Previously on Cold Case…
Jeff raised his glass. “To new chapters.”
Jeff’s body lay across the park walkway, barely visible as the moon remained covered by the clouds. His eyes were closed. His shirt and jacket were stained with blood around his chest.
“Victim’s Jeff Royce. He was shot in Summerton Park back in ‘93.” Stillman said. “Guy was a twenty-year field agent for the CIA.”
Bonnie shook her head. “It’s one thing to take a guy like Jeff out of the Company. It’s another to take the Company out of him.”
“Anyway, after he retired, I was so excited cause I thought I was gonna get to see that sight everyday.” Jimmy’s smile faded into a slight frown. “Didn’t really work out that way though.
Sharon stepped closer to Jeff. “You know why you married me, Jeff?”
Jeff looked at her, unsure of what to say.
Sharon sighed. “Because I’m the only person in the world you can’t lie to… You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep, to me or to Jimmy.”
“Our boss had one last assignment for Jeff, something off the record. They went so far to put on a big retirement party for him, so everyone we worked with would think he was done.”
“Pretty long ways to go to cover up an assignment.” Scotty said.
“Yeah, it was.” Ethan said.
“He came to me, said he had one last job, off the books, and said he needed someone without formal ties to the agency anymore.”
“He was supposed to be watching someone in his neighborhood.” Lilly said.
Steve nodded. “Yeah, some Middle-Eastern guy, immigrated here in the early nineties.”
Jeff gestured to the other man. “Sharon, this is Omar. He lives across the street.”
“What did you think?” Jeffries asked.
Steve shook his head. “I don’t know. The guy wound up face down in the river before I could find out for sure. Some sort of boating accident, least that’s what they said.”
***
Cavanaugh’s smile faded slightly. “So you’re still going back to work at Homicide till then?”
“You know me, like to keep busy.”
“Just hoping you won’t forget about us up here.” Cavanaugh said, looking serious. “I mean it, the Bureau needs good people.”
Lilly looked at her father a moment. “Dad, do you think I should take this job?”
“I can’t answer that for you, Lilly.” Paul said, calmly. “It’s your life.”
The woman pulled a photo, that of a teenage girl, out of her purse. “This is my daughter, Rosita. She was killed in 1979. Someone pushed her from a balcony at the house where I was working at the time. I… I was told you solve cases like this.”
Lilly looked at the woman uneasily. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Trejo, I’m working another case right now, and I won’t be available here after that.
***
Scotty frowned at the text message on his phone as he walked into Homicide. Pausing for a moment, he opened it and looked at the message.
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID, SCOTTY VALENS
Scotty narrowed his eyes in disgust and hit DELETE.
***
“Back in the eighties, one of our field teams raided a terrorist base in Egypt on the border of Libya. Weapons, drugs, money.” Garrison swallowed. “There were some… discrepancies when the money was counted. We couldn’t prove anything…”
“But you think someone took a little off the top.” Vera said.
Ethan shook his head. “We never should’ve gone after Khalid. He wasn’t who we thought he was. Then he wouldn’t have had to go on the run.”
“What do you mean ‘go on run?”” Scotty asked, before his eyes narrowed. “You’re saying Khalid didn’t die in that accident?”
Ethan smiled and shook his head slowly.
Lilly leaned closer. “Ethan we know you were being blackmailed. We need to know by who.”
Ethan looked at the two detectives. “You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourselves into.” He pointed downwards and it was only then that Lilly and Scotty first noticed the wires leading up and down the leg of the chair.
“Tell his family I’m sorry, would you?”
He pushed down on the arm rests and started to lift himself up.
Lilly and Scotty immediately bolted from the walkway and threw themselves to the floor of the walkway. Behind them, a deafening blast hurled the door clear over the railing, followed by a huge cloud of dust…
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