Marcus reached the closed door to suite 963, stopped, and Dave slid past him to the other side. Dave removed his master hotel card key and quietly tapped his knee, indicating he would go in low. Marcus nodded.

Dave silently inserted the card key. then pulled it out. The red light flashed green.

Marcus met Dave's gaze and in that intense moment knew Dave was thinking the same thing he was. Kate would kill them both if either one of them got hurt.

Dave pushed open the door.

It caught on the chain.

Marcus, his momentum already taking him forward, barely checked in time to avoid hitting the door. They had the right suite number. A false alarm? No. The smell of gunpowder lingered in the air and it was impossible to miss the smell of blood. Someone had slipped the chain in place out of fear? Or had the shooter barricaded himself inside? 'Police! Open up!"

Dave prepared to kick the door open. Over the security net Marcus could hear the coordinated response of U.S. Marshals, PBI agents, and uniform cops rushing to close the area. Backup was coming, but they didn't have time to wait.

The door chain jangled as someone tried to open the door.

The door swung open. Marcus and Dave instantly elevated their weapons to the ceiling. It was a lady in her fifties. Her identity registered at first with disbelief. It was Shari's mom, Beth Hanford. Marcus reached out and caught her elbow to keep her from falling. Her face had a distinct pale grayness, and there was blood on her dress.

Tve got her." Dave wrapped his arms around her waist to lower her to the floor. Marcus heard the grimness in Dave voice, the shared impact this was having on him. They had been talking about this family only a few moments ago.

A scan of the room showed carnage. Shari's father had been shot. Joshua had been shot. Shari turned from where she was kneeling beside Josh, desperation coupled with intense relief in her eyes.

Marcus hated the fact he had no choice but to ignore her. First he had to know the rooms were secure. Dave was moving to the left, checking the suite bedrooms. Marcus moved to the right and the open connecting door.

He drew a deep breath. Judge Carl Whitmore lay on his back, the empty look in his eyes confirming the worst. Marcus had never lost a witness or a judge on his watch and fury washed over him.

He forced himself to take a deep breath before he walked past the judge to check the bathroom, anywhere someone could hide. When he was sure he was alone, he knelt to confirm the judge was dead, careful where he stepped so as to minimize what he disturbed of the crime scene. 'Judge Whitmore has been killed." His words over the security net quiet and cold.

Judge Whitmore had died facing into his room. Someone had been inside the room. Waiting. Marcus hadn't known the judge and the Hanfords were friends, but the open connecting door suggested they were. The lock had to be released on both sides. Were the Hanfordsjust unfortunately in the wrong place at the wrong time, or were they targets as well and the hit had gone bad? It was an ugly thought.

The dead could wait; there were survivors to attend to.

Dave was already working on Shari's father, William. Marcus skirted the overturned furniture to reach Shari and Josh. He closed his hand carefully around Shari's shoulder and looked her over swiftly trying to tell if she had been hit as well. He had seen victims walking around so deep in shock they didn't even realize they were hit.

There was a nasty gash on her right cheekbonejust below her eye and her face had been scuffed, but the blood staining her suit and her hands, some of it dark red, having dried, and other patches bright and wet, didn't appear to be hers.

"I can't get the bleeding to stop."

Her voice was steady but she was quivering under his hand. He wished he had time to wrap his arm around her and hug her, try to stop the shivers. That this should happen to her and her family the same night he had met her...it made him sick at heart. "It's okay Shari," he said gently He eased his hands under hers, wedging his fingers under her palm, keeping the pressure on Joshua's shoulder steady "I've got him."

She was leaning forward over her brother and Marcus was crowding her space now they were so close together. Did she realize her eyes were wide and her breathing fast, that her heart was pounding? He counted five beats in the moment he realized the twitch showing at her throat was her heartbeat. Calm down, he wanted to urge and was helpless to help her do that. She'djust lived through a nightmare. She blinked. Good girl. Come on, blink again. She finally did. Where are those paramedics? I need to get you out of here.

