The toilet flushed, and he stood, opening the door and stepping out. I wet some napkins for him and wished I had a cup to get him some water.
“That’s so gross.” Sean popped out his contacts and reached into his jacket pocket to retrieve his glasses, placing them on the bathroom counter.
He splashed water on his red cheeks, and I handed him the napkins so he could blot his face. His tie was trashed, so he took it off and tossed it into the wastebasket.
“What happened?”
Sean rinsed his mouth and spat the water in the sink, dabbing his face again. “I got some very unsettling news and even more unsettling questions. I’ll tell you in the car on the way home.
“Were you able to call Mei-Lyn Chu?” He adjusted his clothes and smoothed his hair before straightening his shoulders and turning to me.
“I did. I’ll explain in the car as well.” I stepped to the door and opened it, watching him walk out of the restroom with his head held high.
I followed him out to where Detective Compton and Mr. Rose were waiting. “Are we done here?” I asked so I could summon the car.
“For now. We’ll be in touch, Mr. Fitzpatrick. Sorry for your loss, and make no mistake, we’ll find whoever did this. We’ll hold back the identity of the deceased until we’ve had the chance to contact their next of kin. Please don’t discuss the open case.” Compton turned and walked away, leaving Rose to follow us out.
I stopped Sean before he walked out the front door. “Gimme a second.”
He nodded and I stepped outside, scanning the area. It was a pretty highly trafficked area, so the threat assessment was more difficult, but I’d been stationed in volatile parts of the world before, and people who meant to do harm had similar habits and no care or concern for those who could be collateral damage.
Besides, who would know we were at the police station? It could have happened that we’d been surveilled, though I’d been hyper-vigilant while we were traveling to meet with Compton, and I didn’t notice anything remotely out of the ordinary. Plus, we’d been inside for nearly two hours.
At the end of the day, wewereat a police station. Trying to attack us there would be a suicide mission. I waved Sean out to join me.
The sun was shining brightly, and I missed my cowboy hat to shade my eyes, so I reached into my jacket pocket to get my sunglasses. I pulled them on as a guy on a pink bikewith a rainbow flag attached behind the seat sped around the southwestern corner of the police station.
Out of nowhere, a black SUV careened onto the one-way street at a high rate of speed, clipping the biker’s rear tire and sending the rider into the air as a window on the Chevy SUV lowered and the barrel of an automatic rifle appeared through the gap. I tackled Sean to the sidewalk and shielded him with my body as shots filled the air.
The windows across the front of the police station shattered as bullets pinged against the limestone exterior, and three police officers working the magnetometers inside the entrance rushed out of the building to return fire. The SUV sped away, and that was when I noticed the vehicle was missing a rear license plate.
What it wasn’t missing were two large magnetic signs affixed to the tailgate, one with a cross draped with an American flag and the other with the wordsDefenders of the Faithfulin red, white, and blue letters. That one I recalled from the beginning of my time in the Army.
I’d been approached to join their allegedreligious men’s orderduring my time at Camp Mackall, where I was training for the Army Special Operations Command. Thankfully, I deployed for the first time before I had to give those crazy bastards an answer. After that, I did my damnedest to stay off their radar.
The SUV ran the red light at Indiana and Third Street, racing toward D Street and getting lost in the midday traffic. No way would the cops find them.
I lifted myself off Sean and pulled him up, seeing his glasses were broken, and he had a small scrape on his cheek. “God, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
Sean’s face was pale, so I wrapped my arms around him. “I’m sorry I took you down, but I couldn’t see what they were firing at. No way did I want it to be either of us.”
“God, thank you, Jeri. I— I don’t know...” He started to pull away, but I wasn’t having it. He was trembling so much that I was afraid he was going to pass out and crack his head on the sidewalk. What kind of bodyguard would I be if I let that happen?
“Shh,” I whispered as I held him close again. “It’s okay. I’m sure we’ll have to give a statement so let’s go sit down on that bench.” I pointed to the wood and iron bench to our right before taking Sean’s hand and leading him over to sit. He seemed a little dazed, as he should be after surviving a drive-by shooting.
I scanned the area, looking for any bullet casings. There were only a few on the street, so most of them had stayed inside the black vehicle. The shooters hadn’t had time to collect them, so I was sure the police would find plenty, though I wasn’t sure if it would help. At least they’d know the AR’s make.
Sean rubbed his eyes with his fingers. “I can’t see very well. I don’t have another pair of contacts or my other glasses with me. I couldn’t see anything because you had your arms around my head and your body was covering me. Did you see anything?”
Nothing that I was ready to tell him. It may have been a coincidence that the Indiana Avenue NW Police Station was shot at just as we were coming out the door. It may have been a coincidence that the young guy on the pink bike with the rainbow flag rode by just as we came out of the police station. It may even have been a coincidence that the car service driver was able to score a parking spot on a crowded street near Constitution Avenue, just as the tour bus season was getting underway.
Why did my gut tell me not all of it was a coincidence?
When we returned to the Wallis’s condo in Bethesda Towers, Sean went to the primary bedroom to get his extra glasses, and I called the security guard at the front desk. We’d come in through the garage entrance, so I hadn’t seen who was working at the desk.
“Front desk. This is Austin.”
Austin wasn’t anyone I’d met before. I hoped to fuck he knew what he was doing.
