Chapter 5 - The Man Who Wanted Me Dead
I didn't go alone.
I wasn't that stupid.
I only made it look as if I had.
Major Crimes traced the address to an abandoned machine shop less than four blocks from the area where Marcus' call had originated. SWAT established positions two streets away while Laura hid a tracking device beneath my jacket.
“You follow instructions,” she told me.
“I know.”
“No hero nonsense.”
“I know.”
“If they tell you to enter, you stall until the team has eyes inside.”
“I know.”
“You say 'I know' one more time and I'm handcuffing you to the car.”
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
Then her face softened.
“Daniel, these men already shot at you.”
“They shot Leo.”
“Which means they're willing to kill.”
I checked my vest.
“So am I.”
“No.”
Laura grabbed my arm.
“That mindset gets people buried. You're going in to bring Marcus and Tyler out. Nothing else.”
I knew she was right.
I hated that she was right.
The machine shop stood behind a chain-link fence.
One overhead light burned inside.
I entered through a side door.
“I'm here!” I called.
My voice echoed.
“Marcus?”
Nothing.
Then a speaker somewhere overhead crackled.
“Put your weapon on the floor.”
A man's voice.
I recognized it.
The caller from my house.
Aaron Voss.
I removed my gun slowly.
“Kick it forward.”
I did.
“Walk.”
Lights came on deeper inside.
Marcus sat tied to a chair.
His face was bruised.
Beside him sat Tyler.
Alive.
Terrified.
“Danny,” Marcus whispered.
“I'm here.”
A man stepped from behind a steel support.
Aaron Voss.
I recognized him from Laura's photograph.
No mask.
No reason to hide anymore.
“You brought friends.”
I kept my expression neutral.
“If I had, you'd already know.”
He smiled.
“I do.”
That chilled me.
He walked closer.
“You think the police surrounding this building are invisible?”
My heart sank.
How?
Then a terrible realization struck.
The internal leak wasn't Marcus.
Or at least, not only Marcus.
Somebody inside the operation knew SWAT was there.
Voss glanced upward.
“They're waiting for you to give them the right phrase.”
Laura had given me an emergency verbal signal.
Only the tactical team knew it.
My face must have revealed something.
Voss smiled wider.
“Yes, Officer Jenkins. Somebody listening to your briefing works for us.”
I looked at Marcus.
He shook his head slightly.
Not him.
“Why me?” I asked.
Voss's expression changed.
“My brother died because of you.”
“Your brother went to prison because he carried narcotics.”
“He was protected.”
“By dirty cops.”
“He was promised safety.”
“Then blame the people who lied to him.”
“I do.”
Voss stepped closer.
“And I'm killing them one at a time.”
I stared at him.
“Mercer wasn't just about me.”
“No.”
“You were trying to kill someone else?”
“You were bait.”
“For what?”
“For the reaction.”
He glanced at my jacket.
“You know what happens after a police officer is ambushed? Everyone panics. Everyone communicates. People call the people they trust.”
He smiled.
“Your department became very talkative last night.”
My skin went cold.
The ambush had been surveillance.
They wanted to identify the corruption network by watching who contacted whom after an attack connected to the old case.
“You almost killed me to shake the tree.”
“I needed the rats to run.”
“And Leo?”
For the first time, Voss looked uncomfortable.
“The dog wasn't part of the plan.”
Rage rose so suddenly I had to clench my fists.
“You fired at my chest.”
“The shooter had instructions to miss the first rounds.”
“And the next two?”
Voss didn't answer.
“Leo took them.”
“I know.”
“He almost died because you wanted to frighten people.”
“My brother did die.”
“That wasn't Leo's fault.”
“No.”
“Wasn't mine either.”
His jaw tightened.
“Maybe not.”
That surprised me.
“You learned something.”
Voss nodded toward Marcus.
“He knows who betrayed Travis.”
I looked at my former partner.
Marcus dropped his gaze.
“Tell him,” Voss ordered.
Marcus swallowed.
“The corruption didn't start with me.”
“We know.”
“No. You don't understand.”
He looked at me.
“I was small-time. Changed evidence records. Lost cash. Covered transfers.”
“Who ordered it?”
Marcus's eyes filled with shame.
“Captain Morris.”
I felt as if the floor moved.
My captain.
The man who had stood beside me at the animal hospital.
The man who had arranged protection for Claire and Emily.
“No.”
“He recruited me eight years ago.”
“Why would he—”
“He was selling confiscated drugs back through informants. Cole became one of his distributors.”
I remembered Morris placing a hand on my shoulder hours earlier.
Telling me everything would be handled.
