Full Black - Brad Thor [65]
Firing from inside the closet with a shotgun, though, in their minds would be consistent with something Salomon would do. The question was, would the detectives put it all together this way?
It seemed to Ralston that the evidence should be crystal clear. Salomon had been under siege and Ralston had rescued him. There was only one problem, and the movie producer had called it right at the crime scene—innocent people don’t flee.
That would be the one glaring thing that didn’t make sense. No matter how clear the evidence was, there could only be one reason in a detective’s mind for why Salomon and Ralston had fled—they were guilty of something.
From there it was only one step to any number of harebrained motives the cops might come up with. Ralston and Salomon had had an argument. Ralston had kidnapped Salomon. Ralston intended to do away with Salomon, but decided to finish the job somewhere else.
It didn’t matter whether it made sense or not. Ralston had been around long enough to know that with a big enough hammer and the right amount of force, a square peg could be pounded through a round hole.
The longer it took for the police to find them, the more they were going to believe that at least one of them was guilty of something. Ralston didn’t have to wonder which one of them that would be. He knew all too well.
He also knew how his military background would be used as an excuse to allocate significant and extraordinary resources to the investigation. That was something he hadn’t thought of at first. The LAPD had a very deep bench, but when it came to hunting a guy like him, they would not be shy about asking for help. Very soon, they were going to have a former operator, if not a team of them, out looking for him. As soon as that happened, it was going to be nearly impossible for him to get to the bottom of what had happened. Every time he thought he understood his window of opportunity, it was suddenly slammed shut.
There was too much at stake, though, to let that deter him. If there was one thing he had learned early on at Delta it was that when God closes a window, it just means you need to kick open a door.
Whoever had sent that wet work team to Larry Salomon’s house was going to learn what a mistake it was to fuck with a Tier 1 door kicker.
But first he was going to need to figure out exactly who had sent that wet work team. For that to happen, he was going to need access to very special information—information that would not be easy to come by.
He knew who he had to call. He also knew that person had promised to kill him if and when he ever did.
CHAPTER 30
“Not only do you have a lot of nerve, calling me,” said the voice on the other end of the line, “but you lied to my assistant, lied to her about one of my kids, to pull me out of a meeting?”
“I’m sorry,” replied Ralston. “I knew you wouldn’t take the call unless—”
“You’re damn right I wouldn’t have taken your call. In fact, I have no idea why I’m even still talking to you.”
Ralston knew why she was still talking to him, but he kept his mouth shut. They both knew. His giving voice to it would have only made her angrier, though, and that would have guaranteed the end of the conversation. Hot tempers ran in their family.
“Ali, listen,” he began.
“You don’t get to call me Ali.”
“Okay. Alisa,” said Ralston, relenting. He’d burned this bridge and he’d have to eat as much crow as she chose to dish out in order to be able to get across this river.
“In fact,” the woman plowed on, “the last time we spoke, I told you never to call me again.”
“I know you did. I wouldn’t call you unless it was important.”
“Important? You want to talk about important? My sister’s trial. That was important.”
Ralston had known, before even dialing her number, that she would go there. She still resented him. He didn’t