Free Good Side of Sin by K. S. Haigwood Page A

his friends showed up and took him and the bodies with them! Tell them! Tell them that you saw three guys come in the hotel room, pick up the psycho killer and the two dead bodies, and then just disappear into thin air!” Ethan twisted and jerked free of the guys and then took a step toward Cross. “Tell them the truth!”
    Boggs chuckled. “They have medicine for this sort of thing down at the jail, son. We’ll have you fixed up in no time.” He nodded to the two men at Ethan’s back and they grabbed his arms again.
    “Wait!” Cross shouted, and then her eyes shifted back and forth between Boggs and Ethan. She swallowed, audibly. “He’s telling the truth. I don’t know how to explain it, but it happened just like he said it did.”
    Boggs glared at her through narrowed eyes. “You ’spect me to believe that?”
    Cross huffed and shook her head as she looked back at Ethan. “No, I don’t, but it’s what happened, regardless of what you believe. I wouldn’t have believed it myself if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. Cabrejos still doesn’t believe me, but the fact remains that every dealer Ethan has delivered to this week has gone missing before we could bust them. I had to know what was going on, so we set up a fake deal and had Ethan carry for us. He brought the product to Blake and Donahue in a suite at Caesar’s Palace. Everything was going fine until we heard a knock at the door. Donahue went to check it out and then the door was blown inward, on top of him. Ethan and I hid under the bed and watched as a guy walked into the room and killed Blake, and then he took the decoy product from Ethan’s backpack and sat in a chair. After screaming for a few moments, as if he were in some sort of horrible pain, he closed his eyes and went to sleep or passed out. I’m not sure what the hell happened to him, actually; it was all real confusing and unexpected, to say the least.”
    “Uh-huh,” Boggs said. “And why didn’t you do your job? This murderer should be in custody or dead right now.”
    “I—I was just about to, but then we heard footsteps and three other men came into the room and picked up all three of them, and then just disappeared.”
    “You just let them all walk out with a killer and two dead agents, without trying to stop them?” He shook his head. “We have medicine for you, too, honey. That statement will probably cost you your badge and—”
    Cross slammed her fist on the table between them, getting everyone’s attention, and then she glared at the Marshal. “No! They didn’t just walk out of the room! They disappeared, just like Ethan said. They vanished into thin air, without a trace left behind. Believe what you want to believe, but I’m not letting you take my witness with you today, Marshal, not until we figure out what happened to the missing people, including Blake and Donahue.”
    Eight more guys walked into the room and stood by Cross and Cabrejos, and then turned to face the Marshal. The familiar ‘chick-chick’ was heard throughout the room, and then the barrel of a shotgun came into Ethan’s view. A further glance showed him a little, old, white-haired lady with her finger on the trigger, pointing it at one of the two men behind Ethan.
    One of the guys beside Cross picked up a chicken leg and took a bite. He pointed what remained of the leg at Boggs and said, “You three won’t be the first dead bodies my granny has buried ’round here. If I were you, I wouldn’t waste any more of my time here if you intend to leave.”
    The two guys released Ethan and he walked slowly to stand behind Carlos.
    Boggs’ face turned a brighter shade of crimson as his eyes widened in anger. “You’ll all lose your badges and go to prison for—”
    “Get on outta here!” Granny spat, and waved the barrel of the shotgun at the Marshal. “We’ll deal with them if and when anybody else is dumb enough to show up.”
    Boggs eyed her warily, but backed out of the room with his