Page 118 of Sinner's Salvation

Anna turned to Evan. “Feel like a short drive?”

Evan took another sip of his drink. “Sounds fun.”

***

Evan walked with Annathrough the hospital. Anna had called Williams directly and gotten the room number from the man, along with a plea to be quick. The situation was devolving rapidly. The detective was certain Baz was going to take a few peoplequoteapart by the seamsunquote.

As they got off the elevator and strode down the hall toward the room, the sound of several people shouting got louder. Unfortunately, the words were running into each other, making none of it comprehensible.

“Oh dear,” Anna muttered.

“What?” Evan asked. Maybe she could discern what was going on better than he could.

“Baz is very angry.”

“How can you tell? We can’t see him yet.”

“He’s swearing at someone in our mother tongue. He doesn’t like to speak it. He says it brings back bad memories.”

Someone shouted, “Stop.” Very loudly. Then a shot rang out.

A sudden silence muffled all the noise that the previous second seemed to fill up the hallway.

“You stupid son of a bitch.” The words broke the silence and they were spoken in Baz’s voice. “I’m still wearing a ballistic vest.”

“Ledger,” Anna whispered.

Evan put a hand on her shoulder. “I would take it as a personal favor if you let me take a stab at arresting him.”

“I didn’t realize the military had the power to arrest someone in the United States.”

“Oh, we don’t. I’m going to make a citizen’s arrest.”

Several people came up the hallway behind them. FBI agents according to their jackets and body armor. They stopped when they reached Anna and Evan.

“Anna Breznik and Evan Gunn?” the one in the lead asked.

“Yes,” Anna said, taking a half step toward the man.

“We were told Homeland Security’s Agent Ledger was likely to be here. Can you confirm that?”

“We haven’t—” Anna began.

She was interrupted by a crash of something large hitting the floor and shouting.

“Get your hands off her, you moron. You try touching her again and I’ll rip your arms off and shove them up your ass.”

“I’d say the likelihood of Ledger being here just went up,” Evan said. “Because Baz sounds pissed.”

“We were told that one of our agents might be with Bazyli Breznik.”

“Brian?” Anna asked.

The FBI agent nodded. “Brian Stettler, yes.”

Anna looked at Evan, who shrugged. The Chinese ladies had said they put him somewhere safe. Sticking him in the same room as Nika and Baz might very well qualify.

Anna smiled at the FBI agent. “Let’s find out.” She turned and headed down the hall.

---