Today’s
excerpt is from Pool Of Blood, Book #3 of the Becker Trilogy. Would-be assassin thwarted again. Enjoy and have a wonderful day.
m.j.
While Michelle
had been in the judge’s chambers—after the short time it took her to take care
of the case that had brought her to the courthouse—much had happened. Both Gus and Bob were looking over the area
in front of the courthouse from high windows, facing the very direction Newton
and Morsi were placed. Bob had been
concentrating on any windows where a sniper might set up shop, while Gus was
more concerned with ground-level sites.
Gus noticed the
white panel truck some distance away and nudged Bob. “Could you make the shot from that white
truck?”
Bob looked where
Gus was pointing and nodded.
“Sure…easy. Easy from twice the
distance.”
“Think I should
have one of my guys check it out?”
“Yeah, but tell
him to go with caution. Might get a
couple of other guys headed in the same direction at the same time. Those FBIs down there wandering around
friends of yours?”
“Yeah. Got some plain clothes county boys, too. We’re all on the same frequency.”
“Then I’d have a
couple of the plain clothes guys headed in the same direction, rather than
uniforms.”
“Just what I was
thinking. You might make a good cop—oh,
never mind…not the way you handle things.
We’d have shootings all over the streets of St. Charles.”
“Is that a nice
way to talk? I would never do any such
thing.”
“Oh, no. Let’s see—my front yard; your driveway…”
“Just get your
guys on the way to the panel truck.”
Gus laughed and
did as asked. It might have worked,
except the uniformed officer standing in front of the courthouse, of course,
heard when Gus told the officer nearest the truck to go check it out and asked
two of the St. Charles County detectives in plain clothes to head in the same
direction. Hearing those orders, the
policeman in front of the courthouse looked at the uniformed officer and
pointed at the truck.
Newton saw
this. Then saw a uniformed policeman and
two other men change direction, to slowly walk toward the truck. “Mahdi, get the hell outta here—now. I think
they’re on to us.”
Morsi didn’t
need to be told twice. In seconds he had
the truck started and pulling into traffic.
Bob glanced over
at Gus. “Well, if that was him, he’s
sharp. Guess we should keep checking
things over, until Michelle gets here.”
“I could send a
posse after him.”
“Good thinking,
Tex. Then what? Let’s say your men trap him. He gets out and blasts away, killing a couple
of our pals on the force…and maybe even gets away. Talk about shooting on the streets, you might
get it. Let him go for now. This jerk is lethal. Also, with his history, he’s got a good
escape plan in place, so they probably wouldn’t catch him anyhow.”
“You know
something I don’t, don’t you?”
“I know a lot
you don’t know, gumshoe.”
“Oh, that was
cute. Give. What do you know?”
“I know who he
is, and I know who is behind this…and have a pretty good idea why. All obtained illegally. You want more?”
“You rat. How long have you known who he is?”
“Since the day
or so after his first try. Look, Gus, my
friend Jim has all sorts of resources not available to you. Not the least of which is a computer you
wouldn’t believe. It’s better than
anything the FBI, or even the CIA has.
He also has experience dealing with this type of asshole—way more than I
do. Let us handle it. We’ll get him for you…us. Just don’t go all cop on me and demand
information I’m not gonna give you.”
Gus smiled. “I oughta run you in on general principles,
but you probably know a higher ranking general.
Now what? What do you want me to do?”
“Help me get
Michelle away from here safely. Speaking
of whom, I wonder where in the hell she’s at.
Her deal in court should have been over long ago. She did have one more little thing to attend
to, but it shouldn’t have taken this
long.”
Gus
pointed. “Speaking of the devil.”
Bob turned to
see Michelle walking their way. He went
to meet her, kissed her, and asked, “You ready to head for the barn?”
“Sure—if you
don’t want to take me to a late lunch.”
“Why not? You comin’ along, Gus?”
“Who’s buying?”
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