied Rory’s color. The pink had slowly returned to his cheeks. He was almost back to normal. “You still need to be careful of your lungs for a little while.”
“What about my eyes?” he said. “I don’t know what those drops were, but they were great. It feels like I need more already though.”
She returned to her cabinet and pulled out the eye drops. “They aren’t meant for tear gas, but they are certainly some of the best on the market for anything irritating the eye.” She held them out to him and said, “Can you put them in yourself?”
He nodded, tilted his head back, putting drops into each eye.
“Those can be used anytime and all day long. Keep the bottle. It might get you through the day.”
He looked at her in surprise. “How long will the tear gas effects last?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess it depends on how bad a dose your eyes got. They’re very red and sore-looking.”
“That’s because they are,” he said shortly, then faced Ice. “Where are we at so far?”
Ice took his measure and then nodded. “Levi’s outside. We have one dead man out there and a second in the parking lot.”
Rory frowned. He didn’t see a man in the parking lot. Before he had a chance to ask, Ice said, “Flynn took him out. Logan has found Flynn too. He’s now out at the wood line looking for accomplices.”
“Good,” Louise said. “Can we move away from the animals? This unusual nighttime activity isn’t good for them.”
“Better yet, let’s move everyone outside to the fresh air,” Ice said. Just then Levi joined the group.
“Levi, maybe you could stay here with Louise, until she’s ready to come out. She needs to talk to the sheriff.”
Louise looked at Levi, and he looked at her.
She shrugged. “I can do that now.” She took a last glance around the room, reassured everything was more or less okay, if a bit messy. Then she walked outside.
“Do you know how lucky that it isn’t one of the nights the cleaners come?” She shook her head. “I didn’t even think about them.”
“How often do they come?” Levi asked.
“Twice a week. By rights it should be every day, but I have them come in after surgery days.”
“That makes sense.”
“Do you have many surgeries planned for today?” Rory asked.
She shook her head. “No, surgery was Wednesday. The cleaners came then. The last surgeries were all fairly minor. That makes it easier. I’m trying not to keep anybody overnight because of the problems right now. I can’t completely get away from it. In a certain number of cases we have to keep the animals safe from themselves.”
Back outside she took several breaths of fresh air. She’d noticed remnants of the gas as she had walked through the reception area, but it wasn’t bad. Still, the fear, the damage, her nerves made staying inside the building a claustrophobic experience. As soon as she gulped in the evening air, she felt a cough coming on. She walked away from the group and coughed several times to clear her lungs. Now if only she could clear these incidences from her memory as easily.
“Are you sure I can’t just put up a big sign which reads The Drugs Aren’t Here Anymore?” she asked, only half joking.
The two men Rory knocked out were held to the side by the sheriff’s deputies. They glared at her. She walked over and asked, “Why do you keep coming back here?”
Neither man said anything.
She shrugged. “If you’re looking for that case of drugs, … I already turned it over to the sheriff.”
The men still didn’t say anything. She turned to Levi and said, “It doesn’t do any good to talk to them, does it?”
“Not usually,” he said cheerfully. “Chances are good they’ll get killed anyway.”
She nodded. “Just like the first three, I suppose.” She cast another glance back to see nerves working on both men at that news. “Oh, didn’t you know one of your guys came and shot the two men who tried to break in the first time, plus killed the delivery driver. You must realize failure is not an option. Now that you’ve failed, you’re both dead.”
Rory stepped up to her, put his arm around her shoulder and said, “Come on. Let’s leave them in the sheriff’s custody. I doubt anybody can get to them there. Right?”
There was something odd in his tone of voice. She glanced at him sharply but let him lead her away. When they were out of earshot, she said, “Did you mean what you said or were you mocking them?”