He turned his attention to her brother. He had to rip Josh's shirt to get a look at the inju The bullet had hit him in his right shoulder, deflected off his collarbone, and come out at an anglejust below it. Nasty and bleeding heavily Joshua's pallor was sharp; his eyes were closed and his lips were beginning to turn slightly blue. The young man he had admired earlier that evening was dying Marcus realized with grim resolve, determined not to let that happen. One fatality was more than enough.

"I need to get Mom's heart pills."

Marcus looked toward Beth and saw what Shari had. "Go," he said urgently Shari nodded and got to her feet, almost falling, catching herself with a hand on his shoulder. Her hand tightened as she drew a deep breath, took the first step away His eyes narrowed as he watched her walk toward the bedroom. It looked like she was in danger of folding, but she kept going.

The sound of gunfire and someone tumbling and striking concrete burst over the net. "Shooter on the stairs. He'S heading up!"

Marcus jerked. Up toward the secure floor. "Quinn? Come back." "He winged me. I'm okay," Quinn replied, his breathing ragged. "You guys coming down from nineteen be careful you don't shoot me by mistake and finish the job."

His partner was under fire. Marcus looked over at Dave, desperate to go. They had to be two places at once. Dave, his face taut, shook his head. Marcus hated it but accepted the fact Dave was right. They couldn't leave Joshua and William before help got here. "Where are those paramedics?"

"Coming up under escort. I told them to rush it and get medivac on the way,"

"mom, your pills," Shari said. "I grabbed Dad's prescription bottles too. The paramedics will need to know about the blood pressure medicine."

"I'll tell them. His medical alert tags, they'll need those too."

"Dad's wearing them," Shari said a moment later. "mom, do you need to lie down? Are you okay?"

"I'm okay, Go, help with Josh. The man needs the extra hands."

He most certainly did. Marcus glanced over, ready to tell Shari to stay with her mom despite that fact, only to meet Beth's firm gaze. The lady might be having a hard time physically coping with the suddenness of the shock, but there was steel in those soft gray eyes looking across the room at him. Beth was a fighter; that boded well. He studied her face for a moment, then gave a slight nod to her and looked over at Shari. He really did need her hands.

Shari rejoined him. She had thought to grab a stack of towels while in the bathroom. "Will these help?"

He took one, grateful. "Absolutely; thanks." He glanced over to see she had already given Dave several.

"He just started shooting."

Marcus looked sharply at Shari. In the back of his mind he had been hoping she had been in the bedroom, somewhere else, at least been spared actually seeing her brother and dad shot. Given what she had just said, he was surprised she had any composure left. "One shooter?"

She nodded and her brow furrowed. "White, late-thirties. Not tall, maybe five-foot-eight-" she visibly struggled with her words as she remembered-"well dressed."

Over the security net he could hear each step of the hunt to pin the shooter down. Men were moving to seal the entire wing of the hotel. "What was he wearing?"

"A dark suit, navy. and a red tie."

He relayed the information as fast as she gave it. "Did you see his face?" When she flinched he momentarily hated himself.

"Gray eyes. They were so violent. And his hair was dark, almost black, really thick."

"Glasses, beard, mustache?"

"A thin mustache, wider than his mouth, no beard or glasses." "Anything else about him? Did he say anything?"

She shook her head. "I remember thinking 'I surprised him,' then Josh hit me."

Marcus glanced again at the open connecting door, the overturned furniture, and this time he was the one who flinched. Shari must have been the one to open the connecting door. The splintered wood on the door frame was level with that gash on her face. The shooter had tried to kill her. Marcus felt his hands go cold at the realization.

Quinn swore over the security net. "He'S out of the stairway. Repeat, the shooter got out of the stairwell. Ie's somewhere on floors eleven to fifteen!"

"Rule out floor fifteen, we've got the corridors covered," another deputy called.

Several moments later, another voice came across the secure channel. "I'm on fourteen. There's a merger meeting going on in the telecommunication conference center. The security guard says it's been quiet. The shooter's got to be somewhere on floors eleven to thirteen."

