SECRET BABY AT THE ALTAR

by Claire St. Rose

  “Knife! Goose! Stay as low as you can, but get Mike and drag him toward the clubhouse. Everyone, stay flat and keep the bikes between you and the road. Hilt! Help me with Wheels.”

  Grunting and straining, the Souls dragged themselves, and their fallen brothers, to the safety of the clubhouse.

  ###

  “What’s bothering you?” Hunter asked Lily as they sat in the patrol car. They were parked in a lot near the street on Asher Boulevard, one of the busiest roads in Amberton, slowing down speeders by simply being there and being seen.

  “Nothing, why?”

  Hunter snorted and smiled. “Normally you’re chatty Kathy, but today you seem a little down.”

  She looked at him and gave him a half-hearted smile. “This thing with Stilton and Blasick. I can’t believe someone is running around Amberton shooting people like that. That kind of stuff isn’t supposed to happen here.” Lily pursed her lips. This wasn’t her town, the town she grew up in. The entire police force was rocked back on their heels by what had happened. The only saving grace was the media hadn’t picked up on the connection to the Immortal Souls and had reported it as two unrelated murders.

  He nodded in sympathy. “The world is changing, Lily.” He thumped his ballistic vest with his hand. “Back when I joined the force, we didn’t have to wear this crap. Now…” he paused as he shook his head. “Now there’s no way I would do this job without it. You never know when some asshole with a gun is going to decide he wants to prove how big his dick is.”

  “Yeah, but in Amberton?”

  “Why should Amberton be any different? People are people, no matter where they are. The only reason we’re not like Chicago or New York is because there aren’t as many of us. If one in a million were some deranged whacko that goes around shooting people at random, Chicago would have, what, three? New York nine? But I guess our number finally came up.”

  “I don’t know,” she said, her voice quieter. “There has to be more to it than that, doesn’t there?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. Don’t try to think about it too much. That’s the detective’s job.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “No, ‘yeah but,’ Lily,” he interrupted. “We have our job, and the detectives have theirs. If they need our help, they’ll ask for it. If we go around sticking our noses in, we might screw a case they are putting together.” He plucked at his shirt. “Don’t forget, we advertise who we are with what we drive and how we dress. Let the detectives get their hands dirty for once.”

  “Don’t you want to be a detective?”

  “No. I like the fact that I can come in, do my job, then leave and go home to my wife and kids. I like the fact that a family isn’t depending on me to find their daughter’s killer or rapist. Having that kind of pressure on me would drive me crazy—knowing, that if I fail, somebody didn’t get the justice they deserved and somebody that should be in prison is out running around free.”

  She nodded. She could understand that, and it made a certain amount of sense, but she didn’t want to be a patrol officer her entire life. Maybe Hunter could leave the job at the station, but she couldn’t. She didn’t know Motor that well, but having him killed in cold blood like that still bothered her. She wanted to have a hand in finding the killer and bringing him to justice. It wasn’t right that anyone, no matter who they are, should have to suffer so much loss so close together. Not like that. It pissed her off, and she wanted to make it right.

  She tried to tell herself she would feel like that about anyone that had been murdered. Maybe she would, but Stilton and Blasick still cut her deeper than she wanted to admit, and it was because of Hammer. In the past two days, she’d learned a great deal about the man under that leather jacket, and she liked what she’d found out.

  “All units. All units,” the radio squawked. “Shooting in progress… 1022 Tottington Drive. Wounded on the scene. EMS dispatched. All available units respond to shooting in progress at 1022 Tottington Drive.”

  As Hunter started the cruiser, Lily reached for the radio. “Unit 3601 responding!” she said as Ed floored the throttle, the cruiser roaring away, with its lights and siren clearing a path in the traffic ahead.

  ###

  Hunter and Lily were the fifth car to arrive, and her heart sank when she realized where they were. The address hadn’t meant anything to her when it had come over the radio, but when she saw the motorcycles arrayed outside the converted storefront, she realized where she was.

  She wanted to run to Hammer and find out if he was one of the wounded, but she was a cop first and foremost. She couldn’t let her emotions take over right now. She had a job to do.

  She, Hunter, and the other four officers on the scene worked the crowd and established a parameter to protect any evidence. She saw Hammer, apparently unhurt, talking to one of the officers and pointing up the street. She sighed in relief.

  She was maintaining the police line when he walked up to her.

  “What happened?” she asked. She could see sadness in his expression, but more than that, there was rage there too.

  “Someone is targeting us. I lost my sergeant at arms and another brother today. I’m sure they’re going to ask me a dozen times more what happened, but they’re not listening to what I’m telling them,” he said, his voice diamond-hard. “This is the work of a trained sniper, Lily. This isn’t someone walking by on the street taking potshots at us. Just like when I told the cops Stilts was shot from a long way away, this is the same thing. I would bet my ass the shots came from the empty lot at the end of the road up there.” He jerked his chin in that direction. “But the guy blew me off.”

