Chapter 4

A marylis woke up the next morning, a bit achy and sore. It took her a moment to remember the events of the night before, including the trip to the morgue, outside of office hours. She was quiet for a moment, just thinking about the implications, then slowly got up, had a shower, and drove to work.

As she walked in, Dr. Cox called out to her. She headed to him, one eyebrow raised. “Problems?”

He snorted. “Not so much problems, but I’ve told the lab staff a little bit about last night.’

“Ah, I’m sure that didn’t make people too happy.”

“Nope, it sure didn’t.” Cox smiled. “I’ve also heard from various bosses this morning that there is to be no discussion about it. It has to be kept totally under wraps, so you need to be extra careful around people. No mentioning, no questions, no nothing.”

“Got it,” she said. “I wasn’t planning on it.”

“Just a reminder.”

At that, the conversation turned to work, and she headed to her office to take care of a bunch of reports, before starting on the day’s autopsies. As she sat down, her phone buzzed. She looked over to see it was Tristan. She smiled as she answered it. “And here I thought you won’t be letting me out of your sight,” she teased.

“I followed you to work,” he shared. “I’m not there with you, though that depends if you’re safely locked up inside.”

She stared down at the phone. “You followed me in?”

“I did,” he confirmed, with a cheerful tone that grated on her nerves a bit. “I was trying to get there before you left, so I could talk to you, but I didn’t let you know I was on my way. When I saw you coming out of your apartment, I just ensured you got to work safely.”

“You could have stopped and talked to me at work,” she stated. “You don’t have to do all this cloak-and-dagger stuff.”

“I hope I don’t have to. If I did, I’ve already failed because I should have been at your place overnight.”

“You certainly don’t need to do that,” she stated.

“Again I hope not, but we don’t know anything yet to assuage my fears.”

“Right, I was hoping you might have some updates.”

“I would love to have some updates.” He chuckled. “However, because of the USB key you found, we have a lot more leads to follow.”

“Probably a good thing,” she agreed. “I still can’t believe last night happened. Can you?”

“You have no idea. I can’t even tell you how the rest of my night went, plus my morning so far, but I barely got any sleep.”

“Sorry about that. You could have come into my office and got coffee here.”

He laughed. “I know, but I’m already heading back to my office.”

“You still need to look after yourself,” she scolded.

“I will, and does missing out on coffee at your place mean I’m not looking after myself?”

Such a curious tone filled his words that she had to laugh. “It’s probably totally fine for you to just do whatever you’re used to doing,” she acknowledged, “because I’m sure you’re well used to doing exactly what you want.”

“Ooh, I don’t know about that,” he replied, with a chuckle, “but, if you’re going anywhere today, I do need to know, so I can come over there to follow you.”

“I might be traveling with my job,” she shared, “but that shouldn’t affect you.”

“Yet it does. We don’t know who is after that USB key, who might think that you still have it. Plus, if anybody saw us remove it, that’ll be the next challenge. Either way, it involves you.”

“You think somebody could be after me over it?” she asked in astonishment. “I figured now that it was gone that it would be a nonissue.”

“I hate to point this out, but how will the bad guys know it’s gone?”

She wrinkled up her nose at that thought. “ Great . Something else I was hoping to not put together.”

“Exactly. Anyway I would suggest lunch.”

“Lunch would be nice,” she said, and then she frowned. “Or is this just about work?”

“Nope, it’s not just about work. How about twelve, and I’ll pick you up outside.” And, with that, he disconnected.

She stared down at the phone, shaking her head. She wasn’t sure that she got a clearcut answer as to whether this lunch was work or whether it was something else. The thought that it might be something else worried her, yet put a smile on her face.

Something was very engaging about Tristan, also heartwarming, when a man took it upon himself to ensure you were safe—not that she’d ever had too many issues with being not safe. Still, with whatever was going on here at base, she definitely felt a degree of comfort in knowing Tristan was around.

Dr. Cox poked his head in her office at that moment, and his eyebrows shot up. “Now what put that look on your face?”

She flushed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He laughed and teased, “If that were the case, you wouldn’t be blushing. The fact that you are makes my heart swell with joy. This old man has always been a romantic at heart.”

