Page 37 of Charmed Forces
“No, Dan would never tell me that. That kind of information is strictly confidential and prohibited. If you’re not read in, it’s none of your business. But my guess is those news vans that turned up will have most of the information by tomorrow.”
“Any chance you can ask around?” asked Solomon.
“I have, and I will, but I have to be discreet about it. Brandt will want to appear like he’s taking a hard line on this case. The whole thing could blow up badly.” Garrett shrugged and ran a hand over his hair. “Like it hasn’t already,” he added.
“Did you know the other officer?” I asked.
“No, only that he was pronounced dead at the scene.” Garrett ran a hand over his hair and let out a breath. “I’m told he didn’t even get a chance to fire a single round. Neither did Wayne.”
“So Wayneisthe survivor,” said Solomon and Garrett nodded.
Solomon and I exchanged glances. Were the officers unprepared or incapacitated? Or did they both trust the shooter? “Our intel says there was no forced entry. Could it have been an ambush?” I asked.
“Your intel seems to know as much as I do. Must be, and that’s the worst thing about this. Even worse than Daniel going MIA and Brandt lining him up in his crosshairs.”
Solomon nodded. “There’s a leak,” he said. “But our intel comes from another source.”
“Yeah, and they got everyone killed. Listen, guys, I want to go check on Traci and the kids, and then I’m going to work every CI I ever met to try and find Daniel. I’ll speak to you both soon.”
“I feel bad about lying to everyone,” I said once we were back in the car. “I can put a lot of minds at rest if I just tell them Daniel’s okay and safe. Now Garrett’s going to exert a lot of effort into finding him and it’s all for nothing.”
“Not for nothing. It’ll make him feel better to be active. Plus, if Captain Brandt froze him out, he might do that to your other family members too. That means our police intel will be limited so we’ll need to work other angles for information.”
“To prove Daniel didn’t do this, we need to find that leak,” I said. “Perhaps that’s the one who drugged him.”
“It’s possible but I don’t see how they could just walk into a safe house, drug everyone, hang around for it to take effect, and then shoot them all. That’s cold-blooded, not to mention time-consuming. Anything could go wrong.”
“They couldn’t simply walk in without being known to the detectives already there, and that means the perp has to have a very close connection to the case.”
Solomon nodded. “Another task for the list. Identify everyone who went into that house. Did you happen to notice what security was like in the area?”
“It’s a fairly average street, not as upscale as our neighborhood, but not rundown either. I didn’t notice much in the way of cameras but that’s not to say there weren’t any.”
“MPD probably picked it exactly for the absence of cameras. That’s what I would do when selecting a safe house. Makes it harder to be spied on.” Solomon pulled out onto the street and pointed the car towards Monty’s.
We arrived with plenty of time before closing. Solomon remained in the car, the engine idling while I walked inside. The kitchen was busy with folded boxes being filled and pushed onto the counter, as new orders were rapidly being made, but the attached pizzeria was half empty. The heady smell of dough and shredded cheese made me feel hungry all over again.
“Lexi, haven’t seen you in a couple weeks,” called the owner, Monty. “What can I get you?”
“Nothing today, thanks. We ate a pizza earlier.”
“You’re not here for seconds?”
“Actually, I wanted to know how many ham and pineapple pizzas you made today?”
Monty raised his eyebrows. “Too many. That’s such an abomination. We don’t even offer it as a standard pie! Why does anyone need to put a pineapple on a pizza? Would you put a peach on a pizza? Or a plum?”
“I’m trying to find out some information about one that would have been picked up, say… anytime from five o’clock on?” I asked as a guess. It was too loose a time frame but I had no idea how to narrow it down. “They ordered another pizza too.”
“Ah, honey, we’ve got people coming in all the time with this or that order. Our delivery driver is out sick tonight so it’s pick-up only. Plus, not everyone calls in their order. If they’re walk-ins, we take it at the register.”
“Did this guy come in?” I asked, pulling up a photo on my phone of Daniel. “He would have been wearing jeans and a blue shirt, maybe a navy jacket.”
“Nah. I would’ve remembered. I know him. He comes in at least every two weeks. Sometimes he orders for the family. Sometimes he’s on the job. He’s a cop, right? I don’t know his name though.”
“Right,” I said. “What about a guy in a gray suit?”
“We get guys in suits all the time, picking up pizzas on their way home from work.”