Seeking PAVAD

by Calle J. Brookes

  Make contact with Shannon. Get their new home picked out and ready for her.

  He could do that today. As a surprise for her.

  He had liked that house this morning. And it was a great place for children. It would be ironic, wouldn’t it?

  He could almost see their children playing in the yard. Two boys, maybe. And a little girl who looked just like her mother.

  Chas had kept the name of the realtor. It would only take a phone call. There were several similar homes in that neighborhood today.

  One was certain to be perfect for Amel—Shannon. It would be perfect for Shannon.

  For the first time in a long while, Chas smiled and actually felt it.

  EIGHTY-EIGHT

  EZRA’S NEXT STOP was forensics to get the ballistics reports. In order to connect this case to Jaynice’s, they needed definitive reports.

  Sam, a small blonde woman no bigger than Shannon, met him at the entrance to her lab. “Agent Hahn, I take it you’re on CCU4 for the time being?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Let’s get right down to it. I’ve compared striation on all collected ballistics samples. I’m moving today’s incident up to the front of the list.”

  “And?”

  “Nothing we didn’t expect yet. The ones used this morning match the ones used on Jaynice Miller and Shannon—from a Remington 700 bolt action. I should be able to get you a registration soon. As soon as my machine is back online. It’s been a bit wonky lately. If it doesn’t happen soon, I’ll talk to the Indy lab. See if someone up there wouldn’t mind running it for us. I understand how quickly we’re working this.”

  “Thanks, Sam. Anything standing out?”

  “This guy is efficient. He’s using rounds that will do maximum internal damage with little external...mess...for lack of a better term. You may check in with Dr. Brockman in the ME, but I’m guessing here that your victims barely felt a thing when it happened. Cold, efficient, skilled. Almost like a professional hit.”

  Swift, efficient, little pain. Over and done. The killer was in and out of the vicinity before most onlookers even realized something was wrong. It very well could be a professional hitman they were dealing with. One who had a serious beef with the FBI? Or one who had been hired to take particular agents out. So why had he targeted Shannon? She was the anomaly. “Yeah. That stood out to me, too.”

  “Is Cody ok?”

  “Through and through. Fatty tissue damage, as far as I know. She’ll be ok.” Rumor had it the ricochet had missed her artery by an inch. Her husband was beyond furious right now.

  And everyone knew it.

  “Good. Get this guy for me, ok? For all of us.”

  “Will do.” It was a promise he was more than willing to make.

  Ezra detoured to the annex, where the Forensic Pathology and Medical Examiners’ offices were located. He’d check for anything they had, then return upstairs.

  Shannon should have had time to bring up what she could regarding the latest victims. She was just that fast. And he’d drag her down to the cafeteria, make sure she ate something more substantial for lunch than a vending machine bag of chips. Then they’d go over what she’d found before Chalmers got back with anything else.

  And he just wanted to see her. What had happened that morning hadn’t left him yet. He’d stopped off back inside after Paige had arrived. He’d seen how she’d held her son. Then he’d seen how each couple had held each other for just a brief moment.

  None of them were lost to what could have happened. Or that it could have been them out in that driveway. And things might not have worked out as well as they had.

  Sin Lorcan or his wife could both be dead right now.

  He wouldn’t be forgetting the look in Sin Lorcan’s eyes when the other man had told him how his wife had dove at him and bodily pulled him behind the open car door at the last moment.

  Cody had saved her husband’s life. No doubt about it. And she could have been killed in the process.

  The two loved each other. Deeply.

  He had to wonder how that felt.

  EIGHTY-NINE

  SHANNON LOOKED UP when someone passed behind her current lunch date. Ezra grabbed a chair and sank his long, lean body into it. There was a look in his eyes she didn’t like. One that spoke of things he didn’t want to see. “Ez?”

  “Mikey Brockman was there. And Carrie Lorcan’s kids. A few others.” He leaned forward. “You eat yet?”

  “Just getting started. Max and I were going to talk about the men who abducted us.”

