Again with the drama.
Shane would have rolled his eyes, but the fear coating the guy’s voice sent all Shane’s internal alarms off as he followed. “Why couldn’t we meet at my office?”
The kid looked around them again. “Because I think I’m being followed.”
“Stalker?”
“Just walk with me.” He went up a few cracked concrete steps and started striding across the sandy field like he expected Shane to keep step. He passed the baseball area and kept going.
For a kid who wanted secrecy, walking across a huge, open stretch of dying grass made absolutely no sense, but he was young and amusingly dramatic, so Shane followed, not bothering to hurry to catch up. It didn’t take the boy long to realize he’d left him behind. He stopped and waited for Shane.
“Listen,” he said. “I called you because we’re in the same cycling club.”
“We are?” He’d never noticed him. Granted, it was a large group, and people picked and chose which outings they attended.
He nodded. “You seem nice. I asked around and found out you were part owner of a private investigation company. I really need you to help me find my mother.”
He hadn’t expected that to come out of the kid’s mouth. “When did you see her last?”
“It’s been months and it’s not like her to just disappear. Nobody at her job has seen her and she hasn’t been home.” He hugged his arms tighter around his waist.
Something was really off here. “Why the hell all this secrecy? And why wouldn’t you go to the cops?”
“Because I’ve seen the same car behind me four times in the last week.”
“You need to report a stalker to the cops.”
“No, this is about my mom. I know it. She—”
A few birds squawked loudly in the woods behind him, so when the shot rang out, Shane didn’t realize what it was at first.
Not until he understood the sudden warmth landing on his cheeks was blood splatter.
A look of shock crossed the kid’s face; then it went slack. His knees crumpled, his body falling. Shane grabbed him before he could hit the ground. Another shot rang out and Shane dropped, covering the boy’s body with his own. His heart pounding in his ears, he slowly reached down to pull up the leg of his jeans. He felt better with the gun in his hand, but that feeling disappeared when he saw the lack of life in the kid’s eyes. Throat tightening, he lay there, indecision paralyzing him. He couldn’t stand to just leave the kid’s body.
More shots kicked up the dirt around him, stealing his choice. He had to move. There was no helping Jacopo now. He jumped up and fired back in the general direction of the shooter as he ran to the playground in the corner of the field. He ducked and knelt behind a slide with tunnels at the top. The plastic was thick, but not strong enough to stop a bullet, so he stretched out on the ground and tried to see where the shots were coming from.
Only, no more came. Everything was still. “Shit. Shit. Shit.” He gritted his teeth and pulled out his phone. He was close to a neighborhood, so more than likely the cops had already been called. Hands shaking, it took him three tries to dial Hollis Banner, his friend and only employee—one who’d been a cop until recently.
“What’s wrong?” Hollis answered. “Need to ditch your date? I didn’t figure you’d need help in that department.”
“Hollis,” he hissed into the phone. “Listen to me. I’m in a baseball field near Florence Avenue and Boone Street. You know it?”
“Yeah.” The lazy humor was gone. Like Shane, Hollis paid attention to everything—his awareness of every detail and his ability to ferret out information had been the reason Shane had shuffled things around to hire him over a couple of cheaper employees. As he had expected, Hollis picked up on the seriousness of his situation immediately. “You in trouble?”
Shane kept staring, then thought of the woods now on his left. A tall, chain link fence would keep whoever was firing from coming onto the field, but it sure as hell wouldn’t stop a bullet. The fear that ripped through his gut nauseated him. He hadn’t been in any kind of situation like this before. “Stay on the phone with me. I’m gonna run before he shoots again.”
“Shoots? What the fuck, Stephens?” Hollis was yelling now. “Your date is shooting at you?”
That thought would have cracked him up if he hadn’t been so damn scared. “Date was postponed.” He skirted across a short street and turned right onto Monroe. He ran down the dark road, wishing the kid had picked a spot with more lit areas like a goddamn grocery store. Why couldn’t they have met at one of the new mega Krogers? Grabbed a sandwich and wandered the aisles in bright fluorescent lights? No one would have looked twice at them and they’d both be alive.