was shot?”
“I wouldn’t be counting on him for the next shift. They took him to Ben Taub but he looked like he was already gone.”
Grady held back a flinch. Most of the patients who were sent to the trauma hospital were so bad the docs swore they brought the dead back to life more often than they healed the sick.
“Where’s the partner?”
“EMS guys took her, too.”
“She was hurt?” Grady’s voice held surprise. Stan had said nothing about this.
Andrews lifted his hand and drew a line down his cheek. “Just a graze. Didn’t look too bad but you know the medics. She tried to stay then finally gave in.” He tilted his head toward the blue-covered mound behind them. “That’s Juan Doe, número uno over there. Número dos went to Taub with the rest of the party, but I think he’s had his last enchilada.”
Andrews continued his explanation and Grady listened, his eyes going to the other side of the parking lot, where support guys had begun to crawl between the cars and underneath the bushes. Every once in a while, they’d stop, open a baggie and drop something inside.
“Any questions?” Andrews finished.
“Not for now.” Grady always let the lieutenants talk, but he got his real information from the officers and the scene itself. “I’ll be in touch, though.”
Andrews nodded with a dour expression. “I’m sure you will.”
Grady wandered for another half hour, talking to the uniforms and letting the details register. He was just about to leave for the hospital when he overheard two of the techs. They’d been crisscrossing the parking lot, looking at the cars and trees.
“Even I coulda hit something,” one of them said, shaking his head. “That many shots fired? These guys musta been blind.”
Grady stopped. He knew a lot of the crime-scene technicians, and for the most part, they were friendlier to him than the officers. “What’s up?”
They looked up and greeted him. “No slugs,” the nearest one explained. “I don’t know what these guys were smoking, but they musta been shooting into the sky.” He held up his baggies. “Plenty of shells, but no slugs yet.”
“Keep looking, gentlemen. I’m sure you’ll do your best for the glory of HPD.”
They grinned and returned to their search as Grady headed for his car. The techs always said they couldn’t find the slugs, but sooner or later they located them. Lodged in telephone poles or buildings, tires or pavement, the spent bullets hid themselves well. Once, the day after a shooting, they’d had a guy bring a motorcycle into the station. Without even realizing it, he’d driven by a holdup in progress and caught a slug in his tire. When he’d heard the news that night, he figured out why he’d gotten a flat.
Back on the Southwest Freeway, Grady headed for the medical center.
AGAINST THE WISHES of her father and her three brothers, who followed him in everything, Risa had attended the Houston Police Academy at twenty-one, the first year she’d become eligible. The rivalry, or maybe it was animosity, between her and her siblings was nothing new—they would have disapproved of anything she did short of becoming a nun—but her father’s reaction had stung. Somehow, deep down, Risa had always thought that if she followed in his footsteps he might finally give her the same kind of attention he’d lavished on her brothers.
She’d been wrong.
When she’d told him she’d been accepted, Ed Taylor had frowned and muttered something about regret, then he’d disappeared into the garage of his aging home in Meyerland where Risa had grown up. She’d started after him, then she’d spit out, “What the hell,” and had left, understanding, better than ever, how her mother must have felt when she left him. If you didn’t see the world the same way Ed Taylor saw it, you were worthless to him. No wonder her mother had hit the road and never looked back. Risa got a Christmas card from her yearly and that was it. The lack of communication had hurt until she’d finally understood.
After she began her classes, the ache eased even more. Time had something to do with it, but more significantly, she made friends. She’d never been very good at that—and she still wasn’t—but the five women she’d met during the six-month course were different from any she’d ever known.
Except for one, they surrounded her now, their faces etched with concern as she sat on the table in the emergency-room cubicle. Hearing the officer-down call and recognizing Risa’s partner’s name, they’d come in from every side of town. Risa was incredibly grateful for their company and support. If she’d been the kind of woman who let herself say so, she would have broken down and told them what they meant to her.
Abby Carlton stood the closest, her hand warm on Risa’s back as she patted her shoulder in a comforting way. At twenty-nine, she was nearest in age to Risa’s twenty-seven, but she was the “mother” of the group. In a heartrending decision, she’d dropped out of the Academy to follow the love of her life, but things hadn’t worked out. She’d returned to Houston a year later to complete her classes, ending up in patrol and doing extra duty on the Crisis Intervention Team. Her warm eyes were filled with sympathy and pain, not just for Risa’s injury, which was minor, but for everything that had happened in the past few hours.
Crista Santiago stood on the other side, fiercely gripping Risa’s left hand. A Latina from the east side, Crista was thirty-three. She’d had a difficult time growing up in Houston’s barrios, but she’d risen above her former life and come out a survivor. A detective, she was tough…and gorgeous. She swung her dark hair away from her face as she leaned closer.
“Everything will be okay, chica.” As if her words could make it so, Crista spoke with confidence. The only hint she was upset was the Spanish that slipped out apparently before she could stop it. “Thank God, you got the sorry cabrones who did this…”
Risa squeezed Crista’s hand in acknowledgment then dropped it as Lucy Montalvo spoke from the foot of the gurney. “You got them both?”
Lucy was in the Missing Persons Unit of the Investigations Command. She was single-minded and ambitious and she’d made her way up the department just like Risa had—by working hard and being determined. Neither of them had a lot of free time to do things together, but out of all the women, Risa felt closest to Lucy. For good or for bad, they each valued their careers more than anything else in their lives.
Risa nodded.
“That’s some kind of shootin’. Those hours at the range finally paid off.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” she answered quietly. “When Luke came around the corner, they opened up.”
“You did what you had to, Risa.” Mei Lu Ling spoke from the other side of the room. Leaning against the wall, her thin form dressed in black, she looked every inch the successful businesswoman she’d once been. She was a valuable member of the White-collar Crimes Unit, putting that experience to good use. She’d be a lieutenant by this time next year, Risa guessed. Even-tempered and measured in her ways, Mei Lu offered sound advice now. “Don’t look back. You did what you had to.”
“I know,” Risa lied. “But it all happened so fast and then boom! It was over, just like that. Luke was bleeding and I told him to hang on and he said he would, then…” She
