Chapter Eighteen
SETH AND NOAH stared down at the farmer’s body with Elias and Iona. “This will change everything,” Seth said. “We have to report the body to the authorities, and we’ll automatically become suspects in his death.”
Elias’ gut knotted. “That also means we won’t be able to leave the area until the police clear us, which they’ll take their sweet time doing.”
“Store weapons before I call the police. We don’t know what their response times will be.”
“I’ll let the others know,” Noah said, and left the farmhouse.
Seth turned to Elias and Iona. “If you touched anything, wipe it off.”
Really? He hadn’t resigned as a detective that long ago. His friend was worried, however, and Elias understood that. “Got it.”
Elias glanced at Iona, and they returned to the truck to store their weapons in the safe. Their teammates also brought weapons to store in the truck’s floor safe. When the front safe was full, they filled the second safe, this one in the backseat’s floorboard.
By the time the operatives finished unloading weapons, the safes in the truck’s floorboards and in the motorcycles’ hard saddlebags were full.
Five minutes later, two squad cars arrived with lights and sirens blaring. Seth waited for the officers on the porch with Noah. Their expressions were grim. Little wonder. Not only were they prime suspects, but someone could have been watching them and reporting in to Dutch and possibly his father.
His stomach churned with nausea at the thought that Eddie was manipulating not only Elias but his friends as well.
Before now, Echo and Artemis had been out of his reach.
The last thing Elias wanted was for his father to sully the excellent reputations of these two black ops teams. If he could do it, Eddie would destroy both teams just to punish Elias.
“You the one who reported a body?” a grizzled cop asked Seth while the younger cop monitored the operatives with his hand resting on the hilt of his weapon.
“Yes, sir. I’m Seth. This is Noah. Follow me.”
The three men disappeared into the house while Young Cop stared at the rest of them.
Wonderful. Not. Just looking at him made Elias feel old. The kid couldn’t have been out of the academy for long. Reminded Elias of his first days on the job, although he’d been in his thirties, having spent a decade in the Army first.
He wrapped his arm around Iona’s shoulders and drew her against his side.
When Young Cop stiffened, Elias kissed Iona’s forehead but remained silent.
No need to worry the kid because he couldn’t let suspects compare stories.
That didn’t mean that Elias had to give up a few minutes of pure pleasure holding Iona.
Grizzled cop walked onto the porch, looking ghostly white. “I need to call in the detectives. These boys were right. We’ve got a body.”
“It wasn’t natural causes? Merriweather was an old guy, you know.”
“He died from a bullet to the head. I think I know when a death is a murder by now.” Grizzled stalked to his cruiser, opened the door, and sat on the driver’s seat while he used the radio to request the detectives.
Great. How long would it take for the detectives to arrive? Depended on whether they were tied up at another crime scene. He considered that a moment and decided that wasn’t likely. Red Rock wasn’t exactly a hotbed of crime.
Grizzled rose and returned to Seth and Noah, who were standing with their wives. “Detectives will be here in a few minutes. You need to wait until the detectives interview you, then you can go home.”
Looking resigned, Seth said, “We live in Nashville. We’re just visiting for a few days.”
“Who are you visiting?”
And here is where even more suspicion would fall on the Fortress operatives.
“Dutch King.”
Grizzled’s eyes narrowed. “You’re friends with the leader of the Blackthorn Riders?”
“You could say that.”
He scowled. “If you were smart, you’d choose better friends.” Grizzled motioned toward the truck. “Go stand over there. No talking. In fact, all of you stand over there and keep your traps shut.”
Nice. If he and his teammates had treated witnesses who were potential perps like that, they would have earned a reprimand.
Violet looked at Elias and signaled for him to get into the truck.
Nope. Not happening. The last thing he wanted to explain to the officers was his gunshot wound, and they didn’t like unexplained events. He shook his head slightly.
The medic glared at him, but thankfully remained silent.
Twenty quiet minutes later, a plain sedan turned into Merriweather’s driveway and parked behind the motorcycles and truck.
Two men climbed out of the vehicle and tugged their jackets and ties into place.
Unlike the dress pants or khakis Elias and his teammates wore on the job in Ardmore, the detectives here could wear jeans and boots.
Man, that would have been useful on some of those calls where they’d tramped through woods and fields with waist-high weeds and grass. Sure would have saved them all from battling so many ticks, chiggers, and snakes.
