Page 15 of Forged By Fire

“I hate to hear that. But it does mean we need to look into the situation. See if there’s anyone Bracken owesmoney to that doesn’t go by the books, if he’s received any threats related to money or anything else.”

“Agreed. I was planning to go to the hospital and question him after I spoke with you.”

Paris nodded his satisfaction and took another drink of his coffee. “How about Leslie Granger? Did you have any luck canvassing her neighborhood?”

“Unfortunately, no.” That’s what Clint had done for three hours this morning. He knocked on every door that had a view of Leslie’s house. No one had video camera footage, and no one noticed anyone strange going in or coming out of the house.

“If it weren’t for the fact that the front door had been opened from the inside, I’d think someone broke that back window and ran off.” None of it made sense to him. “No fingerprints from the window, so the suspect must have worn gloves. There’s a plethora of fingerprints on the front door, but I’m not holding my breath.”

“Any other reports of break-ins in the area last night?”

“Two. The first was a vehicle smash and grab two streets over. The other was another home invasion. But in that case, multiple items were stolen and property destroyed. It’s possible the suspect was interrupted at Leslie’s house and moved on to this one, but so far, we have nothing to connect them.”

Clint’s gut said they weren’t related, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t been wrong before. Police Chief Dolman said to put extra patrols in the area for the next two nights. Otherwise, they were going to have to treat it like a random event.

“I’d planned to head over to the hospital and have a talk with Bracken. Unless there’s another area you want me to focus on.”

Paris drained the last of his coffee. “No, that sounds great. Let me know if you find anything out.”

“Will do.” Clint stood and reached out to shake the other man’s hand.

With his half-empty water bottle in hand, he strode to his desk to make a few notes and text Leslie. He’d been thinking about her all morning.

I hope you got some decent sleep last night. You doing okay?

She didn’t know it, but he’d parked just down the street from her house after he’d left her and stayed there several hours before a different officer replaced him so he could get some sleep.

His phone pinged with a reply.

I got some. I just got to the hospital to visit Danny. Thanks again for your help yesterday.

No problem. I’m heading that way in just a few minutes.

Okay. See you in a bit.

He wasn’t looking forward to questioning Danny, especially since he and Leslie were friends as well as co-workers. But if there was someone that he’d dealt with who could be targeting him, they needed to know about it.

Clint tried not to think about the worried look on Leslie’s face when he’d arrived at the hospital and asked to speak toDanny alone. She’d encouraged Becca to go with her to the cafeteria to get a snack. Clint promised them he’d just be a few minutes.

Considering Danny had been shot and then revived with CPR while investigating a fire, Clint wasn’t sure what to expect. But the man looked better than Clint would’ve predicted. Still, it was clear Danny was in a great deal of pain, and that waswithpain medication.

“You look a great deal better than you did when I last saw you.” Clint shook the firefighter’s hand and sat in the chair that Becca had occupied moments before.

“I heard the nurse gave you guys the bullet. Were you able to get anything from that?” Danny shifted to sit up a little straighter and grimaced.

“I’m afraid not. There was no match for the bullet in the system. We’re hoping to get clearance from the fire inspector to go in and thoroughly search the warehouse this afternoon or tomorrow. With any luck, we’ll find something to steer us in the right direction.”

“I hope so.” The blood pressure machine began, and they waited until it had finished getting its reading before Danny spoke again. “You said you had some questions for me.”

Starting from the beginning would be a good way to ease into his more difficult questions. “Was there anything about the shooter that seemed familiar? His voice or even how he moved?”

Danny didn’t hesitate. “Not even remotely. As far as I know, I’d never seen him before.”

“Tell me about the conversation. What did you tell him, and what did he say?”

The firefighter recounted what happened and then gave a description of the man. Everything lined up with Leslie’sversion of events, except that Danny put the shooter at a couple of inches taller than her estimate.

“That’s great, Danny. We’re doing everything we can to find the guy who did this to you.” Now it was time for the harder questions before the ladies returned. “Is there anyone you can think of that might want to hurt you? Someone who might’ve disagreed with how you handled a situation at a call out? What about someone you might owe money to?”

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