Part 17 (1/2)
Lei looked toward the door, but Ken and the young man had gone to the front of the house with the rest of the gangsters the team had rounded up. They were alone.
”That your grandson? The kid I picked up for tagging?” Lei distinctly remembered running the boy down as a teen, tackling him four years ago.
”Yes. He's a good boy. Went to college. Not in the game.”
”He's not in the drug game; he's in a different game. Do you know what he does on those computers?”
”He has an online business. Brings in plenty of money that way. Legit.” Healani's ragged voice had gotten stronger. ”You leave him out of this.”
”Mrs. Chang. We aren't here for you. We're here for him.” Lei measured each word and bit it off. The fight drained out of Healani Chang's eyes, and the life with it.
”Can't believe none of them got you,” Healani said. ”I should have killed you myself.” Her voice was so low Lei had to lean in to hear it. Lei could tell the news about her grandson was a crus.h.i.+ng blow by the leeching of color from her puffy face. Lei frowned, but before she could say another word, she found herself looking into the black bore of a weapon the woman had brought up out of the bedding.
Lei dove, banging her head on the steel bed and her chin on the stand of the IV rack. She was stunned, flat on the floor and seeing stars. She heard the boom of a pistol report in the enclosed s.p.a.ce, then a second one.
She was too dazed to get up and was unsure where Healani was aiming next. She stayed down, waiting for the spinning stars in her vision to subside. She cursed herself for not searching Healani's bed. The woman was deadly no matter her age or disability.
She heard the rus.h.i.+ng thunder of boots, heard them stop in the doorway, heard her partner yell, ”Lei! You okay?”
”Gun!” Lei yelled back. ”She's armed!”
”Not anymore.” Ken came forward to stand in front of her. ”What happened?” Lei could see him looking around, his brows drawn down in concern.
One of the squad appeared in the door. ”Oh s.h.i.+t.”
Ken reached down and helped Lei up. Her head spun, and she clung to him, turning to look at the bed-and wished she hadn't. Most of Healani's head was gone, and gore covered the wall behind her body.
”Oh G.o.d,” Lei said. ”Oh. G.o.d.”
She felt visceral horror rise up and squeeze the breath out of her lungs. There was a hole in the side of the mattress where Healani had taken a shot at Lei.
”Where's your weapon?” Ken's voice was sharp.
”Holstered. I never saw it coming.”
”Give your weapons to me.” She was barely aware of handing him her Glock and her backup weapon, she was so dizzy. She needed Ken's help to walk back out of the house. Her legs had gone rubbery, vision doubling in and out. He supported her outside, and she dropped to the ground. ”Are you injured?” he asked.
”I hit my head. I don't feel well.” She rolled to the side and vomited, narrowly missing his boot. He cursed.
”Medic! First aid over here!”
Lei closed her eyes, feeling the roughness of the uneven gra.s.s of the Chang front yard against her cheek and utterly lacking the wherewithal to do anything more than lie there. She must have a concussion. She felt something damp wiping her hands.
”Just rest. You're going to be okay.” Ken's rea.s.suring voice. An ambulance pulled up, and Lei opened her eyes. Lying facedown on the gra.s.s, cuffed a few feet away with the other suspects, the Chang grandson stared at her, and she recognized the implacable hatred in his narrowed eyes.
She closed hers to shut it out.
Hours later, they descended off the helicopter, and Lei and Ken accompanied Terence Chang III, aka Lightbody, off the helicopter and into the Prince Kuhio Federal Building. He'd been formally charged with multiple counts of third-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Through all the proceedings, he had never asked for a lawyer.
Lei's head hurt, thumping with pain along with every breath. The EMTs had diagnosed her with a minor concussion, but once she told them about her head injury on Maui, they wanted to put her in the hospital for observation.
She'd declined and followed Ken and the prisoner toward Conference Room B, where they conducted hostile interrogations. Waxman walked up to her, accompanied by Sophie. The tech agent looked tense.
Ang frowned as Ken guided Chang into the interview room. ”I thought he'd be older,” she said.
”Texeira.” Waxman stopped Lei with a hand. ”I heard you were supposed to be in the hospital. You have a head injury on an old head injury.”
”I'm okay, Chief. I want to be in on the interview.”
”I want you to go home. Call for someone to keep you company and put compresses on it.”
”No, sir.” Lei pulled herself fully upright, looked him in the eye. ”I need to see this through.”
He stared back for a moment, then sighed. ”Okay. You can join me in the observation room. But I want Sophie in the interview with Ken. She'll know what kinds of questions to ask Chang related to the website.”
”Okay.” Lei exchanged a glance with Ang. She trusted the tech agent-Sophie'd know what to ask Chang even more than Lei did, and that old history wouldn't distract from the interview. ”It might be good to sit down for a while.”
Lei followed Waxman into the dim cave of the observation room as Sophie followed Ken into Conference Room B.
Chapter 28.
Sophie felt all her senses sharpen as she stepped into the bare room behind Ken, who had attached the prisoner's handcuffs to a ring on the steel table. The room smelled musty and closed up, and she realized how seldom she'd been in it-her job was usually behind the reflective mirror on the other side.
Overly bright fluorescent lighting bleached out Lightbody's black unders.h.i.+rt and bent head. He was midtwenties, medium-height, slender-built, with the olive-tan skin of mixed Asian and Hawaiian heritage.
Sophie'd brought her handheld tablet to make notes, and she had an Internet connection open to her computers so she could ask him site-related questions. She sat down beside Ken, who'd turned on the recording equipment at the door. They were both piped in to monitors and clearly visible to Lei and Waxman on the other side of the mirror.
Ken stated the date, time, and names of all present and started in. ”Tell us about the philosophy behind DyingFriends and how it got started.”
The young man, Terence Chang III, rubbed the skin of one wrist. Sophie could see it was red and abraded from the cuffs.
”Agent Yamada, I wonder if Mr. Chang needs to be cuffed. He doesn't seem like an ordinary criminal,” Sophie said.
Ken glanced at her, one brow raised, but went with it. He reached over with his key and undid the cuffs. They dropped free with a metallic clang.
”All right, Mr. Chang.” Sophie placed the tablet on the table, touching it with her long fingers as she gazed at the young man. ”I am an admirer of your work. The DyingFriends site is an extraordinary accomplishment.”
Terence Chang looked up, eyes widening slightly. She flattered him some more.
”I'm a technology specialist for the FBI, and I routinely crack into databases and track their source within hours. It took me an extraordinarily long time to penetrate your site and track you down, and in the course of the investigation, I came to admire both your skills and your pa.s.sion for your cause. This is your moment to share your vision with us. Help us understand what you were trying to accomplish.”
”I did accomplish it.” Terence sat back with a return of what looked like a natural arrogance in his demeanor. ”I wanted to help people who were mentally or physically dying adjust to their circ.u.mstances, make it easier. Help them by having some control and say over the process.”