With a Vengeance Read Free Page A

Barry had responded to a barroom brawl. The police were tied up with a traffic accident. Rather than wait, Barry put himself in harm’s way to shield her and their patient, bringing them both out unscathed.
    She steeled herself against her fear. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”
    Franklin clapped her on the back before heading for the door.
    She followed, pausing to meet Pete’s eyes. His jaw was clenched so hard, she half expected to hear his teeth crack. An unspoken order— be careful —passed between them.
    As she stepped out into the night air, his command over the police radio trailed after her. “The coroner and deputy coroner are coming out. Cover them .”

      
    Pete hated everything about this incident. Two men he knew and respected, emergency responders, who put their lives on the line every day, had been gunned down by a coward. One wouldn’t be going home again. The other? Too soon to call. And now Zoe was walking smack into the middle of ground zero.
    Pete stepped closer to a bank of monitors showing different angles of the scene. One was trained on the body, and into that frame appeared the coroner’s wagon. Franklin parked close, using the vehicle as an additional barricade from whoever may or may not still lurk in the darkness. The coroner and Zoe climbed out and moved to the rear of the van, removing a gurney. A camera hung around Zoe’s neck.
    “Anything?” Pete asked.
    One of the county techs looked up from his computer. “The State Police helo reports no sign of any heat signatures outside the perimeter. Roadblocks are negative as well.”
    The second tech touched his earpiece. “The K-9 unit is still searching. Nothing yet.”
    “He’s probably long gone,” Kevin said.
    “You willing to bet your life on that?” Pete snapped.
    “No, sir.”
    Neither was Pete. And he sure as hell wasn’t willing to bet Zoe’s. “Take me through it from the top.” His focus stayed glued on the monitors, watching for movement where there shouldn’t be any. Watching Zoe and Franklin process Dickson’s body.
    “According to the county EOC dispatcher, at nineteen forty-six a call came in for an injured ATV rider giving this location. Dickson and Knox responded from the Phillipsburg garage. They radioed they were on the scene at nineteen fifty-two.”
    So the shooter set up his victims shortly before eight p.m. Just after sunset. “If he was up on the hillside to the west as we suspect, the sun would have been low and to his back.”
    “Even without the cover of the trees, they could’ve looked right at him and not been able to see him.”
    “What happened next?”
    “Nothing. That was their last radio transmission. When dispatch couldn’t raise them, she called and asked me to check on them.”
    On the monitor, Zoe was taking photos. “Go on,” Pete said.
    Kevin’s voice grew heavy. “I arrived at twenty twenty-one.” He motioned toward the monitor Pete was watching. “And I found the overturned quad, but the only victims were Dickson and Knox. Dickson was already deceased. Knox was unresponsive, but had a pulse. There was a blood trail indicating he’d tried to drag himself over to his partner, but couldn’t make it.”
    Pete’s jaw ached. “Where are you, you son of a bitch?” Other questions remained unvoiced. “Where’s the crime scene unit?”
    “On their way,” one of the techs said. “ETA five minutes.”
    Not that it mattered. The bulk of the work would have to wait for daylight.
    “Do you think he’s still out there?” Kevin asked in a hushed voice.
    No sightings on the infrared. No movement. No gunshots. For Zoe’s sake and the sakes of all the law enforcement officers lying low, waiting and watching, Pete hoped he was long gone. “Oh, he’s out there. Somewhere. And we will get him.”

Two

      
    “Thanks for the lift.” Zoe had hitched rides in ambulances, police cars, and once on a firetruck. This was the first time she’d been dropped at her door by the