Chapter Seven #2
Yeah, he knew. “They tried to kill me last night. Locked me in a room with Donald Dempsey and set the place on fire. If not for him,” she said, hiking a thumb at Eli, “I would be dead. If you don’t help us, sooner or later someone is going to die. In the name of New Dawn Revolution.”
“Dempsey died this morning,” Trujillo said.
The news sent a chill over Olivia. “I—I thought he was recovering.”
Eli put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently.
“Complications. He suffered a heart attack,” Trujillo said. “The terrorists you organized and trained, Maben, are wanted for murder.”
Gripping the counter, Maben bowed his head and hunched his shoulders.
“You knew they were planning something,” Olivia said, and Maben squeezed his eyes shut.
“If we find footage of any NDR member entering the senior center while you were inside, or pumping gas while you were on shift, or eating at a nearby table in the diner, it won’t be hard to argue that you maintained ties with them, in violation of the terms of your parole.
I don’t think you’d ever condone violence, or the methods they used last night, but if you don’t give us something to go on right now, you’ll end up back in prison. ”
“When I was released from jail, I stayed away from them. I did. The controversy over the land deal and the endangered species happened while I was locked up. Eventually news spread about the grand opening of the Rising Rock Resort. I tried to ignore it. Then NDR sent that white box with the bloody handprint on it to the hotel.”
“It was paint,” Olivia clarified, “made to look like blood.”
“That’s when I started hearing talk that NDR was planning something. Possibly violent. Members were leaving the group because of it. But for every one person they lost, they gained two more.”
“Heard talk where?” Eli asked.
“At the gas station. The senior center. The diner. The post office. Whispers everywhere.”
Olivia stepped closer to him. “Why didn’t you do something to stop it?”
“I did.” Maben looked up at her, eyes wide with distress, face flush. “I passed word through one of the waitresses at the diner that I needed to talk to Audrey. Discreetly. Someplace public where I thought I could get away with a brief discussion.”
“Name of the waitress?” Trujillo asked and Maben told him.
“Audrey Carter, Dempsey’s assistant from the hotel?” Olivia asked, keeping her tone soft, and Maben nodded. “Why her?”
“She has a gift for getting close to those in power. I figured if anyone knew who was leading the group now, she would, and she’d probably be their right hand. The way she was with me. And I was right.”
Trujillo took notes. “When and where did you meet?”
“On Monday. At the Town Pump. We only talked for a minute. Maybe two at the most when she came to the register to pay for gas. I begged her to convince whoever was in charge to call it off. I didn’t want anyone in NDR to have blood on their hands. It went against what we believed in.”
“How did she respond?” Eli asked.
“She warned me to stay out of it. Called me an old man with antiquated, ineffective ideas. Told me Shepherd was calling the shots. He was finally going to get them results.”
“Do you know anything about Shepherd?” Trujillo turned the page in his pad. “Full name? What does he look like? Where can we find him?”
Maben shrugged. “Never met him, but Audrey mentioned he has serious training. From the military. She also said something that gave me chills. Told me what they were planning for the resort was the birth of a new dawn and all the things that were going to follow would change things for the better.”
“Sounds like they have big plans,” Olivia said. “Plans that are going to get a lot of people hurt or killed.”
Grimacing, Maben nodded. “I got the same notion. It scared me.”
“Heard any more whispers about what they might be planning next?” Eli asked.
“No.”
“We’re going to need the names and addresses of all known NDR members,” Trujillo said.
“I’ll give you what I can, but there’s no telling who’s still active and I’m not privy to any of the new people. It’s my understanding there are a lot of them all over the state.”
New leadership and turnover in members were going to make their job that much harder.
“I also need you to tell us everything you can about Audrey Carter,” Olivia said. They needed to know her weaknesses, habits, whatever made her vulnerable.
“Not much to say about her,” Maben said. “She’s headstrong. Tough. Drawn to power like a moth to a flame. The only thing she cares about more than NDR is her brother. Kevin.”
“Kevin’s her brother?” Eli asked, almost to himself.
That tidbit was in the deep dive Lauren had sent to Olivia.
There was so much to share with Eli, she hadn’t gotten around to that part.
The two grew up in a broken home, with a single mother who was an alcoholic.
Audrey was five years older, and Kevin was only twenty-two.
She protected her mother from the scrutiny of child protective services and did whatever was necessary to avoid foster care.
At seventeen, she turned to the NDR, looking for purpose and a different kind of family.
She found both. After that, there wasn’t much on either Audrey or Kevin.
“Yep,” Maben said. “It’s just been the two of them for so long. Audrey convinced Kevin to join New Dawn. I think it was a way for her to keep him close. She’d do anything for him.”
Maybe that was something they could use. “Any idea where she’d go to hide out?”
“Not far, I can tell you that. Rising Rock, the surrounding towns, Kevin, and the NDR is all she knows. All she has.”
Not anymore. She also had Shepherd.
“When you were in charge,” Olivia said, “did you make a habit out of giving your planned attacks—”
“Demonstrations,” Maben interjected, “and protests.”
“Did you give them operational names?”
Maben’s brow wrinkled. “What do you mean?”
“The attack at the hotel with the fires,” Eli said, “they called it Protocol Gloriosa.”
“Gloriosa?” Maben scratched his head. “Like the flower?”
“What kind of flower?” Olivia wondered.
“It’s a striking lily. The petals are bright red to orange. It’s often called a flame lily.”
“Clever,” Olivia muttered.
“I never named any of our demonstrations or protests,” Maben said. “That’s different.”
Everything was different because of Shepherd. She exchanged a glance with Eli. A leader of a terrorist organization with former military experience was proving to be more than problematic. This new entity was dangerous.
Maben made coffee. Everyone sat, except Eli—he preferred to stay standing and move around a bit—while the founder of NDR gave them a list of names, addresses, and phone numbers of the members he knew. They spoke for hours, squeezing the founder for anything potentially helpful.
Trujillo warned Maben not to leave the area and then they left his house.
In the driveway, Trujillo stopped them. Or rather Olivia. “Hey, Lane.”
Eli hoped this wasn’t going to get ugly.
“I think it’s time to hit him with the four essentials,” Olivia whispered to Eli.
She’d spoken of it many times. Her former mentor’s essential four steps for effective persuasion. Ask questions. Establish credibility. Find common ground. Create buy-in.
But Eli had never seen her put it to work.
Olivia turned around and plastered on a pleasant smile. “Yes?”
Eli stayed at her side. Not that she needed any backup from him in this regard.
“I don’t think I made myself clear earlier,” the guy said.
“Are you upset, Agent Trujillo?” she asked.
“Yes, I am.”
Her demeanor was pure professionalism. “What’s the problem?”