Nick shook his head. “I know this is pointless, but try to calm down.” He leaned his elbows on his thighs. “I will tell you more as soon as I’m certain you are able to hear the rest of the story.”
“There’s more?” Oh fuck. “You said the bullet grazed his arm. That means he’s going to be alright.” I stood. “Is he at the ER? We should go.”
“Sit down.” There was no room for argument in Nick’s tone. Which was too fucking bad.
“I can’t just sit here Nick. Someone shot at my kid. They could come back. He could still be in danger?—”
“If he is in danger, then he has the best people protecting him. Bex is one of the best in the business. We both know that?”
“And he has a father who knows how to patch up a bullet wound with minimal scarring. I should be there.”
“For now, Lo, you’re going with me to the morgue.” He leaned back in the chair, knowing he had my full attention. “We want everyone to think you’re there to identify Dom’s body. We need the world to believe Dom died in that shooting.”
“Why?” What kind of cloak and dagger shit were they involving Dom in? “What’s the plan here?”
“News has gone out that Dom was killed in a drive-by shooting at the police station.” Nick didn’t look the least bit concerned. “I’m guessing you will have eyes on you when you arrive at the hospital. Dom has been taken to SD Memorial and will be treated there. I could explain the logistics of it all, but does it really matter? Bex will bring him back here. And once we’re sure you don’t have a tail, you’ll meet them at the house.”
My heart dropped. Dom had been through so much already. What else would he need to endure to have a free life? The kind of life Bex and I wanted for him. The one Dorian and Eliza Bayers offered him. “We need to get the other kids from your mother. He’s going to want his brother and sister tonight.”
Nick nodded. “That is part of the plan. We will go to the morgue and then pick up Landon and Victoria. I will get my dad to drive around the perimeter of the farm before we leave to make sure no one is watching us.”
“What is the plan then? To live in hiding forever?”
“And you call me dramatic.” Nick frowned as if disappointed in me. But I didn’t care. “The trial will go forward as usual. The suspects had no idea Dom had already identified them. Now that they know, they’ll want to confirm he’s dead. Hopefully the state will make an arrest before any of that can happen. Dom’s death is just a smokescreen to keep him protected until the arrest is made. He still hasn’t done the cognitive interview, but now is not the right time. It will have to wait a while for him to be ready to be put through something like that.”
I thought I understood the plan, but I needed clarification on a few things. “And once those assholes are arrested? Dom never saw the driver, so he could still be in danger. What then?”
“I've considered that.” Nick looked to be thinking something though. “The driver can’t be identified. And if he plays his cards right, he’ll never be convicted of anything, really.”
“What do you mean?” Surely if he was part of that gang, he would need to be arrested, too. Surely.
“Listen to me.” Nick sat forward once more. “Lilly’s not here so I will have to talk it out with you. Because when I phone my sister back, I need to have a finalized plan, and not just the half-baked one she just gave me. We need to prioritize here. Dom never saw the driver. Which means the only way he could be arrested was if his friends implicated him, or if he came after Dom, or there was another way someone could identify him. If he’s smart, he’ll… leave town and let his friends rot and never have anything to do with Dom ever again.”
“You make that sound like it's the best-case scenario even though an accomplice to the murder of two people gets away free and clear. What the fuck is worse-case scenario?”
Nick took a deep breath and steepled his fingers. “Well, he comes after Dom and basically implicates himself, if his friends haven’t already.”
I thought about what could happen. “Are you saying you’re going to use my kid as bait? Because you have to realize there is no way I’m going to sanction that.”
“Don’t be so dramatic. Dom will stay home from school while everything is heated. When he returns to school, the school will be given an extra resource officer. And one of us will be parked outside the school all the time.” He stood and paced. “Either that asshole would’ve abandoned his friends or he will make his move to help them.”
“Wait, you said they already had sketches of the men.” That made no sense. “Why didn’t they release them sooner? Dom was in danger because there was the potential he could identify them. If they knew who these men were, they could’ve arrested them long ago.”
Nick let out a long breath. “Apparently there was a jurisdictional dispute and the FBI wanted more evidence for their case. SFPD wanted to make the arrest as soon as the sketch had a positive hit. Up until this point, no one had shown Dom any mugshots.”
My brow creased as I tried to process that information. “Nick, that’s not right.” I stood and stopped his pacing. “This reeks of either gross incompetence or?—”
“Or corruption. There is a leak within the system. Actually, I no longer think it's in the San Francisco police department. The killer knew enough to be in Marina De Ferrier.”
“That’s easy, it was an open adoption. We wanted to make it easier for him to contact us when he was ready.”
“But someone knew what was happening inside the police station.” Nick was talking but his mind was far away. “They had to know when Bex requested the break. They had to know when Dom was being interviewed, and his movements.”
I sat still as Nick continued to mumble to himself. Then he pulled his phone back out of his pocket. After a few taps it rang once and Jared answered. “Nick, what’s up?”
“I want to know everything there is to know about the Marshals, Agents, and the State’s Attorney involved in Dom’s case. Someone is dirty. I want to know who and why.”
“Am I doing legal or illegal searches? Wait, let me patch Tex in.”