“If somebody wants to get at them, they’ll get at them. Lots of people already in the prison system would kill these two men for a pack of cigarettes,” he said quietly. “Those two know it. I’m giving them a chance to think about what it is they want to do next. If they cooperate, they might walk out of this alive. Regardless of whether they do or not, the group they’re associated with will assume they are a liability now. Just like the other three men, they’ll take them out.”
She rubbed her face. “Why is there so much killing all of a sudden?”
“It’s not all of a sudden,” Rory corrected. “It’s just touching your life right now.”
She wrapped her arms around her chest and said, “I need to rest. But I’m scared to leave the animals.”
“The deputies will be here for quite a while. You said there was a cot in your office. Why don’t we pull it out? You rest, and one of us will stand guard to make sure nobody bothers you.”
She frowned. “How can I sleep? The deputies need to talk to me, and my place is a mess. I don’t even know if it’s safe to bring people in here tomorrow … today,” she said, swiftly correcting herself as she looked at her watch. “And then there’s the issue of the broken window when they threw in the gas canister.”
“You’ll have to get somebody in about the window. It’s not one of the main front windows, so nobody’ll notice unless you point it out. Obviously the staff will know because somebody has to come in, clean this up and then replace it.”
At that she winced. “I wonder if I could get the cleaners to come in early this morning. I don’t want the staff to know how much of a problem we’ve got.”
“It’s too early to call them, but you might be able to leave a message.”
She pulled out her phone and left a message. Then, just to make sure, she sent a text. She liked the idea of crashing here for a couple hours but not when so many people were around. That just made her feel odd.
“I do need sleep though, if I’m to keep up today. Or is that foolish? Should I be canceling all appointments for the day?”
“Depends if you want anyone to know the clinic was targeted or if you can make it through the day as if everything is normal. If anyone asks, just say you found a window broken when you arrived this morning. However, if you shut down for a broken window, that will make people worry.”
Louise could feel her shoulders sag. “In that case,” she said, turning to Rory, “if you could be so kind as to keep watch, I’ll crash on the cot and see if I can at least grab a few hours. You guys can leave whenever you’re done, but I might as well just stay here and start the day. It’ll be a long one.”
“C’mon. Let’s see if the sheriff’s deputies need to talk to you right away.” Rory walked Louise over to where the two deputies were on their phones. As soon as one got off, he turned to Rory and frowned. Then his gaze landed on Louise, and he held out his hand. “Hi, I met you yesterday or the day before. I’m a little confused about the time frame right now,” he said with a half smile. “These midnight call-outs can be brutal.”
She nodded. “I know exactly how you feel. That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about. I need to have the clinic open later today, if at all possible, but I need some shut-eye in order to do that. I’ve got a cot in my office. How long will you guys be here?”
He glanced around and said, “We need to get some fingerprinting and forensic work done. The team is on the way, and they’ll be at it for hours. If we’re lucky, we’ll be done by six.”
She nodded. “I would really appreciate it if that could happen. I need to get this clinic back up and running again. I have a lot of animals in the back, and people will start wondering.”
“I can’t promise anything, but we’ll do our best.” He paused, then said, “I can get your statement later if you want.” At her nod, he asked, “So are you staying here, or are you going home?”
She frowned considering the options when Rory said, “You would sleep better in your own bed.”
“If I sleep at all. At least here I’m on the spot, if anybody needs me.”
He nodded. “Your choice.”
She thought about all the nights she’d crashed on the cot and had slept reasonably well. When she was tired, she was tired. Making a fast decision, she said, “I’ll take the cot.” She walked back inside, sniffing the air experimentally. “Can we eliminate the gas odor?”
Levi said, “We have some large industrial fans, filters and blowers to bring in that can recirculate the air. We’ll open all the windows and clear it out as much as possible. It is dissipating at a decent rate, but you’re right. The odor is lingering.”
She looked at him and asked, “Can I leave it in your hands?”
He nodded. “I’ve got men sitting around doing nothing. They might as well come and work on this.”
She rolled her eyes. “Great, now they’ll hate me for that too.”