Three floors were still an eternity of space. There were service elevators, guest elevators, two sets of stairs, and that didn't even consider the hotel rooms. Marcus broke into the security net traffic. "We need a hostage negotiator located. Now," he ordered. "See if Kate O'Malley is in the hotel."

Dave turned to give him a frustrated glance. "Why does it always have to be Kate who's around when trouble breaks?"

"Tell me about it," Marcus replied, feeling a growing anxiety that this situation was so rapidly spiraling out of control. He knew the risk he had just potentially dropped into his sister's lap. "Nobody handles barricade situations better than Kate, we both know that. The shooter is pinned; he's not likely to give up without a fight when he's got rooms of hostages available to choose from."

"Someone shoot him before then, please," Dave replied tersely Marcus silently agreed, knowing if this became a barricade situation, they were facing high odds there would be another innocent victim. Kate had the nasty habit of putting herself between a gunman and a hostage. She was still getting over a hairline rib fracture from the last time she had done it. The Kevlar vest had stopped the bullet and she'd walked away from the situation annoyed with all the fuss he and Dave made. Marcus didn't think she had any idea how much gray hair she had given them in those twenty tense minutes.

He listened as men began to evacuate the hotel rooms one at a time. "How's William doing?"

"Not good," Dave replied. "Joshua?"

"Not much better," Marcus replied grimly "Shari, keep pressure right here." He took her hands to show her what he wanted, felt the coldness in her long fingers as he placed them over the towel. "I need to get his feet elevated." Anything to stop Joshua from bleeding out. Over the security net came word the paramedics were passing the seventh floor. Finally The bleeding was slowing. "Just keep it steady there, okay?" She nodded.

They had a shooter loose. Judge Whitmore had died facing into his room. Someone had been inside. And according to Shari, it hadn't been a lady Marcus broke into the security net traffic again. "The shooter may have a room pass key Maybe even a master."

"Any other good news?" Quinn asked.

"He likes to wait and take his victim by surprise."

"Wonderful. We'll try to avoid walking into one of his surprises," Quinn promised. "Clearing these rooms is going to be slow work. It would be nice if we could get a sketch of this guy From the description, it could still be one of many guests. Mustaches are in favor this year."

"It's a priority," Marcus promised. He looked over at Shari. She was biting her bottom lip and her face was pasty white. He hoped she was a fighter like her mom. As soon as they got this situation stabilized, he was going to have to take her through the last twenty minutes in detail. There were times he hated what he had to do in his job. It was not how he had wanted to get to know her.

"Shari." She finally looked up. "The phone call to the desk, helping Josh, describing the shooter-you did good."

Tears flooded her eyes. "Thank you," she whispered.

Three.

T.

he paramedics arrived, and with them came enough help to secure the ninth floor. For Marcus the relief was palatable. The paramedic who joined him lifted the pressure pad from Josh's shoulder to get a quick look. He shook his head. "Jim, get the stretcher over here and get me an ETA on that medivac helicopter."

A paramedic was helping Shari's mom. Two paramedics had begun working on William, their words terse and their actions fast as they worked to get the bleeding stopped and his breathing stabilized. Shad had moved to join them and looked lost as she knelt near her dad and watched them. As soon as Marcus was sure Joshua was taken care of, he moved to her side.

He was finally free to wrap his arm around her and try to stop the shivers. "Hold still." He reached over to the open case the paramedic had brought up and tore open one of the gauze packages. He used it to wipe at the blood on her cheek. Her blue eyes were wet, the pupils very dilated. He changed his mind; she was beautiful. A guy could drown in those eyes. It was a nasty gash. She winced when he taped the bandage in place. "Sot"

"It's okay."

"We need to get your mom out of here," he said, knowing it was the best way to get her out of here as well.

"I know. But I don't want to leave Josh and Dad."

"They are going to be medivaced to St. Luke's. We'll meet them there," he promised. She didn't protest when he lifted her back.

