Chapter 10
Dominic stared at the computer, his fingers resting on the keyboard as he pretended to work.
After a minute, he realized that was silly.
Why not work for real? Might as well see if he could find anything more about the three men who had been at the hangar in Jackson the week before his father was murdered.
And if he still couldn’t find anything useful about them, he could go back in time another week to see who else may have been there. It was the only lead they had, unless they could convince Andrew Levy to talk.
In the meantime, he’d keep searching. Once again, he rerouted the ISP address to hide his work. Even though he was searching for real, it was difficult for him not to glance through the large picture window to the road out front.
Two minutes went by. Then six. Then ten.
He honestly thought Levy would have shown up by now. Dom turned and allowed himself to look outside. His body was wound tighter than a drum, so he stretched his arms over his head to loosen up. And if anyone was watching from a distance, he hoped they’d assume he was taking a break.
Not trying to see if Levy was approaching.
Seeing nothing outside, he turned his attention back to the computer. When a large truck rolled past, he almost missed it.
Levy had taken the bait. Although this time, the guy didn’t open fire on the house. It seemed more likely he’d driven past to make sure Dom was there before making his move. Good. Dom continued staring at the computer screen, imagining Levy would find a place to park and approach on foot.
Come on, he silently urged. Show your face already!
As if hearing him, a vehicle pulled into the driveway. That was so unexpected that Dom wondered if Levy had sent his partner driving past to approach from the back of the property. The same way Justin, Raine, and Griff had come in.
The knock at the door almost made him jump out of his skin. What were Kendra, Justin, Raine, and Griff doing? Waiting for him to attack?
Feeling foolish, Dom approached the front door. He opened it, but only a couple of inches, staring at the forty-something-year-old man standing on the front porch.
“Dominic Lakeland?” Levy held up his badge. “I’m US Marshal Andrew Levy. You’re expecting me, right?”
“Freeze!” Raine’s sharp tone had Levy spinning around in surprise. “Hands where I can see them!”
“What’s wrong with you?” Levy didn’t raise his hands, but he didn’t reach for his weapon either. Probably a good thing since Griff was covering him from the other side. The marshal looked irritated and exasperated. “What is this about? You asked me to meet with you!”
“We did.” Raine didn’t lower her weapon. “Kendra, take Levy’s gun.”
Kendra holstered her own weapon before moving forward to disarm Levy. Smoky, her K9, trotted alongside her, sniffing Levy’s feet with interest. The guy scowled. “You better have a good reason for taking my gun.”
“How about several shooting attempts against me and Dom?” Kendra arched a brow. “Does that work?”
“And you think I’m responsible?” The incredulous expression on Levy’s face appeared genuine.
“Come inside.” Dom stepped back, holding the door open. “We need to talk.”
“You think?” Levy’s tone dripped with sarcasm. “You’re all nuts to believe I could be involved in this.”
“We’re operating out of an abundance of caution,” Raine said as she, Justin, Kendra, and Griff came inside. Smoky and Stone chased each other around the living room until Justin and Kendra called to their respective dogs.
Both K9s obediently returned to the kitchen and crawled under the table.
Levy stood off to the side, his arms crossed over his chest, his expression unamused. “I demand you return my weapon. Immediately.”
“Let’s talk first,” Dom suggested. “Give me one good reason why we should trust you?”
“I’m a US Marshal!” Levy shouted the words. “We protect witnesses, we don’t shoot at them.”
“My former boss wasn’t exactly an upstanding example of a US Marshal,” Raine drawled. “Anyone can be sucked in by easy money.”
“Not me.” Levy scowled. “I don’t do this for the money. I do it because I care about putting bad guys behind bars. Which is much easier to do if you can convince citizens to testify against them in exchange for a new identity.”
Dom glanced at Raine and Griff. Their expressions didn’t give much away. Yet he was starting to wonder if they’d gotten this wrong.
That Andrew Levy wasn’t their shooter.
“Let’s all have a seat,” Griff suggested. “We’ll return your weapon as soon as we clear up a few things.”
“Starting with how long have you been in Cody?” Dom asked. “And how did you know that’s where we were?”
Levy stood for a moment, then sank into one of the kitchen chairs.
There were only four seats, so Justin and Griff remained standing.
“I’ve been in touch with the Cody police department.
