There was a thump from down the hall. Amanda pointed in that direction and set out with Trent.
“Dominique?” Amanda said ahead of them.
A door flung open, bouncing off the wall behind it. Dominique filled the opening, holding a raised gun.
Amanda held up her hands. “Dominique, it’s us. You’re safe.”
No movement, no noise except for the sound of Amanda’s pounding heart in her ears.Ba-boom. Ba-boom. Ba-boom.
Seconds later, Dominique lowered her hand, letting the gun lie against the side of her thigh.
“Let me take that from you.” Trent moved in and relieved her of her weapon.
Dominique blinked slowly. “Where’s Joel? Is he…?”
“He was shot—” Amanda stopped speaking when Dominique gasped. After allowing her a few seconds to absorb the blow, Amanda added, “But paramedics have seen to him, and he’s likely on his way to the hospital now.”
“Well, I need to go check on him.” Dominique stepped toward the staircase.
“We can take you there, but first you need to tell us if you know of anyone who might want to kill you,” Trent told her.
“Like I said before I wouldn’t even know where to start.” Dominique put a hand on her forehead. “Please, just take me to the hospital. I want to be there for him.”
Amanda glanced at Trent and nodded. “We’ll take you, butyou’ll need to talk to us while you wait to hear from the doctors.”
“Okay, fine, whatever it takes.”
Amanda pulled out her phone to call for CSIs, not even thinking about the lack of bars from before until she had it out. Now she had them. “Okay, this is strange.” She turned to Trent.
“Hello?” Dominique snapped. “Please take me to the hospital.”
“One minute. If you could just stay right there this time.” Amanda walked down the hall, putting several feet between herself and the lawyer. When Trent joined her, she said, “I tried calling nine-one-one when you were in pursuit of the suspect, and my phone had no bars. Now, they’re back.”
“So what are we looking at then? This person comes equipped with a signal jammer?”
“If you can think of another explanation, I’m all ears.”
“If you’re right about this, then I’m going to say this only gives more credit to our growing suspicions.”
“Yep. We’re looking at a professional.”
TWENTY-FOUR
Amanda and Trent left the house in the hands of a uniformed police officer and called in Crime Scene. The perp had fired four rounds and didn’t have any time to collect the casings. This could provide a potential breakthrough, letting the CSIs confirm if the rounds were also fired by a Glock. Of course, ideally, Amanda would put the shooter’s gun in their hands for comparison. But short of that… Also if they were extremely lucky, there could be fingerprints or touch DNA that would lead to the shooter. But Amanda wasn’t holding her breath. Not if their growing hunch was correct and they were looking for a professional hit woman. In that case, even if forensics existed, that trail wasn’t going to get them anywhere.
Dominique was set up in a corner of the hospital waiting room. All they knew at this time was Joel Blackburn was in critical condition and had been rushed to surgery. They’d be questioning Dominique soon but stepped away to give her a few moments to herself.
Amanda was dealing with her own discomfort from being inside a hospital. The antiseptic smell triggered a sensory memory imprinted from the aftermath of the accident thatclaimed her family’s lives. Also from the time Malone was hospitalized with a brain tumor. While hospitals provided moments of celebrations, like the birth of a baby, the painful memories outnumbered the good. She worked to push these thoughts away and focus on the last few hours. What a shitshow! She turned to Trent, who was standing next to her. “I tell you the evidence makes a lot more sense when you view it from a professional killer being behind everything.”
“Except for that tarp. That bit is still strange to me,” Trent responded. “Typical hit men knock out their targets as clean as possible and make a break for it. I’d say she enjoys killing and, as if to announce this to the world, has added her own flair to it. Her signature. She doesn’t just take life. It’s theater to her.”
“There’s also some compulsion to it all. She had to know that she got the wrong person when she was wrapping up Christine.”
“Yet, she went ahead with it anyhow.”
Amanda nodded. “Why not just walk away and leave her body there?”
“I see what you’re saying. But she took a risk tonight. Breaking into a house when she must have known a few people were inside. That’s brazen. Not to mention the lights were on.”
