Page 38 of Fatal Strike
GPD officers pulled in. Red and blue lights painted the darkness. In the distance more sirens blared.
The four shooters from the SUV made it to the water and waded in with Jon gaining ground behind them. Through the haze of rain, Jon fired at the back of the man who trailed last. He fell. The second man whirled and aimed at Jon. Jon dropped to the rocks and brought down another man. Bullets whizzed over his head.
Gunfire burst from behind him. Jon jerked around. Another police car had arrived. Four officers headed down the rocky bluff with Leah. She sprayed bullets toward the fast-disappearing men.
“Two men down,” Jon said.
“Got it—” The officer’s last words before a bullet flew into his shoulder. He groaned and slid onto the rocks. A second officer raced with Jon to the water’s edge. The speedboat jumped over waves. Jon fired repeatedly, but in the dark and rain, his sniper skills failed him.
Jon bent to the gunman facedown on the rocks. No pulse. An officer shone his flashlight on the man—Aaron Michaels.
25
LEAH STUDIED AARON MICHAELS’S BODY.A horrible waste of a life with no hope for rehabilitation. How very sad when the young man seemed excited about his future. Aaron had sworn Dylan was a good guy, an old friend, yet the young man lying in a pool of blood had tried to kill her and Jon. A 9mm lay beside his hand.
An officer approached her. “An ambulance will be here shortly.”
“I’m afraid it’s too late.” She pointed to the weapon. “We interviewed him earlier today. Never had a clue.”
“Another shooter bled out in the SUV,” the officer said.
“Must have been five total.” Leah stood and gazed out over the waves where the boat had disappeared.
Her attention settled back on Aaron Michaels. Leahberated herself for not aggressively questioning him this morning. More questions, more pressure, and his true colors could have lit up like a neon light. He’d be alive if she’d done a better job.
Leah walked back to the truck with Jon. She remembered being nineteen years old and living on her own, working, and paying for college. A flash of repeated mistakes swept through her mind, ones she’d vowed never to make again. Failing to see Aaron Michaels’s deception added to the list.
“We’re beating ourselves up when there’s not a thing we can do about him lying to us,” Jon said.
“Except feel inept.”
He opened his truck and pulled two flashlights from his glove box. Glass fragments littered the dashboard, seats, and floorboard.
“Sorry about your truck.”
“It can be fixed.” He handed her a flashlight and glanced around. “Aaron contacted Everson with an apparent good faith testimony, yet he was playing a role. Then Silvia tells us Dylan wants to turn himself in. I’d say he was out to get us, except the shooters were after him. Has he turned against the gang, and now they want him dead?”
“We’ll never earn his trust or Silvia’s again,” she said.
“The Venenos will pay for this.”
Leah agreed. Neither she nor Jon dealt well with defeat. Must be in their sniper DNA, part of why they were able to do what others couldn’t or refused to do.
She and Jon walked the beach where the men had rushed into the water. Heavier rain pelted them, like punishment. An FBI team was on their way to sweep the scene as well as a helicopter in flight to search for the boat.
While Jon arranged for a twenty-four-hour car rental to deliver a vehicle to their site and AAA to pick up his truck, she ran the plates on the SUV. She verified the owner and shook her head.
She turned to Jon, fury mounting. “You’ve got to be kidding. The SUV belongs to Judge Nicolás Mendez. Rachel reported the vehicle stolen earlier in the day. Why weren’t we notified?” She swiped at the rain soaking her face.
Jon’s jaw rigid, he grabbed his phone, and she knew without asking he was calling Everson. She strained closer to listen, but he put the call on speaker.
“Everson, in case you haven’t been updated, the owner of the SUV is Rachel Mendez,” Jon said. “When were you told?”
“Exactly 7:45 p.m., when the officer protecting Mrs. Mendez and her family called it in. The same time you and Agent Riesel were engaged in a shoot-out and subsequent chase with said vehicle through the streets of my city.”
Jon calmed. “What day and time was the vehicle last seen?”
“Yesterday afternoon. The grandmother discovered it missing from the garage this evening. The theft must have occurred during the night,” Everson said. “I know what you’re thinking. Why didn’t the officer on duty hear or see what was going on?”