“What else would they hate you for?” Levi protested.
She gave him a sideways glance. “The puppies. They love to hate me because I brought the puppies. Unless you’re keeping them, that is.” With a half laugh at his sour expression, she turned and walked into her office. There she closed the door, pulled out the cot, grabbed a sweater out of the coat closet and had just stretched out when the door opened. She turned to find Rory. He studied the office carefully, as if looking for any weaknesses. When he was finally satisfied, he turned his gaze on her and said, “Don’t you have any blankets?”
She shrugged. “I’m not exactly sure what the hell’s around here anymore. I had blankets on the cot, but they’re not here now.”
“Do you have a washer and dryer? A laundry room? I thought I saw one.” He turned back toward the surgery room as if mentally laying out the floor plan.
“Yes, I do actually.” She tried to sit up, but he motioned to her.
“Stay down. I will get it.”
Not wanting to argue she collapsed back down, her head on the pillow, grateful she had a sweater here. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.
*
Rory moved toward the back room, where he thought he’d seen the laundry area. As he entered, he turned on the light to see floor-to-ceiling cupboards. He opened them up and found all kinds of linens. Choosing a nice soft fluffy blanket from the bottom shelf, he pulled it out. Back in Louise’s office, he found her lying on the cot, her eyes closed. Her breathing was slow and even. He unfolded the blanket and laid it gently over her. She never moved.
Unable to help himself, he kissed her on the temple and backed out of the room. He checked that the door was unlocked to make sure he could get back in again, then closed it. He’d keep an eye on her office. Make sure no one tried to sneak in.
Rory walked out to meet Levi and Ice. He stood in the middle of the reception area, where he could see the hall that led to Louise’s office. The two walked toward him.
“She’s crashed in her office,” he explained. “I don’t feel comfortable leaving her alone.”
Ice nodded.
“How about I stay here?” Rory said. “I’ll deal with the authorities and make sure the clinic gets cleaned up—hopefully without waking Louise.”
“Several of the crew are coming from the compound,” Levi said. “However, someone needs to go to the sheriff’s office to get as much information as possible. They should have tracked down the vehicle by now.”
Ice added, “I texted Stone. He’s running facial recognition. Once we ID the men, we need to find out who their associates are, and we need to know fast. So I’ll run command center from here for the next hour or two.” Ice glanced at her watch. “At that time, if you guys have done all you can, then you can come back and keep watch. She’ll be up by six, I’m sure. In the meantime, we need to get this air circulating as fast as possible.”
Just as she stopped speaking, they heard vehicles starting up in the parking lot. The deputies were getting ready to return to the sheriff’s office.
“It’s a good thing this is all fields and pastures here. If Louise had neighbors watching, they’d wonder what the hell was going on,” Rory said.
“The neighbors will notice even if not close by,” Levi said. “It’s always a mistake to think no one witnessed last night’s events. Not to mention there is likely to be some news coverage. But Louise just needs to keep putting one foot in front of the other and not get sidetracked. Ice, make sure to tell her to act like nothing has happened.” Levi stepped away, motioning for Rory to follow him.
As much as Rory hated to leave Louise, he knew there was a lot to do. As long as somebody was watching over Louise, that was all that mattered. He walked outside to find the deputies loading up the two prisoners. Rory stepped forward and said, “Do we have any identification on them yet?”
One of the deputies looked at him. “They don’t have any ID on them, and they’re not volunteering any names.”
The other deputy asked, “Why do you want to know right now?”
“So I have names for the gravestones in a couple days,” Rory said with a smirk.
The handcuffed guy closest to him looked at him hard. “You can’t scare us.”
Rory shook his head. “I don’t give a damn about scaring you. You’re nothing to me. It’s your boss I want.”
“You won’t get him.”
