Page 31 of So Savage

“That was extremely illegal what you just did,” Marcus pointed out.

“I don’t know about that.It was bending the rules for sure, but considering that Daniel’s now a known gangster, I think we can get away with it.Besides, it cleared him as a suspect for the murders, so I doubt he’ll complain.”

“It also ruined his relationship.”

“Somehow I don’t see the two of them surviving what’s about to be all over the news,” Faith retorted.

“Yeah, maybe not,” Marcus admitted.“Well, we got a pretty serious bad guy off of the streets, and if he plays ball with the DA, we’ll get even more.I know it’s not the bad guy we wanted, but it’s still a good night’s work.”

Faith crossed her arms and looked out at the night sky.“I’m just worried about our killer enjoying another good night’s work.”

As happened all too often in Faith’s career, her worst fears came true a moment later.The door opened, and a wide-eyed desk officer reported, “Detective Waring?We just got a call from the Air National Guard base.They found one of their K9 units unconscious.His handler is missing.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The first gray of dawn was starting to peek over the eastern horizon when Faith and Marcus arrived at the Duluth National Air Guard Base.The night had moved far faster than Faith expected.

So had their killer.While Faith and Marcus were busy inadvertently busting a drug distributor, the killer was taking his next victim.

It wasn’t hard to find the crime scene.All they had to do was follow the flashing lights of the military police vehicles.

They were met outside by a uniformed military police officer, a master sergeant with a bushy handlebar mustache and a look of barely checked rage.Faith didn’t blame him.Someone had invaded a U.S.military base and taken one of their own right under their noses.

The master sergeant introduced himself as Master Sergeant Hostler.He gestured to the scene behind him.“Everything went down over here.My patrol officer heard a shout and ran over here to find the dog unconscious and the handler gone.”

“When did this happen?”

Hostler's lips thinned."Four hours ago.We've spent all four of those hours scouring every inch of this base.We also contacted the Airport Police next door to check the airport.We haven't found anything.Not a trace of Sergeant Delgado or her captor."

Faith frowned.They had spent all of that time pursuing a false lead meanwhile the real killer had just taken a victim?“Why didn’t you call us?This is an FBI case in partnership with Duluth PD.”

“We wanted to find her,” Hostler countered.“If there was even a chance she was still alive, we wanted to take that chance.”

“We could have helped,” Faith insisted.“We could have put out an APB.We could have gotten the other branches’ MPs involved.”

Hostler squared up defiantly.“I wanted every available officer working to find Sergeant Delgado.As long as there’s a chance she’s alive, that’s our priority.”

“We could havealllooked for her,” Faith said through gritted teeth.

“That’s enough,” Marcus said firmly.“Now is not the time to worry about blame.Master Sergeant Hostler, please give me the full name of the missing airman.”

Hostler and Faith both took deep breaths, then stepped away from each other.Hostler turned to Marcus and replied, “Technical Sergeant Maria Delgado.She’s the best K9 handler in the entire Air Force.She’s won the Air Force K9 competition four years in a row and won the DoD invitational on top of that.”

“Where’s her dog,” Faith asked.

“In an ambulance on his way to an animal hospital.Actually, he’s probably there already.”

Faith nodded.“I want the results of their examination the moment they have them.We need to confirm that this is the same guy.”

Hostler’s brow furrowed.“What for?Why wouldn’t it be the same person?”

“We just found a guy with a bunch of dart guns and tranquilizer darts,” Faith replied.“But we were interrogating him while you were searching for Sergeant Delgado, so I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s not him.However, we’re exploring the possibility that there’s more than one shooter.”

Hostler sighed.“Jesus.How many?”

“We don’t know.Possibly still one, but I need to know what her dog was shot with.And Master Sergeant, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t feel a need to question every decision I make.”

Hostler turned beet red, the flush clear even in the low light."Yes, ma'am."

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