by Rhona Weaver
“Yeah, I think so. I think he shot the guy’s hand where he was gripping the cable. Won’t know without a body. The man may have been giving up—just not sure. You watched me question Luke in the house. It would be what, second-degree murder, manslaughter, justifiable homicide, needed killing, or some obscure western law y’all have out here?”
“Don’t know, but I would have shot him off the cable myself if I’d had a clear shot and hadn’t slipped on the bluff.” Win thought Trey seemed to be considering telling him something, but instead the ranger moved the conversation in another direction. “By the way, I appreciate you grabbing ahold of me. You nearly lost your new partner early on.”
“Glad I didn’t. . . . Now if you can teach me how to properly hold a crying woman.”
Trey glanced over at him and grinned. “Lot more fun to hold a laughing woman. And speaking of which, two of my guys told me you had a sweet little rendezvous the other day. Real pretty brown-haired girl, they said.”
Win felt his ears go red. “Well, I . . . I saw her at the hotel. Didn’t even go in her room. But that was stupid of me, I’ll admit. It could have put her in danger.”
“She the girl you met out with the bears?”
“How’d you know about that?”
“Gus was telling me you suddenly had a real strong interest in the Interagency Grizzly Bear Research Project and that one of their researchers was a girl from somewhere down South—really good lookin’.”
“Is there no privacy here?” Win shot back in mock alarm.
“Naw, not much.” Trey smiled back at Win. “And that might actually help us catch our spy this afternoon.”
Trey had radioed for the two rangers assigned to protect Win to meet them at the Justice Center. When they reached Mammoth, Trey pulled in beside the rangers’ Tahoe. He left the truck running while they sat and tried to plan their next move on the intel leak investigation.
Trey frowned down at the steering wheel. “Well, given what happened this morning, we oughta be able to narrow down this leak pretty fast. I hate to think this, but it has to be a personnel leak, and there weren’t that many folks around at 7:00 a.m. when that text from Ellie came in. That should eliminate two or three folks still on our lists.”
“Yeah, I’m thinking the same thing. I’ll touch base one more time with the folks who are doing the communications sweeps. See if they’ve hit on anything. Need to know if Bronte’s name went out over any of our radios, computers, or phones early this morning.”
“While you’re at that, I’m gonna run to my office, get out of Luke’s clothes, and figure out how I’m gonna write up my report on those warning shots—we’re not allowed to fire warning shots.” Trey gave Win an Oh, well look. “My guys will watch your back while I’m gone. Meet you at your office in forty-five minutes?” He reached behind the seat for his gun belt and the trash bag containing his wet clothes and opened the driver’s door before Win could respond.
Saying no would tell Trey he wasn’t trusted, while letting him go alone would violate his instructions from Phillips. He opted to go with his gut on this one. “Yeah, okay, see you at the office. I’m gonna sit in your truck and make a few calls.” The ranger stepped out into the light snow, and Win waved to his two guards in the adjoining vehicle.
He hated having people follow him around all the time. He couldn’t do the same thing to Trey. He’d promised no more games.
And speaking of promises, he’d told Tory he would call her within a couple of days—it was Saturday morning. Geez, I saw her on Wednesday. He was losing track of time, too much happening too quickly. He punched in her number, figuring she was probably in one of her Montana State seminars, but at least she’d see he’d made the effort to call. He was pleased when she answered the phone.
“Hey, it’s Win Tyler, my getting you at a bad time?”
“No, it’s fine—we’re finished till noon.” Her voice was cheerful. A good sign.
“Wanted to call you last night, but we’ve been working late and it’s likely to go that way for a few more nights. Been pretty stressful down here since you left town.”
“We heard there’d been a shooting at the hotel. That was the afternoon I saw you. Did you see it happen?” she asked.
“Yeah, I did. Can’t really talk about it now. Bureau policy. But I’ll tell you about it someday. Tell me what y’all are doing.”
