The nurse crossed the room and disappeared behind a set of double doors. Only then did Leslie allow herself to drop into her chair.
Nurse Humphrey hadn’t said much, but it sounded like Danny’s condition wasn’t good. She prayed for guidance and steady hands for the surgeon, that Becca would arrive as quickly as possible, and that the bullet might give the police a lead toward finding Danny’s shooter.
Chapter Four
Clint hated leaving Leslie at the hospital, but several members of her company had arrived to offer support to Danny while they waited for word on his condition. Apparently, Danny’s wife was back in town and on her way to the hospital. Leslie had people there to support her now. The best thing Clint could do was get the bullet to the station and see if they could match it to another crime in the area.
As soon as he dropped it off at the lab, he swung by Detective John Paris’s office. John was leading the investigation into the shooting as well as the warehouse fire.
He found the detective on the phone but was quickly waved inside. Clint closed the door behind him and took a seat across the desk. He checked the texts on his phone while he waited for John to finish his conversation.
“I checked on him at lunch and will go back to the house for a while around dinner. I’m glad your mom is doing better. Eve, honey, I’ve got to run. I’ll talk to you soon. Give everyone my love. I love you, too.” John ended the call and put his cell phone down on the desk. “Sorry about that.Eve’s mom had surgery yesterday, so Eve went down to help for a few days.”
Eve and John were married over a year ago. She worked as the chief medical examiner at the morgue in the same building as the police department. The couple was well known and liked by everyone at the precinct.
“I hope her mom recovers quickly.”
“Thank you. The surgery is fairly minor but will impair Gemma’s mobility for a couple of weeks. Eve wanted to stay and help her parents for a few days until they find a new normal.” John picked up a pencil and pointed to the photograph of a Yorkie puppy. “I think Eve was more worried about leaving Cody than she was about me.” He chuckled.
The couple adopted the puppy a couple of months ago. He was growing like a weed, and at four months old, was full of energy. Eve usually took him into work with her, having constructed a large play area of sorts in her office. Unfortunately, John didn’t have a place for her in his office and was in and out far too often to bring Cody to the station.
“I’m sure he’ll be glad when things return to normal, too.”
John nodded, but his expression grew serious. “How’s Leslie Granger doing? Did you get an update on Bracken?”
“When I left, he was still in surgery. I was given the bullet recovered from his wound and took it by the lab. Other members of their company are at the hospital now, so Granger isn’t alone.” Clint intended to check in on all of them again before he went home for the night.
“That’s good. We’re all praying for Bracken’s recovery.”
“Any progress on the case? Was the other person missing at the warehouse ever located?”
John sat up straighter in his chair. “Yes. It turns outSarah never showed up at work. She woke up this morning with symptoms of the flu. She’d called in sick, but the person she spoke with left early, so news of her absence never made its way around the office.”
Thank goodness she hadn’t been trapped in the fire. As far as the blaze itself went, no one was injured.
“And still no sign of the shooter?”
“None. We have two patrols stationed at the warehouse tonight, so if he is hiding inside, they’ll see him when he exits. We’ll do a more thorough search once we’re cleared to enter the building.”
Clint prayed they’d catch him. The fact was, it would be easy to get out and slip away undetected at this point—especially if he’d had some kind of escape plan in place all along.
“Granger said the suspect told Bracken it was too late to end the confrontation. I just wish we knew whether he said that because Granger and Bracken had interrupted him, or if he was there specifically to target a firefighter.”
“If it was the latter, then it begs the question—was our suspect determined to shoot just any firefighter, or was Bracken the target?” John dropped the pencil he was holding eraser-first onto the top of his desk. He snatched it out of the air when it bounced back up again. “We’ll have an officer stationed at the hospital for the time being. If he was the intended target, then the suspect may go back to finish the job. I’m looking into the warehouse and paper plant in general. I want to know if there are any outstanding disputes with current or past employees, contracts, or even competitors. See if there’s a reason why someone would be targeting the company as a whole.”
“What can I do?”
“Since you know Granger, why don’t you talk to her aswell as others at the fire station. Find out if they’ve had any issues recently. If any of their people have had run-ins with someone during their call-outs that made responding to fires difficult for any reason. Talk to Bracken’s wife. See if there’s anyone he’s had a confrontation with outside of work.”
“You’ve got it. I’ll see if we can track down the equipment the suspect was wearing. It sounds like it looked exactly like everyone else’s, minus the name tag. If we can figure out where he got it, maybe it’ll lead us to an ID.”
“That sounds like a plan to me. Let me know if you find anything.”
“Will do.”
The sooner they connected the dots, the better. Until they found the suspect and got him off the streets, Clint was going to worry about the safety of Leslie and everyone else at the station.
“We haven’t had any trouble—certainly nothing recent.” Fire Chief Menendez poured a cup of coffee and offered it to Clint. When the officer politely declined, Menendez kept it for himself and led the way to his office. “There’s the occasional case of arson where our inspectors discover proof leading to the arrest of the person responsible. But even then, we don’t usually see a lot of backlash.”