Marcus motioned Officer Young over. "Is there an empty hotel room nearby?" Marcus quietly asked the officer.

She checked on the security net, then nodded. "966."

"Shari, I want you to go with Tina and change clothes, wash up, then get together what you think your mom will need."

It wasn't much, but at least the blood on her hands and clothes could be dealt with. She looked down at her hands, turned them palm up, and flexed them as if they hurt. She seemed to be seeing it for the first time.

Tina encouraged her to turn toward the back bedroom to get her things. Using a different room was necessaw, for this suite was now a crime scene. Marcus watched until they disappeared in the bedroom, and then he had to take a deep breath, letting it out slowly He'd just watched Shari's life disintegrate. In a few days, his might be the last face in the world she would want to see as he became part of the memory of what had happened tonight.

The paramedic with Shari's mom motioned him over.

"Mrs. Hanford?" Marcus knelt down beside the stretcher to be at her level. The lady was beautiful, but the last half hour had aged her severely. She'd been lying when she told Shari she was okay; it was there in the strain on her face and the faint labor of her breathing. But when his gaze met hers, any suggestion of fragileness disappeared. There was anger there. "Tell me how Josh is, they won't tell me anything."

"He's not as badly hurt as your husband." It wasn't much, but to a mother it would mean something.

She searched his face, then nodded, relieved. "Thank you." Her eyes closed. He would have moved back but she took a deep breath and opened her eyes, and what he saw in her gaze made him go still.

"Find the man who did this." It was an order.

"We will." It was the one thing he was certain of. They had a judge murdered; they would find the shooter. "Did you see him?"

She shook her head with regret. "I was in the bedroom. I heard Shari scream, and then I saw Bill I wish I did have something that could help you."

The paramedic, out of her sight, shook his head and indicated they had to get her out of here. Marcus eased back to disengage, only to stop when Bethg hand closed on his arm, gripping it with surprising strength. She was fighting to keep tears from weakening her voice. "Shari's going to need me tonight and I'm going to be worthless to help her once the doctors get hold of me. Promise me she won't be left on her own while Josh and Bill are in surge Promise me."

'Beth, you've got my word," Marcus reassured softly. Shari was a wit nessl there would be security with her around the clock. But even if that security hadn't been necessa he would have still stepped in to make arrangements for her. The guilt already hung heavy. There should have been a way to prevent this from ever happening. Shari wasn't going to be left to pace a waiting room alone tonight.

Beth's hand on his arm loosened. She even gave a glimmer of a smile. 'Don't let one of the political close friends of the family' sit with her either. They'll want to distract her by talking about the governor's race. That's the last thing my daughter needs. Her guy is losing, and she absolutely hates to lose. She'll end up in the hospital bed next to me."

Marcus couldn't help but return her smile. 'No politicians, no press." He eased flee, aware of how gray her face was even with the oxygen the paramedics now had her on. 'They are going to take you to St. Luke's hospitall I'll be bringing Shari there in a few minutes."

Beth nodded, and Marcus rose to let the paramedics take her out. He liked Shari's mom. Stubborn grit, his sister Jennifer would have said, and said it with admiration.

Shari would be a few moments. Marcus moved across the suite to the connecting door, turning his attention back to the victim.

Within the hour, the national news would have the details and this investigation would become a coordination mess. The only way to survive the firestorm was to solve the case fast. When he found the shooter... 'What do you think?" Marcus asked Dave.

'The shooter had the nerve to walk into a place full of copsl the hit was well-planned. He got surprised and didn't finish off the witnesses, so he's not an ice-cold, paid professional. This was personal," Dave replied, thinking out loud.

Marcus began to string together what he saw. 'The shooter waits for the judge to enter the rooml kills him with three shots to the center of the chest. He surprised when the connecting door opens. He hits the door frame instead of Shari, and the other shots fired into their suite appear to be scattered, so he's acting panicked. A little more control and all of them would be dead."