Both men laughed.
“You know, you might be onto something,” McCall agreed. “We’ve picked up most of them over the years, but hardly ever shoot them.”
“Most of us use Sig 9mms or .40 calibers for both our primary and backup weapons, but I’ve always thought it was a good idea to be as familiar as possible with as many different weapons as we can,” Gage added. “You never know when it might come in handy.”
They showed her a couple of their favorites, letting her hold them so she could get a feel for their heft and balance.
Gage eyed her curiously. “You have much experience firing a handgun?”
She shook her head. “Not really. I’ve only fired a gun once. My dad let me shoot his pistol when I was twelve.” She pointed at the big, heavy revolver she’d just been holding. “It was about the same size as that one. Scared the hell out of me and I dropped it. That was the last time he let me try.”
Gage frowned. “A gun that size isn’t made for someone with small hands, much less a kid.”
She couldn’t argue with that. While she loved her dad, he wasn’t the most patient teacher in the world, which was ironic considering it was how he made his living. If he knew how to do something, he just assumed everybody else should be smart enough to know how to do it, too. Luckily, he taught English literature and not a weapons class.
“You know,” Gage said, his dark eyes softening, “if you want to try again, I could show you how to shoot a gun you’d be more comfortable with.”
Mac smiled. “That sounds fun.”
Gage smiled at her in return, and she realized after a bit that she was just standing there with a goofy grin on her face. She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, looking away. And caught McCall looking at them expectantly.
“That does sound fun.” It took her a second to remember what they’d been talking about. That’s right. Target shooting. “We can get all the guys out there—it’ll be a blast.”
Gage scowled at him, but didn’t say anything.
Mac wandered around while Gage and McCall put away the weapons they’d dragged out. That was when she saw the hard plastic cases stacked on shelves inside a heavy-duty, wire storage bin.
She smiled at Gage over her shoulder. “You guys have more guns in there? What, you run out of cabinets and safes to hold them?”
Gage glanced at her as he closed one of the safes. “Those are our night vision goggles.”
Mac’s Spidey senses immediately began to tingle. “Like the ones the guys used during the hostage rescue today? They sound cool. Can I see them?”
“Sure.”
Gage took the set of keys McCall held out, then opened the gate. He grabbed the first box he came to and opened it, but not before she saw the name of the SWAT officer the goggles belonged to—Mike Taylor. The same Mike Taylor who’d supposedly worn them that morning. But from the layer of dust on the top of the case, it hadn’t been opened in a while, much less earlier today.
“I would have thought you’d leave these on your response truck,” she said as he handed her the goggles.
Gage didn’t answer right away. In her experience, that usually meant whatever a person said after that would be a lie.
“They’re expensive,” he said. “So we keep them locked up here in the cage between incidents.”
Uh-huh.
“These are PVS-14 military-grade NVGs,” Gage told her. “They run about four thousand dollars a pop, but are worth every penny.”
She only half listened as he explained how to wear the goggles and turn them on. Mostly because she was focused on trying to figure out what to make of this new piece of information. Obviously, they hadn’t worn NVGs—as Gage called them—on the hostage rescue that morning. But why not?
Because the drug they were taking allowed them to see so well in the dark that they didn’t need NVGs? But that was too stupid for words.
“When you come by to go target shooting, you can try out a pair of these, too,” Gage said as he put the goggles back in the case.
She nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
That could have come out a bit more enthusiastic, but she was still trying to wrap her mind around why a SWAT team would leave a critical piece of equipment behind when it went on a call. Maybe they’d forgotten to bring them. If so, Gage and his men weren’t dirty, just stupid. And that didn’t explain why they’d been able to see in a pitch-black building.
Mac gave McCall a wave as they walked out. Damn, the sun was already starting to set. She looked at her watch and saw that she and Gage had been walking around for almost four hours. And while she’d definitely enjoyed herself—maybe a lot more than she should have—she hadn’t gotten anything solid to go on. She’d been so distracted by his charm, tight T-shirt, and amazing good looks, she’d barely asked any of the questions she’d planned. The SWAT commander had handled her with ease, guiding the conversation and keeping her off her game for most of the afternoon. The only thing she could say for sure was that while she didn’t have a clue how all the strange tidbits of information she’d collected were connected, she was even more certain there was a story here.