  “First,” Max said. She didn’t miss the look of concern he sent Ezra. “Everyone’s ok?”

  “Everyone’s ok. Kids didn’t even realize anything was happening. Your boss is there. Pissed—very pissed. I didn’t realize her mother watched the Lorcans’ kids. Or Mikey.”

  Shannon’s hand covered his under the table. He was exceptionally close to his team leader—much like she was close to Ken—and he cared about that baby boy a lot. To know the baby had been there when bullets were flying around hurt him.

  Well, it ticked her off, too. Just as if it had been Ken’s baby, Noah, there. No one had the right to do this to the people of PAVAD. Or to Jaynice, or any of the other victims they were still trying to tie together.

  Max stood, a light of determination on his handsome face. “I’m going to head over that way now. Check on Al myself. See if I can help. I need to talk to Chalmers soon, as well. He still there?”

  “He’s coordinating on-scene. I’m here to talk to Shannon about video.”

  “I’m still waiting on whatever is in the area. Then it’ll take me a while to go through it. And it’s a long shot to begin with,” she said. Shannon didn’t want him getting his hopes up.

  They had a better chance of finding today’s shooter through ballistics matches than some random traffic camera in the area. She’d do her best, but it was a long shot to begin with.

  THEY’D JUST finished up with lunch when Sam called. Ezra tossed his and Shannon’s trash in the bin and followed her into the hall.

  He wanted to touch her, but he knew better. They were on the clock. And that wouldn’t fly with either one of them. Especially today. But he wanted that contact.

  He still saw Sin Lorcan’s face in his head.

  “You ok?” she asked quietly. Forensics was two floors down in the basement and back in the rear of the building. They had a few minutes of almost quiet.

  “Yeah. She pulled him out of the way, Shan. He said she never even hesitated and could have been killed.”

  “But if she hadn’t, he would have been.” Dark eyes stared into his. “I doubt she regrets it for even a single second.”

  “They’d just taken their kids inside. At least this bastard waited until the kids weren’t out there. He’d have hit them if he hadn’t. He could have taken their entire family out in an instant, before anyone inside could have helped.”

  Shannon flinched. “We’ll stop him. Just like we’ve stopped other monsters before.”

  “I know.” But they also both knew that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be other casualties in the meantime. “What did Jones have to say?”

  “They are still working to identify the men who abducted us. I don’t understand why those men would risk so much to get that information about PAVAD and the other field office. It was definitely a coordinated attack, wasn’t it? It couldn’t be just those five people. I’m afraid we’ll never get the answers we need.”

  “We will.” But he knew the truth. It could take years to get to that point.

  “But what if what happened today is a part of that? We just don’t know. Sin Lorcan was one of the names Supreme Asshole wanted that day.” She hit the elevator button and the door closed behind them. “And we don’t know if there are more of them out there. Just watching. Waiting.”

  Screw protocol. Ezra cupped her soft cheek and turned her to face him. “They’re finished, babe. They won’t ever hurt you—us—again. I pr
omise.”

  He dropped the smallest kiss on her mouth before the elevator dinged their floor, keeping his back between her and the security camera. No doubt the security team had just gotten a thrill—and rumors about him and Shannon would race across PAVAD, but he didn’t give a damn.

  Some things were just more important.

  NINETY

  SHANNON WAS STILL shaken when they entered the ballistics lab. There had been something in his face. Something she’d seen before in other men’s eyes when they looked at the women they loved.

  He’d looked just like Sin Lorcan had looked when he’d spoken softly to Cody in Shannon’s hearing once.

  Ezra had looked at her just like Ken looked at Leina, or Cam looked at Kyra, or Evan looked at Mia.

  When she had a free moment, she was going to stop and think about that. About...all of it. Him, her, her plans.

  Somehow, she thought her plans were seriously changing now. There was something about Ezra Jackson Hahn that she just could not walk away from.

  She probably never would be able to again.

