Chapter 16

Everybody tried to figure out just what had happened and whether Suzan's message to run was directed at Gideon or directed at Pearl. She turned to Gideon. "Don't ask me. I don't have an answer for you." When his phone rang a few minutes later, he spoke to somebody briefly.

When he ended the call, she stared at him and said, "I'm not sure I even want to know what that call was about."

He stared down at his phone, then at her. "I have to go talk to the coroner."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because he has a body, one that he told me bears a striking resemblance to Drew, the man who supposedly committed suicide."

Her shoulders sagged, as she realized they probably had yet another murder on their hands. "Will this ever stop?" she whispered, rubbing her arms.

"It will," Gideon declared, "but it's likely to get much uglier first, before it gets better."

Jasper joined them in Tristan's curtained ER room, then told Gideon, "Let's get going."

The two of them quickly headed to the morgue, leaving Pearl alone in the curtained ER room beside Tristan. When she filled him in on the little bit Gideon had shared, Tristan's eyebrows shot up. "Now that's an interesting twist."

"If that wasn't Drew's sister, and yet she was looking for Drew, why would they have killed both of them?"

"A double-cross," Tristan said immediately. "That would be my take."

"But that also means that, by taking out both of them, we'll have no leads on anybody," she noted, "and we're right back at the beginning."

"Not at all," Tristan countered. "As a matter of fact, every time the bad guys take out somebody, they give us a whole lot more links to work on. Everybody has relationships with somebody, and, in this case, we now know about a relationship between Drew and Suzan, two people who were supposedly brother and sister, and some connection with at least Gideon, if not somebody else in our group, like you. We're getting there. It doesn't seem like it, but we are."

"It doesn't seem like it at all," she claimed. "On the other hand, the gunman involved in my home invasion and Drew's fake sister may have known each other, yet another connection, and both of them are dead now. Plus, if Drew was Mason's sniper, he's dead as well."

Tristan smiled. "You should feel better then, so nobody will be coming after you."

She hesitated. "Do you think that's true?"

"I do," Tristan declared, with a nod. "For whatever reason they were interested in you. However, now with your intruder and Suzan both dead, both of the people most directly involved with you, I think the ringleaders are also over and done with you. So you get to relax now."

"It doesn't feel like it," Pearl muttered, "The one guy who had been in my house, he is dead but he may have had a partner."

"Now that could be true too," Tristan noted, his eyes widening, "I wonder what happened to him."

When an odd click sounded behind her, Pearl stiffened.

Tristan's eyes widened, and he grabbed her hand.

"Isn't that sweet?" The man behind her spoke in a deep, raspy voice. "Whoever yells out for help, I'm shooting the other one of you. You're right. Everybody is dead," he shared. "Whether we wanted to kill them or not, we had to because we can't have witnesses. Once you leave those holes open to leaks, you can never close them otherwise."

She slowly turned, and, and sure enough, it was the second guy she had seen walking in her neighborhood.

He nodded at her and smiled. "You recognize me, even though I was just outside on the street on the day my buddy was in your house."

"You were there at the same time as Betty."

"Yeah, that crazy loon of a woman." He smiled. "She asked me which house was yours, and I told her." He shook his head. "I couldn't even figure out what she was doing, leaving a package on your front porch, but it was bad, whatever it was. It stunk. I didn't need anybody to tell me that whatever was in that bag was urine, maybe mixed with poop."

She nodded slowly. "So, why are you here now?"

"You don't need me to tell you that either. You just need to know that we're cleaning up some of the mess."

"Did that woman need to die?"

"Yeah, she left you alive, and she didn't kill this guy," he said, with a smirk. "Failure is not an option, at least not for the boss."

"Who is the boss?" she asked. "Who is behind all this?"

He smiled gruesomely. "It doesn't matter."

"It does matter because this is all about Mason," she said. "All of it is connected to him."

He narrowed his gaze, as if seeing Pearl for the first time, now assessing and weighing his options. "You are getting too smart for your own good."

"It doesn't take much brains to figure this out," she replied. "I don't understand why you guys seem to think that we won't understand what's happening here. I just don't get why anybody is after Mason. By all accounts, that man has been good to so many people. Thousands of people, maybe tens of thousands, are all very dedicated to him."

The gunman shook his head. "Me?… I'm just a contractor, I don't give a shit why this guy hates Mason, but I can tell you that he does, and that's good enough for me. He's paying for all this."

"Yet wasn't it Drew who shot Mason?"

"Yes, Drew was the hired gun," the man confirmed, surprised. "Why the hell do you even know all this?" He spoke a bit more harshly now, "Besides, Drew is gone, so nobody knows anything anyway."

"We know that your boss had Drew killed. Maybe you should be worried about that event too," she suggested. "Yet you're still working for the boss, cleaning up all the messes. Why?"

"Because it's what I do." He smirked. "You hire a cleaner,… you get a cleaner."

She stared at him. "Oh my God, you were one of the cleaners in my house."

He nodded. "Yeah, that's right. I was in there cleaning up the blood left behind by my buddy," he said, with a headshake. "Can't say I saw that one coming. Yet I saw Suzan coming. I saw her coming, I was sent to watch her do her job, and instead I watched her fail. So I took care of her before anybody else got wind of it."

"You kill your own people?"

"It's bad for business when you can't do your one job."

"Did you hire Suzan?" Pearl asked curiously. "Do you hire people who are no good at it?"

"No, I don't normally." He glared at her. "Thanks for the reminder, but, in this case, I needed a local."

"What was her relationship to Drew?"

