Page 30 of Operation: Unify

The movement at the window immediately stopped.

Randy called from the living room. “You might want to come out here.”

Connor paused, waiting for the person on the other side of the window to make a move.

“Connor?” Randy’s voice had become urgent.

He took her hand and led her out to the living room. Randy pointed outside and Lacy rushed to the window as Connor yelled at her not to. Something inside her wouldn’t let her stop. A lump lay in the middle of the front yard. One that looked suspiciously like a person. “No . . .” It couldn’t be. Her heart constricted as she headed for the door.

Connor’s arms wrapped around her in the next instant, holding her tightly and preventing her from leaving.

“Let me go! I have to see if that’s Melinda. I have to know.” Tears welled in her throat, choking her words.

“I know. Let me call an ambulance. He’s going to try to pin this on you. Do not play into his hand. I don’t know what he hopes to gain by this, but it’s obvious he’s obsessed with seeing her dead. I’m not letting him get to you, too. He will not lay a hand on you. Ever.”

His arms squeezed tighter for a moment, lifting her fully off the floor. “Please. Just stay in here until we can call help for her. This feels like a trap.”

She didn’t want to admit he was right. If that was Melinda and she was still alive, she might need immediate help. Sitting safely inside was like saying Lacy was more valuable. “It’s not fair.”

“I know, hun. I know.” He held her as he gave Randy a nod. Since there was still the possibility someone could come in the bedroom window, she knew him well enough to know he wasn’t going to let a phone call distract him. Especially when there was someone else around who could do the calling.

“I’m on it.” Randy dug his phone out of his baggy jeans and pressed in the number.

Her heart split in two, half remaining there in Connor’s arms and half wanting to help her friend.

“I want you to stay right here, between the living room and kitchen, far away from all the windows. I’m going outside to see if our little intruder left clues behind or is still there for me to follow. Do not come after me. Understand?”

She blindly nodded, wanting to stay with him but understanding why he wouldn’t want to have his attention divided. In the next instant, he kissed her for a second then was gone. She gripped the counter to steady herself.

Where had that come from? She’d kissed his cheek when he’d been healing from his gunshot wound, but she was fairly sure he hadn’t realized she’d done it. He’d kissed her like the last ten years hadn’t happened.

Randy’s voice made it through the fog in her brain. “Yes, we’ll be right here inside. We’re not sure if the intruder is still out there. There are three of us here, myself, Lacy and Connor Kincade.”

Connor had told her to wait right there, not to move. She couldn’t go to the window and watch for the ambulance because whoever had shot out the front window could still be sitting out there. There was no way to know if the bullet had been from a pistol or a high-powered rifle, at least, not without finding the bullet.

She glanced around the area from where she stood and noticed a dark hole in the wall right above the television. Carefully, she shifted her weight to look around the wall that led back to the bedroom. Between her bedroom and the kitchen was a bathroom where she’d showered earlier. Was the bullet stuck in the wall or had it penetrated further into the house?

Randy was busy talking and Connor was nowhere to be seen so she quickly shuffled to the bathroom and turned on the light. A few inches from the top of the tub surround, the plastic bulgedout in a nub. The bullet had finally lost enough velocity in the plastic tub surround. Whoever shot at them had to have been using a pistol.

Sirens screamed from down the street and Lacy left the bathroom, ready to tell the police when they got there that she knew where the bullet had ended up. Randy hung up the phone and looked at her. “I hope she’s alive.”

She knew from his tone that he was doubtful. “I do too. If she’s not, I will stay and fight. She never would’ve killed her aunt, and I was with her the whole time, so she couldn’t have.” There had to be a motive, greater than abuse. Women were often the victims of domestic violence because their spouse was controlling, but this went beyond that.

“Has Cal ever mentioned anything to you about Melinda?” She angled her body so she could watch the EMTs working on Melinda even as Randy answered her.

“They had both talked about an insurance payout, but they made it sound like it was property, like a house, that was going to burn.”

“A friction fire?” She’d heard her parents joke about people doing that when interest rates on homes were too high to pay mortgage payments. Home owners would take out two insurance policies, pay as long as they could, then a ‘fire’ would burn the house down. They had said it was the friction of two insurance policies rubbing together.

His brow went up. “You know about those, huh? I assumed so. They’ve been talking to insurance guys on and off for the past year.”

Connor came down the hallway as he holstered his gun. “I looked all over. Our guy was gone before I got outside.”

“Ambulance is here and so are the police.” Randy pointed at the window.

Lacy looked to Connor, and he nodded, then followed her outside. She kept telling herself that they wouldn’t be working so hard on Melinda if there was no hope. The two men and one woman on the team were surrounding Melinda, whose face was ashen and her body lifeless.

Lacy wanted to cry. Why would anyone do this? An officer approached her, and she recognized Officer Bakersfield from when they’d made the report the day before.

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