Chapter 11 #2
“Maybe Stuart Ramsey found the Krugerrand on the plane just before he sabotaged the plane’s engine.
” She warmed to her theory. “He could have told Bartoli about what he found only after your dad took off with my parents to fly back to Wyoming. Could be that Ramsey secretly kept some of the coins for himself.”
“Okay, but then why come after me now? Six years later?” Dom crossed his arms over his chest, propping his lean hips against the counter. “This danger now has to be connected to Stuart Ramsey’s deathbed confession.”
“Yeah.” Kendra nodded slowly. “I can see how that could be the catalyst here. But I still think the Krugerrand coins are significant.”
Before Dom could respond, the front door opened. Griff and Levy were accompanied by two Cody police officers, Burt Jones and Heath Anderson.
Burt eyed her grimly, then relaxed when he saw Justin and Raine standing nearby. Thanks to her older siblings, Burt Jones was overly protective of her. She had to smile when Stone and Smoky wagged their tails in greeting.
Burt bent to pet each of the dogs before addressing her. “How did this gunman find you again?”
“We’re not sure.” She glanced at Dom, not sure that it was worth going into detail about their hacker theory. “Did Andrew Levy tell you that he verified the vehicle was a black GMC Sierra truck? And that the license plate was covered with snow or something similar?”
“He did.” Burt nodded. “We’ve updated the BOLO accordingly.”
“Great.” She stepped back when Dom approached with two cups of coffee for the two officers. “The sooner the officers patrolling the street find it, the better.”
“We’re doing our best.” Heath sounded a little testy.
“I know you are.” The last thing she wanted was to annoy the officers. The Sullivans had been through a lot over this past year, and they needed to keep their good working relationships with the local authorities. “We just thought the updated information would help.”
“It will.” Burt sipped his coffee, eyeing her over the rim. “You don’t have anything else for us to go on, like a description of the shooter?”
“Unfortunately, nothing more than a white guy in his twenties or early thirties.” Dom shrugged. “I think it’s interesting that these recent attempts have been from a distance. Like he’s not willing to get too close for fear we’ll return fire.”
“That’s a good observation,” Kendra agreed. “You quickly returned fire when we were at the hotel, remember? The shooter must have been caught off guard by us having a weapon, although I’m not sure why, and has decided to keep his distance moving forward.”
“Great,” Heath muttered. “That’s only going to make it harder to find him.”
“We’ll find him.” Burt turned to face Griff. “Where will you take Kendra and Dom next? Somewhere we can help keep an eye on them?”
“I’m working on a safe house.” Griff glanced at her, then toward Justin and Raine. “I’m waiting for my boss to get back to me. In the meantime, we won’t use the Sullivan name moving forward.”
“Or Dom’s name,” she added. “He’s the main target.”
“Yep, we need to be incognito.” Griff looked down at his phone. “This is my boss now.” He swiped his finger over the screen and moved to the other side of the room where it was quieter to talk.
“I may have dinged the truck,” Levy said to the second pair of officers who arrived. “I tried to disable it but must have misjudged the distance.”
“Any other markings on the truck?” Sergeant Tom Howell asked. “Other than the license plate being covered with snow.”
Levy stared down at the floor for a moment, then sighed. “No, I remember glancing at the driver, trying to shoot at the truck, then seeing the covered plate. I’m disappointed I missed him.”
“We’ll find him.” Howell turned toward her. “Have you asked Smoky to find shell casings?”
“No, but we can do that now. Come, Smoky.” Kendra headed into the kitchen to fill a bowl with water, setting it on the floor for her K9. Justin did the same with Stone. She grabbed her backpack so that she’d have the stuffed hippo to use as a reward.
After both dogs had lapped at the water, she turned to the door. “Let’s go, Smoky!”
“Come, Stone,” Justin added.
Outside, she took Smoky to one side of the house. Justin and Stone stayed on the other side to avoid both dogs alerting on the same shell casing. She bent down and held Smoky’s gaze. “Are you ready? Huh, girl? Search! Search for gold!”
Justin gave Stone the same command, and both dogs eagerly went to work. Smoky trotted along the side of the road sniffing intently. Stone moved farther down the street.
It didn’t take too long. Smoky alerted first, but it was only a few seconds later that Stone did the same.
Kendra approached Smoky, pulling the hippo from her bag.
Seeing the shell casing in the snow, she injected praise in her tone.
“Good girl! Good girl, Smoky.” When she tossed the hippo into the air, her K9 leaped up to snatch it.
Soon Stone and Smoky were running around the yard with their respective rewards. She turned to see Heath Anderson beside her. “Here’s one casing. Stone found one farther down.”
The Cody police officer placed the shell casings into two evidence bags. He turned toward her. “What about searching the side of the house where US Marshal Levy fired his weapon?”
“I’ll do that, come, Stone.” Justin called his K9 over. Less than five minutes later, Stone alerted again.
“He only fired twice?” Heath asked.
Kendra pursed her lips. “I thought I heard more shots than that, three or four? But it could be that those shells landed inside the truck.”
“Yeah, okay.” Heath crossed over to where Stone alerted. “Thanks for your help with this.”
“Anytime.” Justin bent to rub his hands over Stone’s fur. “Our K9s love to work, huh, boy?”
Kendra held out her palm. “Hand.” Smoky trotted over and dropped the stuffed hippo into her palm. Kendra tucked it away, then turned to head back inside.
“Do you think Griff will get the feds to cough up a safe house?” Justin asked as he joined her.
“I hope so.” She grimaced. “We could use a break. The danger has been relentless.”
“Yeah. And I’m not sure about the hacker angle.” Her brother shot her a questioning look. “Is that even possible?”
