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“I stopped that van.”
“Only because somewhere in that mixed-up brain of yours you thought going against procedure was the right thing. People were hurt in that store, Officer Masterson.” Gage straightened and walked out. Otherwise he would wind up suspending Dakota before he even gave the guy a fair shake.
What he wanted was for Dakota to write up his full report so he could get him on suspension—and seeing the therapist—all without anyone realizing what the rest of SWAT knew.
He didn’t even want to think it. But the reality was, Dakota needed to realize for himself that rehab was where he needed to be right now. Not on the job, putting people’s lives in danger.
People who stubbornly got other people killed because they didn’t know when to quit were the worst kind. They weren’t anything close to being heroes.
Gage didn’t want to trust anyone like that.
He headed down the hallway in the cave, to where they’d stashed the gunman in an interrogation room. The fake ID he’d had on him wouldn’t give them much of a clue who he was. At least, not until fingerprints came back. If he was in the system.
The cell phone he’d had on him was another story, but the last thing he wanted to do was hand it over to Vanguard Investigations.
After the face-to-face confrontation he’d had with Clare, he didn’t want to see her anytime soon. All it would do was drag up their history—again—and air it out like laundry on a drying rack. Like they had when he was a kid, and there hadn’t been money to pay for a dryer. Thankfully their ancient washing machine never died. He still used the same one in his house now.
Liam headed from the opposite direction down the hall. “I heard about the conversation you guys had after we took this guy.” The sergeant thumbed in the direction of the interrogation room. “Why’d you wait until I left to get into it with Clare?” He grinned.
Gage shook his head. “My personal life isn’t for your entertainment.”
Liam would have probably put him in a headlock any other time over a comment like that. But right now his eyes widened. “Seriously, bro. What’s going on?”
“I need to question our gunman.”
“Anything else?”
Gage took a chance on the friendship he had with Liam that went beyond being colleagues and teammates. “I need a current address on Alistair McCauley.” Before Liam could ask, he added, “Captain Dennis McCauley’s father.”
Liam stilled. “I can look it up. I—”
“Good. Thanks.” Gage turned away because he didn’t want Liam asking follow-up questions. He had the paper files he needed, and it was time to get to the bottom of what was going on.
He pulled open the door to the interrogation room and took a seat across from the young man. Probably in his early twenties, though it seemed he lived hard and played hard. Some people wore the things they had done, and seen, on their face. Others it was in their eyes. “Your driver’s license says you’re Steven Phoenix, but I’m guessing that’s a fake ID.”
The guy smirked.
“Nevertheless, Steven, you’re the only one in cuffs. That makes you the responsible party for the five of you.” Gage flipped open the file. He slid a photo of the burned body from the van across the table. “Make that four. What happened? Why did you decide he needed to die?” He half figured he would say something asinine like,Snitches get stitches. As if anyone actually used that expression.
The kid looked at the photo and swallowed.
“Then you nearly killed Alex in that drive-by shooting.”
Steven blinked. “Who?”
Gage flipped over the next photo. This one from Alex’s driver’s license.
“Oh, him.” Steven leaned back in the chair. “I heard he was some kind of trick shot YouTube star. Tripping his girlfriend so he could win a wilderness race. All so he could go and face-plant in Arizona.” He grinned. “Most hilarious thing I’ve seen in a long time.”
Gage wasn’t going to debate the merits of failure being funnier than success, or people finding it more funny when someone hurt themselves. “There were five of you in the bank. You might not have been in the room when the teller was killed, but I’m guessing you were there when the van your friend was in was pushed off the cliff.” He paused a second. “Why did he have to die?”
Whatever this guy thought, it might not be the logic behind the actions of the guy in charge and what he was doing. But Gage at least needed to know what he believed was true.
Which made Dakota’s actions today even more terrifying. Because if his choices had gotten someone killed, then he was no better than these young guys taking lives and thinking it was no big deal.
He prayed right then that Dakota would have a turnaround. That he would claim responsibility for his actions and sort out his life. Gage couldn’t see him having much more of a future with SWAT, but that didn’t mean their friendship would ever be over.
He just wanted to have a real conversation with Dakota where he was honest.
