All Kinds of Tied Down (Marshals 1)

Lord, I really was out of it. I liked my boss, but I was only carrying a big blazing torch for one man. And Jesus, this would piss him off when he found out.

“Boss?” I managed to choke out.

“Don’t talk, Jones,” he snarled, and then I heard him yell. “In here!”

“Kohn’s in a shed.”

“He was. Dorsey and Ryan picked him up.”

“Tell Ian I—”

“You can talk to Doyle your damn self. Hold on and shut the fuck up.”

I was going to argue, but I passed out instead.

Chapter 9

I WOKE up with one IV tube feeding me, one pumping me full of antibiotics, one keeping me hydrated, and the last one keeping me comfortable. That same morning, the drugs and the catheter went bye-bye. I was glad to be rid of both. I had never been a fan of being incapacitated or drugged up and fuzzy. I like being 100 percent in control at all times. I had too many bad memories of being at someone else’s mercy.

It was two days later. Once I was awake, the inquest guys showed up: the federal ones, the Chicago PD ones, my boss, his boss, and the boss of the four detectives who tried to kill me and Kohn and Nina Tolliver. The chief of police was there as well, and the state’s attorney, his assistant, and a stenographer. It was a lot of people, but my room was big.

Apparently they had already questioned Kohn and Nina and had been waiting for me to wake up and corroborate everyone else’s stories.

“How did you know you were in trouble?” the federal investigator asked.

“As soon as Nina Tolliver said that Kohn and I were the only marshals she’d seen, I knew there was a problem.” I glanced at my boss. “Are Sharpe and White dead?”

Quick shake of his head even as the muscles in his jaw clenched.

“No?”

“White’s in a coma two doors down from you, and Sharpe went home yesterday.”

“What’s the prognosis on White?”

“He simply needs to wake up,” he assured me.

I nodded, and the investigator was going to speak again but I asked my boss another question. “Are Cassel and Rybin dead?”

“No. Both are in federal custody. You wounded Cassel, and we caught Rybin at the airport trying to flee the country.”

“And Koons and Wallace? Are they dead?”

“Yes,” he said flatly.

“And they shouldn’t be,” their boss snapped. “They were shot in—”

“They were told to drop their weapons and get on the ground,” Kage informed the man icily. “They returned fire.”

“We only have your man’s word for that,” he argued.

“Yes,” he agreed, and I was glad that I was not on the other end of the hostility in the stare. “Becker and Ching are highly decorated marshals, and they’ve been cleared by both my department and yours.”

“Yes,” the investigator admitted before settling his attention back on me. “Now, Marshal, what happened after you and Mrs. Tolliver left the house?”

I went through the whole thing piece by piece for them, leaving nothing out, including the kindness of the auto-body shop owner, Kohn calling me from the shed, and how I heard several shots fired and then return fire.

“That had to be those two dirty cops firing on Kowalski and Ching,” I finished.

“We don’t know that they were dirty,” their captain chimed in again.

“True,” I said frankly. “Maybe Tolliver had someone in their families kidnapped. Maybe they were coerced.”

He opened his mouth to rebut.

“Unless you’ve already checked their financials and there’s money moving around in there,” I reasoned. “And if so, then dirty is the appropriate modifier, sir.”

“It is,” Kage said dryly, his tone frosty. “The history of deposits shows years of bribes. Your department is riddled with corruption—as usual.”

“Are you forgetting that you yourself were a police detective, Marshal Kage?”

“No,” he replied, his voice full of gravel. “I had a dirty partner myself, but my captain knew, as well as IAD. Seems that you had no clue what the hell was going on in your own goddamn house.”

He was not a word mincer, my boss, and when the arguments erupted, I really wasn’t surprised. The reality was, however, that my boss’s boss, Tom Kenwood, was the man with the most clout in the room, and when the chief deputy spoke, everyone shut up.

Kenwood crossed the room to stand at my bedside. “You did well, Jones. Rest and return to us as soon as you’re able. You saved a high-profile witness with comprehensive records detailing the Corza family’s illegal activities. Without your heroic actions that day, we would have been back to square one in our case and two children would have been missing their mother. Your actions are a credit to the service, as well as to your supervisor and team.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Kenwood lifted his head and met the gaze of the chief of police. “We are launching a formal federal inquiry into these two men and the entire department,” he announced. “The attorney general is informing the mayor this morning and a special investigator will be appointed.”