Page 16 of Charmed Forces

Another phone rang, this time from one near me but it wasn’t Daniel’s. I had the horrible feeling it was coming from the pocket of the dead man by the mantel. I considered picking up Daniel’s phone but decided there was no point in it. Someone else knew Daniel was assigned to this case. There was no sense in pretending he hadn’t been here. Plus, I couldn’t tamper with a crime scene. It was bad enough I was here. Which reminded me, my cellphone was in my pocket. I’d brought it for security but now it could place me here too.

When the phone rang a second time, I tucked my sleeve over my hand and pulled it from the dead guy’s pocket. The number was unlisted so I waited for it to ring off.

I didn’t need to access his phone for information but I did need to get someone here and pronto. I tapped the emergency tab, a scream stopping in my throat when the dead man grabbed my wrist.

I looked up directly into his eyes.

“Help,” he choked out. His voice was little more than an exhalation and his face deathly pale before he slumped to the floor with his fingers still wrapped around my wrist. I unpeeled them and checked his pulse, first at his neck, then on his wrist. It was so faint, I wasn’t sure I could feel it at all and as I paused, it seemed to ebb away, then disappear. I tapped 911 on his phone and hitcall, waiting a moment for it to connect. Then I tapped a few more buttons, hoping they took that as an indication the caller was there but couldn’t speak. I didn’t dare record my voice on an official call from his phone.

Daniel had escaped from here.

How could I explain my presence?

I wiped the phone clean with my sleeve. Then, as the operator said a unit was on its way, without wasting another minute, I hightailed it out the same way I came. I needed to get back to Daniel and find out why the heck he left four dead people in his wake.

Chapter Four

“Where did you go?” Solomon yelled as I slipped through the front door and closed it behind me. He stood in the doorway, his arms crossed, his face stony. I couldn’t tell if he were mad at me, worried, or both.

“If anyone asks, I was jogging,” I said.

“That’s anyone else.I’masking.”

“I found the safe house where Daniel came from.”

“You’re ghastly white.”

“It’s true,” I said. “I try to conceal it with a tan but it’s barely summer, Solomon, so I’m still clad in my winter hue.”

“I meant, you look as white as a ghost, and now isn’t the time for jokes.”

I nodded, chastened that I’d worried him, but not guilty enough that I regretted stepping out. I only wished I’d been faster about it. Perhaps then I could have saved the man who slipped away. “How’s Daniel?” I asked.

“A little better. More awake, but unsteady. He’s in the kitchen.”

I moved past Solomon through the kitchen doorway. My brother was sitting on the floor, a bottle of water in his hand, appearing awake, although it was a drunk kind of awake and his eyelids kept flickering.

“You didn’t call anyone?” I asked.

“No. I decided it more prudent not to until we figure out what’s going on,” he said, emphasizing the “we” pointedly. “So… what’s going on? Where did you go?”

I drew back, just out of Daniel’s earshot. “There’s a house on Sun Street. 1150. It’s just past the church Daniel mentioned. There were four dead people inside, three men and one woman. Well, one was alive, just barely but I couldn’t find his pulse. I found Daniel’s phone and his badge also inside the same room where the dead victims were. They’d all been shot.”

Solomon blinked, then held up a finger for me to pause, as he answered his phone. “Got it,” he said, after listening. “Follow, observe, and report back.” He tucked the phone into his pocket. “Delgado said a call just went out on the police band sending additional units to Sun Street. He said it’s the only call they got from that area. He’s going to head to that address now. What the hell happened there?”

“Nothing good. Each one of them was shot once, at close range. The front door was shut but the back door was ajar so the killer might have exited that way. I didn’t see anyone so I figured they must’ve left as soon as they shot everyone.”

“But not Daniel.”

“Perhaps they followed him when he escaped. He must have lost them as he ran here.”

“Not easy to do when you can barely stand up, never mind run in a straight line.” Solomon put a hand over his mouth and jaw as he sucked in a breath. “Did you see any bullet holes elsewhere? In the door perhaps? Or down the hall?”

“No, none.”

“Then Daniel was able to leave without the assailant firing at him. Why would they let him go and kill all the others? We need answers.” Solomon glanced toward the kitchen, not waiting for me to reply, which was good because I didn’t have any answer. “While you were gone, I drew his blood.”

“You can do that?”