The detectives walked up to the uniformed officers and asked a couple of questions.
The answers had them staring at Elias and the other operatives.
This would be fun. No doubt the detectives would run the fake identities to check for priors and warrants.
Elias hoped Zane had been at the top of his game in creating their backgrounds.
If he’d missed anything, it would raise a flag in the minds of the detectives, and the likelihood of the operatives spending time behind bars rose dramatically.
Finally, the two men motioned to Grizzled who, after a hard stare at the operatives, led the detectives into the farmhouse.
Young cop fingered his holster nervously as he watched the men of Echo unit. Not once did he consider the women to be dangerous. He needed to wise up fast, or he might lose his life to a woman without the honor of the Artemis team.
Ten minutes later, the detectives approached the operatives. The taller detective said, “I’m Detective Jason Darby. This is my partner, Detective Mark Caldwell.”
Seth said, “I’m Seth Dawson.” He introduced each operative to the detectives.
Darby nodded toward the porch. “We can’t go inside the house, but we can at least let the ladies sit on the porch while we talk.”
“Good idea.” Seth motioned for the teams to do as suggested. He nudged Teagan ahead with Violet so that he and Noah put themselves between the detectives and their wives.
Feeling like a wuss, Elias sat on the porch with the women. His shoulder ached fiercely, but he wouldn’t give in to his need to support or massage the muscles near the injury. To do so would bring questions he didn’t want to answer.
Darby glanced at him, then turned his body so he could keep Elias in his sight.
Nice. He’d captured the detective’s interest, anyway. That was the last thing he wanted to do. He wondered if there was a big hole in the yard where he could disappear for a while.
Step by slow step, Grant acted as though he was restless so he could maneuver in front of Elias to give him some respite from the detective’s observation.
Iona turned her back to the detectives and wrapped her arms around him, careful to not put pressure on his injured shoulder.
Yep, he was an official, card-carrying wuss, but he couldn’t deny enjoying the comfort of her touch, either. More importantly, he knew what that move had cost her. Iona never turned her back on cops or potential enemies.
Elias wished they were at home, not locked into Red Rock as witnesses who might be suspects. This wasn’t a beneficial situation for him and the team to be caught in. For their own safety, they should leave at the first chance they had. However, Merriweather’s murder complicated everything.
In answer to a question from Darby, Seth said, “Elias and Iona were the ones who discovered Mr. Merriweather’s body.”
The detectives turned toward them. They glanced at each other, then headed in Elias’ direction.
He loosened his hold on Iona and nudged her to his side, where she could face the detectives.
Darby pulled out his notepad and pen and said to Elias, “Tell us what happened.”
“We rolled up to the farmhouse about eight and knocked on the front door. Mr. Merriweather didn’t answer, and the door was open, so we went inside and called out. That’s also when we noticed the damage in the living room, like there’d been a fight.”
Iona rested her hand against Elias’ back. “We didn’t think anyone would leave his house unlocked, so we were worried that Mr. Merriweather was inside the house somewhere, hurt.”
“We searched the house and found Mr. Merriweather lying on the kitchen floor, just as you saw him.”
“Did you touch the body?”
“I checked for a pulse.”
“Did you touch anything else?”
“No, sir.”
Darby gave him a hard stare. “You realize that we’re going to print this place. If you touched anything and you lied to us about it, we’ll be talking to you again, this time in one of our interrogation rooms.”
“No problem. We’re glad to help if we can.” Especially since he and Iona had wiped down every surface that they’d touched.
“How long had you known Merriweather?” Caldwell asked.
Elias thought fast and went with a version of the truth. “We didn’t.”
“So why were you here?”
“We wanted to ask Mr. Merriweather if he minded our riding around the edges of his property.”
The cops stared. “Why?” Darby asked.
Should have seen that question coming from a mile away. What now? Usually, he was fast on his feet. Not today, though. Elias couldn’t think of any reason strangers would make such a weird request of someone they didn’t know.
Iona smiled. “The boys want us to learn how to ride motorcycles in case there’s an emergency and we only have access to the bikes.”
“Isn’t there enough room out at the Blackthorn clubhouse to ride around?”
“Would you want to learn to operate a motorcycle in front of experts like the Blackthorn Riders?”
Amusement lit his eyes. “Not particularly, no.”