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Ithadbeen the back door. The person was now heading to the front of the house.
Decker gripped his pistol.
His dilemma now was obvious.It could very well be that the person above was the agent from next door. He might have seen Decker moving around inside, or maybe had glimpsed his cell phone flashlight and gone to investigate.
Decker did not want to draw down on a fellow Fed.
But if it wasn’t the guy from next door?
The footsteps headed up the stairs. Decker waited until they returned to the mainlevel a minute later.
He didn’t hear any sirens. He couldn’t see outside. Had the guy called in backup?
Then he heard what he knew he eventually would.
The basement door opened.
Keeping to the back corner of the basement, Decker called out, “Amos Decker, with the FBI. Identify yourself.”
“DEA Agent Stringer from next door,” said the voice immediately.
Decker didn’t move. “I’d like to believe you, but I need to see some ID.”
“Thinking the same thing. How do you want to do this before I call in reinforcements?”
“Don’t you recognize my voice?” said Decker. “I was pretty vocal with Agent Kemper when we were at the morgue.”
“I just got to town this morning with a new shift of agents.”
“Okay, tossyour creds down the stairs and I’ll toss mine up.”
“Look, I’m supposed to be here and you’re not, and I don’t know who the hell you are, so tossyourcreds up, right now.”
Decker took his time pulling out his creds. He slipped his gun inside his waistband and with his free hand dialed a number on his phone.
“Give me a sec to get them out,” he called up the stairs.
Kemper answered after two rings.
“I’ve got a situation,” whispered Decker. “Is an agent named Stringer assigned to the house tonight?”
“No. Jenkins has the night shift. Eight to eight. Never heard of an Agent Stringer.”
“Okay, get some guys over here now. I’m in the house to the left of the crime scene when facing it from the street. I’m in the basement,with a guy pretending to be one of yours.”
Before she could say anything else he clicked off and looked down at his phone.
“You got two seconds to toss them up or this is going to get ugly,” said the man calling himself Stringer.
“Coming right now.”
Decker crept forward and approached the staircase from the side.
He put his thumb on the screenof his phone and readied himself, flicking the flashlight on at the same time as he tossed the phone in front of the stairs, with the light shining up them.
Four shots were fired instantly.
Four suppressed shots. The bullets hit the floor and ricocheted off.
