"I really thought I was going to find you dead this time. Are you bleeding?" he asked, his eyes widening as if he'd never seen blood before.
"It's barely a scratch," said Solomon.
Garrett's jaw stiffened. "It doesn't look like a scratch. Your hand is covered in blood. She's been shot! "
"I'm okay, really," I told him. "It's a flesh wound. Stop worrying. The victim here is Juliet."
"I was told someone else got shot too." He narrowed his eyes. "Did you do it?"
"No. My gun..." I felt my waistband as my face paled. It took minutes before I realized its absence, and in the shock of learning I'd been shot, I'd totally forgotten. "Oh shit! Solomon, my gun is gone!"
The room stilled. "What?" said Solomon.
"It went off when we struggled then... I don't know... the gun went off and she hit me and stunned me. Then she took off across the yard and I started to run after her, and that's when I heard the second shot..." I dropped my face into my hands. Reality dawned on me with cruel consequences. Penelope was shot with my weapon and now my gun was gone. Unless it had been dumped, the assailant still had it. I felt sick.
"Damn it, Lexi!" yelled more than one man.
"Fletch, go look for the gun. See if it got dumped anywhere nearby," ordered Solomon.
"Take a uniform with you," added Garrett, yelling to an officer. "Lexi, I'm going to need to take a statement from you. You've got all the paperwork for the gun?"
"Yes, I can get you everything."
"And your carry license is up-to-date?"
"Yes."
"You should be okay. Let's hope they dumped it somewhere where it doesn't find its way into even worse hands."
"How much worse could it get?" I asked.
"You mean how much worse than having your gun being used to shoot you and someone else? Oh, much worse!" yelled Garrett. "Aww, crap! Look who just turned up! It's Donahue. Stay put, Lexi. I'll be back."
"That seemed to go okay," I told Solomon once my brother stomped from the room. "I don't think he's too mad."
Solomon smiled. "He's just worried, not mad."
"You're not mad?" That concept was almost worrying. I expected Solomon to be livid at my stupid mistake.
"No, but I am worried."
"John Solomon, worried?"
"Wouldn't you be worried if I got shot?"
I nodded. I wouldn't just have been worried, I would have been paralyzed with fear and shock if that ever happened. Fortunately for Solomon, luck seemed to be on his side. I couldn't say the same for me, however. Then again, the bullet didn't hit anything vital, so maybe I was lucky. As I was about to tell Solomon to never, ever get shot, I saw a uniform lurking in the kitchen doorway at the same time as he spotted me.
"Ma'am I need to take your fingerprints and do the swabs from under your nails," he said, stepping in.
"Sure," I said, holding them out.
"I need to check for gunshot residue too," he added.
"You'll definitely find that."
Solomon stepped behind me, giving the uniform space to work as he scraped under my nails and swabbed my hands before asking me to press my fingers onto an ink pad and then a card.
"Should I get an EMT to come look at you?" he asked.
"No, I'm fine, thank you. Is there any news on Penelope Cera?"
"And that is?" the uniform asked as he bagged the evidence.
"The other woman who was shot."
"In the alley? Not yet. Lieutenant Graves said he'll come over to take your statement in a few minutes. He's just finishing up with the owner of the house."
I thanked him again and he nodded at me, then at Solomon before leaving, carrying his little forensic packages with him. "What happens now?" I asked. "And where's Maddox?"
"He walked Garrett through his entrance into the house, and now he's helping the uniforms dust for anything the assailant might have touched."
"Did they find the ax?" I asked, remembering Juliet.
"Embedded in the bathroom door."
I shuddered. "Wow."
"It was embedded so hard, it cracked the door. I suppose it got stuck right as you and Maddox disturbed them."
"Lucky timing. What if she still has my gun?" I asked. "If she went after Juliet at night with an ax, what might she do with a gun?" When Solomon didn't say anything, I asked, "How's Juliet?"
"I'm fine," said a voice from the doorway. "I've had better nights, but I'm fine. Rob will be home in a few minutes, and I have to tell him about all this. I can't help thinking how relieved I am that Robbie didn't stay over, and glad that Penelope said it was a bad idea. What if I hadn't listened to her?"
"It's a good thing you did," I said.
"What happened to Penelope? I heard someone say she was hurt; and I just spoke to Lieutenant Graves and Agent Maddox. No one will tell me anything."
"She was coming to visit and taking a shortcut. Your attacker escaped from the house and ran out across the garden and climbed over the fence and surprised her. She was shot," I told her.
Juliet's hand flew to her mouth. "Is she...? Is..."
"She's fine," said Solomon. "She has a superficial gunshot wound to her leg, but nothing life-threatening."
"And you? Lexi, you're bleeding."
"I was shot in the scuffle. It's nothing, it's healing already," I insisted, feeling a wave of dizziness cresting inside me. "Really, absolutely noth..." I slid off the stool, planting both feet on the ground. The ground suddenly wobbled and gave way. Solomon caught me as I fell.
Chapter Seventeen
"I don't know where to start." Solomon and I were sitting on my couch. I was wearing my pajamas, printed with bumblebees. He had on black jeans, a black shirt and smelled delicious. I, however, was recovering from a GSW that landed me a fast trip through the emergency room and then home to bed. Solomon was lucky I decided to get up at all. In honor of my injury, Solomon kindly turned my living room into our command center.
"Let's start with last night," he said. "All the security lights were unscrewed at the rear of the house; and given that my surveillance didn't see anyone enter by the front, we can be sure the intruder entered from the rear."
I picked up an invisible notepad and invisible pen, pretending to write as I said, "Note to self, add surveillance to rear. Hey, why didn't you do that in the first place?"
"My guy who walked the perimeter assumed the rear was inaccessible. Plus, like I explained before, we were only ensuring Juliet stayed put, not looking for assailants."
"Duh. And what happened to the security cameras and the alarms?"
"Another screw-up. Juliet swears she activated the alarm when everyone left, but it wasn't in operation when I checked, so it was either not activated, or disabled. As for the cameras... we don't know for certain yet. My guy says they went down too, and he was coming over to check when he saw all the commotion."
"Total disaster," I concluded.
"Not a total disaster. You and Penelope got a look at the intruder."
"But our accounts differ. Penelope thinks it's a man; and I'm positive it's a woman."
"She said it was a man when I interviewed her at the hospital this morning, and she said the same thing to Garrett. I have Lucas scanning traffic camera footage in the area to see if there was any unusual activity. We might pick up a speeding car heading away from Juliet's house."