The Whole Truth (A. Shaw 1)

“Do you have computer you want me to fix, if you still not convinced?” he said crossly.

“Can’t blame a girl for checking,” she said sweetly. “Now about this Harris fellow? Tell me about him.” She’d gotten a description of Harris and wanted to see if it jibed with what Lesnik said.

“He is okay guy. Old. White hair, smells like cigar. We talk about job. He likes me, I think. He say it is good place to work, this Phoenix place. I drink some water and then I go to bathroom down the hall. Coming back is when I hear shots downstairs. I hide. Like I say already to you.”

Katie was writing all of this down. “Okay, now talk to me about-”

She didn’t finish because the door had been kicked open and he was standing there.

“Shaw! How did you know…?” She glared at him. “You followed me!”

He didn’t bother to respond. Shaw only had eyes for Lesnik, who’d shrunk back in the corner, his half-eaten ham sandwich forgotten, his coffee spilled on the floor.

He marched toward the small man, who pressed back until the wall stopped him from going anywhere else. Lesnik cried out, “Don’t let him hurt me. Don’t let him. Please!”

“Shaw, you’re scaring him.”

Shaw took a fistful of Lesnik’s shirt in his good hand. “He should be scared.”

“You say no one else know!” screamed Lesnik as he looked pitifully at Katie.

“Shaw, let him go.”

“You’re going to tell me everything you saw and heard that day. And you better not leave one damn apostrophe out! I just heard the part about you going to the john and hiding, now pick it up from there.”

Lesnik looked ready to faint, his knees buckled.

“Shaw!”

Katie grabbed at his good shoulder to try and pull him off, which was akin to a gnat harassing an elephant.

“Don’t get in the way, Katie,” Shaw said menacingly as he glanced at her.

Lesnik, however, used this moment of distraction to pluck up his courage and nail Shaw with his fist directly on the man’s bandaged arm.

“Damn it!” Shaw doubled over in pain.

The Pole leapt past him, pushed Katie down, and sprinted through the door. Shaw recovered and, holding his arm, ran after him, Katie right on his heels. They clattered down the steps, Shaw moving as fast as he could with his bad wing, but the much smaller Lesnik was seemingly jet-propelled. He hit the door to the street and was through it while Shaw and Katie were still a flight above.

Shaw smashed the door open and skidded to a stop to survey the street. Katie bumped into him. She grabbed his jacket.

“Have you lost your damn mind!” she screamed.

He suddenly saw Lesnik across the street, on the Thames side. He bolted across the road, car horns blaring, taxis swerving to avoid him as Katie followed in his wake yelling at him to stop before he killed himself.

Shaw shouted at Lesnik, who was running down the sidewalk. The Pole turned around for an instant, his face full of fear.

The shot struck him right between the eyes. He stood there for a moment, seemingly unaware his life had just ended. Then he pitched backward and over the railing. A few seconds later his body hit the flat surface of the river. A few moments after that Lesnik disappeared under the dull-colored Thames, the water briefly turning a murky crimson.

At the sound of the shot, Shaw had immediately hunched down. As Katie started to run past him yelling for Lesnik, he reached out his good arm and snagged her leg, wrenched her down, and then pulled her over behind a parked car for cover.

“Stay down!” he urged. “That was a long-range rifle round.” He edged his head above the car’s fender and took a look around, checking for an optics signature from the sniper gun but seeing none.

He looked back at Katie and his expression softened. She was shaking.

“It’s okay now.” He put an arm around her.

“No, it is not okay,” she snapped, ripping his arm off her. “You had to come here. You had to butt in. And now an innocent man is dead! Because of you!’