"Can you and Brodsky get these guys gathered up and around to the front of the house? I want to go check on Lany and the others."
"Yes, but could you—"
"I'll check on Skip for you."
"Thank you." I felt a little weird asking, but Sal didn't seem to think anything of it.
"Mr. Delvecchio, sir," Brant said through the comm link, "we've taken eight men into custody, but I'm afraid the others have gotten away."
"They've been recalled, Brant," Sal said. "Turns out this was a police raid."
"Come again?"
"I don't know the full story at the moment, Brant, but it looks like these men are all police officers and this was a police raid."
"Oh."
Sal chuckled. "Try not to hurt them too much."
"Yes, sir." He sounded so disappointed. "It might be a little late for that, sir. Pierre-Paul had to shoot one of them in the leg."
Sal sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Okay, I'm coming in to check on Lany and the others. Get the ones who can walk out in front of the house but keep them restrained and under guard. I'll have Dr. Jones take a look at the one who got shot."
Sal's eyes hardened when he looked at Officer Jenson. "How many men were sent on this raid?"
The officer pressed his lips together.
Sal just grinned. "Brant, it looks like I may need you out back by the pool. This guy doesn't want to talk."
"I'll be right there, sir," Brant replied.
I knew for a fact that Sal would never let someone harm a fellow police officer, so he had to be playing the guy.
I could do that.
"Sal, man, are you sure you want to do that? I know Brant is a former Mossad agent, but Officer Jenson was just following orders. You can't let Brant torture him. It's just not right."
Jenson whimpered.
"He lost any rights to my mercy when he attacked my home," Sal snapped. "What do you think would have happened if the kids had been home? They could have killed them."
"Kids?" Officer Jenson's face had turned pasty white. "What kids?"
"My kids, you moron. There are six of them, ranging from six to seventeen. The only reason they are not here right now is because they went to the zoo with their grandparents. If they had been here..." Sal shook his head. "How do you go on a raid without knowing all of the players?"
I cocked my head as something Sal said clicked in my head. "Why were they sent on a raid, Sal? That's what SWAT is for. These guys are just beat cops. They don't do raids."
Sal's head snapped around so quickly I heard his neck pop.
He stared at me.
It was a little unnerving.
"I'm just saying we weren't called in and we should have been if a raid was planned."
"Maybe we weren't called in because the raid was here."
"That would mean someone somewhere had to know you and Lany lived here." I hated pointing that out, but it was the only possibility. If there had been a raid planned, even if it was going through a task force, a SWAT team would have been called in.
