Page 24 of One Final Target

“I wish I was.” She showed him the text.

Mike held her phone and read the message a couple of times. He looked up and sighed. “I’ve always agreed with you on this. Jukebox was a lot of things, but killer isn’t one of them.”

Now Jodie couldn’t speak. She swallowed a lump and nodded.

He handed back her phone. “I’ll make sure Smiley gets this information. I’m so sorry, Jodie.”

He turned to leave, then stopped and looked back at her. “Come to dinner tonight? We’d love to have you.”

Thewemeant Mike’s latest girlfriend. He’d never married, but he’d dated several nice women. At one time, Jodie thought hestayed single because of her, but now she realized Mike was, in fact, married to the job.

No part of Jodie felt like socializing. “I’m kind of tired. Maybe next week?”

“Sure. I’ll keep asking until you say yes.”

He left Jodie alone with her thoughts.

CHAPTER13

BY MIDAFTERNOON MONDAY,Sam had finished studying the video from the doorbell camera. They got lucky. It yielded one good still of the car thief driving by in Doug’s Honda. Sam held up the picture they were going to show to the press.

“This is so generic,” he said, wishing the camera had captured a front view. Instead, they had a side view of a man in a ball cap and sunglasses.

“It’s still a good shot, considering the darkness. Sheer luck the streetlight was so close. And even though it’s generic, we can be certain of one thing: it’s not Hayes.”

“True,” Sam agreed. Hayes was a big man; he’d been in prison before and had lots of tats and muscular arms. This image showed a small man. Since the vehicle was a compact Honda Civic, hisheight could be extrapolated from the man’s position in the seat. This guy could almost be a teen. Who was he?

“More good news.” Smiley walked over to Sam’s desk. “Logan is awake. His jaw is wired but he can write. You up for a trip to the hospital?”

“Let’s go.”

Sam didn’t really want to go to the hospital. Ever since his accident he had a strong aversion to them. He’d spent too many painful hours in one. He’d weather this visit by remembering who he was working for. He’d wanted to send Jodie the picture they had of the suspect but knew it wasn’t his place. Smiley sent it to Mike King at LBPD. While it was a bit odd for Jodie’s uncle Mike to be assigned to the IED task force, since he was family, it was ultimately the PD’s decision, not the sheriff’s. As far as Sam knew, Mike King had been an asset, so he had no reason to question the assignment.

When they arrived at St.Bernardine, there were cops everywhere, normal when a cop got shot. Walking through a mixture of deputy uniforms and San Bernardino city cops, Sam nodded here and there. A few of the faces were familiar brothers in blue.

As they reached the officer’s room, there was a lot of brass outside, the people who usually surrounded the sheriff. As if on cue, the county sheriff exited the room. His gaze stuck on Sam.

“Deputy Gresham?”

Sam nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Good to see you up and at it after what happened on Saturday.” He extended his hand and Sam took it. “You fought back, son, very admirably. The department and the community are better for you being on the job.”

“Thank you, sir.”

The sheriff turned to Smiley. “I know you both are on top of this. Catch this guy.”

“Plan on it,” Smiley said.

The sheriff and his entourage continued down the hall. Sam and Smiley entered the room and Sam recognized Detective Ezra Fenton at Logan’s bedside. Since homicide handled officer-involved shootings, Ezra and his partner would handle Chad Logan’s shooting. Sam and Rick had apprehended a suspect for Ezra Fenton once. The guy had killed his wife but tried to make it look like a home invasion robbery gone bad.

Fenton arched an eyebrow at Sam. “From pushing paper to jumping into the deep end of the pool, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am.”

“So you said you have a photo,” Fenton said to Smiley after handshakes.

“Yep.” Smiley handed it to him. “It’s not perfect, but it’s something. We know it’s our victim’s car because of the different-colored door.”

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