Page 100 of Hurt in Her Eyes

Jarrod just kept watch.

As they waited.

People came up to him. Uniformed officers, plainclothes detectives. MacGregor was there. Just sort of hanging around.

Jarrod looked at him. He supposed the man around his own age was all right. Decent enough at his job, but still old-school. Kind of lazy, too. Not one of Jarrod’s picks for cop of the year. He worked second-in-command of the small Homicide unit. Then there was Wright, who was floating around the waiting room, too. Glowering. “MacGregor.”

“Hell, Foster, what happened?”

“Not sure. Rodriguez was ambushed in his truck. He practically fell at Coleson’s feet. No one has heard anything since.”

“Shit.” A look of anger went across the other man’s face. Jarrod understood. “I’m going back to the post. I’ll start going through his cases. See if anything jumps out.”

“He was targeted. No denying that. We’ll have to see if he has any ideas when we can talk to him.” And he wasn’t going to let MacGregor or his team handle Miguel’s case. He just wasn’t. But that was for later—when he could talk to Daniel and Elliot. Miguel deserved the best, and that was Major Crimes.

“And see if he said anything to help identify the shooter to the Coleson sisters.” MacGregor watched Heather walking away, a strange look in his eyes. “Just in case. Damn it, Rodriguez has those kids to take care of. Where did they end up?”

“Not sure yet. But we’ll see they are taken care of. You just…concentrate on finding the guy who may have done this. Or getting some damned leads together.” Jarrod knew how it was played. No one had forgotten that the TSP wasn’t safe for anyone now. Tonight…just proved that. “We’ll find the bastard who did this. You have my word.”

Haldyn returned, a brown paper evidence bag in her hands. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to find anything on Heather’s clothes. But she did first aid until help arrived. Something may have transferred to her clothing or hands. Detective MacGregor. I’ll need to find Hope and get her clothes as well. Has anyone heard about his condition? Or seen Hope?”

“Not yet. Not since he was taken up to surgery,” Jarrod told her as Heather joined them next.

“I need to go find Hope,” Heather said. She looked at Haldyn. “She’ll need clean clothing, too. She was covered in blood.”

Heather looked like she was about to vomit there. There was an expression in her eyes he would never forget. No wonder. He’d heard she and Miguel had been friends for years.

Someone was behind her. “Heath…I have clean clothes for Hope here.”

Heather turned. Jarrod studied the woman in light green scrubs for a moment. Another one of the Colesons. No denying that. “Thanks. Detective Foster, Haldyn, this is my niece, Cashlyn. Zoey’s sister.”

A more delicate version of Heather and Zoey stared back at him now. She looked the most like Ariella, Zoey’s younger sister, who had that same type of gentle prettiness. Those Colesons looked alike, no denying that. MacGregor was looking at her, too. With a light of interest that was far too inappropriate for the moment. Jackass. Jarrod looked at him pointedly. “Shouldn’t you be going back to the post now? Getting started.”

“I’m on my way. Keep me in the loop. Coleson, Dr. Harris. You all just call me if you need me.” Then MacGregor was gone, and Jarrod followed his little rabbit and his partner to the elevators. The surgical department was one floor up from the ER. Jarrod knew the way. Once the three of them were in the elevator, he looked at Heather. “Did Miguel say anything to you that might lead to the shooter?”

She shook her head. “Just concerned for his kids mostly. He said the guy was white—he could see that around the holes in the mask. Light eyes, but couldn’t tell for sure. Over six feet, but probably not as tall as Miguel.”

That wasn’t all that helpful. Miguel was one of the tallest men Jarrod knew. He had to be to six seven, if not over. “Which isn’t much to go on—how many men are as tall as he is?”

“I didn’t even hear the shot. So my guess is silencer. Hope and I were probably in the parking lot when it happened.” And she was furious that she hadn’t seen the shooter. Hard to miss.

“Most likely explanation is that he was already out of the parking lot before you and Hope even made it around the front corner.” Jarrod had studied the perimeter of the parking lot while Haldyn had been giving instructions to her people. There were many ways a healthy, fit man his size could have gotten into that parking lot easily enough.

“I had to get away from downstairs.” Heather almost mumbled it. Her eyes met Jarrod’s. He waited. “Cops were everywhere when we lost…when Eastman killed Nick. And I had to make my way through them to get upstairs to wait for my sister’s preemie, while they had Joy in surgery. We almost lost her, too. And…the baby.”

Gregory Eastman had attacked Heather’s twin sister with a knife and attempted to take the baby, when she had been around eight months pregnant. Jarrod had seen the case files. Had followed the investigation closely back then. Nick Greene had been a TSP detective out of Wichita Falls. He’d been walking with Heather’s sister in the park on his day off when they’d been attacked. Greene had been killed while trying to protect his wife.

Haldyn put a hand on Heather’s shoulder. “Hope’s told me a little.”

There was pain in those big brown eyes of Heather’s. And compassion in Haldyn’s. Jarrod just kept his mouth shut. What could he really say that would make things better? There was far too much hurt to go around.

64

Sol had just made it home and put the six-pack on the table next to his keys and flipped on the television when he saw the band flashing across the screen beneath the news anchor’s far-too-pretty face.

Sol didn't bother watching anything other than the news now. What was the point? He didn’t even watch it that much. Just had it on for noise mostly. So the house didn’t feel so damned empty. Not like anything ever really changed anyway.

Except... Officer Involved Shooting at Finley Creek TSP flashing across the screen caught his damned attention. Fast. He grabbed the remote and turned it up.