Hit and Run Read Free Page A

other this last month since we had the training assignments and she was studying for her detective exam. She asked me to come over. Said it was urgent. Gina sounded scared, and she doesn’t get scared. She’s from Boyle Heights and survived gang turf battles like you’ve never seen.”
    Scarlet didn’t know Gina Perez, but since Jason worked out of the Mission and she’d been North Hollywood then moved to Van Nuys when she made detective, she wasn’t surprised.
    “I asked her what was going on, and she said she didn’t want to talk about it over the phone, which sounded so cliché I laughed. I can’t believe I laughed.”
    He stared at his hands and Scarlet was getting frustrated. “ What. Happened .”
    “I asked if she wanted me to call our sergeant and she said hell no, that it was about him. She said, and I quote, ‘Jay, I think he’s dirty. I need to show you something.’”
    Scarlet already suspected this was going south quickly. “Who’s your sergeant?”
    “Tony Mercer.”
    She didn’t know him, but made a mental note to look him up.
    “I tried to get her to stay on the phone with me because she was freaked,” Jason said, “but she said she needed to triple check her locks. Gina lives off Sunland Boulevard, and I had been over in Northridge. By the time she hung up, I’d already turned around and got back on the one-eighteen heading east. I got there twelve minutes later.
    “The front door was cracked open. I pulled my weapon, pushed the door in. Gina was lying in the entry way, dead. Shot twice in the chest. I checked her pulse. She was gone. I stared for a couple seconds—I couldn’t believe she was dead. It was stupid, rookie mistake. If I’d acted faster…” He shook his head, as if to clear his mind. “A sound startled me from the back of the house. I should have called for back-up. I shouldn’t have entered the house. But Gina was my partner. My friend. More than a friend. You know how it is, Scarlet.”
    She nodded. Right or wrong, she would have done the same thing if Krista had been killed.
    “I was still in uniform. As I walked down, I saw someone emerge from Gina’s extra bedroom where she has a little office. I identified myself, told them to stop. He fired at me, but what made me hesitate was I saw a flash of a badge on his belt, under his jacket, and then he ran out the back. I pursued. He was jumping the back fence when I stopped and fired at him. I think I hit him, but I’m not positive. He disappeared. I came back, called it in, but a patrol was already on their way.”
    “Okay. I don’t see the problem here. Someone killed Gina, possibly a cop. Why are you on the run? Why can’t you go to your Captain?”
    “Because today, someone tried to kill me.”
    “When? Where?”
    “They asked me to go to the station to give my statement. I did, and started for home. Four in the morning. A black SUV ran me off the road. I got out to confront them, but then I saw two men emerge, both with guns. They fired. I ran.”
    “How’d you get here?”
    Scarlet’s radio beeped. She answered. “Moreno.”
    Krista said, “Two patrol cars circled the block. Now one is parked at either end of the street.”
    Jason paled.
    “Got it,” Scarlet said. “Jason, the best thing to do is go in and talk.”
    “And you would have? After you knew someone tried to kill you in that ambush?”
    She froze. “What do you know about that?”
    “Nothing, except that when I saw Gina, I remembered what happened to you. She was a lot like you—she didn’t take bullshit and she asked a lot of questions. You’re the only one I can trust, Scarlet. I’m not coming out now. I will be killed, if not here, then in custody. I don’t fucking know why! ”
    She stuffed the sheet of paper with Diego’s address into his hand. “Safe house. Get there.”
    “How do I know you won’t turn me in?”
    “You don’t. You’ll just have to trust me.”
    Scarlet’s radio beeped. “SWAT turned down the