Page 61 of Justified Fear
“What?”
She looked up.“I don’t want to go into details, just…the dude or dudes policed their brass.She did say it was all the same caliber.”
He wanted to growl.
“Oh, wow, that’s a look I know well.Hammer gets it all the time when he’s frustrated.”
“Nothing in this case makes sense.It’s like it’s a massive puzzle, but only a few of the pieces fit, and they make no sense.And when you seem to get something to fit right, the rules seem to change.”
“I hear ya,” she said.
“There are no connections to anyone in that house.And did they want Keely, or were they just trying to get rid of witnesses?And if they wanted to get rid of witnesses, why leave the bartender alive?”
“Maybe they thought he was dead?”
“Believe me, these were the types of guys who would check.”
“Yeah.Their dossiers are littered with dead bodies, kidnappings, and arms deals.Has Nikki gotten back?”
His teammate had gone to the hospital to show Ray the pictures.Then, it hit him what she said.“Wait, did you say kidnappings?”
“Yes.There are three kinds of cases in which men worked together.They all had other things they liked to do, like that Freddy Sabato liked to traffic young women—may he rot in hell.But the ten other times they worked together, they handled three different kinds of deals.One time, they took out some rivals of a drug dealer.There were like fifteen people killed.They handled two illegal arms deals.But all the other times, seven to be exact, they were connected to kidnappings for hire.It was known as their specialty.I had just sent the report before I had the dizzy spell.”
“Thanks, Charity,” he said.“Was there anything else?”
She shook her head.“I haven’t found anything.No, wait.I just got a text from Emily over at Dillon a little bit ago.She’s been doing a deep dive on everything, and she doesn’t have to be as careful.”
“Meaning she breaks the law a little more than you do?”
She gasped.“I don’t break the law.”
He rolled his eyes again.“What did she find?”
She pulled up the text.“Okay.I wish I would have had this before Nikki went to the hospital.This Ray Gailbreath dude has no history prior to a few years ago.It’s like he just came on the scene then.Says he went to Sam Houston High in Bedford, Texas, but she said a search revealed nothing much.”
“What do you mean?”
“Okay, so he was listed as going there, i.e., courses, etc., but then there is no other proof he went to school there.”
“Proof?”
“No one under his name lived in Bedford at the time.Also…oh, damn, his social might be fake too.I bet she has that Sam woman helping her on this.”They had a mysterious woman who had been helping them for the past year or so.“Either way, since I have next to nothing to look at from that homicide scene, I’m gonna start a deep dive on this Ray character.I’ll call her and coordinate so we can handle this faster.There might be a simple explanation for it.We have a guard on him, right?”
“Yeah.For his safety, but the hospital wants to release him tomorrow.”
“Then I’d better get to work.”
He turned to leave, but Charity stopped him.“We don’t have to mention this to Hammer, do we?”
“No.I meanIdon’t have to, but you will.”
She frowned at him.“He would only worry.He’s already driving me up the wall.”
“Well, give him a research project.Tell him the doctor already told you that there’s nothing wrong—which she has, right?”
She nodded.
“Then tell Hammer you need help researching ways to deal with it.There are probably massive amounts of posts about it online.Give him something to do.”