“We will. We haven’t missed any target we’ve been after yet.” Rory’s voice was hard but even. He didn’t boast casually. He’d been in the military for a long time. They had done an awful lot of crazy-ass missions where he wondered at the possibility of success, but the stuff they’d pulled off … Well, he’d learned a lot about going beyond what he’d thought was possible. It also told him so much about what the enemy was capable of doing. The enemy he was used to facing versus the enemy he faced now might have different appearances, use different names, but they were still the same assholes inside, and they made mistakes like everybody else. “Not to worry,” Rory said. “You’ll find out soon enough.”
He smacked the hood of the county car and walked away. The two deputies got in and pulled out of the parking lot. Just after they turned onto the main road, shots filled the air, and the front windshield of the cruiser exploded.
“Shit!” Rory was already running. When the second shot was fired, he knew he wouldn’t be in time. The shots came from the other end of the field, against a thin wooded area. He would just be a target himself. Levi grabbed his arm, and both of them hit the dirt as gunfire peppered the ground in front of them. Rory, his head against the gravel, said, “All four do you think?”
Levi nodded. “Guaranteed.” His tone was bitter, angry. He peered over the rocks, trying to pinpoint where the shooters were. With his phone in his hand, he dialed and said, “One possibly two shooters as I spotted two muzzle flashes at the tree line. Eleven o’clock from the nose of the deputies’ vehicle. Chances are all four inside the cruiser will be dead. High-powered rifles. Good distance and a wind. Plus shots taken in the dark with the headlights of the deputies’ car causing a glare at least or a blind spot at worst. We’ve got some experienced shooters up there. Rory and I are going after them. You check the vehicle.”
He put away his phone. They both raced back to Levi’s car, Levi screaming at Rory, “Get in.”
Once both of them were inside the vehicle, Levi peeled out onto the road and turned in the opposite direction. Still, as they went forward, Rory ducked down just in case the shooters were looking for more targets. Levi quickly made several turns, coming up behind where the shooters had been. In the distance, they heard more sirens. If they couldn’t get ahead of the shooters, there was no way to stop them. Their phones were going nuts. Rory grabbed Levi’s as he drove and answered it to find Merk on the other end, yelling, “What the hell is going on?”
Rory filled him in.
“I’ll get Stone on the satellite right now.”
The phone went dead only to ring again seconds later. Rory answered Ice’s call. “Ice, we’re both fine. I don’t know about anybody in the deputies’ vehicle.”
“I’m not leaving Louise’s side. Flynn is outside. He’ll report in as soon as I get off the phone.”
Levi yelled, “With your medical training, you might need to go to the crime scene. Can you pull in someone else to stand guard on Louise?”
“I see Flynn racing through the tree line toward the pullout up ahead,” Rory told her. He could hear Ice walking in the clinic.
“Logan has pulled up to the cruiser,” she said. “He’s a damn good medic. And he’s not alone.” Her voice turned brisk. “I need this line open.”
“We’ll all be too late to catch the shooters anyway. No way they would have set this up beforehand and not had a place to run to. Exits are always the first thing they map out.” And Rory ended the call.
With Levi taking every corner as fast as he could, gravel sprayed behind them. It was a wild chase in the night. But they were chasing two ghosts. Levi had no idea where the shooters’ vehicle came from or where it could be going, if they were even in the same vehicle. It would be smarter for the two shooters to have their own cars. Levi was waiting on Stone. When the call finally came through, Stone’s terse voice filled the car.
“Take a right one hundred meters ahead.”
Levi took the corner at top speed. Following Stone’s directions, they continued two miles and took a left. Then they turned off onto what appeared to be a hayfield of some kind. “Keep your eye on them,” Levi said to Stone. “And conference with Rory.”
Within seconds they pulled up behind the shooters’ getaway vehicle. Both doors were open, and the men appeared to have bolted.
