Deadly Chase - Chapter 17

Brady stopped short and raised his hands to show he had holstered his weapon. “You’re a good man, Peter. We can work things out,” Brady said.

“How? I shot at him. Ran them off the road. You going to forget that?” Jensen yelled, but the barrel of the rifle dipped slightly lower.

“You know me, Peter. You know you can trust me, and I promise we will work things out,” Miriam said, took a step toward the man and Lily moved with her, ready to respond. “Please put the gun down. Your son wouldn’t want you to do this.”

At the mention of his son, the man’s body abruptly went limp. He let the rifle drop to the wooden porch and slowly raised his hands in surrender. His wife rushed out of the house and ran over to wrap her arms around her husband, tears flowing down her face.

Miriam, Brady and their K-9s rushed forward to secure the weapon and handcuff Jensen. Alex hung back, worried his presence would reescalate the situation. He was right. As soon as Jensen neared him, he started struggling against Brady and Miriam’s restraint and shouted, “You should be dead, too. Dead like my son. An eye for an eye.”

“I’m sorry for what my father did, but I had nothing to do with it,” he said, finally believing that for the first time in his life.

At that, Jensen quieted, and Brady tucked him into his cruiser. His wife, Alice, jumped into an old sedan and followed them as Brady drove away.

Miriam walked over, Lily at her side. “Are you okay?”

“I am now that you’re out of danger. You did a risky thing,” he said and cupped her cheek.

“We had to de-escalate the situation. Jensen knows me well. I had to take the chance he would trust me.”

It had been the right decision, but he’d still felt his gut twist with fear when she did it. “You’re an amazing woman,” he said, grateful that Fate had brought them together again.

Bright color flooded her cheeks. “Thanks. But this Jensen thing unfortunately leaves us at ground zero again.”

“It does. Which means we have to focus on our original suspects, Tashya and Tommy.”

“Tashya and I lived together for years. She always did everything by the book. We all did thanks to Emma and her support.” Miriam walked to the cruiser, tucked Lily into the back, and slipped into the driver’s seat.

Alex joined her in the car. “So that leaves Tommy.”

With a reluctant dip of her head, she said, “For now.”

“He’s not on your list?” Alex asked as Miriam drove to the police station.

“You’re familiar with Gonzo and his program. He believed in Tommy enough to send him to Emma,” Miriam said, shooting him a glance from the corner of her eye.

Gonzo is a good judge of character, Alex thought. But if Miriam was right about both Tashya and Tommy, it left them no closer to finding out who was running the drug ring.

As Miriam drove, Alex ran through everything else they had, which wasn’t much. No DNA evidence yet. No fingerprint match. No suspects.

How much worse could this case get? he wondered, but a second later his phone rang.

Gonzo.

He immediately answered. “You heading home to Boise?”

“Still in Jasper. Tommy is with me. We’ll meet you at the station.”