Page 42 of Protecting the Newborn

“I don’t know about that,” Zimmer answered. “If Marty or Buddy had it, they didn’t share that info with me.”

Again, Gracelyn had no idea if that was the truth. She was betting Ruston didn’t either.

“Someone fired shots at an SAPD cruiser,” Ruston said. “Was that you?”

Zimmer muttered some profanity. “It was,” he verified and then paused. “After Marty was murdered, I got a call from a guy who said he was Marty’s partner and that he had one last job for me. No, I don’t have a name. He wouldn’t say, but he told me he had photos and recordings of me with Marty from when I agreed to kidnap Gracelyn and the baby. He said he’d turn that over to the cops if I didn’t do one last job.”

“The job of trying to shoot the two police officers in that cruiser,” Ruston snapped.

“No, the job of firing shots at the cruiser. The man told me to miss. I wouldn’t have done it otherwise.”

Ruston’s gaze met hers. “Was Marty’s partner your old friend Tony?” he asked Zimmer.

“No,” the man repeated. “That wasn’t him on the phone. I think I would have recognized his voice.”

“Think?” Ruston challenged.

Zimmer stayed quiet for a while. “I don’t believe it was him.” Then he stopped and cursed. “Maybe it was. Anyway, I agreed to go through with it with one stipulation. That the so-called partner meet me in person afterward and hand over those photos and recordings. I had to figure the guy would keep copies and would continue trying to use them as leverage for future jobs, but I wanted that meeting to know who I was dealing with.”

“And?” Ruston prompted when Zimmer fell silent.

“He didn’t show for the meeting. And he hasn’t contacted me since.”

The partner could be Tony. Or Charla, for that matter, if she’d gotten a man to make that call for her. Devin could have done it as well.

“What is it you want me to do with what you’ve just told me?” Ruston continued a moment later.

“I want you to find out who killed Marty, Simon and the retired cop,” Zimmer was quick to say. “And it wasn’t Allie. Find out who it was, and I’ll turn myself in. If I do that now, I’ll end up dead. Find the killer,” he insisted a split second before he ended the call.

Ruston ended the recording, and he immediately called Duncan. “Were you able to get a trace?” he asked.

“No,” Gracelyn heard Duncan say.

And then she heard something else. Something that sent her stomach to her knees.

A woman screamed.

“Allie,” Gracelyn said, her sister’s name rushing out with her breath.

Ruston threw open the interview room door. In the same motion, he put away his phone and started running toward Duncan’s office. Gracelyn was right behind him. They raced into the squad room.

And into chaos.

Allie was still in Duncan’s office. Still screaming. Gracelyn soon saw why. There were two uniformed officers, and both had their weapons drawn. One of them, a beefy black-haired man, had Deputy Carmen Gonzales in a choke hold, and his Glock was pointed at her head. The other man, a lanky blond guy, was aiming at Allie.

He fired.

Just as Duncan tackled Allie and knocked her to the ground. The shot crashed through the office window, causing the glass to explode, but Gracelyn couldn’t tell if the bullet had hit her sister. Or Duncan.

Ruston drew his gun. So did Gracelyn. Just as the lanky blond man turned his weapon toward them. Ruston dragged her to the floor as he fired.

There was the howl of some kind of alarm, loud and blaring, and Gracelyn saw Woodrow beneath his desk, where he’d taken cover. Either Duncan or he must have activated a security alert, and she hoped that brought officers responding to the scene. They might not get there in time.

Another shot came their way, blasting into the wall mere inches above their heads.

Mercy, what was happening? Gracelyn didn’t have a full answer to that, but one thing was for certain. These weren’t good cops. They might not even be cops at all, and they had probably used their uniforms and badges to gain access to the building.

And Allie, Ruston and she were their targets.

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