  “Hey, it’s the latest dynamic duo. Heard the two of you had made up and were playing nice,” Sam said. “Ez...your ballistics came in.”

  “And?” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the ballistics supervisor expectantly.

  “Well, it confirms what I told you earlier. Match. Definitive. I’m running them through the national databases now to see if I can find the exact weapon. If we have a reference sample registered somewhere. It’s a start. Statewide didn’t turn anything up.”

  Ezra cursed lightly. “I’ll let Chalmers know.”

  Sam held up a hand. “Wait. Don’t rush yet. There’s more. Isn’t there always more?”

  Someone knocked on the door behind Shannon, and she turned to see Dr. Richison leaning in. “Sam, I need to speak with you for a moment.”

  Sam sighed. The two of them didn’t exactly have a great history. Even Shannon knew that.

  They were almost as bad as she and Ezra had once been.

  “Sam? What else is there?”

  “The same gun was used in several shootings across the state. Including that recent politician.” She went on to name several other cases that were on the PAVAD dockets. “We just connected them all. With one gun. I’ll know more once I finish connecting this to any I find in the databases.”

  Ezra swore again. “I think Team Five has two of those cases. I’ll notify Jones and Chalmers. Tie this all together somehow.”

  Shannon’s phone buzzed as Ezra took the printed reports from Sam. She checked it quickly.

  “We need to go. There’s been another shooting near here. At a café just like Colby’s.”

  NINETY-ONE

  EZRA DROPPED SHANNON off at her desk where a local deputy was waiting with a registered package. She’d be kept busy with that footage for quite a while. Nice and safe and tucked inside the PAVAD building.

  He was man enough to admit that made him feel a little better today.

  He got directions to the latest scene. It was near where the shooting had happened that morning. He wasn’t one hundred percent certain it was related. But what were the odds that the same caliber gun would be used in the same general area?

  It was better to act fast and backtrack if needed with this type of case.

  Chalmers met him on-scene. Ezra wasn’t expecting that. “I thought you’d still be at the Lorcan scene.”

  “Once we realized it was the same as six other open cases, I spoke with Hellbrook. We’re pulling both Teams Four and Five for this.”

  Ezra looked ahead to the scene. “What do we have here?”

  “One wounded. One DOA. A Geoffrey Mort—”

  “Morten?” Ezra’s breath rushed out. “Geoff Morten, big, redheaded guy around my age?”

  Chalmers paused. Winced. “Ez...you know him.”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m sorry. He does have red hair.”

  “Where is he?” Ezra needed to see for himself. To make sure. “I just talked to him a few nights ago. Before I got this case. We were going to get together. I was going to meet his girlfriend. Introduce him to Shannon, if she wanted. I thought she’d like him. He’s so damned like Cam. I thought she’d get a kick out of him.”

  He looked for the body bag. He had to see for himself.

  Geoffrey Morten wasn’t that unusual of a name. It had to be wrong.

  “They have taken him down to the M.E. already, Ez. I’m sorry.”

  Ezra barely heard the words the other man said.

  NINETY-TWO

  SHANNON GOT THE call from Ken when she was just getting booted up to study the traffic video footage. She listened to what her boss had to say, then booked it down to the morgue.

  Ezra was already getting scrubbed up to go in. She knew the routine, and she got started quickly. If it was his friend, then she was never going to let him face it alone.

  She didn’t say anything as they hurried inside to where Giada, one of the pathologists assigned to the PAVAD unit, waited.

  “Team Four?” Giada asked.

  Shannon nodded. “We’re here to do the official identification, Giada. It may be Ezra’s friend. We need to see for certain.”

  Giada gasped, eyes widening. She started to say something to Ezra, but he wasn’t focusing on her. Shannon shook her head.

  Ezra didn’t need consolation. He needed purpose right now.

  And confirmation. He needed to know.

  Shannon stepped up to the table.

  Giada pulled the sheet back.

  Ezra released a curse foul enough to make the record books.

  Shannon wrapped her hand around his. And waited.

  He looked at her.

