CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Beth Kucinich sat at her dining room table in her Coral Gables lake house trying to play a game of Solitaire with a deck of cards and with her cellphone to her ear. Her butler was standing by, waiting for the call to end, to serve her breakfast.

"Yes, yes, it's very tragic. Very tragic." She rolled her eyes. Her butler smiled. "Yes, I can feel your pain through this phone. And my pain. Oh darling, it's simply heartbreaking. Yes, a wonderful man. Just wonderful." She shook her head, prompting the butler to smile again. "But I simply must get back to my guests. Alright, darling. Tartar."

Then she ended the call. "That bitch," she said as her doorbell rang. "She slept with him too. Who on earth would be ringing my bell? Nobody knows I'm here."

"And how did they get past security," the butler said as he stopped pouring her coffee. "I'll go check."

But Beth got up instead. "I'll go check. You serve my breakfast. I'm famished."

"Yes, madam."

She went to her front door and opened it with an annoyed wide sweep. When she saw the woman accused of killing her husband and the man she knew was the former director of the CIA standing there, she was shocked. She looked beyond them. Where was her security? When she saw them sitting on her grass against the fence, with two big muscular men, a white one wearing a long, white coat, and an African-American she recognized as Ozzie Jones, Hammer Reese's right-hand man, she was floored. Because they had weapons trained on her supposedly world-class security detail, not the other way around.

She looked back at Amelia and Hammer. "What's this about?"

Amelia walked past her and entered the house unannounced. "After you," said Hammer, as Beth gave his wife that she's got some nerve look. Then she went back into her own home.

While Amelia ordered the butler to come into the living room too, Hammer did a full sweep of the 2-bedroom interior. When he returned, which signaled for Amelia that she had an all-clear, he frisked the butler and Beth and then stepped back.

And Amelia got down to business. "Who killed your husband?"

Beth, who sat on the sofa beside her butler, frowned. "You did!"

"That's a lie and you know it."

"That's not what the authorities say. The only reason you're out is because of who your husband is, not because of any lack of evidence."

"Look lady," Amelia said, standing directly in front of Beth. "You can pull that bullshit with the press, and with your husband's constituents, but you can't pull it with me. Nobody stands to gain more than you if your husband is eliminated. You didn't hire me to eliminate him."

"The authorities believe you did that all on your own. They told me that I hired you to find out if my husband was cheating, true enough. But they said you lost your cool based on that motel footage they had of you pulling a gun on him, and that you then followed him in your car and killed him out of anger. Then you came back to me and asked for double what I agreed to pay you."

"Bullshit," said Amelia.

"Did you correct the authorities?" asked Hammer.

"I tried," Beth claimed, "but they had it all figured out. There was no changing their minds."

Hammer watched Amelia. He knew when her patience was wearing thin and she could go full Sinatra on that woman's ass. Her legendary temper always wore thin when she knew she was being toyed with. And he knew Millie. After spending time in that filthy jail for a crime she didn't commit, she wasn't standing for it too much longer. "Who killed your husband?" she asked Beth again.

"I told you already. I told you. The authorities," Beth started saying.

"Don't tell me about any fucking authorities!" Amelia yelled as her temper flared. And before Hammer could tell her to calm down, she pulled out her Glock, grabbed Beth by her throat, and then pushed the much-older woman against the back of the sofa.

The butler, terrified, slid further away from his boss.

Amelia pointed the gun directly at his boss's head. "Look lady, I don't know where you got the impression that I'm here to chat with you. I'm not playing with your ass. I'll blow your motherfucking brains through your motherfucking ears if you don't stop bullshitting me. Now tell me the truth! Who killed your husband?"

Hammer stared at Beth. She was genuinely afraid. She even looked to him for help. And he could easily help her and pull Amelia back. There were only three men on earth that could make Amelia bend to their will: Charles, Mick, and Hammer. But Hammer wasn't about to intervene. He was pissed at her, too, for roping his wife into whatever craziness she was concocting. "She doesn't make idle threats," he said to the woman he recalled seeing a few times at White House social events. "I'd answer her question if I were you."

