Chapter 5
Kevin jerked at the pounding on his front door, and he grabbed the gun on his side, withdrew it from its holster, and made his way to the door. He saw who stood outside, whipped the door opened, and grabbed the man like a lifeline.
“Ryan,” he said as he hugged his brother-in-law. Ryan might be his ex-wife’s brother, but he was still family to him. “Welcome, come in. Coffee?”
“Yeah, I brought Manny, Denver, and Perry with me.”
“Okay,” Kevin said as he stepped back and saw the men.
“Sniper,” Denver said with a grin as he shook his hand. “Did someone say coffee?”
“Yes, did you eat?”
“Yeah, we stopped about an hour outside of Seattle. We also brought groceries with us.” Perry said as he entered with his arms loaded. “Also, a sniper.”
“Got it.”
“Ryan and I are munitions experts,” Manny said.
“Okay, the Sargeant of the bomb squad has been checking my vehicle before I leave here, and the office. He or someone on his team won’t allow me inside until they walk it and do a sweep.”
“Good,” Ryan said as he removed food from the bags on the counter. “I’m not saying you’ll have to call them off, but we’re here now.”
“Good.” They put the groceries away, and Kevin showed them where they could sleep. It wasn’t until hours later that Ryan looked at Kevin.
“What?”
“Has she really changed?”
“Yeah, not once did she act like the entitled bitch from the last few years of our marriage. I told her that I sent you the video. I asked if she wanted to see you.”
“What did she say?”
“That it was totally up to you, and that she would understand if you don’t. We were able to move her to a different prison that same day. To keep her safe.”
“What exactly happened?” Perry asked as he settled back in a chair.
Kevin told them, and looked at Ryan with a grin. “I haven’t looked for it yet.”
“Looked for what?”
“The reason she went ballistic, and Strokes called the gang member is because in that letter Karen had written about how she took your half of the life insurance money from your parents and hid it in the attic. Cash. She wrote out in detail how it was protected, and where it was located.”
“Holy shit, how much are we talking about?” Ryan sat forward with a shocked expression.
“Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
“Where’s your attic?” Ryan asked as he jumped to his feet. He looked at Kevin with a shake of his head. “Do you remember Staci Hardt?”
“I do, she’s Caleb’s friend, as well as a gifted doctor.”
“Okay, she’s found someone that might be able to make me a prosthetic eye. I’ll never be able to see out of it, but I might be able to ditch the patch. I don’t have seventy-five thousand dollars for it though.”
Kevin led them to the attic, and when they were all in, he turned in a circle. “She said it was in the rafters of the attic. Oh, and it’s wrapped in plastic and stuck in a fireproof box.”
Kevin looked on in awe as the four men used their eyes and hands to convey their intent, then produced a flashlight from somewhere.
They went in different directions, and Kevin stood there and watched them.
He didn’t have to wonder if they had done this while in the military, their movements were too precise, too comfortable.
An hour later, everyone froze when someone’s knock on wood changed to the sound of knocking on metal.
They all looked around, and saw Ryan’s hand on the wall, and a gigantic grin on his face.
Once they surrounded him, he brought his hand out of the hole he had been tapping in, and held what looked like a metal cash box.
Instead of opening it there, they all went downstairs, but not before Kevin took a flashlight and shined it into the hole. He saw something and brought it out to bring with him.
In the kitchen, they all washed up, filled a cup for coffee, and settled around the island. The only people standing were Kevin and Ryan.
“Go ahead,” Kevin said, then grinned as he pointed. “It’s got your name on it.” They all leaned in and saw his name written in a feminine scrawl. “That’s Karen’s handwriting.”
Ryan nodded and slowly opened the box, withdrew the plastic bag, then opened that. He pulled out an extremely slim baggie, and Kevin saw it had evidence written on it and realized she must have taken it from his vehicle. Inside was an envelope.
“Do I need to have you check it for prints or anything?”
“No, this has nothing to do with a case. This is personal.”
“What about the insurance company?”
“Nothing, she kept her money, and this is yours. Maybe open the envelope to find out what it says?”
Ryan chuckled and did, then nodded. “Basically, what the video said, and that this is mine. She even included a copy of the payout check.” He passed it around and reached in for the next plastic bag. He opened it, and pulled out plastic wrapped bills of all denominations, and spread it out.
“Jesus,” Kevin said when he saw it all laid out.