They spent the next several minutes taking those little steps getting to know someone requires, the give and takes of likes and dislikes, and he found himself laughing at things she said and thinking he felt good when he talked to her. He knew his phone was monitored and some Bureau technician was bored to death listening in on his flirting with her, but he really didn’t care. The nice thing was, she was flirting back with him.
He’d been on the phone for almost fifteen minutes and he knew he had to get back to work, so he started winding down the call. “Not real sure where I’ll be next week, but I’d like to come see you while you’re at Roosevelt if that’s good for you. Hopefully things will slow down by then.”
“I’d like that.” She paused for a long moment. “I hope I’m not being too forward here, but I’ve got a feeling you’re in some trouble or having some problem or well, whatever. . . . I don’t need to know what it is—God knows. I just wanted you to know I’ve been praying for you and I’ll keep that up if you’re okay with it.”
“I’m more than okay with it. Thank you. I’m embarrassed I haven’t told you how important my faith is to me. Maybe I thought . . .” He struggled for the right words, and she finished his sentence.
“Maybe you thought I’d think you were too straightlaced or something?”
“Well . . . maybe.”
“You do seem pretty straightlaced,” she said with a soft laugh, “in a good sort of way. You’re a gentleman, and I like that a lot—and just so you know, my faith is central to my life too. So I’ll keep praying for you, and I’ll see you when you get free.”
They said their goodbyes, and he sat in the cold truck, staring at his phone for a minute. Tory Madison was obviously one of those people his mother was talking about in her letter. She was God’s encouragement to him when he needed it. The relationship might go nowhere, but for this moment, which was all he had, she’d made his heart glad.
* * *
It was a short list. After two and a half days of analyzing time lines, conducting mind-numbing reviews of dozens of personnel records and schedules, and running seemingly endless scenarios, it was a very short list. Win kept hoping it was someone on the outside—maybe a computer hacker affiliated with the Prophet’s church had broken the Bureau’s encryption or accessed internal communications—but after the event with Bronte and Ellie this morning, he knew it wasn’t that. It was an individual or individuals who’d traded information for personal enrichment. Money for lives. And it was someone who worked for their team—it had to be one of the good guys.
It was 1:45 now, and Trey was sitting across from Win’s desk with his head down, deep in his notes. The door was closed, and they were both working on their respective final lists. They’d decided to rank their suspects in classes. Anyone falling within the top three or four on either list was highly suspect. Win had finished his ranking. He watched Hechtner mentally work through his names one more time. A little sunlight was peeking through the drawn blinds in Win’s office. The weather was finally trying to clear, and the snow outside was continuing to melt.
He leaned back in his desk chair with his hands behind his head and watched the ranger work. Trey had changed clothes; his tan flat hat and heavy green coat were hanging on Win’s antique coat-tree. Win had taken to keeping a clean set of clothes at the office as well—the way this day was shaping up, he might be wishing his whole wardrobe were here. He watched as Trey ran his hand through his short blond hair several times and pinched the skin between his eyes. Everyone on b
oth of their final lists was likely to be a Park Service employee. Win knew the ranger was having a hard time dealing with the real possibility that the traitor was within his own agency.
Trey finally raised his head. “Ahhh, you got yours ready?” He said it absently, as though he would rather be anywhere else in the world.
Win shuffled his written list. “I’ve got three names that are serious contenders—maybe a fourth.”
“Okay.”
Win called them off, “I’ve got Park Service Clerk Susan Hapsburg, Ranger Bill Wilson, and William McGinnis, Park Service technical contractor.”
Trey stared down at his notes, then read off his names as if it were physically painful for him. “I’ve also got Susan, McGinnis, and another contractor, Jim Dallas. Bill Wilson is on my list too, but fifteen years here—can’t see it. Actually, I can’t see it in any of these folks. I’ve known all of them for years except Jim Dallas. Susan’s the only one with top secret clearance.” He looked up. “You said you had a fourth name?”
