Page 120 of The Devil's Advocate

Her heartbeat had kicked up the tempo. Her breathing wasn’t labored but the charge of adrenaline that was coursing through her body was pumping her lungs harder. Training and perfecting her grip prevented the gun from shaking in her hand. She took a moment. Closed her eyes for a second and took control of her breath.

She was afraid. And this was completely normal. Every cop got scared before they went through a door. Every single one. The fear kept them sharp, but it also led to mistakes. There was no way to stop that fear, the only thing to do was control it. Bloch had been shot on the job. Her vest had taken the rounds, but she never forgot it. That’s why she carried a cannon and knew how to use it. Her training and instinct gave her a drop of maybe a second on anyone else, in any house. That was enough to fire a single round from Maggie. And she never wanted to be in a position where one round was not enough. Never again.

Especially not today, when her Kevlar vest was safely in her luggage in The Chanterelle.

Before she looked, she gently pulled the handle on the back door. It moved. It was unlocked. She didn’t have to break the glass or kick down the door. She could slide in, which might give her another couple of seconds before the man in the house realized she was there. And every second counted.

Bloch got her feet beneath her, pushed up from her knees to look inside.

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

THE PASTOR

He watched the handle on the back door twitch.

There was someone outside that door. Right now.

No time to wait for them to pop their head above the window.

He fired two shots just to the right of the door handle. A small crack appeared in the window pane just above the handle. He listened, heard the sound of a body hitting the decking outside the door, a groan and then silence. The Pastor got to his feet and then ran for the front of the house. He barreled through the front door, slamming it shut behind him, got into the SUV and before he could tell Denvir to floor it, the tires were already smoking.

‘What happened?’ asked Denvir.

‘There was someone out back. I put them down. We’re so close now, I can’t let anything stop us.’

The Pastor checked his watch.

‘It will take time for them to find the body. If they’re still alive, should take ten minutes for the paramedics and the Sheriff’s Department to respond. Another half hour to put out an APB on Francis. They’re too late. He’s already on the road.’

‘Jesus, we’re cutting this fine,’ said Denvir.

‘Look, there’s too much heat. We can’t take the chance of anyone cracking. Not at this stage. I know we were going go let Ryan Hogg testify but the DA is going to have to do without him. After you drop me off, go finish Ryan. Text him on his burner, tell him to meet you at the bar. It’s already closed today because he was supposed to testify. Tell him to keep the place closed until you get there …’

‘Then do it as we planned?’

‘Yes, shoot the place up a little. Take whatever’s in the cash register and make it look like a robbery.’

‘Got it.’

The Pastor took off his hat, flung it in the back seat.

It was a baseball hat.

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

BLOCH

She moved her back away from the side of the house, pivoted on the balls of her feet so that she was now directly in front of the door. Maximum view inside and she would be ready to dive low and fire from the floor if she saw someone immediately.

She reached for the handle again, stopped.

From this angle, directly facing the door, she noticed two bullet holes in the wood. The window was cracked just above the bullet holes. There had been no damage to the back door when she was in the house checking out the kitchen after Esther Edwards was murdered. This was recent. Glancing at the decking, she saw splinters.

This was recent. Maybe hours ago. Maybe minutes ago.

A text message came through on her phone.

The license plate you asked about belongs to Homeland Security.