Say Goodbye (Romantic Suspense #25) by Karen Rose

            “It fits,” Rodriguez said. “I’ll report it to my boss. Do I need to tell Agent Hunter?”

            Or will you?

            Liza shrugged. “You can call him, or wait until he gets here.” Although she knew she’d be contacting Tom. She was weak when it came to Tom Hunter. “He’ll be here soon enough. He’ll be worried about Mercy and Abigail.”

            “And you,” Mercy said meaningfully. “He’ll be worried about you.”

            Sure, Liza thought bitterly. Because I’m his friend. She forced a smile. “And me.”

            Agent Rodriguez started to say something, then shook his head. “I think Miss Abigail has the right idea. I’m gonna have some chocolate while I make my report. After you, ladies.” He gestured to the door into the house, following them into the laundry room.

            Irina was waiting in the door to the kitchen. She hugged both Mercy and Liza at the same time, her body trembling. “Rafe called me,” she whispered. “I was so afraid for you.” She let them go, then discreetly swiped under her eyes. “Come. Let me fuss over you.”

            That was an offer too tempting for Liza to pass up. She’d get fussed over now and text Tom in a bit. He was probably busy at the scene anyway.




FOLSOM, CALIFORNIA

            WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 12:00 P.M.

            Tom stepped off the stairs they’d taken to the office building’s roof, Croft right behind. They paused to study the scene on the roof. The first responders had cordoned off the entire stairwell and the crime scene unit had already constructed an evidence grid. Twine crisscrossed the roof, blocking off search areas, each a square foot.

            A man in white coveralls approached and Tom flashed his badge. “Agents Hunter and Croft.”

            “Sergeant Howell, SacPD CSU.” He offered them both protective booties.

            “Report, please,” Croft ordered quietly, as they slipped the covers over their shoes.

            “Someone was here,” Howell said. “Latent is taking prints from the stairwell and the railing around the perimeter of the roof. We’ve got a boot print in the dirt close to the railing.”

            “Camera feed?” Tom asked, looking around them. He’d seen several cameras in the building’s lobby and in the stairwell. There was another one mounted to the outside wall enclosing the stairs, but it had been painted over.

            “One of my techs is getting the feed from the building’s security.”

            Croft picked her way to the edge of the roof. “Entry and exit points?”

            “We can’t be completely certain until we get the security footage, but it appears he used the stairwell exclusively. There’s a brick off to the side of the ground-floor door.” Howell grimaced. “The security chief wasn’t happy to see the brick or the butts on the ground. Apparently, employees use the brick to prop the door open while they slip out for a smoke.”

            Tom sighed. The best security systems were often ruined by a single human trying to circumvent the rules. “I’ll need copies of the footage, as soon as possible.”

            Howell nodded. “Of course.”

            Tom followed Croft to the edge of the rooftop. She was staring down, examining three depressions in the sandy dirt on the roof. “He had a tripod,” she said. “Set himself up here.”

            Tom crouched down to simulate the shooter’s viewpoint. He could see through the glass door of the optometrist, but the signs in the windows blocked his view of the eye doctor’s interior. “He had only a narrow window of opportunity to get Mercy Callahan,” he noted. Or Liza, because he had not a single doubt that she would have protected Mercy and Abigail with her own body.

            His chest constricted when he realized how close she’d come to being hurt. He drew a breath that physically hurt. Liza. Dammit. This was how he’d felt when she’d joined the army without telling him first. Like a sledgehammer to his heart. Worry and hurt and helplessness.

            Howell crouched next to him. “Agent Rodriguez called it in after the woman accompanying the presumed target noticed a flash of light from this spot on the roof. The woman was standing in front of the door, but she must have a hell of an eye. I don’t know that I would have noticed it from there. Rodriguez said that once she’d pointed it out, he briefly glimpsed someone, and got them out of there.”