Green Light (Sam Archer 7) (23 page)

‘
Much better. Don’t want you frightening small
children.’

Tossing
the tissue in the trash, Archer and Marquez started walking towards
the detective pit, April following.

‘
How’s Michelle?’ he asked.

‘
In surgery. Josh’s there with her.’

‘
Damage?’

‘
Two rounds clipped her tricep; one was a through and through.
She got lucky; if she hadn’t spun before he fired, it would have
gone right through her chest.’

As they
entered the heart of the building, Archer saw the families gathered
in the detective pool straight ahead, a pair of officers talking
with them and offering them some iced pastries from a box. They all
looked shell-shocked after the events of the night but at least in
here they knew they were safe.

Observing the group, Archer shook his head.

‘
What the hell is going on? Why go after them?’

‘
That’s what we’re trying to find out,’ Marquez replied,
motioning upstairs to the Conference Rooms which the detective
teams used. ‘We’re waiting for you; Shepherd sent me down. They’re
starting in one minute.’

As
Marquez spoke, Isabel suddenly appeared from a side room with a
female detective and saw Archer. Her face lit up and she
immediately ran over, Archer kneeling down as she hugged him,
catching his breath as she threw herself against the cut across his
chest.

With the
girl clinging to him and not letting go any time soon, he looked up
at Marquez and April.

‘
Better make that two.’

*

The mood
on the lower level of the Bureau with the family members might have
been one of delayed shock, but upstairs in the Conference Room it
was tense and focused. After reassuring Isabel and leaving her with
Josh’s eldest son, Archer walked upstairs and joined the others,
immediately registering the change in atmosphere as he entered the
room. Hendricks was standing on the right, Shepherd straight ahead,
April sitting on the left side of the central table and looking
awkward, an NYPD navy-blue jacket draped around her
shoulders.

Having
been momentarily delayed, Marquez entered the room behind Archer,
easing the door shut behind her, the last member to arrive apart
from Josh.

‘
Michelle’s in surgery,’ she said. ‘I also called the other
hospital; the gunman’s being operated on right now.’

‘
Has he said anything yet?’ Hendricks asked.

‘
No chance. They had to put him under and get to work
immediately. If they didn’t, he wasn’t gonna survive long enough to
answer any questions. The shotgun blast did some major damage; he
still might not make it.’

‘
Looks like we’re going to have to figure out who he is and who
his friends were ourselves,’ Shepherd said. He turned to Ethan.
‘Any results yet?’

‘
Not yet. None of them were carrying ID, so we’re working from
face and physical stat searches but so far, no matches. None of
them have any tattoos or distinguishing marks which I could search
in the databases. A few scars, but nothing major.’

‘
Three of them are dead and one’s unconscious,’ Hendricks said.
‘We can get their prints.’

‘
CSU tried, but each guy had taken down the end pads on their
fingers,’ Ethan replied.

‘
What?’ Marquez said.

‘
They don’t have prints; they burned them off with acid. And no
records are coming up anywhere. I’ve tried everything. Shit, they
didn’t even show up in the DMV.’ He shrugged. ‘I guess we’ll just
have to hope the wounded man makes it through surgery and we can
get him to talk.’

He
tapped some keys and photos of four men appeared on the screen;
three were close-up crime scene captures, the dead men lying on the
Hendricks’ front lawn, and the fourth was the man currently being
operated on, someone having taken his mug-shot on the way to the
hospital, the white stretcher he was strapped to visible under his
head.

All four
were dark-haired, hard-faced men with similar facial
characteristics implying the same ethnicity, possibly European, but
a specific nationality or gang was impossible to
identify.

‘
Anyone recognise them?’ Shepherd asked the room.

No-one
replied.

‘
Rubbed down finger prints. No tattoos. Silenced weapons with
the serial numbers burnt off. A car with fake plates. These guys
aren’t amateurs.’

As Shepherd spoke Archer studied the two separate, smaller
screens below the large electronic plasma screen. The left screen
was dedicated to the investigation into Leann Casey’s death.
Underneath her mug-shot and several from the scene of the shooting,
were DMV photos of two men. Both were brown-skinned and dark-eyed,
the one on the left bulky with a fat face, curly unkempt hair and
the other leaner with hollow eyes, short hair and a sour
expression.
Carlos Goya
and
Alex Santiago
were the names on the licenses. Archer recognised
Goya’s eyes instantly; he was definitely the guy from the parking
lot four weeks ago.

‘
What happened at the motel in Scranton?’ Archer asked. ‘We
split before they called back.’

‘
SWAT found an empty room, no Carlos Goya and traces of a lye
solution in the tub that was a perfect match for the shit we found
Santiago soaking in,’ Shepherd said. ‘Looks like he went the same
way as his friend.’

No-one
said anything; it was hardly a moment for celebration. Suddenly the
case wasn’t as straightforward as just finding Leann’s killers.
Three new suspects had suddenly appeared on the scene, Goya and
Santiago being wasted by three people whose motives were still a
mystery, one homicide leading to two more.

And on
top of that, a determined attempt had been made to wipe out the
families of each detective in the room. Now he’d had time to think,
the more Archer thought about how fast those attacks had happened
after he killed Lister, the more obvious the reason
seemed.

‘
All this in the same night,’ he said. ‘We start digging around
then stumble on our three friends disposing of Santiago. Lister
goes down and then these sudden moves on our families? There’s no
way that’s a coincidence.’

‘
It could be,’ Ethan said. ‘Maybe someone else is targeting
your team and they just happened to hit on the same
night.’

‘
Then why was Jake’s address on the list?’ Shepherd replied.
‘He runs his own squad. He’s only been working with us
tonight.’

Ethan
fell silent.

Shepherd
had a point.

