Page 86 of Sinner's Secret

The trip to the hospital was short and the doctor who stitched her up didn’t waste any time. The bullet had caught the back of her left calf muscle, the distance between the entry and exit wounds about two and a half inches.

It was painful, but she could walk on it. She took a pair of crutches at the doctor’s insistence. When she hobbled out of the ER, Smith was waiting for her with the rest of their team.

They closed ranks around her, but didn’t say much beyond, good to see you and how are you doing.

She responded, I’m fine to everything, but didn’t volunteer anything after that. They took the hint and shut up.

Once they got outside, Smith stopped walking and turned to her. “What do you need?”

She chuckled. “Your wife has done a great job of training you up. That was the right question.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “I want to go to the station while everything is still fresh in my mind.”

“You want to give your statement?” He asked. “Are you sure? How much sleep did you get?”

“Yes, I’m tired, but I’m also determined to get the facts down and in front of everyone before this whole situation blows up in our faces.”

His gaze sharpened. “There’s more to all this? Do you know why Thomas killed himself?”

“That one is easy,” she said with a snort. “He was a coward.” She paused, then continued with, “And weak, and stupid.” She shook her head. “I thought I knew the man, but it turns out he was just a greedy, selfish, bastard.”

Davis and Williams both cleared their throats, and Smith looked around. “Let’s get you to the station then.” Smith took her in his car, with Davis and Williams in another. They left the parking lot.

A few seconds later, a yellow cab left as well.

It was a madhouse at the station. Everyone was in small groups talking animatedly when she, Smith, and their team walked in. Several people glanced their way, then quickly turned their heads as if they had something much better to do.

It was like that, was it?

“Do you want to do this at your desk or an interview room?” Smith asked her.

“Interview room. I want it recorded.”

“I’ll go find one,” Davis said, and strode away.

Captain Lewis approached them. He studied her face before saying anything. “As soon as you give your statement, you’re to go home and rest for a couple of days.”

“Did someone clean the blood stains out of my carpet?” she asked.

That made him wince. “Probably not.”

“Then I’m not going there.”

He sucked in a breath to issue an order, she was sure, but she put her hand up to stop him. “I’ll go to a hotel, will that do?”

He nodded, then rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, that’ll work. And thank you for coming in right away. We really need to know what happened.”

“I can only tell you what I witnessed. There’s a lot more going on than I saw.”

He nodded. “I was afraid you’d say that.”

Davis came back and led them to interview room three. They got her setup with a cup of coffee and Williams brought her a muffin.

They hit record on the digital recorder, and she explained what had happened to her from waking up in her house to the lieutenant’s suicide. She left out Baz’s involvement entirely, telling them the same thing she’d told Thomas. Someone unseen had killed the kidnappers and she’d hidden in an alley under some garbage all night. She’d called the lieutenant, thinking he was safe, only it turned out he was the leak.

“Did any of you see who hit the back of Thomas’s car?” she asked them.

Frowns all around.

“It was Baz’s cousin,” Nika said. “The one who’s supposed to be a Russian crime boss.”

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