Chapter 20 Quebec #2
Burke’s gaze first went to Wilson. “No, she should be at the airport by now. I can’t call her and drop something like this on her.
” Then his eyes shifted to Tessman. When did he become an expert on how women handled things?
“You think I should wait until we get back to show her? Don’t you think the Richmond PD may want to investigate what she saw? ”
“I don’t see the hurry. The guy’s not gonna get any deader,” Tessman said.
“He has a point,” Wilson said.
They formulated their plan and donned their bulletproof vests, and went on comms. Then they parked just before the driveway to Greenwalt’s property.
Even with the barren trees, the branches of the heavily wooded area obscured the front of the house that was set back from the road several hundred yards.
They launched the drone and were glad they had when the camera feed revealed three vehicles in the driveway in front of the two-story home, including Oliveira’s Jeep and Edgar Forsander’s Suburban.
“Looks like the gang's all here,” Burke said. He checked the pairing app on his phone. “Elly’s phone still shows it’s in Lansing.”
“Yeah, Oliveira’s is still at his apartment,” Tessman said. “He’s smarter than I gave him credit for.”
“We’ve got at a minimum of three adult males in there,” Wilson said. “I’d bet both Forsander brothers plus Elly are inside too.”
“So at least four men plus the two girls,” Tessman said.
They brought the drone back and packed it back in the crate.
“The plan stays the same. We get in, get Zoe if she’s there, and we get out,” Wilson said.
“Burke and Tessman, you’ll go in through the front of the house.
Rogers and I will go in the back. We’ll get in position and give the go order for you to go to the front and whether to knock or bust in depending on what we see. ”
Burke knew the situation would be fluid. He and Tessman would have to adapt as the situation unfolded. “Roger that.”
Burke slid back behind the wheel and waited.
They watched Wilson and Rogers disappear behind the thick tree trunks and gnarled underbrush as they moved deeper into the property.
He checked his watch. He anticipated it would be a good fifteen minutes for the pair to circle to the back or the side of the house to then approach it.
Given the temperature, no one should be outside behind the house.
“The front window is a large bay window with no curtains. Got positive ID on our four male targets. You’ll never get to the door without being seen, as the front door is beside the window. We’re continuing now to the back,” Wilson’s voice came through comms.
“Any sign of our girl?” Tessman asked.
“Negative,” Wilson said.
There were a few minutes of silence.
“All the blinds and curtains on the back and sides of the house are closed,” Wilson transmitted.
“This makes it easy for us to approach, but we don’t know who is where in the house.
Moe and Handsome circle to the north in the trees and come in near the garage and vehicles.
Don’t let our targets see you. Advise when you’re in position. ”
“On the move now,” Burke transmitted. He and Tessman exited the vehicle and entered the trees. They were able to move to within twenty feet of the front door and conceal themselves behind the Suburban.
“In position,” Tessman reported.
“We’re at the back door and it’s unlocked,” Wilson’s quiet voice came through comms. “A quick look and no one was in the kitchen. On my mark, we’ll enter with open comms. When you hear we’re engaging, penetrate from the front. Hold position until then.”
Burke and Tessman exchanged nods. “Roger that, Taco,” Burke acknowledged.
They estimated it would take only a matter of seconds to rush to the front door from their location.
If the door was locked, they could kick it or bust through the large floor to ceiling bay window.
Either way, they’d be in the house in a matter of seconds.
“Entering now,” Wilson said.
Then he and Rogers silently opened the back door and entered the house.
To the right stretched a large kitchen. At the far end of the kitchen was an open doorway to a room that had probably once been a formal dining room.
There was no table in it that they saw from their location, just stacks of plastic boxes.
But through that open doorway, the conversation of the four men in the front room could be heard.
They discussed the visit Roderick Forsander had, or more accurately, Roderick Forsander griped about the fuckers who overtook him in his own house and what they were going to do about it.
To the left was a doorway to a bathroom.
Beside it was a hallway. Wilson and Rogers stepped into the hallway and determined one wing of the hallway circled back to the front door.
