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“Excellent. How did Rick seem?”
“Okay,” Val said. “He’s scared, as he should be. Knows what he did was wrong. He did say that he’s known for a year that Dewey and Aaron were selling drugs together, so we have confirmation that Aaron is part of Sixth Day and not just a client. Rick also said that Bobby shot him up on purpose.”
Burke sighed. “At least we have a few more pieces of the puzzle. You okay, Jace?”
Jace exhaled. “Yes, sir. I just... I hated leaving him there.”
“I know,” Burke said gently, “but Rick did do it. There will be consequences, but we’ll do our best to make sure his treatment is fair.”
“Mr.Cardozo won’t like that,” Jace said, feeling torn in two. Rick had done something awful. And he tricked me into helping him. “He’s mad and he has a right to be. He’ll want Rick to have a long sentence. He’ll want him to suffer for what he did. But... he’s my brother.”
Burke sighed. “I think Mr.Cardozo wants justice done. If the information that your brother gave us proves helpful, then that tilts the scales of justice in your brother’s favor.”
Jace closed his eyes because they burned and he didn’t want to cry. “I don’t... I don’t know what that means.”
Mr.Cardozo’s voice was a jolt of surprise. He hadn’t known that he was with Burke. That he sounded as gentle as Burke was an even bigger shock. “It means that your brother will almost certainly do time, but his sentence might be reduced since he’s cooperating. And it means that we’ll try to keep him safe while he serves his time. That’s the best that I can do.”
That’s more than I have a right to ask for. Tears spilled down his cheeks. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Mr.Cardozo said gently. “Val, Burke and I just got dropped off at my car by the flatbed truck driver. We’ll meet you back at my house.”
Lake Cataouatche, Louisiana
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 3:00 P.M.
Corey had slept for almost five hours, but it hadn’t been enough. He still felt thickheaded, and listening to Ed and Bobby bicker was not helping. He needed some quiet to think.
Ed was shaking his head. “This is insane. Why would we go after Jace ourselves if we’ve been paying off cops for three years? Let one of them put a bullet in his head.”
“Because we want to kill him ourselves,” Bobby said, taking a bite of one of the granola bars Ed had brought from the old camp. “Duh.”
Ed’s head fell back and he stared up at the cheap fiberglass-tiled ceiling of the camp’s main room. “Please tell me that you’re not going to do this yourself, Corey. It’s too dangerous.”
Corey sighed. Ed had a point, but then, so did Bobby. Bobby’s buddy on the force had already come through with the location of the safe house where Jace was being kept, and Corey really wanted to be the one to grab his youngest brother. Jace had caused him one helluva lot of trouble. He wanted to see Jace die. “How many cops do they have guarding him, B?”
“One,” Bobby said. “Where’s the danger in that? It’ll be a piece of cake.”
“Famous last words,” Ed muttered. “Dammit, Corey, what if this safe house is a trap? What if they’ve got a dozen cops waiting for you? You’ll be in jail with Aaron.”
Bobby shrugged. “We’ll shoot ’em up.”
Ed rolled his eyes. “That’s your grand plan?”
Corey’s pocket buzzed, distracting him from the arguing. He pulled out his two cell phones—the one he used for Three Vets and the current burner he used for Doyle—and saw that it was an incoming call to his Three Vets number. The caller had tried several times already, he noted with a wince. Actually, he’d missed a dozen calls, all from an unknown number. Not the number that cop—Officer Nolan—had called from last night.
Dammit. He’d meant to call that cop back after last night’s meeting, but Jace’s disappearance had sent everything to hell. “Shut up, you two. This might be that cop calling to tell me that Rick is dead. I forgot to call back last night.”
Ed’s lips pursed in more disapproval. “You forgot?”
“I said, shut up,” Corey hissed, then drew a breath and answered. “Hello?”
“Mr.Gates?”
“This is he.”
“Mr.Gates, this is Dr.Hubble from County General.”
Corey recognized the name from when he’d worked as a security guard at the hospital. Shitty days. “Yes?”
