44. Ledger
Ledger
Bullets fly and ping, and I keep my head down, going behind the truck to check on Beckett.
The Special Response Team moves in towards the barn from where the shots are coming.
Using the truck door to shield me, I get to Beckett, and he’s groaning, struggling to sit up. I don’t see any blood. I check for injuries and find a bullet lodged in his vest.
A rush of relief goes through me. He’ll live, maybe with a broken rib for a bit. I pat his cheek, helping him reorient himself and his eyes refocus on me. “You’ll be alright, come on,” I tell him. There’s no time for codling.
He groans.
“Can you stand?” I ask him.
He nods, and I help him to his feet, keeping my head down.
“Status,” I call through the walkie.
“Moving in on the barn, the house is unbleached. I repeat, the house has not been entered.”
“Roger,” I respond.
Beckett nods, ready to go, and we join the other team going to the house to the right.
Bullets start breaking glass, aiming straight for us, and we take cover, firing back when the opportunity arises.
There’s no time to think or consider.
There’s only response.
We encroach on the house as someone fires from the upper floor. Beckett and I get to the side where the angle can’t reach, and someone comes around the back, gun pointed at Beckett. I fire and the man drops.
I run over to him and kick the gun away, flipping the man onto his stomach and grabbing my zip ties to pull his wrists together.
“Come on, man! You shot me!”
“I shot you in the knee. You’ll live,” I grumble.
Bullets continue to rain down from the house. A few SRT take some and we have one officer down, with medics on route. We had them on standby for this exact reason.
Eventually, we climb up the steps to the front porch and kick the door in.
I check the right. Beckett checks his left. “Clear!”
Three SRT come in behind and go back towards the living room.
“Sheriffs Department! Truman Kensington, we have a warrant. Come out with your hands up and we can end this!” I yell.
A few more bullets fly out, but nothing within the house. I’ve never been in here, but Will was able to give us some insight into the layout.
I motion to Beckett I’m headed up the stairs.
He nods, gesturing back.
I quickly check the higher vantage point, and no one is there. When I make it to the top, Beckett and two others join me.
We clear each room one by one and find Mrs. Kensington and Kate hiding in their closet with streaks of mascara running down Kate’s face, and Mrs. K looks madder than a hornet’s nest. “Kate, Mrs. K,” I mumble gesturing for them to get out.
Beckett grabs his zip ties, pulling them around their wrists.
“Keep them here,” I tell one of the agents. He nods, and we continue checking the house.
When we get to the last room, the door nearly blows off the hinges with a shotgun blast.
We fall back for cover as my ears ring from the blast.
The other two approach the door, and someone keeps firing. We hold back, waiting for our moment. When the bullets stop. They move in, bringing down whoever was in there.
I follow them in, and it’s not Kensington Sr. It’s one of his ranch hands, Jacob Dunn.
A bullet hole, center mass bleeds profusely and I check his pulse. It’s barely there, but I put pressure on his wound.
An SRT agent takes over performing field response, and we call for another medic.
“We need Senior. Does anyone have Truman Kensington?” Beckett calls over the radio.
“Negative.”
“Negative.”
“Dammit,” I grumble.
I switch stations. “Teams, does anyone have Kensington Sr.?” I ask.
They all click back with a negative.
With the house clear, I go back to Kate and Mrs. Kensington.
“You’re a piece of work, Ledger Hayes,” Kate spits.
“I could say the same,” I mumble.
“Y’all ruined everything,” Mrs. K says.
Forcing myself not to lose my cool, I look her in the eye. “You and your family have ruined enough lives and this town.”
She huffs. “They wouldn’t have gotten their fix somewhere else.”
“They aren’t getting it from you,” I mumble, pulling the ties a little tighter on her wrists.
“Where is Truman?” I ask them.
They both avoid eye contact and pin their lips together.
“Look, you can answer the question, or we’ll add a few more charges to your already long list: obstruction, harboring a known criminal,” Beckett says.
Kate glances up at me, and I squat down to look her in the eye.
The gunfire has slowed outside, but I know this isn’t over.
“Kate, please, I don’t want this to get any more bloody than it already has. This is over. Tell me where he is.”
She narrows her eyes and spits in my face. I swipe a hand over my face and wipe my pants.
“There’s my answer, I guess.”
“Where the hell could he be? We didn’t catch him leaving the property,” Beckett says.
I groan and head back down the stairs with Beckett in tow.
“We need to check the other barns,” I tell Beckett.
“My thoughts exactly.” Before we step outside, I radio to see where we’re at with securing the stables and barns.
“Secure, that blue one down the way has not been,” an agent says through the coms.
