The Captain (The Marsen Mysteries Book 2) by Stewart Matthews

Author:Stewart Matthews [Matthews, Stewart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Whiskey Smoke Press, LLC
Published: 2022-04-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

“JUMPIN’ JESUS, MARSEN, what in the holy hell was all that?” DHS Mike kicked over the nearest trashcan, sending a hundred beer cans rattling on the asphalt beside the rumba stage.

I was on the stage steps where Yisel and I had first linked up, hanging my arms over the velvet rope. In the alley, about twenty feet from me, paramedics loaded her body on a stretcher for a trip to the morgue. The two other DHS special agents folded their arms and gave me stern faces.

The festival cleared out quicker than could be believed. The majority of people who remained were cops—both those working with JACT, those working festival security, and those who showed up after the worst of the chaos had already ended. Additionally, the unlucky employees who needed the Calle Ocho Music Festival for a meal ticket were still here, and me.

Even the lady who caught the stray had apparently scrambled off. Gallo and Barton had both slipped into the ether, as well. Nobody seemed to know where they’d gone.

DHS Mike stomped over to me. He shook the velvet rope. “Bring your eyes up here or I will put the fear of God in you!”

I looked at him.

“I should throw you in the deepest, darkest, federally-maintained hole I can find. I should slap you with a fine that ensures your great-grandchildren live on a diet of boiled boot tongues and they wipe their asses with shoeshine brushes. Do you understand how badly you screwed the pooch tonight?”

I pointed at the alleyway. “That was not me.”

“You turned off your wire! The damn thing went dead while you were out here, dancing with some floozy, losing your focus on the mission!”

“My focus? What was I supposed to do? I’m playing the part of a guy at a music festival—there’s dancing, so I danced. It’s not my fault the damn wire came out when it shouldn’t have. Barton taped the thing in! And where is he, anyhow?” I was on my feet now, looking eye-to-eye with Mike. “And where’s Gallo?”

He didn’t answer.

“I never lost focus on Yisel Martinez. She had my complete attention the entire time I was here,” I said.

“Your complete attention? She was blasted halfway to kingdom come while she was still in your arms, and then you took off!”

The man was looking for any excuse to leave me high and dry.

“You’re not pinning this on me,” I said. “Whatever that paranoid Fed brain of yours is cooking up, forget it.”

Of course, the more I denied, the more his suspicion deepened. But forget about shutting my mouth—that would’ve been the most damning thing of all.

“Who was that woman you were talking to?” DHS Mike asked.

“Just some girl.” I shrugged. “She was cute.”

“I was watching you. I had clear view of you from the domino tables across the way. You had quite a lot to say to each other.”

“Flirting, Mike. Most adult human beings do it when they meet someone attractive.”

“I don’t trust that you didn’t foul this up on purpose, Marsen.

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