Page 26 of One Final Target

“There would be no more important reason to cut my trip short than because of you. I would have been here sooner, but I thought you needed time to decompress. You okay?”

“I’m fine.” She hoped she sounded sure of herself, but when Jonah’s gaze probed, she looked away.

“What on earth happened on Saturday?”

“I don’t want to talk about it. I’m certain Mike told you. I’m fine, though. You guys don’t need to worry about me.”

“Honey, you can’t stop us from worrying about you. We care.” His eyes went to her desk and Jodie realized she’d forgotten to cover up her whiteboard. But he focused on the copy of the composite drawing of the suspect.

He stepped forward and picked it up. “This the guy who shot at you?”

“It’s a composite of the description the wounded deputy gave of his assailant.”

“Right. This dirtbag almost killed another cop.” He looked from the photo to Jodie and back again. “He look familiar to you?”

She shook her head. “He could be anyone. The drawing is too generic.”

Jonah shrugged. “Maybe. But it’s a start. It was stupid and reckless for him to try to shoot you.”

“I wish he’d been reckless enough to get caught.”

He set the drawing down. “Jodie, I said I’d meet you at thememorial lot. Please tell me if you want to see it. Don’t go up there alone again. Please.”

“Fine.” She had no strength to argue with him. “I’ve learned my lesson. Let’s talk about something else.”

They chatted a bit, Jonah telling her about a woman he’d met at the conference in Vegas. Jonah had been married twice and liked to joke about always looking for his next ex. Sometimes she thought he was stuck in a country western song, looking for love in all the wrong places. There was a sadness in him, Jodie sensed. He really hadn’t been the same man since his only son had died of a drug overdose. Jason was Jonah’s pride and joy, and he’d boasted often about him, predicting the boy had a bright future. She remembered Jason fondly, younger than Jodie and a very bright kid, an honor student. Jonah figured him to be destined for great things. Sadly, it was not to be. His life was cut short at twenty-three because of one stupid decision.

While Jonah didn’t stay very long, Jodie felt like she couldn’t get him out of her house fast enough. He’d derailed her trip to look for Hayes and she wanted to get back on track. As soon as she saw his SUV drive away, she grabbed her car keys.

Norman Hayes ran with ESL, a large and dangerous street gang. A black-and-white in their neighborhood was just as likely to be shot at as hailed. Jodie would be in her own car. She’d stick out, but she didn’t care. Her mission was to find Hayes. Or one of his associates. Mike would call her reckless and say what she was doing was too risky.

It will be worth any risk if Ifind the killer.

CHAPTER15

SAM HAD HIS FIRST BAD SPELLTuesday morning. Rick being gone hit him right between the eyes when he walked into the locker room and saw someone else at Rick’s locker. He stopped, feeling as if the wind had been knocked out of him. He didn’t think he’d been pretending Rick was just gone on vacation. But for some reason, seeing another officer at Rick’s locker felt as if someone had stampedfinalizedon his forehead, and it took his breath away.

He put his hand over his mouth, bile rising, fearing he was going to vomit. Thankfully there was no one else in the bathroom. He rushed in there but didn’t throw up. Instead, he rinsed his face with cold water. He put some water on a paper towel and pressed it to the back of his neck.

“I thought I was past this,” he mumbled. After the pain of lossreceded, the guilt roared back, full force.I let my partner down.This brought on the shaking, reminiscent of what had plagued him after the crash and in the hospital.

“Shaking or trembling after a traumatic event is normal,”Doc Roe had told him.“It’s caused by the limbic system, the part of the brain responsible for emotions. It sends a signal that the danger has passed and thefight-or-flight response can turn off. The shaking is your body literallyfinishing the nervous system response to release the traumatic experience.”

Maybe,Sam thought,but I’m months removed from the trauma. Why now?It was a question he’d ask himself because he was loath to tell Roe about it.

Once he’d recovered and gotten his feet back under him, as his mother would say, Sam made it to the office. Sam turned on his computer and considered all that needed to be done with the investigation. Jonah Bennett came to mind. He punched the name into his computer and did a search. It wasn’t long before the reason the name was familiar popped up.

Two years ago, Bennett’s twenty-three-year-old son, Jason, died of a drug overdose. Sam remembered responding to the scene with Rick. They weren’t the primary unit, so they hadn’t dealt with Bennett, but he recalled the scene. The kid had been at a summer rave just outside Lake Arrowhead. Some bad pills had circulated, and ten young adults were hospitalized. Jason Bennett was the only fatality.

He leaned back and relaxed a bit. Bennett had experienced a tragedy, nothing sinister. In fact, other than one DUI, Bennett had no criminal record. He was a successful real estate agent with offices in Long Beach and the San Bernardino mountains. Nothing odd there. In Southern California having a second home in themountain communities was common. Sam imagined Bennett probably had his own second home in the mountains and decided to expand his business.

“You sure are deep in thought.”

Sam raised his head to see Smiley making a face at him.

“Yeah, you’re right.” He closed the page. “I went off on a tangent. I keep hoping something will jump out and knock me in the head, something we missed.”

Just then Smiley’s phone rang. He answered, listened, wrote something down on a piece of scratch paper, then nodded and hung up. “The lab got some usable prints from the car.”

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