Chapter 6 #5
“Work fast because Timmy may have already passed in the hospital as you and I speak. Plus, Rory, that young kid, a cousin of Timmy’s, came down with me yesterday, but today he just showed up behind me, tracking me, instead of being with me. Made me damn suspicious, I can tell you that.”
“You are always damn suspicious,” Badger said, with a snort.
“Yeah, and it’s kept me alive.”
Badger’s tone changed. “It sure as hell has. You stay out of sight and let them think that you didn’t come back up.”
“Once they find the dog missing and their Zodiac gone,” he shared, with a smirk, “they’ll have no trouble figuring out who took it.”
“That’s okay too,” Badger replied, “like they can report that. Not exactly the kind of business we want people in. What do you think they’re doing?”
“Well, I would say smuggling, but I don’t know for sure. One of the family told me how they were into gambling, and they had it set up as a private gambling party down there.”
“Did you see anything like that?”
“Nope, I did not,” he stated. “As a matter of fact, I didn’t see anything even close.”
“Right, so more lies.”
“So, the question becomes, what were they really doing? What did Timmy see, and how much of an argument did he put up before he got dropped in the water?”
“All good questions, but the chances of getting those answers—”
“Yeah, not so good. It’ll come down to Derek and how much he really cares about his son over his other relatives.”
“I would like to think he really cares about his own kid, but yeah,” Badger said. “We’ve all been there, and we’ve seen how much people don’t care when it comes right down to it.”
“Not to mention that Derek apparently screwed up somehow, somewhere, many years ago, and his father cut him out of ever inheriting, even though he’s been working at the pub for decades.” Riley sighed. “Not sure what to say about that.”
“I know what I’ll say about it,” Badger declared. “I call bullshit on his story.”
“Maybe, and yet the others all seemed to think it had a lot of merit. And they also seem to think that Derek himself was okay with it.”
“And it’s Timmy, Derek’s son, who we’re talking about?”
“It’s his youngest son, so the inheritance basically just skipped a generation, which may be okay too. I don’t know,” he admitted. “I can tell you that there’s an awful lot of BS here right now.”
“Of course there is.” Then Badger asked, “So what about your matchmaking deal?”
“That’s a whole different story now too.”
“In what way?”
He hesitated and finally shared, “I had coffee with her.”
“Well, that’s probably a good thing, isn’t it?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“Yeah,” he replied, trying to get Badger off the subject. “I don’t know. Let’s just say it’s a confusing issue, and, if nothing else, I want to find closure in this and move on.”
“Closure is probably a good thing,” Badger agreed. “I’m not sure about getting back together with any woman who already did you wrong previously though.”
“Right, and I heard your voice in my head a lot when I was talking to her. But I guess the question is, how much hold does any daughter have over a father like that? And considering what Debbie went through to get free and clear of their controlling father, makes me wonder just what Gail is going through.”
“So, does that mean you’re getting sweet on her?
Because I’m not sure I like the sound of that,” Badger said, but a note of humor was in his tone.
“I’m all about ensuring you’re safe and happy, but I’m sure as hell not certain about you cozying up to somebody who is likely to stab you in the back again. ”
“Point taken,” Riley muttered, with a wry look around him. Now wasn’t a good time to share with Badger how Riley thought Gail’s father was a mob boss. He would save that for later.
“In the meantime, you get out of sight. Keep the Zodiac anchored down there. Not sure if you can hide it so it’s available for you to go back in the tunnels again if you need to, or so you can show authorities what’s going on down there,” Badger shared.
“If you think Timmy got pushed back in or even held down—”
“I think that’s exactly what happened. And I think finding out who is the trick.” He hesitated, then asked, “Do you know anything about Harold Montoya?”
“Nope, I don’t think so. Any reason why I should?”
“I’m pretty sure he engineered my sudden assignment to the front lines because of what happened here.”
After a moment’s pause, Badger muttered, “That would be pretty shitty, but do you really think he had that kind of pull?”
“I’m pretty sure he does,” he claimed. “My CO told me not to further piss off whoever did this to me.”
“I’ll look into it but no guarantees.”
“That’s life, isn’t it?”
“It is unfortunately. You take care of yourself, first and foremost.”
With that, Badger rang off.
Riley moored the Zodiac off to the side of a rock face where it was out of the way and yet still claimable if he needed it.
He had no way of knowing what the risk of theft was like down here, but he imagined it was the same as it was anywhere.
So, while the Zodiac wasn’t obvious here, it still may or may not be here when he came back.
As soon as he got that done, he hopped out, and Cain leapt with joy as he got back on land, jumping all around him.
“Yeah, I hear you, boy. We need to get you to some dog food and get you to my brother’s place.”
He could only hope his brother was okay with his bringing the dog.
He hadn’t mentioned it, but then again, generally things like that weren’t an issue between them, although Jeremy did have a wife to consider now as well.
But he didn’t want to cross too many hurdles at once, and he wasn’t about to leave the dog with anybody else right now.
He sent Jeremy a quick text. I found the dog.
Are you okay if he stays with me at your place for a couple days?
He got a thumbs-up in reply, which was a good thing.
He also needed a ride back to the pub to get his vehicle without anybody seeing him, so he called for an Uber, one that would actually allow the dog.
He had to pay a premium price for that but got lucky when his driver realized it was a War Dog.
So, he didn’t charge him that additional cost.