Page 5 of Cross & Crown

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back and forth. Nick excused himself, and he and Hagan

moved into the hal way, leaning their heads close to talk.

The officer on the door offered what little he knew. “He’s

got no ID on him. Nothing; looks like whoever shot him

thought he was dead and picked him clean.”

Hagan huffed. “So not only do we got a witness who’s

got no idea what happened, he’s got no idea who he is?” He

barely restrained an incredulous laugh. “That’s not a witness,

it’s another motherfucking crime.”

Nick glanced over his shoulder through the door, to the

man on the hospital bed. “No ID, no memory, shot in the

head in the middle of a gunfight outside a robbery of a used

bookstore. What. The. Fuck.”

“This ain’t a robbery,” Hagan said with a grunt. “You

don’t shoot three people for an old book, I don’t care if it’s the Gutenberg Bible.”

Nick nodded. “You realize this guy could be the doer.”

“You think he’s faking?”

“He’s either a very lucky witness who lived through this, a

perp who legit can’t remember, or he’s faking.” Nick shrugged.

“You were spec ops. You were trained to lie and shit. Can

you tell if he’s lying?”

“Yeah, but if he’s faking, he’s damn good at it, ’cause I’m

leaning toward believing him.”

They both turned to the witness again. He was once again

sitting in bed with his head hanging and his eyes closed. His

hands were trembling as they clenched at the blanket in his

lap. The nurse had left him.

“What do we do?” Hagan asked.

Nick was at a loss. Did they treat the man as a witness or a

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