Page 42 of One Final Target

“Mike, please, calm down. Jodie is okay.” An older woman had entered the fray.

Sam watched as she grasped Jodie around the waist with one arm while holding a small dog in the other.

“Estella, glad you’re here,” Jodie said. “I want you to meet someone.” She turned to Sam. “This is Sam Gresham, San Bernardino County deputy.” She pointedly glared at her uncle. “He’s like a guardian angel for me.”

“Nice to meet you, Sam.” The woman released Jodie and shook Sam’s hand. “I’m Estella Perkins.”

Sam recognized the name and realized this must be Gus Perkins’s widow. He started to say something when a large black vehicle withLBPD Bomb Squademblazoned on the side pulled up. Right behind it was a news van, and with its arrival, chaos broke out.

Jodie let Estella drag her away from the activity and into her house. She didn’t relish facing the press, not because she was afraid, but because she never liked dealing with the press. She also knew she’d eventually be held accountable for the lies she’d told this day.

A certain clarity returned to Jodie’s mind after Sam saved her life for a second time. While she was glad to get away from her uncle’s anger, it was justified. She had no business coming here, no business being in the house, and she felt shame for all the deception she’d used along the way.

Would her search for the bad guy and closure ever end? She realized Bass and Mike and Estella were telling her the truth when they insisted the IED was not her fault. Yet she still felt hollow, empty, and even more angry.

She’d done nothing wrong to provoke him—the bomb setter. No unknown sin of hers had led to the blast. There was no way she could have known or prepared for such an event. He’d set an IED at his own house to killanyonewho happened into the house.

All the clarity simply increased her anger.

Collins had taken her team, her friend Jukebox, her career, and very nearly her life. He was not going to take anything else.

“What is going on out there?” Levi asked.

Jodie sat on the couch with Macnut’s head in her lap and told them what had happened in Collins’s house.

“Who was the dead guy?” Levi asked.

“The coroner will have to tell us.”

Levi looked at her with pain in his eyes. “Kent used my dad?”

“Appears so,” Jodie said. “Your dad had a big heart.”

“It got him killed.”

Jodie sighed, feeling Levi’s pain but not knowing how to alleviate it. “Maybe, Levi. But I knew your dad well, and I wouldn’t change a thing about him. He was a good man.”

Levi shook his head and left the room. Estella did what she always did when she was stressed and felt like people needed to be taken care of. She started to cook. Jodie tried to relax. Stroking the dog comforted her, but the events of the day swirled in her thoughts. She wanted to talk to Sam. But she wasn’t ready to face her uncle. He’d be furious about what she’d done to get into Collins’s house.

Someone knocked at the door, and she hoped it was Sam. Levianswered the door. Tara. Jodie held her breath for the dressing-down to come.

“Hey, girlfriend—” Tara stopped, frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m fine. Are you here to tell me what trouble I’m in for breaking into Collins’s house?”

Tara smiled. “Above my pay grade. To be honest, I might have done the same thing. Nope, I came to ask what in the world is going on?”

“I wish I knew.”

Tara sat next to her, and Jodie told her what had happened.

“I can’t believe it. So now we know this guy had a vendetta because he wasn’t hired, huh?” Tara shook her head and leaned back against the couch. “To go through all this... Good thing he wasn’t hired. What a nightmare he would’ve been in uniform.”

Jodie said nothing. Something about Tara’s explanation still made no sense to her. Even when she repeated the scenario in her mind—Collins is rejected, so he sells his house, moves down the street from Gus, gets close to Gus, spends most of a yearfinding out all there is to know about what Jodie’s team is doing, then blows them up—it made no sense to her. Being dropped from the academy affected him, true, but it wouldn’t affect anyone else the same way. He couldn’t have done this all on his own. And she was bothered by a thought she couldn’t shake: there had to be a cop helping him. Could he have gotten all the intel he had simply watching and talking to Gus?

“How are you holding up?” Tara asked, interrupting the horrible thought Jodie did not want to have and was not about to voice.

“I’m okay. Glad Sam Gresham was here.”

---