He could see all hope drain from Beth's long, white face. "The organization," she said.

Amelia and Hammer both were confused. "What organization?" he asked.

"I don't know their names off the top of my head," said Beth. "But I have a list."

Now they were getting somewhere! "Where?"

"On my computer in my office in the back."

"Go get it," said Hammer, and Beth stood up. "Keep an eye on that guy," Hammer ordered Amelia as he followed Beth to the back of the house.

But as soon as Beth was out of earshot, the butler leaned forward. "It's not on her computer," he said.

Amelia looked at him. "Then where is it?"

He motioned toward an antique Queen Anne desk in her foyer. "Inside that drawer. I have the key," the butler said.

"Give it to me," Amelia said, and the butler began to reach in his pocket. "Not so fast, Benson," she said, aiming her Glock at him.

He then slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He pulled up a small one and handed the ring to Amelia.

"You don't like your employer?" Amelia asked the older man.

"I hate her guts," said the butler. "Didn't like her husband either," he added as Amelia made her way to the desk.

But as she walked away, the butler reached into the cushion of the sofa and pulled out a small, 22 caliber pistol and aimed it at Amelia's back. But Amelia, already leery of a guy so willing to help a stranger, already had her head turned sideways and watching him as she walked, inasmuch as she could, through her peripheral vision. And when she saw him grab that gun, she immediately turned back at him and dropped and fired just as he fired at her. He missed. She didn't.

But in the backroom, where Beth was at the computer, Hammer heard the gunfire and ran to assist his wife. But that was all the break Beth needed and she made a run for it. Hammer knew she would, and was on their walkie talkie to Mick. "Get around back!" he was yelling as he ran to help Amelia.

But Amelia was running toward him as he turned the corner. "What happened?" Hammer asked her.

"The butler did it," Amelia said. "Then I did him."

"Dead?"

"Yes."

Hammer hated that his wife had to do such foul things, but she was fighting for her liberty now. She had to do what she had to do, as both of them ran back to the office. And just as Hammer had suspected, Beth was gone. They then ran to the now wide-open backdoor that was on the back side of the office, and ran down the back steps just as a car was attempting to speed off.

Mick was already back there, holding onto that car's driver side door as it tried to speed away, his long, white coat flowing in the wind as he held on.

As Hammer and Amelia ran toward him, to assist him, Mick garnered all the strength he had to hold onto the swinging door with one hand, and grab Beth Kucinich with the other hand and fling her out of the still-moving car. Once she fell to the ground and began rolling, he jumped off too. The car kept going and ran into the brick wall of a back garage, crashing to an abrupt stop.

Hammer and Amelia ran over to Beth. She had to tell them what she knew. She was their only lead so far. Mick got up and hurried over to her too.

And Amelia got so close to the badly wounded woman that she got down on her knees. "Who killed your husband?" she asked her again.

"He found out."

"He found out what?"

"About the organization."

"What about it?"

"He found out what it was."

"What was it?"

"A ring."

"What kind of ring?"

Beth coughed. She was in bad shape. "Human trafficking ring," she said.

Amelia and Mick both looked at Hammer. She was in his wheelhouse now.

Hammer knew it too. He knelt down. "Who was in charge of the ring?" he asked Beth.

"Senator," she said.

"Senator Kucinich?" asked Hammer. "Your husband?"

"No. He found out."

"Who's in charge?" asked Hammer. He knew they'd have nothing if they didn't have the ringleader. "Which Senator?" Hammer had an idea who, but he needed her to tell him. He couldn't plant the seed for her to water. She had to introduce the seed for him to believe it.

And then she said the two words all of them were waiting to hear. "Senator Reiner," she said, and they all sighed relief. Now they knew it was all connected. But what was Amelia's connection?

