Sin City Assassin (The Bill Dix Detective Series Book 3) by C.L. Swinney

worked her way to an access hatch that she assumed would be locked. She also noticed right away that only one police-looking vehicle sat outside instead of the several she’d seen earlier in the day. That son of a bitch better be here. When she reached the lock hatch, she could see she guessed right; it was locked. She retrieved a pair of lock cutters and wrapped the lock with a rag. Her plan was to cut and catch the lock before it hit the garage floor, but if it didn’t work out that way, wrapping it would lessen the sound it would make if it hit the concrete floor below.
    She pushed the handles together, snapped the lock, and caught it as it dropped. She grabbed gloves and put them on. She took a flashlight out and put it in a pocket. Then she took a silenced weapon from the backpack and put it in her waistband. She reached into the backpack and pulled out a tightly wound up Ziplock bag. She flipped it forward and it unrolled revealing a professional business suit. She attached the suit still within the plastic bag to a clip on her back. After putting the lock cutter and lock into the backpack, she stashed it behind some water pipes. Doing all this gave her time to think about her next problem. Now that the card is deactivated, I need another way onto the secure floor. She retrieved the backpack, rummaged around, and found a hacking device. On it was a note from Blass, “Just in case.” She smiled and put it in her vest pocket. She put the backpack back in the hiding spot, and pulled herself up into the air ducts.
    She knew the first and second floors were out of play because they contained admin offices and the cafeteria. The information she’d gotten from the weapons supplier was that law enforcement members were normally kept on the fourth floor in the trauma unit.
    She continued to climb her way up through the ducts. The narrow ducts made it slow going and she focused on being quiet. Every inch she crawled seemed to last forever and each tiny sound her body made caused her to cringe.
    Once at the fourth floor, she was able to work her way to the nurse’s station. Through a small grate she could see several nurses and a security guard. She didn’t notice any uniformed officers on the floor. Based on what she saw, she decided the maintenance closet, which would grant her access to the floor, had to be along the east wall. As she pulled her way to the intersection of the ducts, her gun slipped out of her waistband and made a clunking noise. Marie froze.
    A nurse heard the sound and turned to look at the duct Marie was in.
    Another nurse pointed at the ducts down the hallway. “Did you hear that?”
    The first nurse rolled her eyes. “You hearing things again?”
    “No really, I heard something.” She pointed excitedly to the grate in the duct. “It was a thump coming from right there.”
    The security guard wandered over to see what the fuss was about. “What are you ladies going on about?”
    Marie carefully retrieved the gun and briefly considered shooting her way out of the bind and trying to get the UC another time.
    The first nurse laughed. “Oh, Sherri’s hearing things in the vents again.”
    The security guard looked at Sherri. “It’s probably a rat,” he said, knowing Sherri hated rats.
    Sherri laughed. “That’s enough you two. There’s something up there, but I’m too busy to check it out,” she lied. There was no way she was going to get anywhere close to a rat.
    They all shared a laugh and went back to work. Marie waited a few minutes before moving. She found the access onto the floor through the maintenance closet and stepped out. She was covered in sweat. She began controlling her breathing and drying herself off. She put her hair in a ponytail and put on a pair of glasses that she had placed in the plastic bag with the suit. Next, she pulled out the business suit and laid it flat on some boxes in the maintenance room. She dusted it off and changed quickly. She placed the silenced gun