High Risk by G.K. Parks (books for 10th graders TXT) 📕

antibiotics. She wanted to change your bandages before she left, but since you were asleep, she left me in charge.”

“Eh, they’re okay.” I ran a hand over the one at the side of my neck and winced.

“That’s not okay.” He abandoned the work he’d been doing and grabbed the supplies. “It doesn’t look infected.” He took a few snapshots with his phone.

“Are you adding that to the file?” I pointed to his work in progress.

“No, Em made me promise to send her photos since she couldn’t check on you herself.” He pressed a clean bandage against my skin, and I made the same noise Gunnie had earlier. “Hold this,” he said. And I held it so he could tape it.

“I could have done that myself.”

“I’d like to see you do the one on your shoulder yourself.”

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Not even a little.”

I unzipped my sweatshirt and shrugged out of it. Brad let my bra strap hang off my shoulder while he patched up what he could.

“No wonder you couldn’t sleep. That must hurt like a son of a bitch.” He put the tape down and carefully readjusted my bra strap so it wouldn’t dig into the bandage or my bruises. Then he helped me get my sweatshirt back on.

“You tell anyone about this, and I’ll kick your ass,” I teased.

He cleaned off the table, tossed the gloves he wore into the trash, and washed his hands. Then he poured me a cup of coffee and took the skillet off the warming burner and put the contents on a plate. While I ate, Gunnie stared at me, licking his chops every time I took a bite.

“What’s he doing here?” I pointed my fork at the dog.

“Emma brought him over. She said you’d want the company.”

“But I have you.”

Brad laughed. “That’s what I said.” His phone beeped, and he picked it up. “I swear she has this place bugged.” He handed me the device, so I could read her message. She said the wounds looked clean and appeared to be healing, followed by a long list of things Brad should watch out for and do should any problems arise.

I handed him back his phone and finished eating. “What are you doing?” I asked. “This isn’t you. You follow orders. The LT reassigned you to another case, and according to Voletek, you basically told your commanding officer to shove it.”

“Don’t believe everything you hear.” He cleared away my dishes. “I thought we agreed last night that someone has to stop these guys.”

“Voletek and Lisco can handle it.”

“I told you, Liv, you don’t have to do this. I’ll take care of it.”

“I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

“Then I’m gonna have to request a new partner.”

Rolling my eyes, I took my cup and went into the living room and stared at the notations on the board. “We need a map.”

Brad pointed to the back of my front door.

“Smart ass,” I mumbled.

We knew the order in which things happened. The killers were taking things step by step, as if each move was part of a masterplan. Unfortunately, they were playing chess while we were playing checkers. They wanted to take down our king, except I had no idea who or what was the king. This had to be about a score.

“What happened with Moonlight Security?” I asked.

“Nothing. Lisco spoke to the CEO. Apparently, they default the security codes to street addresses, but since Star Cleaners didn’t have a four-figure street number, they used the name of the business. They do that with every system they install, but they tell the owners to change the codes. Apparently, Mr. Lee didn’t pay attention.”

“That means anyone who worked for Moonlight Security could have gained access, in addition to the employees at Star Cleaners.”

“Everyone from Star Cleaners checked out, remember? And Lisco ran down everyone currently employed by Moonlight Security, but every regular and part-time security guard alibied out for Gardner’s murder. I don’t know about the employees they let go, but no one had a sheet. They did extensive background checks before hiring, the same as LockBox.”

“Are you sure we checked everyone?”

“As far as I know. What are you thinking?”

“Gravelly Voice knew exactly where the panel was to deactivate the security system in 24/7 Spirits. He went straight for it. He didn’t try to attack me. He wanted to turn off the system before it drew anyone’s attention.”

“Moonlight didn’t install the security system at 24/7 Spirits,” Brad said. “That system came from one of the nationwide chains. It was a one and done. Just lights and sound. It doesn’t connect to any service. The liquor store owner thought that’d be enough of a theft deterrent on its own.”

“Yeah, just like the freaking surveillance camera.” I dropped onto the couch. “None of this makes any sense. Could Gravelly Voice have been a previous liquor store employee?”

“Wouldn’t the owner have recognized him?”

“Maybe he wasn’t the guy staking out the store for an hour.”

“All right, I’ll have someone check records on previous employees since the only people who work there now are the owner and Shelly something or other.” Brad picked up his phone and shot off a message, even though I was certain the guys in homicide had already done it. Then Brad spun the whiteboard over to where he’d created a flow chart showing the places these bastards hit, the victims they left in their wake, and the items they stole. A big square with a question mark remained at the end of the chart. “They might be reacting to changing conditions and intel.”

“Meaning?”

“Okay, so they hit Star Cleaners to get the uniforms because they had a hundred million dollar goal in mind, except the armored truck broke down. So they decided to improvise. There’s three of