Chapter 28 Upstanding Christian Men
TWENTY-EIGHT
Upstanding Christian Men
Hutch
After Hutch eventually got a call from Raul to bring Mabel down to give a statement, they swung by her place so she could change her socks and get her boots and coat.
She’d fled her own fucking home in her stocking feet.
Hutch couldn’t think on that, or he’d tear Harry’s office apart.
And for the last two hours, they’d been sitting in that office, waiting while what sounded like Fret County Sheriff’s Department was having a very busy Saturday night down the hall.
They’d gone through two cups of coffee that Polly brought them.
And Hutch was beyond pissed, he knew unreasonably.
But he had friends up there.
Lillian was pregnant.
Rus had two blood children and Cin’s daughter who thought the world of him.
He wanted to know what the fuck was going on.
When they were at her place, and when they were driving by, you could see the red and blue lights of a fuck ton of cop cars lighting up the night sky over that compound.
But once they were in the station and settled, they hadn’t heard dick except Polly apologizing someone hadn’t seen to them yet and the commotion outside the door.
It was after midnight.
He had to get his woman some sleep.
So, first, he wanted to know the status of his friends.
Second, he had to know if it was safe to go home, or if he was taking her to the Pinetop, going back to get his pups and their animals and joining her there.
This was his thought when the door opened, and Sean stuck his torso in.
“Hutch, can you come with me, please?”
Before Hutch could make any demands, Sean looked to Mabel, his face gentled, and he said, “Polly’s going to bring you more coffee, and when I get done taking Hutch to Harry, I’ll be back to take your statement. We’ll bring Hutch right back when he’s done with Harry.”
Thank fuck.
Harry was okay.
“Okay,” she said to Sean.
Hutch assessed her.
She was a lot better. Breathing. Not shaking. No more screeches. And visibly relieved as well that Harry was okay.
“Good, babe?” he asked to be certain.
She nodded. “Go, honey.”
He returned her nod and followed Sean.
When he hit the bullpen, he saw Fret County deputies, law enforcement from other towns, a man and a woman in FBI windbreakers, four men in DEA ones, the conference rooms had their blinds firmly closed, and everyone was hustling.
Sean led him to a back room Hutch had never been to, knocked, called, and then let him in.
Harry was in there, so was Rus—thank fuck again—and they were accompanied by another DEA agent.
Sean closed the door behind him just as Hutch noticed on the table the four large black nylon totes, all of them open, and all of them were stuffed full of baggies filled with blue pills.
“Fentanyl,” Harry said. “Our guess, up from Mexico and waiting for a courier to cross the border into Canada.”
“Fucking shit,” Hutch said, staring at the haul.
His attention turned because Harry was on the move. “Thought you’d want to see. Let’s go talk in Polly’s office.”
He wasn’t wasting time, and Hutch wasn’t going to waste it for him.
With a nod to Rus, he followed Harry to Polly’s office.
Harry didn’t sit.
He just rested his ass against the front of her desk and crossed his arms as Hutch closed the door.
He planted his feet and crossed his arms too. “I know you’re busy, man. And Sean is taking Mabel’s statement. I just gotta know if she’s safe, and then you can go do what you gotta do.”
Harry nodded. “She is. And Cade can call a fucking ball.”
If Harry needed to talk it out, Hutch was there.
“This is a goddamned mess,” he bit.
So he needed to talk it out.
“We got seven women and seven men who are utterly bewildered by what’s going on. Strike that. We got seven women who are pissed as shit and want to press charges, and seven men who think they’re gonna take their women home any second now, so they can tend the pumpkin patch tomorrow.”
“You are shitting me,” Hutch said low.
“No. I didn’t report that right. There are a couple of women who are half sunk in Stockholm Syndrome, but they aren’t completely gone.
They’re dazed and confused and flipped out.
But all the men are thinking they could just tell us they have nothing to do with any drugs, they’ve given their statements, and they have no clue why they aren’t being released.
Things are gonna get a lot more confusing when we arrest all their asses for kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment. ”
“Christ,” Hutch clipped.
