It tore him apart inside to watch the hit man disappear. Uncatchable. Untraceable. At least for tonight. Calvin took small comfort in having twice eluded the hit man and some pride in keeping their deadly match even, for now. The impasse was short-lived.
The only difference in the two men’s ideas was that Calvin didn’t want the man dead. He needed answers.
But this was a true pro and he’d had years of practice. Calvin would be killed and Rachel too if he didn’t think of something very clever, very soon.
He got back to his fortress tired, his knee swollen and aching, but he appreciated that his years of hard work staying physically fit had saved his life tonight. He had endured hunting and being hunted and knew that he had given his assassin an impressive battle.
He used the special knock and Rachel opened the door. Her eyes were red and swollen.
“What happened?” He rushed inside and locked the door behind him.
Rachel turned without saying a word and walked into the next room. Calvin could hear her quiet sobs as she distanced herself. He hobbled after her and spun her around.
“Rachel, what is it? What’s wrong?”
She held a Kleenex to her nose and mouth and choked out words through the sniffling and sobs. “I didn’t know if you were coming back.”
Calvin’s shoulders relaxed and he let out a breath. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed.
Rachel shoved him away. “Don’t, Calvin. You can’t just leave like that without telling me where you’re going. I was worried. I was scared.”
He could see this wasn’t the same woman who had snuck out to talk with her friends just last night. With each minute that passed, with them trapped in this hideout, with each news report about another murder and now the face of a man who was stalking their house, this situation became real and Rachel was finally seeing the big picture. This was serious.
He didn’t know what to say. A slight smile crossed his face.
“This isn’t funny, Calvin.”
Again she turned and walked away, entering their sleeping quarters.
He chased her. “I know. I’m sorry. I’ve just never seen you worried about me before. It kind of feels good.”
Without a word, she sat down on the edge of the cot, staring into dead air. He sat down beside her and again put his arms around her. He could feel her rapid heartbeat pounding against his body. She didn’t push away this time. Instead, she nestled her head against his chest.
“I’m scared.”
“I know, baby. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“But what if something happens to you? What will I do?”
“That won’t happen.”
She stood up. “You can’t guarantee that.”
He got up too. “Nothing is a guarantee in life, Rachel. But you have to trust me.”
“You know I trust you, Calvin. We have a history. We share secrets—secrets that could someday haunt us. I don’t like the violence in your life. I’ve seen too much of it. But I’ve seen the good in you and I want to help you change. You promised our lives would change.”
“I did make that promise and I intend on keeping it, Rachel. We just have to get through this together. We have to stick together.”
He smiled at her and she returned it. He hugged her and kissed her gently on the lips.
“Now let’s go see what we’re up against.”
She followed behind as he went to his computer to scan the surveillance camera monitors for details of the killer’s face, body type and style of movement. He cross-referenced the pictures against a database of assassins. When nothing came up, Calvin sat back in frustration.
“Is that the man after us?” She pointed at the screen.
He nodded.
Calvin zoomed in on the suspect. The man wore pants and a long shirt, with no distinguishing features visible. Calvin back-tracked the footage and watched the thirty-second clip from the beginning.
From what he’d seen, his opponent was skilled in tactics and an expert in pursuit, surveillance and evasion. Calvin knew such skills were acquired in the elite military, specifically the Marines or maybe Special Forces.
Add that in with the bomb skills and the tracking ability and Calvin came to a scary conclusion. This guy was trained by the best. Calvin could use that particular training against him. Time for some very serious, highest-level hacking.
He hacked a military database, but after the second layer of protection, he was shut out.
He had a hunch. He called Mike and asked him to hack the Marine Sniper School records. Then he emailed Mike the photos from the surveillance cameras taken today.
Less than two hours later Calvin received an e-mail from Mike. The attached document was a full file on the killer. A high-ranking NCO sniper gone bad named Baxter had been charged with a mob hit, but not convicted. That was who was after him. Now Calvin and Rachel were pinned down for sure. Baxter would have his rifle and scope on the building within hours.
Mike wrote two words in the body of the email. “Fuck me.”
At midnight, Ace was still at the Golden Horseshoe office, a rare event, but he was going nuts. His perfect plan was showing signs of weakness. The assassin wasn’t late calling in, but Ace was on edge all the same.
At his last check-in, Scott said he had found Watters and that the job would be done without delay. But that was four hours ago and Ace’s sources at the police hadn’t heard anything.
The phone rang.
“You better have some good news.”
“Afraid not, boss.”
The hit man told him he had played cat and mouse with Watters for a half-hour. Ace listened, his head throbbing harder, as his overpaid hit man recounted his failed attempt.
He had had enough. These failures had gone on too long. But before he could tell Scott that, the hit man said, “I have an idea.”
“Forget it. I’m pulling you off. I’ll find someone else, someone more reliable. You will never work in this country again.”
“No, don’t. Now I know where Watters is and I’ve scoped the area.”
“How did you find him,” Ace demanded to know.
“One of Watters’ clients held a grudge. After his run-in with Watters, he’d followed the collector for days until he’d found the location.”
Ace nodded.
“Tomorrow is the end. And you’d need a day at least to bring someone new in. So what do you have to lose?”
Everything, Ace thought. He didn’t like it, but the assassin was right. He needed Watters eliminated now.
“Call when it’s done.”
Chapter 35
It was early Saturday morning and Dale sat at his desk.
His group was busy living and breathing the investigation, reviewing crime scene photos, witness interviews, 911 calls and forensic, ballistic and post-mortem reports. This case had everyone on edge. The longer it went unsolved, the more challenging it would be to find the real killer or killers. Dale was still not sure if the killers were working together in some way, but it was a very real possibility, given that one killer had killed Watters’ boss and another or the same one was trying to kill Watters.
His head ached from frustration and his eyes burned from fatigue. He knew that basically they still had nothing solid. He hadn’t expected that after the three perfect murders, there’d be one more and that the second killer had also left no evidence at all.
Feeling desperate, he pulled the most powerful magnifying glass out of a drawer and used it to study the pictures from the four murders.
Watters had some answers. But he was still not located after three days of searching.
Jimmy, who was usually upbeat, looked grim. He ambled across the room and slumped down in a seat. Loosening his tie, he removed his outer jacket, unfastened his shoulder holster and flung it over the back of the chair.