White Crows by T. J. MacGregor

Author:T. J. MacGregor [MacGregor, Trish]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: suspense, thriller
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 2022-02-23T00:00:00+00:00

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12

The Pharmacy

Barely awake, Sheppard groped for his cell phone and saw Mira’s text messages. He bolted upward and forwarded the texts to the group. Just then, he heard Nigel howling outside the rear door of the bookstore. Sheppard loped over, opened the door, and the dog ran inside, barking urgently, panting hard, running back and forth from Sheppard to the door.

“It’s okay, Nigel. I got her text. I know where she is. Where they are.”

Like the dog understood English. Hell, Sheppard thought, maybe he did. Nigel went over to his bowls, lapped at water, gobbled down some dry food, then ran to the door, barking frantically.

Ten minutes later, Sheppard and Nigel hurried outside into the predawn stillness, the dog now leashed. They scrambled into a JLTV—which Sheppard still thought of as a Humvee—with Keel, Gutierrez, Delgado, Rincon, O’Hara and Annie. Sheppard started to tell Annie to get out, but she anticipated it and gave him such a fierce look that Sheppard said nothing. She was Mira’s daughter, after all, knew how to defend herself, and had more right than any of them to be included.

Ahead of and behind them were Jeeps and another Humvee manned with troops that would remain in the background—backups if needed, Keel explained. Sheppard thought the procession of vehicles was impressive but hardly subtle, and asked Keel to stop two blocks short of the pharmacy. “We need subtlety, Frank.” Sheppard threw open the door.

“We need to go in unified,” Keel argued.

“Then go. But we’re outta here.” He, Gutierrez and Nigel got out, and the dog yanked so hard on his leash that Sheppard lost his grip on it.

They loped after Nigel, across the street to the pharmacy and then behind it to the parking lot, the first light spilling across the island. Gutierrez ran to the back door, Sheppard followed Nigel as he pursued a scent to a distant corner in the lot, near the trees. The dog hesitated briefly, nose to the ground, then took off into the woods.

Sheppard tore after him, crashing through shrubs, fallen branches, dead leaves, circling around, then looping back, just as the dog was doing. Nigel finally stopped, nose to the ground, and picked up something. Sheppard stopped beside him. “What’ve you got, big guy?”

He extended his hand and Nigel dropped a cell into it. Mira’s cell. Sheppard tapped in the code, went to messages. Her last text to him and Annie was vocal, and had been sent at 6:02 a.m. Taken. Pharmacy. It was now 6:38. He guessed she’d thrown the cell into the trees so Hal wouldn’t be able to confiscate it. Where was her weapon?

Nigel answered that minutes later when he located her gun near a pile of dead leaves in the woods. No phone, no weapon. No way to communicate or to defend herself. Such despair filled Sheppard that he just stood there, looking from her gun to her cell. Now what? But his mind had emptied.

The dog whimpered and Sheppard glanced at him. “You did great, Nigel.

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