“We also got two women and five men on the run. Three have already been caught in the next county. And it fucks me to say this, but Enstrom, Burris, Martin and Schrier are among the ones we haven’t yet apprehended.
We got all points on them. We got flags at ports of entry.
Probably every cop in Washington State is out looking for these guys. ”
Hutch nodded.
That was good.
He hoped they nabbed them.
Fast. So this shit could be over.
“So, piecing together some hysterics and a lot of yelling with some sobbing and a bunch of words, and all that is no judgment,” Harry said.
“Those women have been through it. But first thing, for Mabel, the woman she saw racing to her is with us. She’s fine.
She’s got some scrapes on her feet because she got the chance to get through the north gate, and for a shot at freedom she wasn’t going to fuck around with getting dressed.
Took her man’s keys, crept to the gate, had trouble prying it open, because apparently, it’s a heavy motherfucker, and took off.
Sadly, he noticed her gone and raised the alarm. They caught up to her.”
Hutch nodded again.
“But, see, these fuckin’ men,” Harry spat the last word, “ate the food the women cooked for them, food the women planted and grew and milked cows and all sorts of shit for them, and for some fucked-up reason, they forgot these women had the ability to hear. There was talk about Mabel, just her existence and her renting that cabin. Though, most of the talk recently was about you, her boyfriend, the Navy SEAL. She said she might not have made a run for it if she didn’t think you were there, but was considering it anyway, in hopes, if she made it that far, Mabel would give her sanctuary and call the police.
Bottom line, she thought if you saw her, you’d give chase. ”
“I would have. But I wasn’t there.”
“I know,” Harry replied. “She also said all the women got interested when they heard someone, anyone, was in that cabin because they might be able to get to whoever it was. They weren’t allowed to congregate for long, and therefore plan. But they had their ways of communicating.”
“Right,” Hutch said.
“Again, lots of talk about you, brother. You tweaked Enstrom and Burress big time. They were pissed as fuck one of their disciples wrote that note and got on your radar. One of the women, one of the more together ones, said she wasn’t surprised they were into a big bad.
She claims she never saw anything, but she said she knew Enstrom, Burress, Martin and Schrier were shifty, not men and women of God.
Enstrom was not a savior on Earth. They were just fucked-in-the-head fucks.
After he conned her into becoming a part of a good, clean, pure Christian community, she tried to tell her man that, he wouldn’t listen. ”
Hutch made sure he was breathing steady so Harry could see him do it and maybe match his rhythm.
Harry wasn’t feeling the call to calm.
He kept laying it out tersely.
“And she says she overheard them talking, and she couldn’t be sure, but she thought maybe they were planning to bug out.
She thinks they were outfitting some other place to carry on whatever they were doing.
Which would have left that group in a lurch if Enstrom wasn’t around to fight to retain that land.
And I guess Flannery’s niece now has her answer, and at least someone is gonna get something out of this.
But as for those women, they were catching the vibe the end was nigh, and everyone but those stupid fucks”—he jerked his head toward the bullpen—“were feeling that same vibe. The woman who took off, her name is Paisley, shared that was one of the reasons she took her shot. Things were changing. And she already didn’t like where she was.
She didn’t want to go somewhere else she never signed on for. She wanted out.”
“So it was unraveling,” Hutch said.
“There was unrest,” Harry replied. “Though I’m not sure those devotees had enough gumption to do anything about it. They had it good, what’s to change? Why complain?”
“What you got out there?” Hutch asked.
“Take your pick. Kidnapping. Unlawful imprisonment. Possibly rape. Because some of those women have had children.”
“Jesus Christ,” Hutch growled, even if he’d seen them and taken pictures of them.
Harry went on, “Accessory. Trafficking. Intent to distribute. Oh yeah, and lumber poaching. We now got a lot of reports of missing trees and even some witnesses who say they saw that group hauling them on CR 10. It might take a week just to untangle what charges we should land on who.”
“You said that woman talked to her man. Is this wives and girlfriends, like Cade said?” Hutch asked.
Harry jerked up his chin angrily in assent.