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“I thought it was kind of intimate, private jokey.” Olivia slid into her heels, grabbed her bag, and headed out the door to court. “But no, it’s got to be everyone and every day. And he just smiled and acted like I was a clever girl.”
“‘Cause you are. And you’re tired,” Jaylen said sympathetically. “You’ve had motorcycles.”
Olivia’s phone vibrated.
“Yeah, and I have Steph ringing in. Let me grab that. I’ll call you later. Love you.”
Fobbing her car unlocked, Olivia climbed in as she swiped the call with her boss. “Hey, Steph. Good morning.” She slammed the door shut and quickly locked it.
“Good morning. Heading to court?”
“I am.” Olivia pressed the button, and her engine hummed. She’d be driving on four safe wheels, thanks to Nutsbe. It had been considerate of him to step in and handle it. That wasn’t something Olivia had experienced with a man before, generosity of time and skill. She kind of liked it.
“So I’m calling with bad news,” Steph said.
Olivia stalled, her heart racing. She said on an exhale, “Crap. Is it?”
“They found his body. The police are, of course, treating it like a crime scene. I’ll get an autopsy report when it's completed. Reminder, you’re on a cellphone.”
“I’ll be careful And also, crap! Crap! Crap!” Olivia banged her fist on the steering wheel. “To be clear, this is—was the person who hasn’t attended our appointments these last few days?”
“I’m sorry, yes.”
“Okay. Well, that’s horrific.” Beyond that, Olivia didn’t have time to process. She had to put her emotions on a shelf until later. Right now, Candace needed her to focus on keeping Offsed in jail. Putting her car in reverse, Olivia asked, “Are the others okay?”
“I checked on them this morning. They’re scared and regretful that they’re cooperating.”
“But it was cooperate or go to prison until they were decrepit old men. This is the find-out stage of FAFO.” Olivia shifted to drive and started down the road before she remembered her to-go cup of coffee on the table next to her breakfast burrito. She could really use the boost of caffeine. Too late now. “Do you think they need to be in protective custody? Do you think we need them in the witness protection program?”
“Very good questions. I’d like to talk to you about that when you’re in the office, and we can be specific.” Steph paused and then changed her tone from business to personal. “So what’s going on? You sound nervous.”
“I’m off balance from the string of violent events. I was in the parking lot when the sniper shot Judge Greenway.”
“Are you kidding me, Olivia? Yu were there? I assumed you were in court during all that. Are you okay?”
“Scraped knees from when the court support dog team dragged me to the ground. They probably saved my life, Steph.” Olivia stopped and blinked. Yeah, they almost certainly saved my life. Whew! That’s a lot to take in. Olivia cleared her throat. “And then, on the way to the Iniquus Security campus, our car was ambushed. Nutsbe, that’s the dog handler, was like a movie stunt guy, getting us through that. It was a scene straight out of Hollywood.”
“Ambushed?” Steph’s voice sounded lost.
“The police say it’s a new carjacking tactic where they stop in the middle of the underpass and pull guns on the driver.”
“Guns, Olivia?” Steph exhaled. “Again? Same day?”
“Same hour. We went from one crime scene straight into the next. The police arrived within a few minutes of our escape. They found the attacker's abandoned car, making a traffic jam. That car was undrivable—Nutsbe ripped their doors off when he got us out of there. The five criminals got away. The police said the car they were using had been carjacked earlier in the day. That victim is in the hospital with a gunshot wound to the hand. They’ll recover. It’s probably on the news or in the papers.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“The police towed the other car back to headquarters for their CSI to go over,” Olivia added. “Hopefully, that will come up with fingerprints to identify the crew, and they can be found and taken off the streets before they teach others this tactic.”
“How do you know all this?” Steph asked. “I’m on the Internet, and the story isn’t readily found.”
“I was at Iniquus Headquarters to answer some questions about the sniper. It seems their organization has contacts everywhere. Nutsbe was working the phones and then shared what he found out.”
“Wait, you were on the grounds of the secretive Iniquus Security Headquarters?” Steph said with a bit of excitement, a bit of jealousy, and a bit of curiosity in her voice. “Who gets to see that? No one. What was it like?”
“Interesting. The exterior is very country club, with southern charm. Inside, it’s modern, with clean lines and no clutter. There’s a solid hum of good guys doing good things—that’s the best I can do right now to describe it. Anyway, the Alexandria detectives said that this attack fits a known M.O.”
“You’ve said that twice. Did you think that someone was coming after you?”