Page 73 of Disavowed

Dom stared at the screen. Something about that much missing paperwork plus a chain of custody issue all in one DUI case sounded like bullshit. He’d lost count of all the DUIs he’d pulled over as a patrol officer, and never once had something like this happened to him or any other cop he knew. Before turning over any originals to the prosecutor a copy was made, and that copy was generally admissible in court if originals were unavailable. Odd how this case played out. Kinda sounded to him like the prosecutor was a moron. Or on the take.

He was about to call Gray when the next article on the screen caught his eye. This one was dated seven months ago. ADA Killed In Drive-By Shooting. ADA Andrew Goldsucker was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting. No suspects were identified and the vehicle used was found abandoned, having been stolen the previous night.

If Dom believed that the reasons the ADA dismissed all charges against Shane sounded like bullshit, then it stood to reason Marsden would see it the same way. While there was no time to check, he’d guess there’d been a payoff from Shane to Goldsucker in exchange for dropping the case.

On a hunch, he ran a lengthier search on Christopher Shane and minutes later confirmed two more relevant points of interest. First, Shane was married but had no children. Second, he’d been quoted in both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal referring to the renovated Piazza Hotel as his “baby.”

Marsden was a killer who wanted revenge. He couldn’t kill Shane’s offspring because Shane didn’t have any. But he could take out Shane himself in the middle of Shane’s “baby.”

The Piazza’s grand reopening.

He cued up Gray’s number.

“Hold on,” Gray answered after the second ring. The rustle of sheets came to Dom’s ears. “Got something?”

He wasted no time getting to the point. “The target is Christopher Shane, CEO of Fairhaven Hotels.” He quickly described what he’d discovered online about Colonel Marsden’s son getting killed by Shane.

“That would certainly explain Marsden’s motivation for taking out Shane,” Gray said. “But it’s still not enough to prove it’s him.”

“My research and military spook contacts tell me I’m on the right track.” He thought back to the voice on the phone when he’d first met Smith. “The boss’s voice is rough, scratchy, possibly the result of a debilitating throat injury. You remember hearing Marsden was killed in an RPG explosion?”

“We all heard that.” Gray nodded. “A Delta colonel getting killed was pretty big news at the time.”

“Yeah, but what you didn’t hear was the real story. No one outside a small group of us within Delta knew the truth. What I’m about to relate is still classified. The army never released the story. Thought it would undermine Special Forces.”

Dom grimly recalled one of his last official assignments in uniform. “The colonel was running a drug-smuggling ring out of the Middle East, using military aircraft to get past Customs and bring in some of the purest dope ever seen in the United States. My unit never served under Marsden, so we were assigned to bring him down. We found the evidence, arrested the colonel, and somewhere between the mountains and Kandahar, he disappeared. The prisoner transport was found abandoned on the side of the road, blown up by an RPG. The two MPs were dead and Marsden was gone. His remains were never found, but his blood was, enough to speculate that he suffered severe injury in the blast. Footprints led into the mountains, along with a trail of blood, but no body was ever found.”

“Holy shit,” Gray interjected.

“And don’t forget,” Dom added, “the Pyramid has a history of recruiting Delta operatives. Jack, and now me. One of the goons who tried to kidnap Nicky last year was also former Delta. But it’s more than that. The boss said he’s familiar with my military past. Even without my sources, my gut tells me it’s him. If it’s the last thing I do, I’m taking his ass down.”

Gray grunted into the phone. “I know you, partner. There’s something else you’re not telling me. I can hear it in your voice.”

“Fuck, yeah.” He took a deep breath and let it out. “Marsden’s prisoner transport was supposed to have a Delta operative backing them up for additional security. I was supposed to have accompanied the MPs, but I got laid up with a stomach bug and there was no one available to replace me. If I’d been there”—and by some miracle not gotten blown up along with the MPs—“Marsden wouldn’t have escaped. Not on my watch.”

“And the Pyramid would never have existed,” Gray supplied. “Or so you think.”

“I know so, dammit.” He clenched the phone tighter, more certain than ever about Marsden. “We’ve got another problem. Not only is the mayor attending this event, but we can’t put an entire hotel full of people at risk. The commissioner has to call Shane and convince him to cancel.”

He dragged a hand across his stubbled jaw. They were on the verge of losing what might be their only opportunity to catch the leader of the Pyramid and put the entire organization out of business. Part of him actually commiserated with Marsden over how Shane skated on the DUI charge, but killing Shane was still cold-blooded murder, something he couldn’t allow.

“I’ll take care of it,” Gray said. “Anything else?”

“Assuming the reopening is canceled, this may be a moot point, but I think the Pyramid got to one of the security guards whose name was on the thumb drive. Mario Valenzuela. You and I interviewed him, but he didn’t work at the Piazza at the time. Now he does.”

“I remember him,” Gray said. “He was on the list because the Pyramid found out he was a closet bisexual paying for male prostitutes on the side, and he didn’t want his ultra-conservative wife to find out.”

“That’s the guy,” Dom confirmed. “Could be that’s how Smith is getting the guns inside. For all I know they may already be there. That hotel is so massive it would be like searching for a specific grain of sand in the desert.”

“I’ll check out Valenzuela just in case and get back with you after the PC calls Shane.” Gray paused for a moment. “You know this could mean the end of the op?”

“I disagree,” Dom said. “The event getting canceled doesn’t necessarily leave a trail back to me. Shane will probably invent some reason for canceling, but I can still stay in. Chances are Marsden will try to hit Shane again somewhere else. It might not be as splashy as a hit at the Piazza, but he’ll still try. And I’m not about to blow a year of groundwork. I’ll never get another chance at this. No one will.”

“Figured you’d say that.” For several seconds there was dead silence on the end of the phone. “You tell Daisy?”

“No, but I will.” Telling her everything was overdue. He pulled the curtain aside just enough to take one last look onto the street and froze.

A shadow inside one of the parked vehicles on the street caught his eye. It was subtle, but he’d seen it. The dark SUV wasn’t running, nor were its lights on. Someone was sitting behind the wheel. Might not mean anything, but the vehicle was similar in size and color to the one that had blasted by him last night after Jack had left. The more he thought about it, that SUV could have been tailing Jack.