Rory’s phone rang, and he yelled, “I’m taking the right,” and hopped out of Levi’s truck, plugging in his earpiece to his cell. He didn’t wait for an answer but bolted after his target. Both of these men were armed with rifles. Rory needed to keep out of sight or else he’d be targeted himself. He needed Stone to track these men. It was only because of Stone and the satellite that they could even do that much. Up ahead, Rory caught a movement. He picked up his pace. Trying to control his breathing, he asked, “Stone, is this guy turning left?”
“Yes, in about ten feet, turn left hard.”
“How far ahead is he?” he gasped out. His feet hit the ground hard as he pelted forward at top speed.
“One hundred feet and closing. He’s failing.”
“Good. The asshole is about to meet up with a very pissed-off fist.”
“Fifty feet,” Stone warned.
“Give me a warning at ten and make sure he’s going in the same direction I am.”
It was barely seconds later when Stone said, “Ten coming up on the right.”
Rory could hear the man to the right beside him. He heard his ragged breathing just as Rory plowed into him, knocked him to the ground and, with all his might, pulled his right fist back and drove it into the man’s jaw. He stopped moving after that. Rory sat on the man’s chest, gasping for air. A rifle was in the man’s hand. Rory kicked it away and held him down, but this asshole wasn’t going anywhere. He was knocked out cold.
“Stone, I got him.”
“I see that. Sit tight.”
That he could do. He rubbed sweat off his forehead. Inside was a roar of triumph. They may not have everyone, but they’d caught this asshole. If nothing else, these two gunmen would face the death penalty for shooting the deputies. What Rory and Levi had to do was make sure this one, and possibly the one Levi had, didn’t die before Rory and Levi found out who’d given the orders. Rory was getting damn tired of catching these assholes and watching them be murdered before giving them more information.
“How’s Levi doing?”
“About to connect with his target,” Stone said. “And he got him. Bit more of a struggle and … he’s down. Hold on.”
Stone disconnected, presumably to talk to Levi. They would need help getting these assholes back to Levi’s vehicle, or Rory would have to carry his guy. As he thought about the distance and the path he’d taken, he winced. But the small guy beneath him was lightweight. Probably didn’t weigh more than a hundred and forty. Rory had packed heavier guys. Plus, it would be a whole lot easier to deal with this guy if he was out cold and not struggling against Rory. Awake, the gunman would do his damnedest to get free again.
He picked up the man and tossed him over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, grabbing the rifle and starting back the way he had come. He shuffled the rifle and hooked it over the man’s feet. He reinserted his earpiece that got knocked out in the struggle and waited for Stone to call him back.
“You’re walking?” Stone asked.
“I figured it was probably easier to deal with the asshole while he was out cold than to argue with him when he was a little more spirited.”
“Okay. Keep going back all the way to where you took the right-hand turn. You’ve got a bit of a way to go yet.”
Rory shifted the dead weight on his shoulder and kept the phone line open as he walked. Outside of being full of gunfire and hatred, the evening sky was beautiful. Not to mention the sense of satisfaction he had in knowing he’d actually succeeded in capturing this asshole. Tonight ended up on a good note.
“Are Ice and Louise okay?”
“No word on Louise. Presume she’s still sleeping. Ice is pissed. She’s taking this as a personal affront. She also has more uniforms coming. Nothing like cop shooters to bring out the entire force.”
“Great. So much for keeping this quiet.”
“Not happening. Logan will get the clinic cleaned up and back up in operation as fast as we can. This doesn’t need to interfere with the building being open for business. The shooting was on the main road, so we should be able to keep the far entrance to the clinic’s parking lot open.”
“Once we have these two shooters in jail, we might get some answers. If we can keep them alive long enough. And if we can convince them to talk …”
“Don’t worry. Now that two of their own deputies have been shot and are possibly dead—I don’t have an update on that yet—the sheriff’s office will make sure these shooters face their reckoning.”
Rory hoped so. So far the gunmen were doing a better job at cleaning up their mistakes than anyone else Rory had seen. And Rory had seen a lot.