“Right,” Colt said.
“I’ll keep you briefed. You do the same,” Pryor ordered.
“Yeah. Later.”
“Later.”
Colt put the receiver in the cradle and then twisted to his blazer to get his cell asking Sully, “Someone on Vi this mornin’?”
“Chris,” Sully answered. “What’s up?”
“Call him. A hit on Hart went bad last night, two down, Hart survived. He retaliated against Sal Giglia and five were killed and the kills were sloppy, they took out a waitress and the bartender’s critical. Giglia’s gonna move back. They got the books. It’s goin’ down.”
“This gonna blow down here?” Sully asked, moving quickly back to his desk.
“My guess, Pryor’s gut? Yeah. You call Chris, tell him she needs to be home behind Cal’s security fortress and Chris is glued to her. Then you call who’s on the girls. They’re taken out of school and they’re home. We got someone on Cal?”
“Adam,” Sully answered, his phone to his ear.
Colt scrolled down to Cal and hit go. He put the phone to his ear and waited, getting voicemail. He disconnected and called again and again got voicemail.
“Fuck,” he hissed as he waited for the message to clear and heard the beep. “Cal, Colt. Minute you get this, call me. Shit went down in Chicago last night. You, Vi and the girls need to be home. Sully’s talkin’ to Chris who’s got Vi and we’re movin’ to get the girls.”
He disconnected and scrolled up to Adam.
“Chris isn’t answering,” Sully said and Colt looked at him.
“What?”
“Called twice. No answer,” Sully said, the receiver still at his ear he spoke into it. “Connie,” he said to the woman who was working dispatch, “get a callout to Chris. You connect, you tell him to move on Vi, take her home, batten down the hatches and call me in that order. He can brief her after he gets briefed.”
Colt stood and grabbed his blazer, hitting go on Adam on his phone. He started to move to the backstairs and saw Mike alighting them so he stopped and lifted a palm to Mike who took one look at his face and halted.
Colt got voicemail.
“Fuck!” he clipped, flipped his phone shut and turned to Sully. “I’m goin’ to the high school. You get a callout to whoever’s on the girls. I’ll meet them there.” He turned to Mike. “Shit’s blowin’ down from Chicago. You need to go to the garden center.”
“Fuck!” Mike hissed, turned without a word and sprinted down the stairs.
Colt looked back at Sully. “Find Cal.”
Then he ran after Mike.
“You get Cal?” Sal asked his boy.
“Voicemail,” was the answer.
Sal stared at him and then quietly said, “Take a hike. Keep at him. Tell me when you’ve connected. ‘Til then, my eyes don’t see you.”
Sal took in the nod from his boy who missed his hit, that boy disappeared and then he was alone.
Sal picked up his phone, scrolled down and hit go.
“Yeah?” he heard a groggy Vinnie answer.
“You’re comin’ to me or I’m comin’ to you but we gotta meet and we gotta do it ten minutes ago.”
There was silence.
Then Vinnie said, “I’m comin’ to you.”
Sal flipped his phone shut.
Kate disarmed the alarm and opened the door. She walked in, Keira followed and Colt followed Keira.
“Stand there,” Colt ordered gently.
The girls were just inside the door. He looked over his shoulder at Eric who had tailed the girls to school and stayed for awhile to make sure things were okay. Eric was in plainclothes, standing on the front porch and Colt gave him a nod.
Eric nodded back, stood sentry at the front door and Colt did a walkthrough of the house.
Vi and Joe’s bed was unmade, something that nagged him considering both the girls’ beds were made, there were no dishes in the sink, no crumbs on the counter and only a glitter purple laptop was sitting on the coffee table and a pair off flip-flops were in the corner. Other than that everything seemed in order. Vi kept a tidy house. No signs of struggle.
“Mom here?” Kate asked when he hit the living room.
“She’ll be here soon,” Colt said even though he’d learned from the girls she wasn’t at the garden center. She had the day off preparing for the possible aftermath of the bachelorette party. She wasn’t at home but her Mustang was in the drive.
Colt looked at Eric again and Eric moved out of the door.
“Settle in, I’ll be back,” Colt said to Kate and Keira and followed Eric. Once he got the door closed and walked Eric into the yard, he turned his back to the house and got close. “Call it in. She’s gone. Bed’s unmade, car’s in the drive. All eyes peeled for her. I want officers here. Plainclothes in case the girls see them canvassing. Door to door. Did they see Vi leave the house, what was she wearing, what was she driving, was she with someone? Did they see anyone suspicious? Every house. They’re not home, you get to Feb, get their phone numbers and call them at work. Copy that?”
Eric nodded and headed to his car. Colt jogged to his house. Feb had the door open before he was halfway across the street. She looked tired and not well, wearing her hangover on her face which to Colt made her no less gorgeous and at any other time he would find this hilarious. Now, he did not.
When he made it to her he didn’t say hello.
“Call Jackie. She comes to get Jack. You go over and wait with the girls.”
Feb’s face got even paler and Colt watched the line of her body turn static.
“Wait for what?” she asked.
“Feb –” he started but didn’t finish. Her eyes sliced to Vi’s house before she nodded and without a word hustled back into the house.
Colt started to jog back across his yard when his phone rang. He slowed to a walk, pulled it out of his blazer, looked at the display, flipped it open and put it to his ear.
“What you got for me, Sul?”
“Chris and Adam down.” The words sounded like they’d been dragged out of his partner’s throat and they made Colt stop dead right in the middle of the street.
“Down how?”
“Don’t know. They’re both breathin’ but they’re also both in ambulances.”
“Vi isn’t at her house,” Colt informed him.
“Mike called. She isn’t at the garden center either.”
“She didn’t have a shift today.”
“Yeah, Mike talked to Bobbie,” Sully said then hissed, “Fuck, why did we not know this?”
“Where was Chris found?”
“Car on the side of the road outside town found by a Good Samaritan. Door open. Radio smashed. Chris unconscious in a ditch.”
“Any idea why he was there?” Colt asked.
“No clue, but it looks like he didn’t make his shift,” Sully answered.
“Adam?”
“Mike found him.”
“Where?”
“Mike left the garden center, went to Cal’s offices. He found Adam in his car outside.”
“Cal?”
“No sign and his girl isn’t there either.”
“Struggle?”
Silence and Colt started walking again, his eyes on Vi’s house, both girls looking out the window at him.
“Sully, were there signs of a struggle?”
“Colt…” Sully stopped speaking and Colt stopped on the sidewalk, turned with his side to the girls but faced away, across the street so the girls couldn’t see him when he reacted to what he was about to hear.
“Sully, tell me.”
“You’re friends with Cal.”
“Sul –”
Sully sighed then spoke fast. “Mike says it’s bad. Boys are goin’ to the scene. Two men at the scene shot dead. Mike doesn’t know either of them but says there was no muss no fuss with the gunshot wounds. Mike says prelim looks like warning shots fired meant to incapacitate, not meant to take them out, kill shots fired when they didn’t stop. But he says there’s lots of blood, place is a mess, looks like it was bad and there’s no Cal.”