"Why would Senator Reiner come to Amelia's house?" Mick asked. It was the fact that they were roping his sister into their scheme that was the only thing he was concerned about. It was the only reason he was there when he had a zillion other matters on his plate. "What did Amelia have to do with this ring?"

"She was next," said Beth.

Amelia frowned. "I was next for what?"

But before she could get the word what out of her mouth, a lone gunshot was heard that blasted across that massive backyard and tore through the top part of Beth Kucinich's head, killing her instantly.

As soon as Hammer heard that gun blast, he fell on top of Amelia, shielding her body. Mick reached down, trying to grab his sister from harm too, but as soon as she saw that Hammer had her protected, he looked up and saw the gunman withdrawing his rifle and running away.

"There's that bastard!" Mick said and began running after him as Hammer and Amelia got up and began running after him too.

All three ran down a pathway that led to a back street, with Amelia, younger and faster, outrunning both men.

And when they made it onto the street, they saw the gunman run for a parked Toyota sedan. They chased after him, gaining on him just as he hopped into the car's driver seat, pressed the Start button, and was about to drive away. But Amelia, leading the pack, stopped and aimed her Glock at the tires and took out two of the four. Then Hammer moved over and took out the other two. The gunman tried to speed away, but he could not steer and the car ran off the road into thick sand that had him spinning his wheels. And Amelia, Hammer, and Mick were upon him.

And just as they were within a few feet of the Toyota, a big GMC pickup truck came speeding from a side street all the way across the street and slammed into the Toyota. Hammer and Mick both grabbed Amelia and all three leaped into the ditch just as the Toyota flew over the ditch, slammed into a telegram pole, and severed in half in a wraparound that had metal flying. The gunman flew out of the car, too, and splattered, face first, into the street.

Then the pickup truck backed up and sped away.

Mick got up and ran to the gunman as Hammer helped Amelia to her feet. "You okay?"

"Yes you?"

"Yep." Then they both ran over to Mick.

"He's dead," Mick said, standing over the body. "No doubt about it."

Hammer was looking around. "What the fuck is going on?"

"Whoever it was," said Mick, "they wanted to make absolutely certain that this gunman didn't live to tell us shit."

"Same with Beth Kucinich," said Amelia. "That gunman didn't want her spilling secrets either. But why wait until now?"

"Because we showed up," said Hammer. "Beth was tucked away in a hideout nobody was supposed to know about. But I knew. And apparently they did too. But when we showed up, they had to improvise."

Then Hammer pulled out his phone. "Mick, get her security detail into one of your safe houses. I take it you have one here in Florida?"

"My daughter lives in Florida," Mick responded. "I've got plenty."

"Torture their asses until they tell us what they know."

Mick studied the law-and-order Hammer Reese. "And then?"

Hammer exhaled. "If they're involved, this shit is on them too. They're also involved with nearly killing my wife." He looked at Mick. "And then, do what you have to do. Punishment commensurate to the crime."

Mick's question had been a test to see just how far Lawman Reese was willing to go when Amelia's life was on the line. He passed the test with flying colors. He was willing to go all the way. Mick nodded his head.

"But it's bizarre," said Amelia.

Hammer and Mick looked at her. "What's bizarre?" asked Hammer.

"That truck didn't come for us. It came for the gunman. As if that gunman not living to give us information was more important than eliminating us." Amelia looked at Hammer and Mick. "Which makes no sense."

"Unless the guys in that truck worked for Hammer," Mick said.

Hammer looked at him offended. "Spit it out, Sinatra."

"They preserve the boss, but kill the snitch?"

"Meaning?"

"It means," Mick said in no uncertain terms, "that you may have a breach in your so-called impenetrable armor."

Amelia looked at Hammer. Because what Mick said was the only way it could have made sense.

Hammer let out a harsh exhale. It was impossible. He had too many layers of cover for a breach of that magnitude, where his wife would be involved, could have occurred. But he was nobody's fool. Mick wasn't whistling Dixie. He was making a reasoned conclusion. It just wasn't the conclusion Hammer could live with. Because it made sense to him too.