Credo's Fire, page 26
He grabbed his holstered weapon and even though I reached for mine, I could tell I was going to be a millisecond too late. The barrel of his semiauto pointed at me and I heard two gunshots, one right after the other.
I grunted in anticipation, knowing full well exactly how it felt to be shot. What I didn’t expect was for him to crumple to the ground with blood oozing from his white uniform shirt. I quickly looked behind me and saw Casey in a perfect weaver’s stance, weapon drawn and pointing straight at Beulow.
Chapter 20
It had been one month to the day since Casey had shot Captain Beulow, or should I say ex-captain, current inmate Beulow. Marcos and Jason had invited everyone to something called an ABC party at The Backdoor to celebrate Jason’s full exoneration. They’d invited Kate as well, but she’d declined. Casey, Ruthanne, Kathy and I had arrived early and were waiting in the parking lot for the others to get there. When Casey had shot Beulow, she’d been given administrative leave and both of us had been told not to talk to anyone about Jason’s case. Since the investigative portion was over now, this was the first time we’d had a chance to talk to Ruthanne and Kathy about what had happened.
Kathy leaned back on the seat of her Harley and crossed her arms. “It turns out Captain Beulow has been playing dirty for a very long time.”
I harrumphed, and she looked at me and nodded. “I know, you’ve been trying to tell people that for a while now, but he must have had something on some pretty high up commanders because most of what he’s done over the years has been effectively hushed up. Apparently, when he was the commander of the Vice Unit, he’d have the officers longform certain hookers instead of arresting them, then he’d contact the hookers and make a deal in exchange for sex. Tanya was one of them. When he hired Adolfo and Enrique Aguilar to arrange the set up at Fernando’s, he put them in touch with her. We don’t think he meant for them to kill her, but Beulow’s still going to be charged for her murder under the felony murder rule.”
Another car pulled into the lot and Casey moved out of its way before commenting. “But why would he set up his own son? Did he really think making his son into a rapist would up his macho factor with the other guys? That it would make him appear less gay? That’s just sick.”
Ruthanne chimed in. “It is, and he is.”
The whole Buelow thing didn’t really surprise me, but there was one detail about the barn fire I still hadn’t heard. “Okay, so who was the body in the barn, and how did that relate to the Angelinos?”
The lights in the parking lot began winking on one by one as the sun went down behind the Tucson Mountains. The sunset was a beautiful stratum of orange and yellow ribbons topped with layers of vibrant fuchsia and cerulean blue. Ruthanne gave a low whistle. “I don’t know of anywhere else in the world that gets the incredible sunsets we do.” She sighed as the final colors faded into the early evening sky. “Anyway, Alex, after we finished Jason’s case, I was assigned to help with that one. The kid who was buried in the barn was named Jerome Sinclair. He was a sixteen-year-old runaway from Boston. We have some evidence linking him to the Andrulis Mafia, that Lithuanian group that tried to kidnap you. We haven’t figured out how he died yet, but we think they buried the body there a few months ago as part of a multipronged attempt at framing and/or eliminating the Angelino Crime Family. When nobody found it, they decided to draw attention to it by burning down the barn. It was all part of an elaborate setup that fell apart when you and Kate messed up their plans in the warehouse.”
Kathy smiled and patted me on the back. “Congratulations by the way. I heard you two were gonna get medals of valor for that until someone decided it was just better to keep the whole affair low profile. Ya just gotta love the higher ups, don’t ya?”
“Don’cha just?” I knew there was no way I’d ever get a medal for anything I did on this department, but I was definitely pissed that they’d screwed Kate out of her medal too. We all turned and watched as Megan pulled into the lot, followed by Maddie in her funky little 1960’s Volkswagen. When they joined us, we all made our way over to the blinking neon backdoor sign. When we walked through the door, I stopped dead in my tracks. “What the hell?”
Semi naked bodies filled the room. Single saw us and came traipsing over wearing nothing but a black garbage sack. “Hey! Glad you could make it, but you’re kinda over dressed.”
I looked down at my jeans and sweatshirt, then back at the people in the room. Marcos caught sight of us and came running over. He tried to grab me in one of his mega hugs, but I pushed him away. “Marcos! What the hell?” I waved at his not quite clad body and couldn’t help but stare. He was totally naked except for bright yellow caution tape that he’d wrapped around his nether regions.
He paraded around all of us, grinning mischievously. “What? I know I told you it was an ABC party, so why are you guys dressed like that?”
Casey, who’d turned a bright red laughed. “Nate told us it meant Ale, Brown Ale and Cask Ale, but…”
Jason, who had a bunch of leaves judiciously taped to various parts of his body, joined us. “ABC party! Anything but clothes, ladies. Join us!”
I slowly turned to the other women and grinned…
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Did you love Credo's Fire? Then you should read Credo's Bones by Alison Naomi Holt!
To Detective Alexandra Wolfe, the human bone sticking out of the toilet in the camper wasn't any big deal. She needed to check out a very old bone in a very old camper…what could go wrong? It seemed routine enough, until she found a police badge buried in the camper's holding tank.
When she learned the badge belonged to her sergeant's partner, who'd been buried with full honors—along with his badge—some seven years earlier, she knew she'd stumbled on a mystery that had been waiting years to be solved. She had some digging to do. She could feel it in her bones.
Read more at Alison Naomi Holt’s site.
Also by Alison Naomi Holt
Alex Wolfe Mysteries
Credo's Hope
Credo's Legacy
Credo's Fire
Credo's Bones
Credo's Betrayal
Credo's Honor
Credo's Bandidos
The Alex Wolfe Mysteries Books 1-4
The Alex Wolfe Box Set Books 1-3
Merigor
Mage of Merigor
The Seven Realms of Ar'rothi
The Spirit Child
Duchess Rising
Duchess Rampant
Spyder's Web
Spyder's Kiss
Standalone
The Door at the Top of the Stairs
Watch for more at Alison Naomi Holt’s site.
About the Author
“Words are such uncertain things; they so often sound well but mean the opposite of what one thinks they do.” ― Agatha Christie, Partners in Crime
Alison, who grew up listening to her mother reading her the most wonderful books full of adventure, heroes, ducks, and dogs, promotes reading wherever she goes and believes literacy is the key to changing the world for the better.
In her writing, she follows Heinlein’s Rules, the first rule being You Must Write. To that end, she writes in several genres simply because she enjoys the great variety of characters and settings her over-active fantasy life creates.
There’s nothing better for her than when a character looks over their shoulder, crooks a finger for her to follow, and heads off on an adventure. From medieval castles to a horse farm in Virginia to the police beat in Tucson, Arizona, her characters live exciting lives, and she’s happy enough to follow them around and report on what she sees.
Alison's previous life as a cop gave her a bizarre sense of humor, a realistic look at life, and an insatiable desire to live life to the fullest. She loves all horses & hounds and some humans…
To find out more, go to her website at www.alisonholtbooks.com.
Read more at Alison Naomi Holt’s site.
Alison Naomi Holt, Credo's Fire