A second hallway ran perpendicular to it, dead-ending at a staircase that led down to the basement.
A door off the hallway opened into the garage.
Occupying the entire back portion of the house was a large room with a pool table and a bar.
“It’s downstairs,” they heard a man’s voice say. “Come down with me.” The voice moved closer as it spoke.
Wilson and Rogers slipped into the pool room and flattened their backs against the wall beside the door, out of sight.
Burke and Tessman waited, listening. From their vantage point, they could catch glimpses within the house, enough to see the four men still stood in the front room. And then all four men were gone from the room.
“Targets no longer in sight,” Burke transmitted. “Moving to the door.”
The two men ran in a crouched position up the few stairs to the raised front porch while keeping their eyes on the bay window. Through their comms, they heard nothing. Wherever in the house the four men went, it wasn’t to intercept Taco and Powder. They were still undetected.
Burke tried the doorknob. It was unlocked. “Breaching through the front into the vacant front room,” he transmitted before he pushed the door open.
It was eerily quiet inside the house. Burke stepped in, followed by Tessman.
Right in front of the door and tiled entryway were stairs that led up.
The open space to the right of the staircase was a hallway that ran deep into the house, dead-ending in an unknown room.
They could see that the front room curved around to the left.
Burke assumed that space had once been a formal dining room.
There was probably an open space or a door into the kitchen from that room.
Loud male laughter echoed up from below. Movement caught Burke’s attention deep in the house at the end of the hallway. Wilson.
“Targets are in the basement. Stairs are back here,” Wilson whispered through comms. “Moe and Handsome, clear the second floor. We’ll wait to engage if possible.”
“Roger,” Burke whispered.
He and Tessman mounted the steps, quietly creeping up each carpeted stair.
As they neared the top, they crouched low and listened.
They heard movement. Someone was up there.
Burke crawled up the last few stairs, peering over the top step and into the hallway.
There were four doors. They were all open.
No movement was seen in any of the rooms. The room at the far end of the hallway was a bathroom.
The door was half-closed, and the light was off.
The door on the left was the only door on that wall. The two other doors were across the hall. Burke guessed that the solo door was the door into the master bedroom, probably with a bathroom at the far end, closest to the other bathroom.
Given that this was Greenwalt’s house, Burke presumed the master bedroom would be his. He focused his gaze on the two doors that were side by side and listened intently for sounds of movement. Then he heard the unmistakable sound of a zipper coming from one of those two doorways.
He motioned to Tessman to go to the solo door. And Burke inched to the first doorway. He froze where he was for a moment after Tessman had entered the room through the solo door. Then he thrust himself into the room, his Glock held at the ready.
It was a bedroom. No one was within.
Burke slunk to the doorway into the other bedroom and paused as he glanced at the solo door. Tessman was still within. He heard a quiet, an almost whispered conversation coming from the room beside him. He couldn’t make out any words.
Once he saw Tessman in the doorway to the room across the hall, he motioned to the door beside him to alert him that their targets were inside.
Tessman crossed the hall and took up a position, ready.
The two men thrust themselves into the door where two young women sat on the bed.
Seeing the two men suddenly appear in the doorway, both Elly Forsander and Zoe Reopelle screamed very loudly.
“Shh!” Burke warned as the two men moved farther into the room so their backs would not be to the door. “Federal agents. We’re not going to hurt you.”
Elly Forsander fumbled with her phone. Tessman ripped it from her hands. Both girls still screamed, Elly for her brothers and Zoe for Frisco and David.
On the first floor, Wilson and Rogers heard the men coming up the stairs from the basement due to their heavy footfalls on the wooden stairs as well as their voices.
They remained where they were, hidden in the pool room.
Just as the men passed their location, they heard the female screams from upstairs.
Both men propelled themselves into the hallway, weapons trained on the backs of the four men who ran towards the front of the house. “Freeze! Hands up! Federal agents!” Wilson and Rogers yelled, the words overlapping.