  “It’s him. Geoffrey Dale Morten. We served together in Iraq, then Afghanistan. He’s one of the few friends I kept in touch with. We were going to hang out once this case was over. I was going to let him meet you, if you wanted. He was going to bring his girl, too. I thought you might like doing something away from PAVAD.”

  Shannon took a step closer. She wanted to just hold him. Let him know he wasn’t alone. His grief was tangible, and her own eyes filled. “Ezra, I’m so sorry.”

  NINETY-THREE

  THERE WAS A damned bullet hole in Geoff’s skull. Ezra fought the urge to puke. No more would his friend be laughing and joking in that particular way that had always irritated him. Much like Cam.

  Cam had always reminded him of Geoff. It was one reason why he’d had an easier time settling in here. That had helped him. He’d never deny that. He’d had a lot of healing he had to do after he’d first moved to Missouri.

  “His family, Agent Hahn?” Giada asked gently. “Who should we call for him?”

  Ezra shook his head. “No one. I’m his next of kin. Guy had practically no one else in the world.”

  Geoff would leave nothing behind but the memories. No wife, no kids, no close family.

  It was like he’d just become invisible.

  The girlfriend who had been wounded today was a new girl. One Geoff had only mentioned a few weeks ago. It hadn’t been too serious on Geoff’s end.

  Not like Ezra and Shannon.

  Lived by the gun, died by the gun. Geoff had lived hard, played hard—and he had done it mostly alone.

  Geoff had said that more than a thousand times in his hearing. “Geoff didn’t have any family. You’ll need to contact his superiors with the Army. I’ll notify anyone else who needs notified.”

  Ezra turned and walked out of the autopsy room knowing Geoff was in Dr. Mitchell’s hands now.

  “Ezra?” A warm hand landed on his back. He turned.

  “Shannon. I—”

  Small, skinny arms slipped around his waist, and she pressed her cheek against his chest. And held him. Just held him. She still smelled like honeysuckle and the deli’s chocolate chip cookies. Damn it, why did that stand out so much now?

  “Tell me about him.”

  “He was sharpsh
ooter for the same unit I was.” He’d been one hell of a sharpshooter. He’d helped Ezra hone his own skills in a lot of ways. It sickened him that Geoff had died this way. “We were the best. Always competing to see who was better. He saved my life at least twice over there. He worked as a recruiter for the army now. He was in and out of the city every two or three days. We hung out when we could.”

  “We’ll catch the man responsible, Ez. I promise. Ken... Ken’s great at what he does... We’ll stop him.”

  Her arms tightened around him. His tightened on her. He wanted to bury his head in her and just breathe her in. Scrub the image of one of his closest friends outside of PAVAD lying on the table about to go under Dr. Mitchell’s damned saw out of his head forever. The last time he’d seen Geoff, he’d kicked Geoff’s ass at basketball. Then they’d followed up with a trip to Smokey’s to get a beer. He’d introduced Geoff to Jones and Jones.

  Geoff had particularly liked Jac. Max had scowled the entire time. Ezra had gotten a kick out of it. So had Geoff.

  After the abduction, Geoff had shown up at Ezra’s apartment to check on him for himself. Geoff had hung around for two days after.

  Ezra knew exactly what was going to happen to Geoff now. Bile rose in his throat. “I need to make some phone calls. Let the rest of the guys know what’s happened.”

  She nodded.

  “You sticking here?” He wanted to take her home. To hold her for the rest of the night until he forgot what the morning would bring. But he didn’t know what he was supposed to do next. “You have a ride?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t need one. Ken’s ordered an all-nighter on this. We’re not stopping.”

  Ezra understood. This guy had escalated to two events in one day. Chances were good he was already planning his next one. Unless he was a professional; in that case, he was long gone. But why would a professional target Geoff? Jaynice Miller and Sin Lorcan made sense, in a way, being FBI. But Geoff...all he did was get kids to enlist. None of it made sense. “I got to make my calls to the rest of the guys.”