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Back Blood in the Water Save as PDF
Chapters (82)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  4. ONE
  5. TWO
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. TWENTY-FIVE
  29. TWENTY-SIX
  30. TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. TWENTY-NINE
  33. THIRTY
  34. THIRTY-ONE
  35. THIRTY-TWO
  36. THIRTY-THREE
  37. THIRTY-FOUR
  38. THIRTY-FIVE
  39. THIRTY-SIX
  40. THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. THIRTY-NINE
  43. FORTY
  44. FORTY-ONE
  45. FORTY-TWO
  46. FORTY-THREE
  47. FORTY-FOUR
  48. FORTY-FIVE
  49. FORTY-SIX
  50. FORTY-SEVEN
  51. FORTY-EIGHT
  52. FORTY-NINE
  53. FIFTY
  54. FIFTY-ONE
  55. FIFTY-TWO
  56. FIFTY-THREE
  57. FIFTY-FOUR
  58. FIFTY-FIVE
  59. FIFTY-SIX
  60. FIFTY-SEVEN
  61. FIFTY-EIGHT
  62. FIFTY-NINE
  63. SIXTY
  64. SIXTY-ONE
  65. SIXTY-TWO
  66. SIXTY-THREE
  67. SIXTY-FOUR
  68. SIXTY-FIVE
  69. SIXTY-SIX
  70. SIXTY-SEVEN
  71. SIXTY-EIGHT
  72. SIXTY-NINE
  73. SEVENTY
  74. SEVENTY-ONE
  75. SEVENTY-TWO
  76. SEVENTY-THREE
  77. SEVENTY-FOUR
  78. SEVENTY-FIVE
  79. SEVENTY-SIX
  80. Praise for Blood in the Water
  81. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  82. Newsletter Sign-up

“I’ll never let go of it.” She took a deep breath. “I remember the lights,” she began. “They were swirling … red and blue and white … so bright. They were there, in front of the house, and I couldn’t figure out what they could possibly be doing there. It didn’t make sense. There were so many cars. So many lights.”

“The police?”

She nodded. “And ambulances. I don’t even know why they were there. Neither one of them was going to the hospital.”

“What happened?”

“There had been a fight at the school a week before. One of the kids involved in the fight was being recruited by MS-13. Dillon pulled him off another kid, and held him back. The kid fought to get loose, but Dillon was a big, athletic guy, and he manhandled the kid pretty easily. He didn’t hurt him—not really. Maybe a bruise or two from being held, but nothing serious. I guess the kid felt like he had been disrespected. He was in the final part of his initiation, and the last thing he had to do was carry out a murder. He chose Dillon.”

Cormack leaned in, wordlessly encouraging her to go on.

“It was the day of my last law school exam. I was looking forward to a break with Dillon and Ollie, my son. He’d just turned six. We were going to go to the beach the next day. Everything was perfect.”

“What happened?”

She shook her head, as though she might be able to dislodge the memories that crawled through her brain. “There were so many police cars and ambulances,” she said. “It didn’t make any sense, but I knew, somehow, that it was bad. It was written on the faces of the detectives. They weren’t just dead. If they’d just been dead, their faces wouldn’t have been so white—so drained of patience for the horrors that human beings are capable of. They wouldn’t let me into the house. They said it was too terrible.”

“Machetes,” Cormack said quietly under his breath. It was the weapon of choice for MS-13 when carrying out revenge killings.

Kit nodded. She could feel the wave of memories cresting the parapets of her defenses. “They were hacked to death. The coroner estimated that it took at least a half hour for them to do the damage they did. I never even got to say goodbye to my son. There wasn’t enough left to say goodbye to. I never got to see him. And I never went back into that house. There was nothing left for me. They arrested the kid, and sent him to prison, but there were others who had helped him. Others who held my husband down and made him watch as they hacked our boy to death.”

“That’s why you went into the FBI.”