Chapter 29
Leslie glanced out the window, still shaking from the incident.
“I can’t believe he gave you a ticket,” Rucker railed. “What a load of crap.”
“I know. I guess I can fight it,” she said noncommittally.
“What’s brewing inside your head?” Rucker asked her. “It feels like you’re chewing on something.”
Turning around, she glanced at the women as Elias and Wyatt watched the house from the upstairs windows.
They brought Mason’s boys into the laundry room and put them in the playpen to keep them corralled.
With no windows, they deemed it the safest place.
Tucker and Conner sat on the floor in the same room, playing a game.
“The night before we found Jeremiah, he called me around midnight. He asked me about Conner’s homework.
I thought he woke and sleep dialed me. He sometimes did it when something weighed heavily on his mind.
I’m thinking he warned me. Conner’s class did an assignment about their ancestors and the past. The teacher made a project about preserving the past. Each kid made a time capsule with things about their family, a letter and something meaningful to them. ”
JoJo stood beside her. “Did you help Conner put his together?”
“Not exactly,” she replied. “I assisted him with writing the letter. He and Jeremiah got a huge kick out of finding something from the Wolfe family to add to the capsule. Tucker and I went with them when Conner buried it here on the mountain. They planned to add something to it every year until he graduated high school.”
“Do you think Jeremiah added something to Conner’s?” Rucker asked.
“I’m beginning to wonder,” she admitted. “They found Jeremiah on the trail leading up to where we buried it. The men we saw when we stayed in the cave kept searching the trails. When they broke into my house, they searched for something. It only makes sense.”
“You’re right,” Rucker agreed. “You’re involved in Conner’s life. It only makes sense they’d assume you might know if they didn’t find it at Jeremiah’s house and he’s dead.”
“Why target the boys?” she pondered.
“Because maybe Conner saw something or mentioned it in class. Whatever’s in the capsule must hold a clue,” JoJo answered. “We need to get to the capsule.”
“We can’t do anything until the men return,” Leslie said. “Charlotte and her friends must’ve stumbled onto something.”
Elias came downstairs, holding his computer. “The plates showed up as stolen.”
Taking the ticket from her pocket, she held it out to Elias. “Does this seem fake?”
He examined it and shook his head. “It’s real. Someone in the police department must be involved.”
“Great,” she muttered under her breath. “Owen suspects the sheriff.”
“He’s my top suspect,” Elias agreed. “I’m going upstairs. Call me if you need anything.”
The three women waited for the team to return with Charlotte and her friends.
“Com check,” Owen said into the coms. He breathed deeply as he scanned the outer perimeter for anyone lurking around the building they surrounded.
“Alpha 2, checking in,” Gunny said.
“Alpha 3, in position,” Dillon replied.
“Alpha 1 breaching,” Cade informed them.
“Alpha 4 check,” Mason said, glancing at Owen.
The men surrounded the building and entered. Dogs barked as they searched one of the first buildings in the row, starting with building fifty. Owen knew they needed to find Charlotte and get her out of there.
“She’s on the second floor,” Dillon said. “I have eyes on her. No sign of her two friends. One unfriendly with a gun approaching her. From the back. I’m taking him down,” Dillon reported.
“Copy,” Owen said, waiting for his brother to handle it as they cleared each room from the middle offices.
“Two unfriendlies approaching the building from the rear,” Gunny warned them. “We’re on it.”
Owen turned the corner to find a man and woman cowering behind an old desk.
Seeing him, they raised their hands, visibly terrified.
Owen pressed a finger to his lips and pointed toward a door, where two masked men entered.
Crouching down, he silently eased his way behind them.
Mason did the same on the opposite side.
As the two men approached the couple, Owen and Mason made their presence known.
“Put your hands on your head and turn around,” he ordered.
One froze, but one pulled a gun. Mason hit him with the stun gun, sending the man writhing to the floor.
“If you don’t want the same thing, I suggest you lower the weapon and turn slowly,” Owen seethed.
As the suspect dropped the weapon, Mason took him to the ground and zip-tied his hands behind his back.
“Who do you work for?” Owen growled.
The second suspect tightened his lips and glanced at the man on the ground.
“I won’t ask you again,” he threatened the man.
“You don’t know who you’re dealing with,” the second suspect said. “If I say anything, I’ll be signing my own death certificate.”
“By threatening my friends, you might have already done it,” Owen said as he rolled the suspect over to secure him.