“Christ,” Ryan said with a shake of his head. To break the tension, he looked at his friends. “I wonder how many chickens I can buy with this.”
They all laughed, and Ryan had succeeded in breaking the tension that had gathered when they’d seen all the cash laid out on the counter. They all shook their heads, and looked at each other with grins.
Instead of doing anything with it, Ryan gathered it up, and put it back in the box.
Then asked Kevin to lock it in his gun safe, which he did.
They stood around the kitchen when Perry jerked, reached for his sidearm, and held his finger to his lips.
Suddenly everyone was on alert, and they all had a gun in their hand.
“Where,” Ryan mouthed the word.
Perry answered with hand gestures, and since it was a Sunday, Kevin sent a quick text, showed it to them, and wrote on a napkin that Hammer was three blocks away.
The men went in different directions, and when they saw shadows go across the windows, they waited until they passed, eased up the windows, and climbed out to follow them.
The entire thing took a harrowing five minutes, and when seven men from the Seattle Police Department Bomb Squad jogged into the area, seven men were on the ground with their hands zip-tied behind them, and their feet tied.
“Jesus,” Hammer said as he took in the scene, and looked at his men. “Call it in. Lassiter, call Boggs.”
Manny walked over to Hammer to introduce himself, and hands were shaken. “Mind if I take a couple of your guys?”
“Why?”
“To check out the cars in the neighborhood. We didn’t hear anyone drive up.”
“I’ll go with you,” Kevin said. At their look, he shrugged. “I know which car is supposed to be here.”
By the time they spotted a vehicle that Kevin hadn’t recognized, he used his cell phone to call into the station.
He, Manny, and the other guy high-fived when the report came back to belonging to a known gang member.
Kevin called for a tow truck, and the guy from the bomb squad checked it out.
In plain sight in the back seat lay evidence of potential bomb making materials.
Manny waited with the other guy for the tow truck, while Kevin jogged back and talked to the others. A few minutes later, the neighborhood filled with flashing lights and sirens screaming. Boggs was the third vehicle to arrive.
Ryan stood there with a gigantic smirk on his face.
“What’s with the expression?” Kevin asked with a frown, and everyone turned to look at him.
“Perry heard these guys.”
“Yeah, so?”
Perry’s grin was just as big as Ryan’s. “I was discharged from the military because I had tinnitus so bad that I couldn’t hear the comms in my ear.
After arriving where I live, I was in a gunfight, was rushed home, dumped in the back of my truck, rushed to the hospital, and had to be rushed to the operating room. ”
“Okay, but what does that have to do with your hearing?”
“They found blood clots behind my ear drums. That was the result of being too close to an explosion when I was deployed.”
“Wow, so you heard these guys outside my house?”
“Not so much heard, but saw.” Perry grinned. “I saw a shadow cross a window, then heard a branch break.”
“Well, I don’t know how you did it, but thank you,” Kevin said as he shook his hand and slapped him on the back.
They watched as the cops that had arrived in the police cars started slapping handcuffs on the men on the ground, and brought them to their feet.
Boggs shook his head as he looked at the seven men being led away. He turned to Ryan and his friends.
“You’re going to have to give statements.”
“Not a problem.” Ryan grinned. “At least we won’t have to do the paperwork.”
Everyone laughed, and then they broke away to give those statements.
Kevin looked at his boss with a heavy sigh. “So, how many of those idiots are on our most wanted list?”
“All of them. I recognized them all. Every single one of them have outstanding warrants.” Boggs looked at Kevin with a smirk. “Are you going to press charges?”
“Absolutely. It might only be a misdemeanor for trespassing, but it’s another charge on their record.”
“Good. Now, we have to take them down to the station, book them, charge them, and interrogate them.”
“Do you want me to come down?”
“No, stay here with your friends. We’ll take it from here. Have you had a chance to look at the information from HR yet?”
“Not yet, why?”
“Just wondering. I’m not wanting you to leave, but with all the help you have, you might be able to retire a few days earlier than you anticipated. I do know that you’re owed personal, sick, and vacation days, maybe you can use them to leave sooner.”
“I’ll look into it. I do have a question, though.”
“Shoot.”
“Will I be able to go back and see Karen before I leave Seattle?” Kevin nodded over to the police taking statements from the SEALs.
“The guy with the eye patch is her brother. I haven’t brought it up to him yet, but I was going to see if we could go see her one last time.
I’ll come back to court if I have to, but I’m out of here. ”