“I’m not the expert, Dom is.” She tried not to sigh. The family seemed to think she knew more about computer stuff than she did. “If he thinks a hacker is involved, I believe him.”
“You trust him?” Justin grabbed her arm to stop her from going inside. “I mean, you’re sure he’s not part of this?”
“Yes, I trust him. He’s the one in danger.” She kept her voice firm. “He didn’t ask to go into witness protection. That was his father’s doing. And that was only after the cartel murdered his mother. Dom’s a good guy. He’s done his best to protect me every step of the way.”
“Okay, if you say so.” Justin had obviously taken orders from Chase to vet Dom. “He looks like he’s interested in being more than your friend and co-investigator.”
“You’re delusional.” Kendra yanked free and opened the door, even though her foolish heart leaped in her chest at the thought of Dom being interested in her. Not that there was any chance at a future. “You’re just jealous because he’s taller than all of you.”
“Yeah, he is, but that’s not it,” Justin said. “I don’t want him taking advantage of you.”
She almost mentioned the fact that she’d kissed him but managed to hold her tongue. Her siblings didn’t need to know about her growing feelings for Dominic.
The Cody police officers cordoned off the scene, huddling together outside the rental house as they discussed their next steps.
“There you are,” Griff said when she and Justin went back inside. “I have a place we can stay that is owned by the feds. No ties to you or Dominic.”
“What about internet access?” Dom asked.
“There is internet access.” Griff arched a brow. “But I thought you were concerned about being found by a hacker.”
“I am. A hacker is the only answer that makes sense as to how we keep getting found at each location. Even those where we haven’t left so much as a paper trail.” Dom shrugged. “But I can think of another trick I can try to make sure to hide our electronic trail.”
“I’m not sure you should do that while being held in a federal safe house,” Levy protested. “Where are you going to go if that place becomes compromised?”
“I don’t know, but I think we need to continue digging into Bartoli’s connections.
” Dom glanced at her, then to Griff, Justin, and Raine.
“Don’t you? I mean, how else are we going to find this guy?
We’ve identified the truck, but without plates, it’s not likely to be found.
And for all we know, the shooter has ditched the truck for something else. ”
Griff rubbed his jaw. “Yeah, I agree, we do need to keep investigating. The internet access is connected through the federal government, so I’m not sure if you’ll be able to use your new trick.”
Dom offered a lopsided smile. “No offense, but I’m pretty sure I can.”
Griff inclined his head. “I know you’re good, so no argument here. For now, let’s head over to the new place. It’s an isolated cabin located a few miles to the east of Cody, tucked off into the woods.”
“In the woods, huh?” Justin sighed. “Good thing we have four-wheel drive.”
Kendra frowned. “Okay, but help me understand how this will work. Are you thinking we’ll all follow each other there like a mini caravan? That might be a bit noticeable.”
“Yes, we’ll follow each other, but we’ll take the back roads,” Griff explained. “There’s a little-known highway that winds to the north around town that will take us there. As Justin pointed out, our vehicles with four-wheel drive will come in handy.”
Kendra nodded, reminding herself to have faith that Griff knew what he was doing. Her brother-in-law had never steered them wrong. Levy was one of the good guys, too, but she didn’t trust him the way she trusted Griff.
With her life and Dom’s.
“Works for me,” Raine said. “And I agree about needing to continue our investigation. We absolutely need something more to go on to find this guy.”
“I have an idea about that,” Dom said. “I hate to say it, but we may want to start digging through the employees who work at Data Intelligence Services.”
“What’s that?” Justin asked. “A known group of hackers?”
“Not exactly. Data Intelligence Services is the company I work for. But I happen to know there are a lot of employees, guys and girls who may have done some hacking on the side.” Dom grimaced.
“Nothing too terrible or they wouldn’t pass the background check to be hired on as employees.
But if I’m being honest, I’ve taught a few of them how to bypass or alter the ISP address to hide access the same way I do. ”
Kendra frowned. “Are you saying you actually taught your coworkers how to hide their location from others?”
“Well, hiding from others wasn’t really the intent, but yeah. It’s a handy skill to have when you’re testing data programs for weaknesses.” He shrugged. “I never intended the skill to be used to break the law or anything like that. It’s one of many tools we use to build secure systems.”
Kendra remembered watching Dom work. “I tried to follow what you did, but it was way over my head. If you ask me, only someone with advanced skills could pull that off.”
“But what Dom is saying is that a lot of people in his computer software industry can probably do that, right?” Raine asked.
“Yes,” Dom said. “I taught myself, so others could do the same. As Kendra said, it’s highly technical. That’s why I think Bartoli may have hired a hacker.”
“I’m too old for this,” Levy muttered. He raked his hands through his hair. “And I don’t like knowing the whole Sullivan family might be in danger now too. Maybe we need to consider a different alternative.”
“Like what?” Kendra turned to face the marshal. “Are you thinking of setting another trap for this guy?”
Levy made a face. “I was thinking more along the lines of helping Dominic disappear. For good.”
It took Kendra a moment to understand what Levy meant. “You mean, putting him into the witness protection program?”
“Exactly.” Levy spread his hands. “Why not? If Dominic disappears, the danger is over. Everybody can go home and live their own lives.”
Kendra’s chest tightened to the point she couldn’t draw a breath. Every muscle in her body rejected the idea of Dominic disappearing from her life, forever.
No way. There had to be another answer. Even if having a personal relationship with Dominic was out of the question, she couldn’t bear the thought of him being forced to cut ties with his friends, move to a new location, and take on a new identity and a new job.
Leaving everything he knew and cared about behind.
It was the bad guys who should suffer. Not Dominic. Especially since Dom hadn’t done anything to deserve this.