“I have the package,” Dillon reported. “Dogs are getting closer. Heading to the rendezvous point.”
“Two suspects secured,” Owen reported. “Two packages located.”
“Suspects secured,” Gunny reported.
“We have one down. We’ll leave him here for his friends to find. Take the rest with us,” Owen said into the mic as he yanked their second suspect to his feet. “Everyone, fall back.”
Mason grabbed the couple as Owen dragged the suspect down the fire escape and out of the building. “If you think about calling out to your buddies,” he warned. “I’ll have to use my weapon.”
Forty minutes later, the trucks sped off and headed toward the mountain.
“Where do we take them?” Mason asked, glancing in the backseat at one of the suspects.
“We’ll take them to a place where no one will find them,” he said, letting the threat linger in the air.
When they reached the mountain, he slowed to give Gunny and Jake time to catch up before making a hard left.
The overgrown road, hidden along the back of the mountain, led to a cave they used to play in as boys.
Pulling the truck beside the entrance, they gathered the suspects and led them to the dark space. Dillon carried duct tape and a toolbox for intimidation. Lining the men in a row, Owen glared at them.
“You have two minutes to give me a reason not to shoot you,” he growled.
“You can’t hurt us. People will be searching for us,” the first suspect spat angrily.
“Really? Do you think they plan to keep you alive when they find you? They won’t know what you told us. Unfortunately, you’ll most likely disappear, and they’ll find your bodies in the Arizona desert,” Cade said, his voice sounding deadly. “I see it all the time.”
“We don’t know anything,” The second man replied. “We only take orders.”
“From who?” Owen demanded.
The third man stayed silent and shook his head.
“Fine,” Owen said. “This cave holds a slightly overweight bear and her two cubs. Since you don’t want to talk, we’ll leave you here to think about it.”
“I don’t want to get mauled by a bear,” the first man pleaded.
“Then start talking. We don’t have the manpower to keep someone here to guard you,” Owen said, letting the man come to his own conclusion.
“I want to make a deal,” he burst out.
“Shut up,” the first man seethed.
“You have to get me out of here. I want witness protection,” he pleaded.
Owen laughed and shook his head. “I don’t have any authority to grant you witness protection.”
Gunny eyed them. “Why don’t you think about it awhile? We have some witnesses claiming you threatened them. We’ll see if they want us to take them to the authorities.”
They walked outside the cave, listening to the man scream bloody murder.
“What do you want to do with them?” Mason asked.
“Max, why don’t you guard the cave?” Owen asked. “I’ll feel better if we can get those security cameras finished. I have no idea who to trust here.”
“If we brought bigger vehicles, I’d suggest taking them back with me. I have a friend in the FBI,” Gunny said thoughtfully.
“We still have the rental car until tomorrow. We can let one of them drive it, and they can return it near them,” Mason suggested. “I can have Elias change the reservation. I’m worried if you tried to turn them in here, they may end up dead.”
“I agree,” Gunny said. “Max and Jake can take it, and the girls and I can drive the other vehicles back.”
“It sounds like a plan,” Owen said, turning to Max. “I’ll have someone bring you some drinks and a snack. I don’t know how long this will take.”
“Whenever you get it here, it will be fine. It’s not like they’re going anywhere. I think I’ll keep myself entertained by making bear sounds. It’ll scare the shit out of them,” he laughed.
“Let’s find out what Charlotte and her friends discovered,” Owen said, heading to the trucks.
They made the short journey back, and Owen saw Leslie sigh with relief at seeing him.
Dillon helped Charlotte and her friends from the truck as Jake and Gunny guarded the house, giving them time to talk.
Leslie hugged Charlotte and led them into the kitchen, pouring each a finger of whiskey.
“I’m assuming since someone threatened you, you must’ve found conflicting reports on my Dad,” Owen said to the group.
Charlotte nodded. “Elias gave me the copies of all the tests he found at the coroner’s office.
We compared them to the ones they gave us when we picked your Dad’s body up for examination.
The blood tests didn’t match. We examined his heart and ruled out any signs pointing to heart or tissue damage. ”
“So, he didn’t die from a heart attack,” Cade said.
“The original blood samples showed a large amount of zopiclone, a hypnotic drug, in his system. It seems they wanted to extract information from him,” Charlotte explained.
“It might explain the weird call from him around midnight asking about Conner’s homework,” Leslie added.