Redemption (Amos Decker #5)(87)

Decker looked at the rifle and scope. Then he thought back to the moment it had been used.

He rushed back to the room where Lancaster was.

“What is going on with you?” said Lancaster.

“I wasn’t the target, Mary, that night outside McArthur Park.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Sally Brimmer was.”





Chapter 56



“ERIC TYSON. FORMER MILITARY. Washed out of Ranger School and then out of the Army.”

Lancaster looked up from her report the next morning. Decker sat across from her at her desk.

“We just got this back from the Army. We ran his prints through all the criminal databases and got a hit. Tyson was arrested on an assault charge about ten years ago, while he was in the military. It was off base against a civilian. That’s why we were able to access his prints. We checked in with the Army, told them what had happened, and they sent us this file.”

“Special skills?”

“Trained as a sniper. So you were right. The shot he took that killed Sally wasn’t meant for you. He could have shot her from a mile away. Tyson was barely fifty yards from his target.”

“How’d he wash out of the Army?” asked Decker.

“Got in with some bad company, apparently. Earned him a DD.”

“So he leaves with a dishonorable discharge. What’s he been doing since his military days?”

Lancaster shrugged. “Not sure. We’re looking into it. Hope to have something soon. We can’t find anything that shows he’s been in prison.”

“Well, considering all his tats, it was not anything good that he was up to, despite never having been in prison.”

Lancaster sat back in her chair. “Okay, but why kill Sally Brimmer? You never said last night.”

“I don’t know. But I’m a huge target. He could hardly miss me. Sally was going to give me a hug when the shot came. But I’m nine inches taller than she was. And a lot wider. Doesn’t matter how close she was to me, he couldn’t have missed, if I’d been the target.” He slapped the top of the desk with his palm. “I should have seen that a long time ago.”

“Same goes for me. But that doesn’t tell us why she was the target.”

“She had gotten me the files I’d asked for, after you got knocked off the case.”

“How’d you even connect with her?”

“She came by to see me when my butt was sitting in jail. I asked her to do that for me and she agreed. We met in the park. As we were leaving, that’s when she got shot.”

“If they knew she was passing you information, why not shoot the both of you and take that information?”

“I don’t think that was the reason,” said Decker.

“Why?”

“Because if they knew she was giving me information, they probably knew what it was: police files. Big deal. Why would that be a death warrant for her? I could have gotten those any number of ways. Killing her wasn’t going to stop that.”

“So you’re saying she was, what, complicit in something?”

“Or she knew something that was dangerous to other people.”

Lancaster glanced up at him. “What people?”

Decker looked around the confines of the empty room. “She worked here.”

Lancaster’s voice sank to a whisper. “Decker, do you know what you’re saying?”

“There are bad people everywhere, Mary. Cops are not immune, you know that.”

She shook her head. “Granted, but none of this makes sense.”

“It does make sense. We just haven’t figured out how yet. Any word yet on the fire at Rachel Katz’s office?”

“We got a prelim from the arson squad. They found an incendiary device attached to a timer. They must have placed it there after they searched her office. You just picked the wrong time to make your visit.”

He rose.

“Where are you going?”

“To the hospital to check on Katz and Melvin.”

“Is that all?”

“Then I’m going to see Mitzi Gardiner.”

“You want me to tag along?”

“Aren’t you deskbound after the shooting?”

“Well…”

“I’ll talk to you when I get back.”

*



“They think she’s going to be okay,” said Mars.

He and Decker were sitting in the visitors’ room outside the critical care unit at the hospital.

“They think?”

“Well, she’s stable, critically stable, but at least she’s stable.”

“Okay.”

Mars rubbed his eyes.

“You look beat, Melvin. Why don’t you go get some rest?”

“No, I’m good. I napped on the couch.” He stretched his long arms. “They got cops outside her room.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Mars shook his head. “Why do I feel like it’s my fault she’s lying in that hospital bed?”

“Your fault? How do you figure?”

Mars said, “The people who shot her? They knew she was talking to me. They were afraid she might open up. So they decided to kill her. I don’t push it, she’s okay.”