The Whole Truth (A. Shaw 1)

He looked at the headstone. It gave Anna’s full name, Anastasia Brigitte Sabena Fischer. Her dates of birth and death. And the phrase at the bottom in German, “May our beautiful daughter rest in peace.”

“Rest in peace,” Shaw said. “Rest in peace for both of us, Anna. Because I don’t see peace ever coming my way again.”

He knelt down in the mud, his head bowed.

As he did so the two men stepped clear of the trees, guns in hand.

The car horn instantly split the silence of the cemetery and then Katie slid down in her seat.

Startled, the two men ran straight at Shaw.

A split second later the rear glass of the car Katie was in was shattered by a gun blast.

CHAPTER 77

IN A BLUR OF MOTION, Shaw erupted forward like a blitzing linebacker, knocking both men to the ground. In another instant his pistol was stuffed nearly down one man’s throat as his partner lay unconscious next to him.

A moment later the men in black swooped in.

Katie sat back up in the car, flicking glass off her. She looked anxiously over at Shaw. When he rose from the ground clutching one of the gunmen, she breathed a sigh of relief and climbed out of the car.

Twenty feet behind the car Frank stood over the dead man who’d tried to kill Katie. She joined him.

Frank said, “Sorry we cut it so close. Bastard got the shot off before we could nail him.”

Later, they sat in an empty barn outside of Wisbach. The two would-be killers were manacled together back to back in the middle of the straw floor.

Frank, Katie, and Shaw stood together in an informal powwow.

“Thanks for agreeing to back us up on this,” Shaw told Frank.

“Hey, other than keeping the world safe and secure, I’ve got lots of time on my hands.”

They’d already run the pairs’ prints through the usual databases and gotten zip for their troubles. Their interrogation so far had resulted in a cascade of foul language from the man who’d ended up chewing on Shaw’s gun barrel. By contrast, his partner, a beefy man with a stoic expression, hadn’t said a word. He looked like he might not even speak English. They’d tried several other languages out on him but his silence remained golden. They had no IDs. Two pistols and a gutting knife were the only things of interest found on their persons. The dead man had been similarly sterilized.

“Not even a cell phone,” Frank said.

“Means they were going to rendezvous with someone after they killed me and Shaw,” Katie said. “Probably close by.”

Frank turned to Shaw. “What now?”

“Keep pounding away at these two until they pop. We’ll be in touch.”

Frank put a hand on Shaw’s shoulder. “Look, Shaw, watch your back. My gut’s telling me something is off here.”

“Off how?” Katie asked.

“Off as in it seems like they’re always a step ahead of us.”

As they drove down the road Shaw said gloomily, “I was pretty sure they’d be watching Anna’s funeral in case we showed. That’s why I called in Frank for an assist. But it didn’t score us anything.”

“They might talk at some point.”

“I doubt they know much beyond being paid to kill me and you. These people have been really good about covering their tracks.”

“They’ll make a mistake. They always do,” she said confidently.

“Oh, you think so?”