I learned there were several shooting attempts here in town.
The sergeant said he didn’t know if you were around, but I figured the shooting had to be related to you, so I headed here. ”
“How exactly?” Dom pressed. “You drove? You flew? Where was your starting point?”
“I drove from Denver. Took me a solid nine hours because of the snow.” Levy narrowed his gaze. “Do you understand how rare it is for us to lose a witness? Those who are part of the program rarely end up getting found and killed. And those who are found typically have broken the rules in some way.”
“You’re saying my father broke the rules?” Dom shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Levy leaned forward.
“Your father learned to fly small planes prior to his being placed into WITSEC and being relocated to Montana. When your dad arrived in Billings, he worked for the power company for the first few years. Then he met the owner of the charter company. When the old man died, he passed the plane on to your father.”
Dom stared at the marshal, his thoughts whirling. He had vague memories of being with a babysitter while his dad worked. He’d just assumed his father had always been a charter pilot. But if Levy was right, then his dad had given up his job to take over the charter business.
“Hard to believe Gunther’s men figured out that Gary Lakeland was an alias for whatever his real name was,” Kendra protested. “They knew him as an accountant, not a pilot. How would they know?”
Levy waved a hand. “Gary Lakeland’s real name was Gregory Lamb.
And Gregory Lamb had a pilot’s license. He was also a Certified Public Accountant.
Both licenses are easily found online. And when Gary Lakeland obtained a new pilot’s license under his fake name, I assume someone put two and two together to come up with four. ”
“How?” Dom demanded.
“We often use the same initials when relocating witnesses so it’s easier to become accustomed to their new name,” Levy explained patiently.
“Your father was a very smart man. Like brilliant. However, thinking he could go back to being a charter pilot despite being told he needed to cut ties with everything he’d done before was a massive mistake that ended up getting him killed. ”
Dom wanted to rant, rave, or curse. Instead, he bit his tongue. Maybe Levy was right in that his father’s taking on the role of being a charter pilot after having a pilot’s license in the past had gotten him killed. There was nothing he could do about that now.
The present was a much bigger concern. Obviously, he wanted to know who paid Stuart Ramsey to kill his father. But more than that, he wanted to know who was shooting at them now. And it made sense that it must go back to the same man who had hired Stuart Ramsey to sabotage his father’s plane.
“Tell me more about these shooting attempts,” Levy said. “Why on earth would you assume I’m involved?”
“Because we kept getting found, despite my efforts to hide our internet connections.” Dom eyed Levy. “You have the resources to track our disposable phones.”
“I do, yes. But I didn’t do that.” Levy sighed. “I haven’t taken any shots at you. I have no reason to want you dead. Any protectee death is taken very seriously by our program. Losing your father is a stain on our record.”
Dom glanced at Raine and Griff. Their expressions didn’t reveal their thoughts, and he couldn’t help being frustrated.
“What do you think? Can we trust him?” Dom asked.
“His weapon doesn’t smell like it’s been fired recently.” Kendra pushed the gun toward Griff. “We can search his car, see if that reveals any new information.”
“I’ll make some calls. We should be able to verify when Levy left Denver.” Griff left the weapon on the table, choosing instead to move into the other room to use his phone.
“Fine, you do that.” Levy crossed his arms over his chest again. “You’ll learn I’m telling the truth.”
Dominic exchanged a glance with Kendra. He knew they were both thinking the same thing. If Levy wasn’t the shooter, then who was?
And more importantly, how did he keep finding them?
Kendra was growing convinced that Levy was one of the good guys. Smart of Griff to make sure, but if Levy had been in Denver as he claimed, he couldn’t have been in the large GMC Sierra truck shooting at Dominic outside the Redwood Motel in Greybull.
And that meant the real shooter was still out there, somewhere.
Kendra leaned toward believing Levy’s story since Smoky hadn’t alerted on his scent.
Not that she had provided her K9 with a scent source, but if her dog had caught the bad guy’s scent at some point during the past fifteen hours, especially that first night when she’d crossed the shooter’s tracks in the snow, she felt certain Smoky would have alerted on him.
She reached over to touch Dom’s arm. Their attempt to trap the shooter hadn’t quite worked out the way they’d hoped. But if Levy was innocent, then meeting with him would help fill in a few blanks.