Page 51 of Shelter for Martina

Back off or your girlfriend will get to join her daughter.

Bud threw the car door open and got out, glaring around. There was no doubt in his mind that whoever put the note there was still there somewhere, watching him. Another quick look and he saw just what he was looking for.

The clerk looked startled when he threw the store’s front door open and flashed his badge. “I want to see the footage from your camera out there,” he said, pointing to the front corner of the building.

“I-I-I-I-I’m sorry, sir. That camera’s been out for two weeks now,” the young woman sputtered.

“You have got to fucking be kidding me,” he muttered under his breath and strode out of the store. Getting back into the car was the last thing he wanted to do. He wanted to run up the hill behind the store, find the bastard that had left that note, and beat him to within an inch of his life, but it wouldn’t happen. They were gone, he was sure, and yet he still had the feeling someone was watching him. Laying the note out flat on the CrownVic’s front seat, he snapped a picture of it and sent it to Len. The response was exactly what he’d figured it would be.

Bring that in.

RT.It was his usual response, his shortened version of “roger that.” But they’d find nothing. Anybody brazen enough to leave that on his car was smart enough to leave no evidence on it. He reached into the back seat, pulled an evidence bag out of a box full of them, and bagged the note, then shoved it in the big car’s glove box. Still furious, he backed out of his parking space and took off toward the post.

Only a couple of miles from there, he rounded a curve and found a car stalled in the road. Nearby, a young woman sat with a little kid in a car seat, as far away as she could get, her cell phone in her hand. “You need some help, miss?” Bud called out the window.

“Oh, yes, sir, officer. I don’t have any cell reception here.”

“No worries. Let me get parked.” Bud pulled in behind the car, flipped his blues on, and picked up his mic. “Central dispatch, this is unit seven twenty-three. I’m at mile marker three, highway three-oh-eight, mile marker two in BeaverDam. Vehicle stalled in the roadway. Stopped to assist, requesting highway assistance. Light blue FordExplorer, early two thousands, OhioCounty plate…” Bud gave the dispatcher the particulars for the vehicle, then got out and talked to the young woman. The child was crying, so Bud popped the trunk and handed him a stuffed animal from a box they kept in all the cruisers for victims of crimes. That seemed to placate the little guy, and he sat and happily played with the stuffed dog as Bud talked to the girl. It turned out she was one of Riley’s classmates from high school, and they laughed and visited until the tow truck got there which, thankfully, wasn’t long. Satisfied that she was in good hands, Bud returned to his car, but just as he slid in, his phone rang—Len. He pulled it from his pocket and at the same time, something on the radio caught his ear. “Griffin.”

“Bud, get to the Red andBlue Freight Terminal. There’s been a shooting. We’ve got five cars en route and the sheriff’s department’s got half a dozen on their way too.”

“On the road.” Accelerator floored, Bud screamed away from the stalled vehicle and tow truck, headed west toward CentralCity. All he could think about was Martina. What the hell had happened? “Central dispatch, this is unit seven twenty-three, unit seven twenty-three, responding to shooting site at Red andBlue Freight. Repeat, unit seven twenty-three, responding to shooting site at Red andBlue Freight.”

“Ten-four, unit seven twenty-three,” the dispatcher replied, but Bud didn’t care. All he needed to do was get there and make sure Martina was okay.

It was mass pandemonium when he pulled up in the parking lot. There were law enforcement vehicles, the tactical team, first responders, ambulances, and every other kind of emergency vehicle he could think of everywhere he looked, and more than half a dozen damn media vehicles. “Central dispatch, unit seven twenty-three ten-eight at scene of shooting.”

Bud didn’t hear the dispatcher when she said, “Ten-four, unit seven twenty-three.” He was running as fast as his legs could carry him, straight for the building.

A MuhlenbergCounty sheriff’s deputy stopped him. “Whoa there, sir, I—”

Bud flashed his badge. “KSP DetectiveAlbert Griffin. I need inside the building immediately.”

“Yes, sir.” The deputy moved out of the way and Bud ran straight inside.

The scene was chaos. People were crying, and at least one person was lying on the ground, a paramedic fussing over them. Little clusters of workers stood here and there, chattering and yelling, and officers were everywhere. He looked up and saw the MuhlenbergCounty sheriff, ChrisYeager. “Bud!” the younger man called out.

“I’m looking for someone, sheriff. Woman named MartinaAnderson.”

“If you don’t see her here, she’s in the break room. That’s where they’ve taken a lot of the employees.” He pointed through two big steel doors, and Bud hit them full stride.

Running down the hallway, people kept pointing him toward the break room until he finally reached it. He burst into the room and a couple of people turned around and looked at him. “MartinaAnderson! Where is she?”

“We don’t know. None of us have seen her.”

Another woman at the back of the room stood. “I saw her in the hallway earlier. Right outside the door here.”

Bud couldn’t understand. Where could she be? He pulled out his phone and opened up his text messaging, then whipped one off.Baby, I’m here. Where are you?

Three little dots waved up and down on his screen, and then came the message that made him finally take a breath.In the restroom.

He didn’t even think, just threw the bathroom door open. “Martina!”

“Oh, god!” Five feet and three inches of pure adrenaline came bolting out of a stall and into his arms. “Oh, god, Albert! I was so scared!”

Clutching her to him, he breathed a silent prayer of thanks before he asked her, “Babe, what are you doing in here?”

“It wasme!They were aiming at me! I was afraid they’d get into the building in the hubbub, so I hid in here!”

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