“That would be you,” Win said and studied Trey’s reaction.
Trey leaned back, raised his chin a little, and narrowed his eyes before he responded. There was more than a little anger in his reply. “Oh, come on! You even told Phillips you eliminated me from consideration after I didn’t know about the drones. . . . Don’t be screwing around with this. It’s serious!”
“That’s the point. It not just serious, it’s deadly serious. Heck, I even had to investigate Jason—a seventeen-year-old kid! We have to look at every possibility and come up with defensible reasons to eliminate names. You may not have known about the drones or you may have just been careless that morning. You had access to most, if not all, of the other information we think has been compromised. I have to consider the possibility there could be more than one person involved in the leak. Would a reasonable investigator put Trey Hechtner on the short list? Ask yourself that.”
“What about this morning? I was with you the entire time after we got the text from Ellie!” Trey was a little hot.
“Actually, you weren’t with me the entire time—you did the house entry and were out of my sight for a few minutes. You coulda made a call.” This isn’t goin’ well. “Hey, I’m just saying . . .”
Trey had apparently had enough. He blew out a long breath, shook his head angrily, and stood up. “Time for a break! I’m getting more coffee.” Just as he opened the office door, his phone buzzed. Trey walked out of the office and away from Win as he answered. Whoever was calling, it was clear the ranger didn’t want Win overhearing the conversation.
Win hit his office intercom for Deb. It was time to round up the troops, call in their bosses, and implement the sting he and Trey had designed yesterday afternoon. They had decided to run disinformation by their top three suspects and see if anyone took the bait. Nothing promising had come back on the financial records check, but bad guys didn’t always deposit their ill-gotten gains in the bank. There wasn’t enough probable cause on any of the suspects to obtain phone taps, and there was too little time to do any type of protracted surveillance. Given the circumstances, Mr. Givens and Phillips had both agreed that a quick takedown was required. The leak couldn’t remain in place while HRT geared up to hit the church compound tomorrow. The raid had already been postponed once because of the snowstorm; putting it off again was not gonna make Win’s bosses happy.
Trey showed up with his coffee and a cup for Win about the time Win finished filling Deb in on their top suspects. She had developed the disinformation that was to be fed to the suspects, and she was ready to call in the surveillance teams she had on standby for the effort.
“We only have six teams on standby, Win. You’ve got four suspects, and we need two teams per suspect. If we call in two more teams from Billings, that means we’ll have to wait until tonight to move on this,” she said. “They wouldn’t be able to get here before five o’clock at the earliest.”
“No, we don’t need the delay of waiting for other teams, but call them in for backup support. Trey and I can handle feeding the intel to Bill Wilson. He’s our least likely suspect. Wilson is used to seeing us over at the Justice Center constantly, he’s scheduled to be on duty today until six o’clock. You and Ramona can help us with that surveillance. If nothing goes down before he goes off duty, we can turn the surveillance on him over to the Billings teams. The information on Ellie Bordeaux’s abduction got to Daniel Shepherd really fast this morning. I think it’s likely whoever’s selling us out will move quickly.”
“Ten-four, I’ll buzz you when I have everybody lined up to meet in the conference room. Give me ten minutes. Wes will have to decide what to do about calling Chief Randall—he’s not going to be pleased. These folks are all his.”
“I know. I know.” Win sighed and took the coffee from Trey. He sat back down in his chair and motioned Trey to close the door behind him.
“Thanks for the coffee. I didn’t tell Deb I had you as my number four. I guess we can revisit that possibility if none of these others pans out.” Trey’s gray eyes were still narrowed. Need to do a little damage control. “Hey, you know I don’t think you’re dirty. But we have to justify all of our decisions on this deal.” Trey continued to glare at him over his coffee cup. Win was thinking maybe he should have kept his fourth pick to himself, but he kept talking. “Since we’re goin’ to go with all four of the suspects on your list, you okay with you and me handling Bill Wilson? Didn’t want to wait for surveillance teams to come in from Billings. You okay with that?”
