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“You could say that,” Jack said wryly. “I was in front by this time and I broke off to one of the vault rooms with Detective John Elliott. He was covering my back. It was routine, but he and I picked the vault area where several of the robbers were located. They’d set explosives in some of the other areas, covering their trails as they got ready to make an exit. Sometimes it really just comes down to luck, you know?”
“I know,” Greer said, nodding.
“Elliott and I just happened to pick the right room. It wasn’t even the next room on our normal rotation. I can’t tell you why I zeroed in so far down the hall, but I knew I trusted my gut over procedure at that moment. If Elliott and I had gone into the room we were supposed to go in they would have been able to ship what was left of my body back in a Zip Loc baggie.”
“Your partner didn’t questionprocedure? He just followed you?”
“My team was the best there was. We trained together and socialized with each other. We were brothers. A cohesive unit. And we didn’t need words or questions when we wereon an op. It was like being inside of each other’s minds and always being able to anticipate the next move. It was clockwork.”
“So we go in and secure the corners first, and then Elliott and I are standing neck deep in the red zone.Shots are fired from both sides. I was wearing a vest, but there’s a weak spot on each side. The first and second bullet were pretty close together and came in from my right side. The third hit my upper arm. The bullets broke ribs and collapsed my lung, but by that time the rest of the team had converged and the threat was eliminated.”
“Detective Elliott took a bullet to the head,” Greer said.
“Yes.” Jack didn’t elaborate. I knew the death of one of his brothers would be like losing a family member.
“When did you realize Elliott was on the take?”
Jack paused and then let out a slow breath, but he didn’t take his eyes off Greer. “When he shot me three times and left me for dead.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
My head jerked to look at Jack and I stared at him open mouthed with surprise.
“You failed to put that information in your initial report,” Greer said.
Jack shrugged. “He had a wife and two little girls, one of which wasin the middle of experimental chemo treatments at the time. I could put two and two together. And those little girls didn’t deserve to have their father taken off the pedestal they’d put him on. They would have lost both medical and widow’s benefits. He and I were the only two who knew what really happened. Which leads me to ask how you got hold of that information, and it’s obvious this is what you were getting to all along.”
“You realize that I could have you brought up on obstruction charges. Take away your badge.”
“You need me for something. Otherwise you would’ve already done it and I’d have kept my mouth shut. Try again.”
“Your file says you have a tendency to be cocky andyou have issues with authority.”
“Which is why I like being the boss. In my experience, the higher up the food chain you go, the more idiots and political bullshit you run into.” He turned toward Lauren and gave her a curious stare. “And why are you here? It’s obviously not for my benefit.”
“The Justice Department has an interest in seeing this through.”
Jack raised a brow. “Interesting.”
“What the hell does that mean?” I asked. “She didn’t say anything.”
“It means they have a dog in the fight, but she’s not going to tell us what it is. Why don’t you lay it out for me, Agent Greer?”
“Like you said, theywould have gotten away with the robbery if you hadn’t followed your gut. They had technology and equipment we’d never seen before, they moved and strategized like the military, and they had money backing the expedition. They knew the weak points beneath the building and cut a goddamned hole through the floor with a laser knife out of some sci-fi movie, and they had ATVs waiting below to transport them through the underground sewer system quickly.”
“They had the building set with enough explosives to turn it to dust once they’d escaped past the hot zone. They had money and power and talent for the job, and you and your team took every one of them out. At least the body counts we came up with on sight corroborated with the statements you and your team gave. But we think we maybe missed someone.”
“Seven men, seven bodies recovered,” Jack said. “Who could we have missed?”
“You tell me.” Greer took more photographs out of his bag and lay them side by side across the island tabletop—nine photographs all together.
“Jesus,” Jack whispered, his voice sounding as broken as mine. He stood up and leaned over the photos, touching each one reverently.
Each photograph showed a body in various states of decomp. I tried to look at them as a coroner, as an outsider, and piece together what they all had in common. One man had been garroted. Another had his throat slit. Some had been exposed to the elements for long periods of time before their bodies had been discovered and documented. Nine men were dead whoever they were.
“Winters, Gonzales, Price, Dreyer, Thompson, Garfield, Caine, Wolfe, and Santos. They all have names, Agent Greer. They’re not just crime scene photographs.”
“Goddammit!” Jack hefted the bar stool with one hand and threw it with all his might to the other side of the kitchen, knocking a clock from the wall and chipping the doorframe. He turned away from us and braced his hands against the kitchen counter, keeping his head down as he tried to get himself under control. His back and arms were stiffand his fingers bit into the Formica.
