Page 27 of Rules of Engagement

"Ninety-seven. There will be more now that everyone's thinking about it, but these are the top names."

"I'll get someone on it. We'll need to rule every single person out."

"Some are probably dead," said Fletcher.

Garrett raised his eyebrows. "That would be helpful."

"There's an idea floating around that it could have been a hired killer, rather than someone who just turned up with a grudge," I said.

"We raised the same idea at MPD."

"And you didn't tell me?" I asked.

"You weren't in any state last night, plus, it was only hypothesized this morning. These names will give us a good place to start. Thank you. Lexi, are you ready to go back to the hospital?"

"A few more minutes," I told him. "I need to make sure the business runs smoothly in Solomon's absence. Everyone here is available to talk to you, if you want to ask around while I tidy up some office business."

"Let me know when you're ready to go. My detectives will be here in a few minutes and I'll come back after I've taken you to the hospital."

"I can take Lexi back," offered Delgado.

"No, I'll take her. Thanks anyway, Tony. I'll go find someone to talk with while you finish up whatever you're doing," said Garrett.

"Thanks." I waited until Garrett was gone and pulled out the photocopied sheet of names. "How fast can we rule these names out?" I asked.

"Pretty quick," said Lucas. "If I can use a couple more techies to help run them, we can get through many of these by the end of today."

"Good. Use whomever you need. I want to know who we can rule out. The dead are the obvious ones. Then, I think we need to know who is out of the country and couldn't physically have done it, even if they could have paid to have it done. Then all the people who couldn't pay to have it done, but could have done it themselves. Then..." Then I ran out of ideas.

"Don't worry about the details," said Fletcher. "We've been doing this for a long time."

"Can you all work your contacts? Find out if there were any rumors circulating about a hit?"

"Already taken care of," said Delgado.

"Lucas, can you look into the dark web? See if anything came up that sounds like it might be related at all?"

"Sure," said Lucas.

"I'll also need you to look into traffic camera footage in the area of our house last night. I saw a motorcycle racing away from the house after Solomon was shot. It might be unrelated but I still want that motorcycle found. The rider could be the shooter, or they could have witnessed something. We need a plate and the registration information."

"On it," said Lucas.

"Can someone speak to the delivery guy from Monty's? He arrived shortly after Solomon was shot. See if he saw anything or had a camera in his vehicle. I don't know if he delivers by car or by bike but some people have those little cameras for insurance reasons."

"I'll find him," said Flaherty.

"And Garrett mentioned something about the neighboring houses potentially having cameras. We need that footage too. There might be an image of the shooter," I said, trying to think ahead for anything else.

"If they're connected to a wireless network, I'll get them," said Lucas.

"If they're not, I'll get hard copies," said Fletcher.

"Garrett is running a ballistics report on the bullets. As soon as I find out the type of gun that was used, I'll let you know, but I figure it had to be a handgun since it was..." I trailed off, out of breath. Thinking was exhausting me. I checked my watch again. It had been too long now. I needed to get back to the hospital. My mother hadn't called so that had to be a good sign.

"We have this covered," said Delgado, leaning towards me and resting his hand on my arm. "You don't need to do anymore."

"Yes, I do," I said. "This is exactly what I need to do."

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