She groaned and rolled her eyes at him. “If that’s the case, how come you live alone?”

His smile fell off. “I lost my wife of thirty-four years some six months ago.” He then took a moment to add, “And I’m not quite ready to move on from that.”

She winced. “Oh, God, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be.” He gave a wave of his hand. “You couldn’t have known, and it just means you’ve not been gossiping about me, and I appreciate that. Now I need some help, so get your butt in here.”

And, with that, the focus of her day returned to work.

*

Tristan ended the call, tossed his cell on the seat beside him, and turned to look at the coroner’s building in front of him. He didn’t want her to know that he was here, keeping an eye on the place. Yet, after talking to Jasper, it had been determined that somebody needed to keep an eye out to confirm nobody would get in to retrieve that USB key.

It was all fine and dandy, until something went wrong, and Tristan couldn’t afford for anything to go wrong. They were working on getting more men to help, and—until that happened, and he was relieved from his current post—he would sit here in the morgue’s parking lot because a mistake now could be a permanent mistake that nobody wanted to see happen.

He watched several vehicles come and go, and then noted that one of the vehicles had pulled up along with several others, yet the driver remained inside it. Tristan frowned at that as he watched the guy, but the driver just sat there, studying the building. From his position, Tristan was largely hidden from everybody else’s view, a position he’d taken deliberately, but it also gave him a bird’s eye view of this new arrival.

He quickly marked down everything he could see about the vehicle. As he wondered if he should walk past to get an ID on the driver’s face, the car door opened, and the driver stepped out.

The tall streak of a male stood up, dressed in a jeans jacket over jeans and a white T-shirt. He looked typical of almost everybody else on base who was off duty, as he walked toward the building. He looked around casually, but something was almost professional about that expression on his face. It was enough to set Tristan’s mood on edge, as this was exactly what he had been sitting here waiting for.

He quickly sent a text message to Jasper and one to Amarylis. Then Tristan hopped out of his vehicle and walked up at a faster pace, reaching the glass double entrance doors at almost the same time as the other guy. Smiling at him, Tristan said, “Hey, haven’t seen you around here before.”

The other guy just nodded. “Not exactly a place I frequent.”

“Right, not a place most people want to even visit,” Tristan replied in a joking tone.

The other guy just stared at him and continued inside. As Tristan reached the second set of double doors, these all wood with no windows, the other guy lagged behind, either as if unsure where he was going or waiting to see what Tristan would do. Choosing the option of going through the double doors, Tristan completely ignored the other guy and soon sat down on the nearby stairs, making it look like he was taking a phone call.

He couldn’t see what the other guy was doing through the solid wood doors. He waited a moment, and then the doors opened, and the guy stepped in, looking up at him. But Tristan was talking on the phone—or making it look like that way. The other guy glanced at him, then looked down and proceeded to go up the stairs.

Ignoring him, Tristan continued with his fake phone call. When the other guy disappeared onto the second floor’s landing, Tristan stood and raced up behind him. However, he saw no sign of him as he got to the second floor. Still, this worried Tristan, as this guy had reached the floor where the evidence in the lab was held. It wouldn’t have taken a whole lot to figure out where that was. Yet it was also more confirmation of where this guy was headed.

As Tristan walked down the hall to the lab, his phone buzzed. Amarylis had sent him a text, with a series of question marks and WTF? He smiled at the expression because she wasn’t saying anything, yet said everything. As he walked to the lab, he headed directly in, whereas the other guy loitered outside, as if checking his messages.

Tristan stepped inside the lab to see several of the forensics guys glaring at him. “Glare all you want,” he declared, with a nod.

“You took evidence out of here.”

“Me? God, no. Yet one of your higher-up bosses did that, and you might want to keep that in mind.”

“You know that isn’t common procedure,” John said stiffly.

“Then take it up with your direct boss,” Tristan suggested, with cheer in his tone. “In the meantime, we have a problem.”

John groaned. “Now what?”

“I think a guy just outside may be looking for the item in question, and what you need to do is keep your mouth shut in the event that he asks.”