  Lily’s eyes went to where he’d indicated. “Way down there? Is it possible to make a shot from that far?”

  “Easy. That’s only eight or nine hundred yards. Remember me telling you about Finger? He could easily make that shot.”

  She stared at him for a moment. “You think it’s him?”

  “No. Maybe. I don’t know. I’m sure he hates me, but I don’t know what happened to him after he was discharged. I don’t know if he even knows where I am. Even if it is him, why hasn’t he shot me? He could have, at least twice. And why target Motor?”

  She pulled out her notebook and pen. “Give me his name, and I’ll check him out.”

  “I can’t. I don’t remember it. I’ll have to do some checking and get back to you.”

  “Did you tell the detective?”

  “I told him where I thought the shot came from, but not about Finger.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I can’t remember his name, and he doesn’t believe me anyway. Just like you, he doesn’t think anyone can make the shot from that far away.”

  “I believe you,” she protested, but then looked at the empty lot again. “It’s hard to believe someone can hit a target from that far, though.”

  Hammer nodded. “The guys I was deployed with can. A lot farther even.”

  She looked back at him. “How do you protect yourself against someone who can do that?”

  He looked around, and then returned his gaze to her. “You can’t.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Lily was sitting in the police station in a cold sweat, while Hunter was giving his evaluation of her performance. Whether she would continue with the Amberton PD as a patrol officer or be stuck filling out paperwork all day, depended on his report. She had her life all planned out. The first step of her plan to eventually head up the detective division required that she make it as a patrol officer. New detectives almost always came out of patrol, rarely out of admin.

  “Officer Donovan?” Lieutenant Dare said, opening the door to a small conference room. “If you’ll step in please.”

  She swallowed hard and rose, making sure her uniform was neat before she stepped into the room and stood at attention. Before her, sitting at a battered wooden table, were two senior patrol officers and Lieutenant Dare, the man in charge of the patrol division.

/>   “At ease, Donovan,” Dare said with a smile.

  Lily stood at attention, stiff and formal, trying to impress. She relaxed, but only slightly.

  “We’ve heard Officer Cullen’s evaluation of your performance. Do you have anything you would like to say?”

  “No, sir. I’m sure Officer Cullen was fair,” she replied and then felt her phone buzz on her belt, but she ignored it. Compared to this, the call wasn’t important.

  “Very well. After listening to Cullen’s report, the board is in agreement that you are the type of patrol officer the Amberton PD is looking for… and I would be honored to have you serving with me.” Dare rose and extended his hand across the table. “Welcome aboard, Officer Donovan.”

  Lily’s face broke into a broad smile as she accepted the offered hand. “Thank you, Lieutenant. I’ll do my best.”

  “I expect nothing less,” Dare replied.

  She shook the other two officer’s hands, thanking them for the chance to serve. She then turned her attention to Hunter. He winked at her, and her smile grew even wider.

  “Congratulations, Lily,” he said as he extended his hand too.

  “Thank you. Thank you so much,” she gushed, shaking his hand with both of hers.

  “You earned it.”

  “Donovan, you’ll finish out the week with Cullen, then when you rotate to your three to eleven shift, you’ll be on your own,” Dare explained.

  “Yes sir,” she said, putting as much confidence into her voice as possible.

  Dare smiled and gave her a nod. “Dismissed. Go catch me some bad guys.”

  She kept her composure until they reached the parking lot, and then she did a leap in the air, her face glowing with her smile, as she went on to bust some moves on the ground.

  Hunter chuckled at her happy dance. “Yeah,” he said when she finally stopped. “I can remember when I made patrol too.”

  They were already out of the station and starting their patrol when she remembered the call. She pulled out her phone and looked at the missed call. It was from Hammer, and there was a message.

  “Lily, it’s Hammer,” his message began. “I did some looking last night. The name is Robert McBride,” he said, and then spelled it. “Staff Sergeant Robert McBride, Company B, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. He was discharged sometime in 2010. That’s all I know. Call me if you find anything out.” Lily listened to the message several times as she wrote the information down.

  “I have a possible name on the shooter,” Lily said as she ended the call without deleting the message, just in case she needed to hear it again. “Robert McBride.”

  “Where did you get that?”

  “From Joe Grimes. He and the guy had a run in during his stint in the army. And get this, this McBride guy, he was a sniper that was ignoring the ROEs and was targeting civilians. Sound familiar?”

  “ROEs?”

  “Rules of Engagement,” Lily told him, feeling smart.

  “How the hell did you find all this out?”

