15 Seconds. Andrew Gross

and your son … Well, almost your son …

      And on the very same day.

      Now it was time to start over.

      Carrie hugged a few people hello as she made her way back to her office. This was harder than she’d thought. Everyone was tiptoeing around on eggshells, not wanting to say the wrong thing: “How are you doing?” “So great to have you back!” And, of course, “How’s Raef?”

      “He’s doing really well,” she replied, as upbeat as she could. “He’s at my folks’.” It seemed the best thing for a while that he remain with her parents in Atlantic Beach, which was closer to the hospital. “We hope to have him back in school soon.”

      Of course, no one mentioned Rick—except just to shake their heads, eyes glossing over a little, and to say how sorry they were.

      “Well, you give that boy a big hug from me!”

      She ran the gauntlet of well-wishers back to her desk. She found a card there—signed by most of the office, detectives and administration. Great to have you back! That brought a little tear to her eye. And made her smile.

      So did the handful of photos that were still on her shelf. Rick finishing the Marine Corps Marathon in D.C. last year. In 3:51:29. His personal best, by far! Raef looking very ferocious in his pee wee football gear. That nice one of the three of them at her folks’ last Thanksgiving. All decked out.

      Carrie felt herself starting to get sad.

      She looked at the mountain of files and memoranda that had been arranged on her desk by Andrea Carson, her deputy, and then the phone started to ring: people she dealt with on the force and even a local press contact, all glad to hear she was back. She started to read through a few of the files, trying to catch up on what was happening. She knew she’d have to ease herself back into the routine.

      Andrea knocked on her door, folders in hand. “You ready?”

      “Ready.” Carrie nodded with a smile. “Come on in.”

      That’s when she noticed that a crowd had gathered underneath the TV in the detectives’ bullpen. Things seemed to have gotten a little hectic. Lots of people running around.

      She stood up—the captain’s office door had been closed a long time now. Then she saw the chief, the new chief, with whom she’d hoped to grab a couple of minutes, heading out of the office with Cam Winfield, the department’s press liaison—not looking at all as if “community outreach” was high on his list of priorities right now.

      Something had happened!

      Carrie stepped out and found Robyn, Chief Hall’s secretary. “What’s going on?”

      “Didn’t you hear?” Robyn’s eyes were wet with tears. “One of our guys was just shot on the street. Killed.”

      “Oh no …” Carrie’s blood came to a halt. “Who?”

      “A patrol officer out of Southeast. Named Martinez.” The chief’s secretary sadly shook her head.

      “Robert Martinez?” Carrie sucked in a painful breath. She knew Martinez. She’d worked with him once or twice, in Brentwood on a community center there. He was a part-time basketball coach. He had a wife and a couple of kids. “On the street?” she asked Robyn.

      “Shot. Point-blank. After a routine traffic stop.” The chief’s assistant shook her head. “Right in his car.”

      “Oh God …” Carrie felt her stomach fall. She tried to recall, Jacksonville hadn’t had an officer killed in the line of duty for at least a couple of years. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do …” she said, and shook her head kind of uselessly. “Please …”

      She went back to her desk, an empty feeling in her gut. She went on the KJNT news website and brought up a live feed from the scene. “Police Officer Reportedly Killed on Lakeview Drive,” the headline read. The shot was from an airborne copter cam. Carrie minimized it and brought up Martinez’s “green screen.” There were several commendations. One censure years ago for excessive force that was never prosecuted. She thought of his wife, Marilyn. She would call her. She knew firsthand how tough this was going to be.

      “Carrie?”

      Bill Akers stuck his head inside her workstation. Akers was her boss, a captain, in charge of operations, and her department reported in to him.

      Carrie stood up. “I just heard …”

      “Listen, Carrie …” Akers blew out a breath. “I know it’s your first day back and all …”

      “Don’t worry about that,” she answered. “What can I do?”

      “We’re setting up a hotline. A lot of personnel are in the field or following up on leads. We’ve got a manhunt going. You mind manning a phone? Anyone calls in who seems legit, take down their info. A detective will get back to them as soon as they can.”

      “Of course I’ll take a phone,” Carrie said. “Whatever you need. Is there a …”

      “Suspect …” Akers filled in. “Yeah, we have a suspect. We’ve got a picture of him on the screen now.”

      He led her over to a terminal in the detectives’ bullpen and showed her a head shot from Florida Motor Vehicles. “Apparently the guy caused a ruckus after Martinez pulled him over for running a light. He’s driving a white, rented Caddie. Name of Steadman. Henry. The guy’s a doctor, if you can imagine. Some big-shot plastic surgeon from down in Palm Beach.”

      “We’re sure?” Carrie stared back at the screen. The suspect had a nice face. Bright, intelligent eyes. Wavy, long brown hair. Stylish glasses. A warm smile. Successful, nice-looking plastic surgeons generally didn’t fit the profile a cop murderer.

      “Damn sure.” The captain nodded firmly. “Bastard just fled the fucking scene.”

      CHAPTER FIVE

      I drove, accelerator pressed to the floor, in a state between bewilderment and outright panic.

      The front windshield had a spiderweb crack and my right rear passenger window was completely shattered, glass splayed all over my lap. My pulse felt like it was in an atomic accelerator and my heart had crawled so high up my throat I could have reached in and pulled it out. I had no idea where I was heading. Just away. Away from Rowley and those trigger-happy cops.

      I looked at my hands on the steering wheel and they were shaking like branches in a storm.

      Okay, Henry, okay … What do I do now?

      It was clear I had to turn myself in, but I had to find a way that wouldn’t end up getting me killed. I ran through all the possibilities of where to go, whom I could trust. And only one person came to mind.

      Mike. Whom I was supposed to be meeting for golf in a little over an hour!

      He was a lawyer … A real estate lawyer, perhaps, but he’d have partners, contacts. I knew he was very well connected in town. He’d know what to do. No one could possibly logically believe that I was a cop killer.

      I thought, if I could simply get to him, he’d be able to negotiate a safe handover. I couldn’t have killed Martinez. I had no motive, no gun …? I didn’t even own a gun! I hadn’t even shot one since … I racked my brain. Since camp, for God’s sake! When I was a kid!

      I’d been to Mike’s home once. I remembered that it was in an upscale section of town. Avondale, he’d told me. I was already supposed to meet him there. He’d mentioned that it wasn’t too far from Atlantic Pines. Which meant I couldn’t be too far from him now.

      Meanwhile, I had cops on my tail and I was driving a shot-up car.

      The residential road I was on was coming to an end, leading into a more commercial thoroughfare. I made a right, and anxiously drove a block or two, then pulled into the first business I saw—a