If Marcus was telling the truth, Morris had been monitoring the investigation from inside it.
Which meant he knew Claire's location.
He knew Leo's hospital.
He knew everything.
My hidden earpiece clicked.
One sound.
Then another.
Laura's signal.
Something had changed outside.
Voss noticed my eyes shift.
“You hear something?”
“No.”
He raised his weapon.
“Take off the jacket.”
I didn't move.
“Now.”
I slowly removed it.
The transmitter fell to the floor.
Voss laughed.
“I told you.”
Then gunfire erupted outside.
Not SWAT breaching.
Gunfire aimed at SWAT.
Voss turned toward the sound.
“What the hell?”
Marcus shouted.
“Morris!”
The overhead lights died.
Darkness swallowed the building.
I moved.
I grabbed Tyler and dragged him behind a machine.
Bullets tore through the front wall.
“Stay down!”
“Dad!”
“Tyler, stay!”
Emergency lights flickered red.
Voss was shouting orders.
Then a voice came over the building speaker.
Captain Morris.
“Jenkins.”
I froze.
“Marcus.”
Gunfire stopped.
“You two have caused enough trouble.”
Voss yelled into the darkness.
“You sold us out!”
Morris laughed through the speaker.
“You were useful, Aaron. So was your brother.”
Voss fired toward the ceiling.
“You killed Travis?”
“No. But I made sure the right prisoner knew what he'd done.”
Everything became clear.
Morris had arranged Travis' death.
Then manipulated Aaron's rage.
Used him to eliminate people connected to the old corruption scheme.
And now Morris intended to erase everyone left.
Including us.
Including Voss.
Including Tyler.
“Daniel,” Marcus whispered.
“What?”
“Back loading door.”
“Locked.”
“There's a manual chain.”
I looked through the red emergency light.
Thirty yards.
Too far.
Morris spoke again.
“You were always a good officer, Jenkins. That's what made you dangerous.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“No.”
His voice remained unnervingly calm.
“I tried to scare you into leaving K-9.”
“What?”
“You and that dog kept finding things you weren't supposed to find.”
I thought about dozens of searches.
Cars.
Buildings.
Storage facilities.
Leo had no politics.
No loyalty to corrupt officers.
No fear.
He found what was there.
“You should have transferred,” Morris said.
“You should have been a cop.”
Silence.
Then Morris answered.
“I was. Once.”
The lights came back.
A figure appeared on an overhead catwalk.
Morris.
Weapon aimed down.
I reached for the gun I'd hidden inside my ankle holster.
He saw me.
“Don't.”
Voss appeared from the opposite side.
His weapon pointed at Morris.
For a second, three men stood trapped in a triangle of vengeance.
Then Tyler cried out.
Everybody looked.
A spark from the damaged electrical box had ignited spilled solvent near the wall.
Flames climbed instantly.
The old building filled with smoke.
Morris fired.
Voss fired.
Marcus knocked Tyler to the floor.
I returned fire.
Then part of the catwalk railing exploded.
Morris disappeared into smoke.
“Move!” I shouted.
I cut Marcus loose.
We dragged Tyler toward the loading door.
Fire raced behind us.
Voss stumbled nearby, clutching his side.
He looked at me.
For one moment, I saw a man who had tried to kill me.
Then I saw something else.
A brother destroyed by grief.
“Go,” he said.
I hesitated.
“Go!”
I grabbed his arm.
“You're coming too.”
His eyes widened.
“Why?”
“Because I'm a cop.”
Together, we reached the loading door.
Marcus pulled the chain.
Nothing happened.
“Again!”
He pulled harder.
The door lifted six inches.
Smoke poured around us.
Outside, someone shouted.
Then hands appeared beneath the gap.
SWAT officers.
They forced it open.
Fresh night air rushed inside.
Tyler crawled out.
Marcus followed.
Then Voss.
I was last.
The moment I hit the pavement, Laura ran toward me.
“Morris got away.”
“What?”
“He had a vehicle staged north.”
My stomach dropped.
“Claire.”
“We moved them.”
“Where?”
Laura froze.
That was enough.
“You moved them where?”
“A second secure residence.”
“Who authorized it?”
Her face went pale.
“Morris.”
I grabbed my phone.
No signal from Claire's device.
No answer.
Then Laura's radio crackled.
“Detective Bennett, be advised, officers at the safe residence are unresponsive.”
My heart stopped.
“Status of Jenkins family unknown.”
I looked toward the city.
Morris had failed to kill me.
He had failed to silence Marcus.
May you like
But he still had one final way to destroy everything I loved.
And Leo was still lying wounded in a hospital miles away.