‘
It’s connected,’ Marquez said, agreeing with Archer and
Shepherd. ‘We start asking questions, follow up on some leads,
Lister dies and less than thirty minutes later a team of armed
gunmen are paying our families a visit? C’mon; I’m all for
coincidence, but that’s just way too convenient.’

‘
So whoever these men are, how did they get your details?’
Ethan asked. ‘That information is restricted. Who the hell gave it
to them?’

‘
Anyone with Department access,’ Marquez said. ‘It came via
cell phone message. The team downstairs tried to trace the origin
number but it was from a disposable that’s going straight to
voicemail. It’ll have been ditched by now.’

Looking
at her for a moment, Shepherd turned, focusing on the investigation
screens.

‘
We need to rearrange this,’ he said. ‘Ethan, put our three
amateur chemists on the main screen.’

Seconds
later Nina Lister’s police mug-shot and close-up CCTV pulls of the
two men Archer had fought in the bar and Park appeared, the images
taken from a street camera covering the Park entrance. It showed
each man’s face but the shots were grainy and hard to make out, but
at least they were a start. One big, one slighter, the big guy well
over two hundred pounds, his partner much smaller whose junkyard
dog’s aggression was clear even from the poor quality shot as he
and his companion stalked after Archer and April.

‘
They showed up to the bar in a black van which CSU is working
over,’ Ethan said. ‘So far they haven’t found a single print
inside, just a load of empty canisters with traces of the lye
solution, a jet gun with a water barrel and spare sets of overalls,
gloves, gas masks and magazines for silenced weapons.’

‘
Tell them to keep combing that thing,’ Hendricks said. ‘Tear
it apart. After what we saw in that bath, we need an ID on these
two.’

Shepherd
nodded. ‘Bring up the four gunmen from the house calls
underneath.’

Ethan
complied, forming two lines, one under the other; Lister and her
two friends, then the four anonymous gunmen.

‘
Two very separate groups,’ Shepherd said. ‘But somehow
linked.’

He
tapped the smaller screen on the right.

‘
Lastly; victims here.’

Ethan
brought up Goya and Santiago’s mug-shots then leant back from his
computer.

‘
Wait,’ Archer said. ‘You’re missing two.’

‘
Who?’ Hendricks asked.

‘
Valdez and Carvalho. They were framed, the murder weapon left
at the scene, but made to look as if one shot his buddy then killed
himself.’

‘
Yeah, but surely Goya and Santiago must have done
that.’

‘
Valdez and his pal died early this week. Goya’s been in
Scranton for nine days and Santiago was in jail.’

There
was silence as everyone digested that. Realising Archer was right,
Ethan hit a few keys and the two men’s photos joined Goya and
Santiago’s.

‘
But why frame two men to keep the heat off Goya and Santiago
then kill them too?’ he said.

‘
To buy Lister and her two friends time to find and get rid of
Carlos and Alex before we realised they were involved,’ Marquez
finished. ‘For some reason, they didn’t want us talking to
them.’

There
was a pause as everyone examined the three screens.

‘
You think they’re all part of the same crew then?’ Ethan
suggested, looking at the two lines of suspects. ‘The visits to
your homes were attempted payback?’

‘
Or something to keep us occupied and off their tails,’ Archer
replied, looking at his watch. ‘It’s been two hours since Lister
was shot, but this is the first chance we’ve had to sit down and
really take a look at this thing. All the home attacks kept us busy
and bought the two men extra time.’

‘
To do what?’ Ethan asked.

‘
Find me,’ April said nervously, the first time she’d
spoken.

Standing
by the screens, Shepherd turned his attention to her.

‘
Do you recognise her?’ he asked, pointing at Lister’s photo.
‘Or the two men?’

‘
Never seen them before.’

‘
Any idea why they’d be so invested in finding you?’

‘
None.’

‘
How long have you been hiding?’

‘
Since this afternoon.’

‘
Why do you think these men were trying to find
you?’

‘
I don’t know.’

‘
So why’d you run?’ Hendricks asked, confused. ‘How’d you
know?’

She
tried to speak but hesitated, looking uncertainly around the
room.

‘
I, um. I…’

She
trailed off, clearly overwhelmed.

‘
Start from the beginning,’ Archer said quietly, sitting beside
her. ‘Tell us what’s going on. We’re here to help.’

Turning,
she looked at him for a long moment. Then she sighed.

‘
OK.’

TWENTY NINE

‘
I started doing this three years ago,’ she explained. She went
to continue but then stopped almost as soon as she’d started,
looking at the police detectives surrounding her, clearly unnerved
by sitting in a room full of cops. ‘I’m not sure if I should be
telling you guys this.’

‘
You won’t get into trouble,’ Shepherd said. ‘You have my
word.’

Glancing
at Archer for reassurance, he nodded and she continued.

‘
I’m from Philadelphia. Used to live there with my mother. I
started hanging out with the wrong crowd after school, thinking I
was cool, all that kind of stupid shit.’

She
paused.

‘
One night at a party, I met some guy in his twenties who I’d
never seen before. We hit it off and started seeing each other. He
told me he was only around for a few weeks, but that I should ditch
school and go back to New York with him. At first I thought he was
joking but he kept on. A few days later I had a huge fight with my
mother and packed my bags. My boyfriend picked me up and we came
here to New York, a week before my seventeenth
birthday.’

She
picked up her coffee but didn’t drink, clutching the mug tightly.
Around her, the room was silent.

‘
He told me he had a big place in Chelsea but when we arrived I
saw three other girls lived there as well. I was surprised, but how
naïve can you be, right? He told me that I couldn’t stay there for
free and that I needed to help out with rent and living
expenses.
New York’s an expensive
city,
he said.
It’s the way it gets done here.
’