His stare shifted toward the main door.
The wood was broken. The lock shattered. The perp had kicked it in, going for the element of surprise. He’d kicked open the door and immediately aimed for the bed.
Cass had been on the floor, Gray was sure of it. No way would Cass have let Agnes hunker down on the floor while he took the bed.
But…
She hadn’t been hit.
She did the firing.
A good FBI agent would have kept her gun close.
He glanced at the nightstand. She’d probably had it positioned right there.
So, the door had flown open, but Agnes…she hadn’t been asleep. She’d leapt off the bed. Maybe even tried to protect Cass because that was what an FBI agent would do. Only the prick in the doorway would not have run after he fired his three rounds. He would have realized he’d missed his target. He would have been preparing to fire again…
Agnes shot him.
Gray was pretty damn sure that when an ME examined the dead body, they’d find a bullet—maybe two—lodged in him that matched up to the weapon assigned to Agnes.
Gray nodded. Of course, Cass could always say that he’d used her weapon to fire but…
You lied to me, Cass. Agnes is the one who took the shot.
He turned around, studied the room yet again. He always liked to make sure he’d considered every possible element in a crime scene.
The silence stretched and stretched.
“What’s the plan?” Malik finally asked.
He was still working on his plan. But he did think he understood what had gone down in that room. “A gun was recovered near the fallen man. The friendly sheriff told me that three shots had been fired from that weapon.” Three shots that had not found their mark. “Clearly, this is a case of self-defense.” His gaze slid to Malik. “You see anything here that makes you doubt that assessment?”
Malik’s jaw hardened.
Gray sighed. “Spit it out, Agent Jones.”
“I see plenty that makes me think Agnes is a sitting duck. No one is gonna buy that BS scene at The Bottomless Pit.”
Ah, he disagreed. Some would buy it. Some wouldn’t. Some wouldn’t give a shit either way. They would just want her dead. Her and Cass.
Malik took a surging step toward him. “Agnes is alone. She’s defenseless. She has no backup. This case is too risky.”
Four sentences. Nice. But Malik was wrong. “She has backup.”
“Who? The Night Striker?”
“He will protect her.” Gray was certain of that fact.
“Will he? Or will he abandon her in an instant to protect himself?”
Clearly, Malik was not a Cass super fan. He got it. “We don’t need to be worried about Cass at the moment.”
“Uh, yes, yes, I believe we do.”
That was because Malik did not fully understand the situation. Or Agnes. “Shit is gonna hit the fan.” Because he couldn’t really hide a dead body. He could…quiet things, but only for a time. Especially when the ballistics report came back and linked the shooting to her gun.
And certain people—well, they noticed when Agnes wasn’t around. People who had been a pain in his ass for a very long time. Ever since he’d agreed to take Agnes onto his team. In spite of their very, very strong protests against the decision.