“We know nothing about it,” John stated stiffly, “and we do know how to do our jobs,… even if other people keep screwing us over.”

“Anytime you want to make a formal complaint, take it up with the brass. For the record, it doesn’t matter what I would have done. It was way over my head too.”

They had to acknowledge that because, when it came down to the brass placing orders, Tristan wouldn’t put his own neck on the line for these tech guys. Yet, if they had any sour grapes about it, which he would if he were them, they needed to take it up the line. “I presume you already talked to Dr. Cox about it?”

“Yeah, and we were told it’s been dealt with.”

“I’m sure it has,” Tristan replied, knowing that, if not for the trust he had in Mountain, no way in hell Tristan would be happy with the scenario either.

When the door opened, Tristan turned to see the new arrival studying the lab area. One of the lab techs walked over to the front counter and in a cold voice stated, “I think maybe you’re lost.”

The other man shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. I’m looking for the lab.”

“You found the lab, but this isn’t open to the public.”

“Maybe it should be,” he declared, with a sneer.

The other guy stiffened and stared at him. “What the hell?”

“Yeah, what the hell?” he repeated. “I came here for something specific, and I’m not exactly seeing what I want.”

“What is it you want?” he asked.

“I want the damn USB key that was turned in,” he stated, and suddenly a black snub-nosed gun appeared in his hand.

The techs gathered nearby stared at the gunman in shock, then all turned to Tristan. He stepped up and said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. What the hell is this?”

“Exactly what I said it was. I want that key.”

Tristan shook his head. “Not something we can give you.”

“Doesn’t matter if you can give it to me or not,” he snapped, his cold smile letting Tristan know he didn’t give a shit who or how.

“You do realize you’re on camera, right?” Tristan asked.

The gunman shrugged. “By the time the yahoos around here sort it all out, I’ll be long gone, and it’s not your problem. Your problem is getting me the key.”

“If we’re talking about evidence that was taken from a crime scene recently,” Tristan noted cheerfully, “we don’t have it.”

“If you don’t have it, I don’t see any reason to keep you alive.” Hearing the gasp behind him, Tristan narrowed his gaze on the man in front of him. “That’s interesting. You’ve come here to murder people? It doesn’t matter who, when, or how? If we don’t have what you want, we’re dead, is that it?”

As the handgun raised, Tristan stilled himself, yet his right hand was holding his own revolver in his jacket pocket, pointed right at the stranger. He would shoot if needed, but, at this point, he would rather not because he needed more information than what he currently had. So he must keep the gunman talking, if he could. “So, let me get this straight. Something was found at a crime scene, which you obviously don’t want anybody to know about it. So you came here in broad daylight, in full sight of the cameras, to a military building, to steal it from us, using a whole lot of threats and a gun for a little persuasion?”

“I would have thought that was pretty evident,” the man said in a bored tone of voice, as he looked from one to the other. “Who’s the boss here?”

When they pointed at Tristan, he sighed. “Nice to know we’re thrown to the wolves so easily. Thanks, guys. Thanks for throwing me under the bus.” Yet he didn’t blame these guys in the least. This was not what they were cut out for, and they knew he was part of the investigative team. Therefore, by pointing him out, they trusted him to handle it. Yet it wouldn’t make this any easier.

The gunman smiled. “I guess you’re the lucky one then, aren’t you?”

“Maybe so,” Tristan replied. “Still doesn’t change the fact that what you’re after isn’t here.”

The gunman shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t want to listen to anything you have to say, but I do want to see that key.”

One of the forensics guys walked over with a little bag and inside was a plain USB key.

The guy’s face lit up. “See? This is what happens when you have the proper motivation,” he noted, snarling at Tristan.

Tristan nodded. “You know that this is a bad idea though, don’t you?”

“It doesn’t matter,” he declared.

For the first time, Tristan saw a note of almost desperation in the stranger’s hard gaze, as he waved his gun.

“Sometimes, when you’re backed up against a wall, you’ve just got to do it.”

“Sometimes doing it is what backs you up against the wall,” Tristan explained, his tone equally hard.