Trey snorted a little, but then got down to business. “Yup, whatever. Our job shouldn’t be too hard, since I can’t imagine Bill being involved in something like this. The guy is sixty-one years old and maybe six months away from retirement. It’s not like I know him well or anything, but he’s always had exceptional reviews. His work history has been mostly traffic control and security for the courthouse, even when it was here in this old building. Typical police-type work; he’s never done the traditional ranger duties. I’ve always just thought of him as a nice, friendly guy.”
“Yeah, I’m thinking we may be barking up the wrong tree there, but his work schedule sure did hit the time lines when the information went out. But then so did the others’—especially Susan’s. This whole thing just makes me feel sorta sick, you know. . . . Whoever leaked this information nearly got me killed. And it could get worse. Who knows what those yahoos have planned.” They both sat there frowning and sipping coffee.
Trey was tapping his finger against his cup. He cleared his throat and began to speak. “Ah, I need to talk to you about—”
Win’s desk intercom buzzed with Deb’s call, interrupting Trey’s request. They both grabbed their hats and coats and quickly moved downstairs to the conference room for the final operational briefing on the sting.
At exactly 2:45 p.m., all four of the suspects would receive different pieces of disinformation from various agents. All the fabricated intel would appear to be time-sensitive for the bad guys, and every bit of information was very different in nature. If it showed up in the hands of the Prophet’s people, there would be no doubt which suspect had passed it along. Other case-related information could be conveyed as long as it was already in the hands of Shepherd’s group. Two surveillance teams of two agents each were assigned to each suspect, and extra electronic monitoring from both aircraft and ground sites was focused on every member of the Prophet’s group for which they had wiretap approval. The weather had cleared enough to deploy the plane and two electronic-sensing drones. HRT was assisting with the surveillance on some of Ron Chandler’s guys who’d left the church compound. The tension in the conference room was palpable as the four agents who would deliver the disinformation reviewed their assignments.
Win memorized the two sentences of false info Deb handed him, and he passed it down to Trey. He could improvise any way he chose, but those two sentences had to get to
the suspect. One of the agents from Denver was studying the lines she would deliver to Susan Hapsburg. Win really hoped the mole wasn’t Susan. The pictures of her darling little girls playing in the fresh snow flashed through his mind. Her finances were tight and the bad guys were apparently throwing around big money for information. He sighed again and stared down at the polished wood of the conference table. He hoped it was one of the two guys he’d never met; he hated the thought that it could be Susan or Bill, folks he spoke to several times a week. He didn’t really focus on the possibility that they could have a dry run—that all their targeted suspects were guilty of nothing worse than unfortunate coincidences within their work schedules. That would put them back at square one. Or worse yet, that the mole was among the suspects, but didn’t take the bait today for whatever reason. That would take them back beyond square one. Win wouldn’t let his mind consider failure, not yet anyway.
Mr. Givens and Emily were running the sting’s operations center out of the old FBI building’s conference room. Win hadn’t felt good about setting it up at the Justice Center—too much of the intel had gone missing from there. Phillips had several heavily armed HRT guys ready in the back offices if they were needed to assist in an arrest. The agents were carrying small recording devices to capture the conversations with the subjects. Win was too leery of the Bureau’s main communication center to even authorize traditional wires. Internal communications with the other teams were also problematic. The surveillance teams were going with rental cars, since the suspects could be familiar with the local FBI vehicles. They would have to use handheld radios on a seldom-used frequency, since it was very possible the spy had access to the same encrypted radios as the agents. There was no reason to think the mole would be surfing the radio channels while the operation was underway, but it was just one more thing that could go wrong. At 2:35 p.m., Trey and Win walked out of the conference room and through the heavy wooden front doors of the old building.