Please let him be safe. Let him besafe.
“How well do you know thisguy?”
“We aren’t BFFs, but I like him. He’s a good man. We served together.” Mia glanced over at Joaquin, guilt and regret twisting inside her. “I’m sorry. This is my fault. If I had listened toyou…”
“Hey, don’t worry about it. IfIhad listened to me, we wouldn’t be here. They’ll let us go when they get control of thesituation.”
“They took yourpistol.”
“I’ll get it back. Besides, I haveothers.”
A burst of static came over the radio, followed by an officer’s voice. His words were muffled and mixed with police jargon, so that Mia only understood the last part. “We need a body bag and aDBT.”
“A body bag?”God.“What’s aDBT?”
Joaquin’s brow furrowed. “It means ‘dead body transfer.’ I’msorry.”
Mia’s mind reeled, her pulse ratcheting. “I can’t believe this. This can’t be real. Who would want to hurt Jason? All he ever did was save lives and help people. He would never hurt anyone. This doesn’t make sense. He made it through Iraq. I can’t believe he could be killed like this. Damnit!”
“Breathe, Mia. It’s going to beokay.”
Mia shook her head, swallowed the lump in her throat. “Not for Jason itwon’t.”
Lights went on inside Jason’s house, and the three officers who’d cleared the place stepped outside again, the one who’d detained them heading their way. Joaquin had called him Petersen, and the two seemed to know each other. That hadn’t stopped the officer from patting them down, confiscating Joaquin’s firearm, cuffing them—and stuffing them in the back of hisvehicle.
“We had reports of gunshots from this address,” Petersen hadsaid.
“We just got here and saw the door open,” Joaquin had explained. “We didn’t even go inside. We were about to call thepolice.”
Petersen hadn’t said a word inresponse.
A blast of cold air hit Mia in the face as Petersen opened the car door and took hold of her arm. “Let’sgo.”
“Go where?” Mia looked at Joaquin, alarm trilling throughher.
Joaquin gave her a nod. “It’s okay. He’s a goodcop.”
Officer Petersen hauled her out thedoor.
“Is Jason dead? He’s my friend. We served together in the Army. I got a strange text from him, so we came to check on him and found the dooropen.”
“You’ll have time to tell your story down at the station.” Petersen turned her over to another officer, who led her to his vehicle and shut herinside.
She knew what they were doing. They had separated her from Joaquin to make sure the two of them didn’t make up a story before they were questioned. Well, it didn’t matter because they didn’t have to make upanything.
Then it hit Mia, breath leaving her lungs in a slow exhale. If she hadn’t gone to dinner with Joaquin, she would have been home alone with no one to confirm her whereabouts. And if she’d come here byherself…
You’d be knee deep in shit rightnow.
The minutes ticked by. A van pulled up—the crime scene investigation unit. Then an ambulance arrived. Two EMS guys climbed out and drew an empty gurney out of the back. The sight of it made Mia’s stomachknot.
They disappeared inside, only to reappear about ten minutes later, a body closed in dark plastic and strapped to thegurney.
Jason.
How could his life have ended likethis?
Mia let rage push her grief aside. Someone was killing hersoldiers.