Then he looked up at Will. “I got a pulse.” He reached into other pockets and pulled out compresses.
Tarlton called in the shooting, then snapped handcuffs on the man whose back he was kneeling on. “They got an ambulance and the fire department rolling.”
“Anybody here got any medical training?” Remy asked.
One of the policemen raised his hand.
Remy tossed him a pair of surgical gloves. “Put those on. Let’s see if we can get the bleeding to stop.”
“You got this?” Will asked.
Without looking at him, Remy nodded. Max hovered at his side, gazing around anxiously. The Labrador had already set up a perimeter guard.
Will stepped back out into the hallway. Tarlton, finished with his prisoner, was at his heels.
Bikers emerged from the other rooms. Evidently a lot of them hadn’t awakened yet. They came out with guns and shotguns in hand.
“Police!” Will yelled with all the authority he could muster. Since he’d been one of the youngest XOs on an aircraft carrier, he’d learned to project his voice. “Put your weapons down immediately!”
The bikers didn’t follow his orders, and Will was certain the hallway was about to turn into a bloodbath.
Farther down, Victor Gant stepped into the hallway with a pistol in his fist.
“Gant!” Will yelled. “Tell them to put the guns down or this is going to go very badly.”
“For who?” Victor grinned at him with cold maliciousness. “Seems to me we got you outnumbered up here.”
“It’s not going to play out like that,” Will promised. “And you know it. We’re ready for this and your men are still getting it together. If this starts on your word, you’re the first man to go down.”
Victor hesitated for a moment. Will saw the indecision on the man’s face. Victor wanted to push the situation into a violent confrontation.
Will centered his shotgun’s sights over the man’s chest. He still wasn’t certain he’d gotten his point across. His finger curled over the trigger.
“You heard him,” Victor said without looking at anyone. “Put your weapons down and plant your faces on the floor.”
After he issued his command, Victor dropped to his face on the floor and waited quietly to be taken into custody.
Will went forward and cuffed him.
30
›› Hawthorne Machine Shop
›› Hawthorne Lane
›› Charlotte, North Carolina
›› 0801 Hours
“Why are you here?” Victor Gant demanded.
Will hauled the man to his feet and pushed him face-first into the nearest wall. The man reeked of sour sweat, alcohol, and reefer smoke.
“Because you made it personal,” Will answered.
Victor cursed. “Your people did that when they killed my boy.”
“Bobby Lee brought what happened to him on himself.”
“Yeah, well so did your gunnery sergeant.”
Will grabbed a handful of the man’s hair and yanked his head around so he could face him. “Now I’m making it personal. I’m going to put you away, and when you get out, I’m going to put you away again. You’re not going to be able to breathe without me standing in your shadow as long as I feel like you’re a threat to one of my people.”
Victor glared at him. “You don’t have that kind of time, cap’n.”
“You’d be surprised at the kind of time I have,” Will stated.
A lazy smile pulled at Victor’s cruel mouth. “Don’t know what you think you got on me, but you ain’t gonna make it stick.”
“We’re going to start with breaking and entering at the ME’s office,” Tarlton said as he cuffed a man next to Victor. “That’s just to get you in a cage. Then Commander Coburn is going to bring up charges of tampering with evidence in a homicide investigation.”
“What evidence!” Victor tried to push off the wall.
Will dropped a knee into the back of Victor’s knee and caused it to go out from under him. He put an elbow into Victor’s back and bounced him off the wall.
“Stay,” Will growled.
“Your son was killed,” Tarlton said. “Until Gunnery Sergeant McHenry is cleared of any wrongful charges-and he will be-Bobby Lee’s body is evidence in the investigation. We have a witness who says you broke in and touched the body.”
“I was saying good-bye to my son!” Victor roared.
Will heard the pain in the man’s voice and couldn’t help feeling it as a father himself. He couldn’t imagine how he would act or how he would go on if something ever happened to Steven.
Put that away, he told himself. You’ve got a job to do here. You’re not Victor Gant, and Steven is never going to be Bobby Lee.
Will prayed for that to be true with all his heart.
“Chief Tarlton,” someone called over the radio.
“Yeah,” Tarlton responded.
“I got an FBI agent here, name of Urlacher. He says he wants to talk to you about Victor Gant.”
“Tell him I’m busy.” Tarlton pulled the biker he’d cuffed from the wall and started walking him down the hallway.
“Yes, sir. I did. But he’s waving some kind of legal paper at me that he seems right proud of.”
“It’s a court injunction,” Urlacher bellowed loud enough to be picked up by the radio. “You’re interfering in a federal case.”
Tarlton glanced at Will. “Sounds like Urlacher went directly to the nuclear weapons. You got enough muscle to handle this?”
“I don’t know,” Will answered.
“Man,” Victor said, grinning now, “you guys ought to know you can’t screw with the FBI.”
›› Parking Lot
›› Hawthorne Machine Shop
›› 0824 Hours
“Let me translate the big words for you, Commander Coburn, Chief Tarlton,” Special Agent-in-Charge Urlacher growled. “You can not usurp control of my informant. He’s under my protection. More than that, he’s under the protection of Judge Terri Watson. You have no right to arrest him.”
Tarlton leaned against the police car and eyed the FBI agent with grave distaste. “Actually, I have every right to arrest your informant. He’s been interfering with an ongoing homicide investigation.”
“He went to say good-bye to his son.” Urlacher looked apoplectic.
“Then,” Tarlton said evenly, “we agree that he broke and entered.”
“Even if he did,” Urlacher said, “here’s his get-out-of-jail-free card.” The FBI agent waved the injunction that prevented the detainment of Victor Gant.
Will wasn’t happy. He stood at the rear of the police vehicle where the motorcycle leader had been stashed. On the other side of the parking lot, Remy worked with EMTs to stabilize the woman the sheriff’s deputy had shot.
“Give Gant to me,” Urlacher stated in a harsh voice, “or you’re going to be in contempt of Judge Watson’s court.”
Since Judge Watson presided over a federal court in Washington, D.C., Will knew that Tarlton-and he-could be buried in a mountain of red tape and possibly face criminal charges.
Still, Tarlton didn’t seem to be impressed. He leaned a hip against the car and smiled. “You know, Will, I’ve had a lot of people threaten me during the time I’ve been chief here. You probably have too.”
“I have,” Will agreed. He didn’t always play nice with people outside the military’s rank and file either. The military was a different matter, though. Everything had a chain of command, and that was obeyed first.
“You ever been threatened by the FBI?” Tarlton looked as though he was really interested in the answer to his question.
“Not threatened, exactly.”
“They threw the big intimidation cloud, didn’t they?”
“Pretty much.”
“Offered interdepartmental assistance, then hosed you the first chance they got and got all offensive when you called them on it.”
Urlacher turned redder.
Despite the situation, Will found he was taking a perverse satisfaction at digging his heels in. He wasn’t going to let Tarlton swing by himself if things went south.
“That sums it up,” Will agreed.