“Check in, how are we with securing vehicles?” Beckett asks.
I wait for him to tell me while he listens on the other channel. “Good job, team.”
“They secured all contraband in the vehicles,” Beckett says.
I dip my head once and rack my brain for where he could be.
“Boss, I think we’ve got something.” I recognize Luke’s voice.
“What is it, Luke?”
“We’ve got what looks like an underground bunker.”
“I should have guessed. Stay there. We’re on our way.”
When we get to the bunker, we inspect the perimeter, not that there is much of one. It appears to be buried only half-way as if it wasn’t finished.
It’s not locked from the outside, but likely from the inside.
Putting my ear up against the metal, I don’t hear anything.
Beckett and I stand back, and I nod to Luke to open the door. When he does, we find… nothing. Looks like storage for the ingredients to make cocaine and maybe some other drugs.
“Bunker clear.” I radio.
“Team, meet me at the blue barn on the east side of the house.”
“Copy.”
We hustle to the other barn that appeared to be empty, and as we approach, a spray of bullets makes us all scatter and return fire.
“I think we found him,” Luke says.
“Yeah, I’d say.”
“Requesting assistance.” Beckett calls.
“On our way.”
We all duck for cover and return fire at will. I reach for another clip, and I’m on my last one.
“Breaching from back.”
“Copy,” Beckett says.
We continue to return fire and approach the barn. Luke manages to get the door open, and an agent from SRT takes down the guy with the semi.
“Sheriff’s Department, put the guns down and your hands up!” I yell.
There are a few shots. Then it’s quiet.
“Ledger!” Luke screams.
And as I turn to see what he’s looking at. Grey is pointing a gun at me, smiling with his black and blue face.
I don’t think. I don’t question whether he’ll actually do it. I run right for him, angling my shoulder down and body slam him to the floor. I made promises that I have to keep.
Grey groans, and the gun flies out of his hand. Luke kicks it further out of the way, and I quickly roll off Grey and put him on his stomach. The bastard barely fights me.
I grab my zip ties and put them on his wrists. “I was hoping you’d be here.”
“Got him!” Beckett calls.
And sure enough, Truman Kensington is standing up in the loft with his hands behind his back.
“You’re proud of yourself, aren’t you?” Grey says through a fat lip.
I huff and lift him to his feet. “You know, I never really thought about it. I was just tired of you fools messing with my town.”
“Your town?” he grunts.
I pull him back, leaning in so I can say this in his ear. “Yes, my town because it sure as hell ain’t yours.”
He huffs. “At least I’m not fighting for another man’s seconds.”
“Don’t worry Grey, once you heal up, I’m sure you’ll be pretty enough to be someone’s first.”
Luke bursts out laughing behind me as I walk Grey to a cruiser.
“Did we locate Will?” I ask them.
Everyone shakes their head. “No one leaves until we do!” I yell.
An officer walks Truman Kensington out of the barn, and I get in his face. “Where is Will?” I ask him.
The corner of his mouth tips up. “You know, I have to admit you had me for a bit. I thought you pissed one of your guys off so much that he was willing to give us information about you. Then he brought me the coke he stole, and somethin’ about it didn’t sit right.
So friends close and enemies closer. I kept him real close,” Truman says with a wide grin.
I grab his lapel. “I’ll have them bury you under the prison. Where is he?” I ask him, becoming far too used to the cool and calm rage.
“He’s tied up in the old barn!” Kate yells.
Truman makes a face, and I jog over to the old barn. The thing is about to collapse. No one checked it. We clearly should have.
It takes me and Luke to pull the old door open, and sure enough, Will is tied up, gagged, and ducked in a corner, likely when he heard the gun going off.
He lifts his head and sighs. His face is all bruised, and he looks pale.
We get him untied and gagged.
“Finally. Took y’all long enough,” Will grumbles.
“We were kind of busy, man,” Luke mumbles.
“I was hoping you could come a little sooner. I’m starvin’.”
Then I see blood.
He groans, and it looks like he took a bullet to his side.
Will looks down. “Oh, shit, look at that.”
“Alright, let’s get you out of here. You did good, Will,” I tell him.
He winces as we get him up.
I radio for the EMT and someone comes running to help us get him into the ambulance.
“How is he?” Lawrence asks.
“EMT says he’ll be okay,” I mumble as we watch the ambulance drive away.
“We confiscated what appears to be the Chicago shipment,” Lawrence says.
“Everything else has been cleared,” Luke says.
“Copy. Let me find one of the ranch hands and make sure the animals are taken care of,” I mutter.
I want to go home. I want to hug my wife. But there’s still a lot to do here.