Page 103 of Agony

Shit. Justice pressed the gas and his truck raced down the freeway.

Crime tape surrounded the scene when Justice rolled up on it fifteen minutes later. He kept going and parked his truck around the block.

The place sat in a rundown area on the outskirts of the city.

Their visibility was a problem, so Justice took care of that by shooting the street light out in the front and then again in the alleyway behind the tall concrete wall that butted up against the backyard fence.

Fisher walked silently at his side. The man hadn’t said a word after their conversation and Justice wondered if he was in shock.

He missed his dog, but he’d left Axel at home because he wasn’t sure what he and Fisher were walking into.

Per the orders he’d received via text from Dave, he and Fisher were to keep their surveillance under the radar. Dave did not want law enforcement to know they were at this scene.

Reaching the back porch, Justice sliced down the evidence tape that sealed the back door shut and popped the lock. The door clicked open along with a slight groan. He paused, nothing but silence came from within.

A dog barked a few houses over, but other than that, all was silent at five o’clock in the morning.

Fisher pulled his silencer from a hip holster.

Easing out his B&T VP9 pistol, Justice slowly pushed the door wider and aimed the silencer within as he stepped inside.

They were both dressed in all black and the darkness within swallowed them. The small kitchen smelled like day-old trash and Pine-sol.

Fisher moved ahead of him and Justice was reminded that his partner had been here before, he knew the layout of the house.

Making his way out of the dismal room, he carefully followed Fisher through the living room and down a short hallway. When the assassin reached an open bedroom door and froze, Justice pulled his small pen light.

He swept the light around the room and over the hardwood floors as he went.

The chalk outline of one body was a stark contrast on the dark wood.

Fisher stood with his chest heaving and Justice hurriedly placed a hand on the man’s arm. He followed Fisher’s eyes back to the chalk.

The outline was of a young adult, maybe a teenager, could be seen curled on his side. Blood had sprayed the floor. He gazed at the bare mattress; CSI had taken the bedding for evidence. On the floor near the bed lay a blood-sprayed teddy bear.

Had a child been involved? There was no second chalk outline, but the child could have been on the bed.

Fucking animals.

The teenager was an unknown. All he knew from the text police report from Dave was that he was male and roughly nineteen.

“What was his name?”

“Ryan.” Fisher launched into the room and started searching beneath the bed and yanking out clothes in the closet before he left the room and went into the bathroom.

Justice followed just in time to see Fisher open the cupboards beneath the sink and yank back the shower curtain.

“What are you looking for?”

“Mikey.”

“Who’s Mikey?”

“He’s nine. Ryan took him from Blue when he escaped.”

“So, did Blue have his own operation going?” Justice asked just to clarify.

“I don’t know. Maybe? He’s dead so we can’t ask.”

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