Page 57 of Tapped

I can kiss this location goodbye for sure. No dealer with two brain cells would step close to this place again, let alone use it in their chain supply.

I park, grab my badge and gun, and make my way across the lawn where Brax and Tim are standing.

The neighborhood is old and the houses are small, but this area of town doesn’t get this kind of action. Neighbors are clustered and watching the drama unfold, not used to this kind of thing happening on a Saturday morning.

I’m in the same shorts and tee, but I did throw on a ball cap. It was the best I could do since I didn’t have time to go home. I need to start leaving a change of clothes in the car.

Tim looks me up and down. “Did you come straight from the gym?”

Brax hikes a brow. “He was asleep when I finally got hold of him, so he did not come from the gym. He also didn’t come from home.”

I have no time to make up a story or defend myself. Their barrage continues hitting me like the drive-by that no doubt happened in the front yard we’re standing in from the looks of the bullet markers that pepper the house and ground. “Two days in a row you show up to work looking like you rolled out of bed.”

More like rolled off the sofa. “It’s Saturday. This wasn’t exactly on my schedule, boss.”

“You were right about the house,” Brax says. “You’ll shit when you see the amount of cash in there. If we can keep this from becoming a dead end, your case is about to get bigger.”

I turn to the house and change the subject. “Who’s dead? And do we have a copy of the video yet?”

“We should have the video anytime,” Tim says. “The office is cutting it as we speak. We got plates on the car. They uploaded it into Miami’s license plate reader already. But I have bad news about the dead body.”

I turn back to Tim and Brax. “What’s the bad news?”

“It was a holdup. They were coming back to the house with a load of cash. Another group drove by and ran up to pick it off. Right now, we don’t know who did it,” Brax says.

We see shit all the time. Someone getting popped in the middle of a cartel war is nothing new. Unfortunately, it happens a lot. “Besides the dead body, which is always bad, what are you talking about?”

Tim motions to the front of the house where a body is just being zipped up in a body bag. “Detectives ID’d him. It’s your guy.”

I frown. “What guy?”

Brax finally spills. “Adder.”

Anger bubbles from within me. “No fucking way. You’re sure?”

Brax nods. “Sorry man. His name is actually Adder Hoffman. He actually had a DL on him.”

“Fuck.” I drag a violent hand through my hair before I yell, “Fuck!”

Everyone in the yard and street turns to us.

“Whoa,” Brax says in a low voice. “We’re trying to lay low for the sake of your case. The last thing we need to do is have the media report this was DEA.”

I drop my head and stare at the ground in front of me while I contemplate just how bad this is. When I look up, I mutter, “He was the key. The one fucking guy I needed alive got his ass taken out by a rival group in a hold up. What are the fucking odds?”

Brax narrows his eyes on me, but Tim keeps talking. “The rest of them ran. We live on a peninsula. They’ll turn up eventually. He can’t be the only one who knows about the hitman.”

“Maybe but this was the guy. He had the answers, dammit.” A PD officer exits the house with his K9 on a leash. “I want to see it for myself. There might be clues in the house. We need to get the hell away from the cameras anyway.”

The coroner is busy making notes when we get to the front door. We sidestep the evidence, careful not to disrupt the scene.

“Can you tell where the shots came from?” I ask.

He stands, snaps off his gloves, and tips his head to the west. “Point blank. But there are bullets everywhere that hit from all directions. Multiple weapons—it was a shootout. Did I hear mention of cameras?”

I motion up and down the street. “Two on the poles out front and another in back of the house. We’re pulling video now. I can send you what you need.”

He reaches into his pocket and hands me a business card. “It’s obviously death by multiple gunshot wounds, but that would be good to include with my report. I appreciate it.”

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