"They were lovers, but Drew was running out on her. He took the money and ran, so she wasn't there to kill you. She was there to figure out what you knew. She thought maybe you were the other woman."

"Jeez." Pearl frowned at him. "I didn't even know Drew."

"And she ended up believing you, but the trouble was, she exposed herself. She made herself visible, and that we couldn't have. Then she knocks a military investigator over the head," he added, with a careless wave at Tristan. "but why she didn't take him out, who knows? Who does that?"

"That's like asking who comes into a hospital and attacks somebody, even knowing the place is full of people," Pearl pointed out. "Who does that?" She watched the curtain behind the gunman shift ever-so-slightly. "How is it you expect to get away with this?"

"Oh, that's easy." He pointed at the white doctor's coat he wore. "Everybody looks for a doctor and expects to see a doctor wearing a lab coat. So, when they see this getup, it doesn't matter whether you're a doctor or not. You can get away with all kinds of shit."

At that, she smiled. "So that answers another question, I guess. You're the one who tried to kill Mason in his hospital room. And you're the one who tried to kidnap Sebastian."

He stared at her, but now his gaze was no longer friendly. Hard-as-ice glints lit his gaze. "Now, you weren't supposed to know that."

"Why? Because you failed there, both times, didn't you? I suppose the powers above you would love to know about that."

"You've got a mouth on you, don't you?" He spoke in a conversational tone, as he shifted, looking at Tristan and then back at her, just now twisting a silencer on his handgun.

She knew he was about to make a move, and she was desperate to stop him, but she and Tristan were at a definite disadvantage right now. She figured Gideon was on the other side of the curtain, and she would trust him.

When the gunman suddenly raised his gun, and she heard a single pop , she instantly closed her eyes against the incoming pain. Yet none came. She opened her eyes to see the gunman slump onto the ground.

She looked down at Tristan, pulling his hand out from under the covers, revealing his gun, having shot right through the sheets.

He looked over at her and smiled. "See? I can still do my job."

She leaned over and gave him a hug, as both Jasper and Gideon stepped in.

Gideon walked over, wrapped his arm around her and just held her close.

She asked him, "Were you there behind the curtain?"

"Yes, just in case," he muttered, with worry in his gaze. "I waited for Tristan to make his move. Don't worry. You wouldn't have been shot either way."

"Says you." She groaned. "Christ, what a mess."

"Maybe, but you got the gunman talking," Jasper noted, looking over at her, "and that is huge. We know a lot more than we did."

"Maybe," Pearl said, "but what we still don't know is who is behind it all."

Jasper shrugged. "No, but we had lots of theories confirmed today. We now know Drew was the sniper. We know who was cleaning up all these bodies, our dead cleaner here on the floor. And we know why Suzan came to you. We also know Drew faked his suicide, so he could run. Yet the cleaner killed Drew as well."

Gideon added, "There are a lot of connections and people involved that we have answers for, and that's huge." Gideon pulled her close and whispered, "You are damn good at this."

"I still don't want a job like yours," she stated, with a headshake. "I think I'll stay on the outside and work as a consultant instead."

Gideon burst out laughing.

Even Jasper grinned at her. "Not a bad idea." He smiled. "Now, do you want to finish packing up at your place and get moved to his? I'll come over later, after we get this mess cleaned up." He turned to Gideon.

"You're not leaving me here," Tristan declared. "I'm coming too. Jeez, do you know how many people die in this place?" And, with a grin, he sat up and tossed off the covers, as he held out his gun to Jasper. "I suppose you'll want this too."

"You better keep it for now. And we will file an investigation into this death," he added, "but it was a clean shooting in front of witnesses. If you hadn't pulled the trigger, Gideon or I would have."

"Next time feel free," Tristan suggested. "It seems I've been popping a lot of people lately."

"Hey, it goes with the job. Head back over with them and try and keep them safe, will you?" Jasper told Tristan.

"That's not fair," she cried out. "Tristan's hurt."

"Good." Jasper looked at her. "In that case, Pearl, you keep Tristan safe, and, Gideon, look after them both. I'll stay behind and deal with the authorities."

She laughed, turning to face Gideon. "Not everything is loaded in Tristan's truck, but I think the rest of my personal effects are pretty-well packed up."

"Good, if you're up for it, let's go finish the job, and we'll talk to Jasper later." And, with that, the three of them quickly made their escape, before all the authorities raced inside, not to mention Tristan's doctor.

Outside in the parking lot, she looked at Tristan. "I still think you're running away from the doctor and should stay in the hospital for a bit longer."

"Damn right I'm running," he said. "Do you know how much paperwork I have ahead of me now? And the place will be swarming in a matter of minutes with authorities wanting to talk to me, over and over again."

She winced as she thought about it. "I imagine it's all pretty rough, isn't it, filling out all those reports, defending each shot you make?"

"It's the worst," he groaned. "Nothing quite like a shooting to make everybody want quadrupled paperwork, documenting every damn incident. Don't think you'll get away without having to give a full statement either."

She looked over at Gideon, who laughed and added, "Tristan's right. I can promise you that as soon as Jasper's done at the hospital, everybody and their dog will be coming to get statements from you guys."

" Great ," she muttered. "The least we can do is get moved home first."

"Oh, I like the sound of that," Gideon said, as he grasped her hand in his. "Home it is."

"Oh, great ," Tristan muttered, beside them. "You guys won't get all sucky-faced and moronic over this, will you?"

"Absolutely," she stated. "It's the least we can do to let you know how serious we are about starting over."

Tristan groaned. and they burst out laughing, keeping up the teasing all the way to her house.