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“For who to collect?” Gabe asked. “André or Antoine?”
Their answer came a moment later as two cars came speeding down the road. One was a black SUV, the other, Burke’s blue Escalade.
“I think the first SUV is André’s,” she said. “So...”
“Once again we’re caught with a corpse,” Gabe said heavily. “And this one’s a cop.”
Indeed he was. One of the top cops, in fact. “Mule’s corpse isn’t ours, though. The security cams in my building will show that we shot the others in self-defense. Your video will show that someone else shot Mule.”
Gabe’s gaze turned a fraction, his eyes widening as he grew frighteningly pale. “Oh my God. Molly.”
She pivoted to look to where he was focused. Oh dear Lord. She fought the urge to gag at the remains the man in the hoodie had flung at Mule. “Just... don’t look at it, okay?”
But Gabe didn’t move. “Is that a...”
“Yes. It’s a head.” A female’s head, if the hair was any indication. Hoodie Guy had clearly been disposing of a body. She gripped Gabe’s biceps, tugging until he turned away from the grisly sight. “Stay here and try not to pass out, okay? But if you do, no one will blame you.”
Molly walked toward the two new vehicles, squaring her shoulders.
She holstered her gun and met André and Burke halfway. “Mule’s dead. We didn’t do it. The shooter got away in a Range Rover.”
André’s jaw clenched. “Dammit. Give me a second to call in a BOLO.”
She waited until he was done before explaining. “Some guy in a hoodie shot Mule. The two were arguing about something, then Hoodie Guy flung a bag at Mule, distracted him, then shot him twice—once in the chest and once in the head. We approached then, but...” She sighed. “It’s my fault he got away. I had my gun trained on him, but he charged, and I wasn’t expecting that. He knocked me down and... I guess I’m tired. My reflexes weren’t what they should have been. I shot at his tires as he was driving away, and I hit them, but he kept driving.”
“Probably had run-flat tires.” Burke lightly grabbed her shoulders and checked her over. “But you’re okay? You and Gabe?”
“Yes,” she said with disgust. “Hoodie Guy grabbed a gun from the trunk of that car parked over there and ran.”
André was shaking his head. “Fucking hell, this is a mess. I’m glad he didn’t shoot you, Molly, but why didn’t he?”
“He did shoot at me but kept missing, and then he stopped. I was shooting at him as he ran. I don’t know. Maybe he lost his nerve?”
“His gun jammed,” Gabe said. “I saw him trying to clear it right before he got in the Range Rover. At that point I was more afraid he’d use the SUV to run us down.”
“Or to force you into the water,” André agreed. “All right. Y’all stay back here, and I’ll take a look at Mule. I need to be sure he’s dead and doesn’t need the medics.” His body was rigid as he approached the dead cop.
“Oh, he’s for sure dead,” Molly muttered, then smacked her forehead. “André, Gabe got the whole thing on video.”
André stopped short and hurried back to them. “Let me see.”
Gabe hit play, turning the screen so that Burke and André could watch. When it was over, both Burke and André looked relieved.
“This is gonna save y’all’s bacon,” Burke declared.
André nodded. “Absolutely. Too bad we can’t hear what they were saying, though.”
“We didn’t want to get any closer,” Gabe said apologetically. “But then he was going to...” He grimaced, swallowing hard. “That thing he threw at Mule was a woman’s head. He was going to throw it into the water.”
“Of course he was,” Burke murmured, his voice gone thick. “We need to find out who he was disposing of.”
André made an unpleasant face. “Yeah. Stay here. Just so you know, I have backup coming. Send that video to the cloud. I wouldn’t want it ‘accidentally’ erased before we can use it to clear you of any suspicion here.”
Molly watched as André knelt by Mule’s body and pressed two fingers to his throat.
“It’s my fault the man in the hoodie got away,” Molly said quietly to Burke. “I was too tired to do this, and my reflexes had gone to shit.”
“Shut up,” Burke said, putting an arm around her in a brief side hug. “You stopped him from disposing of evidence. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