The gunman glared at him. “Save your preaching for somebody who gives a shit.”

Tristan didn’t say anything, just waited until the gunman looked at them individually, as if assessing what his next move would be. Tristan waited, equally still.

The man shifted nervously, leaving Tristan to wonder whether he would take off or check the key for the material he was after, though something about his attitude suggested he probably had no clue what was on it.

“I hope it’s worth it,” Tristan added.

The gunman glared at him, then looked around again, as he slowly backed up to the door. “Of course it is.” With that, he was gone.

Tristan raced to the door, turning to look at the techs, still standing there, staring at him. He pulled out his phone and called Jasper. “He’s coming outside right now,” he snapped.

“I’ve got two men near the door,” he muttered, “and I’m just coming into the parking lot myself.”

“He’s been given a key, but it’s not the right one.”

“Good thinking, but also bad thinking because, if he gets away, he’ll be back.”

“I doubt he will come back. Just by doing what he’s done, this guy has pulled his own trigger.”

“Not your problem. Remember that.”

He turned and glanced back at the techs, still staring at him. “Stay here.” And, with that, he ducked out after the gunman. He raced all the way down the stairs, and, when he got to the bottom, the gunman stood at the double glass doors, staring at the two MPs outside.

He turned to Tristan and glared. “You know this won’t go well.”

“It won’t go well for you either,” Tristan replied. “If you go outside, they will take you down.”

“Not if you are my prisoner,” the stranger suggested, with a laugh, pointing the handgun at Tristan.

“I’m not talking about those two MPs. I’m talking about whomever conned you into doing this. Do you think they will let you survive this?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Everybody involved in this mess has been taken out, shot dead, even when they weren’t expecting it.”

“Seeing as how I was forced to do this, I highly doubt it.”

“I suppose you were told to walk outside and to show them the USB key in your hand.”

The gunman nodded. “Yep, that’s how they’ll know I got it, and thank God I did. Are you prepared to take a bullet?”

Tristan sighed. “Not at all. I never intended to take a bullet. However, if you go out there, you will get your ass kicked in a permanent way.”

The gunman shook his head. “No, you don’t understand. They need this, and it’s my job to get it.”

“Why? What have they got on you?”

“Doesn’t matter what they’ve got on me,” he snapped, his voice loud, angry, and a little bit hysterical.

Tristan winced. “Is there anything I can say to keep you from going out there?”

“No, there isn’t. One way or another, this is what I’ve got to do.”

“You don’t have to though. You could choose another path.”

He snorted. “What are you, some holier-than-thou preacher?”

“No, man, not at all. Just somebody who knows what’s in your future, the minute you go out that door.”

He shook his head. “Even with your two MPs out here, it doesn’t matter. I’ve got people watching out for me. They will shoot down those MPs.” When his phone buzzed, he nodded. “That’s my signal that it’s clear to go.” He pushed open the door and stepped outside.

A moment of hesitation followed, even while Tristan remained inside, looking for the most likely spot where the bad guys’ sniper was at. Meanwhile, the two MPs outside stepped up closer to the gunman.

The gunman held up the key for all to see. “Gentlemen, I’m taking this, and you can do whatever the hell you want, but I’m walking out of here.”

A single shot sounded clearly, and Tristan followed the trajectory and pushed open the double doors, motioning the two MPs after the sniper. Then Tristan walked over to the fallen gunman’s body. A single bullet hole was right between his eyes.

He looked over at Jasper, who joined him now to ask, “What the hell was that all about?”

Tristan quickly explained that the gunman was supposed to hold up the USB key.

“The key is very distinctive, isn’t it?” Jasper asked.

“It is, so obviously he didn’t have the right key,” Tristan stated. “I didn’t tell him that he had the right key, but I did try to convince him not to come out here. He said he had to. So I presume he was being blackmailed along with the other names on our list. He mentioned that he needed to do this, so that’s most likely about blackmail.”

“Maybe.” Jasper looked down at the body. “But, man, he’s paying a heavy price for keeping whatever it is a secret.”

“And not only that, it will no longer be a secret,” Tristan declared, facing Jasper. “We will tear apart his life.”