  “Grimes told me. He was complaining to me that we, the cops I mean, weren’t taking him seriously. He told me a story about this guy and wondered if maybe he was behind the shootings. He couldn’t remember the guy’s name and said he would try to find out and give me a call. He did.”

  “And Hammer thinks this Robert guy is targeting him? Why isn’t Hammer dead then?”

  Lily shrugged. “Don’t know. It may turn out to be nothing, but at least we have something to start with. It can’t hurt to run it down, right?”

  “Why did he call you instead of the officer in charge of the investigation?”

  Lily shrugged again. “Maybe because I said I believed him, and he was annoyed with Detective Willard because he didn’t think he was listening to him. I don’t know.”

  She did know, but she wasn’t going to tell Hunter she was sleeping with Hammer. That was none of his business.

  “Give it to Willard and let him run it down.”

  She nodded and picked up the mic. “Dispatch, patch me through to Detective Willard. I have some information on the Blasick and Stilton murders.”

  ###

  “Have something?” Hammer asked when he answered his phone.

  “Doubtful,” Lily replied. “I gave the name you gave me to the investigating detective, and he ran it. We got a hit, but I don’t think he’s our guy.”

  “Why?”

  “My shift is over. Why don’t you meet me at my place and I’ll give you the complete run down on what I have on McBride? I have it all printed out. I also have some news I’m dying to share with somebody.”

  It was only three in the afternoon, and he wasn’t in the mood for company. The loss of so many brothers so close together weighed heavily on him, but then he remembered how being in Lily’s presence seemed to lighten his load. So far, he’d managed to avoid trying to drown his sorrows in Jack Daniels, and seeing her would make avoiding that temptation a lot easier. After the sun went down was when his ghosts whispered the loudest.

  “Okay, but can you give me a summary now?”

  “Hang on a minute,” she said, and he heard the thumps and bumps of her getting into her car, then the sound of the engine starting. “It’s cold, and I wanted to get out of the wind and rain. The thumbnail is, Staff Sergeant Robert McBride was dishonorably discharged from the army, September 23rd, 2011, not 2010. No reason was given, and his prison term was reduced to time served. He currently resides in Paris, Texas and his discharge is under review. Because he was dishonorably discharged, there is no record of him purchasing or owning a weapon of any kind.”

  “Because it’s illegal for him to possess one, right?” Hammer asked, trying to remember all the bad things that happened with a dishonorable discharge.

  “That’s right.”

  Hammer scratched his head. Maybe he was wrong. It all seemed to fit, but Texas was halfway across the country from South Carolina. Obtaining a hunting rifle wouldn’t be a problem. Guns were bought and sold secondhand all the time. But if it was Robert, how had he found him? Maybe he was jumping at shadows, and it was something from the Souls’ past that was catching up to them. So far, the only people targeted were brothers, past and present. It would certainly be a lot easier if it were Finger. At least then they had a name to work with.

  “What’s your other news?”

  “Nuh-uh,” she said, her smile in her voice. “That, I’ll only tell you in person. I’m in the mood to celebrate,” she said, and then flushed hot. “I’m sorry, Hammer. That wasn’t very sensitive of me.”

  His lips quirked. All the excitement was gone from her voice. “It’s okay. I could use some good news for a change.”

  “You’ll come by?” she asked, her voice hopeful.

  “Yeah, I’ll swing by.”

  “Bring some clothes for tomorrow… if you want.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you in fifteen?”

  “Make it twenty. I have to put gas in my car.”

  “I’ll be waiting on you when you get there.”

  “Good. Let me go,” she said, anxious to get her car filled and get home, so she could tell someone about being accepted as a patrol officer. She’d called her dad, but as typical for him, he didn’t answer his phone. She couldn’t understand the point of him having a cell phone if he never answered it. He’d probably get around to checking his messages tomorrow and call her back, but she wanted to tell someone now.

  ###

  The shooter lay quietly in his hide. He’d been there since four this morning, using the darkness of early morning to get into position unseen. He’d watched her arrive about six, then leave thirty minutes later. He could have taken her then, but the apartment complex was busy as its residents prepared to leave for work. Waiting for her to arrive in the early afternoon, when many of her neighbors were still at their jobs, would make his escape much easier.

  It was cold, and drizzling rain, but he’d endured far worse conditions for
a lot longer. He was tucked in tight against the hedges surrounding the swimming pool, his camouflaged netting all but buried in the decorative mulch at the base of the plants. It helped keep him warm and dry, but it wasn’t perfect. No matter. A predator had to remain focused on its prey and not be distracted by such things as being cold and wet.

  He checked his watch. She was late, but he was patient. Now that he had committed, he could wait in his position for days if required. Even if he made the kill on schedule, he wouldn’t move until deep in the night, when the complex was asleep, unless he was forced to. Until then, he depended on his skill at camouflage to keep him safe from discovery.