by Nikki Rose
“That's great. Look I'm right in the middle of something. Can you call the Director directly and give him the information?”
“I don't have the number.”
“I'm sending it to you now. We'll talk soon. And with that, he hung up. I knew for him to get me to contact the director meant that he really was in the middle of something important.”
“I open the text with the director's number and hit call.”
“Applegate,” he answered so gruffly.
“Director Applegate, Hi it's Hana. I was calling to let you know that I might have a lead on Mason's case. I called Chris and he asked me to give you a call because he was busy.”
“Hi Hana. That's great that you think you found a lead. Unfortunately, I've been temporarily put on leave.”
“On leave? In the middle of all this going on?”
“Yeah. Some of what's going on is the reason I was put on leave, pending an investigation.”
“I'm so sorry to hear that. I know it's none of my business but what investigation? You've been nothing but wonderful with your team from everything I've seen.”
“Well I appreciate you saying so but it seems some of the suits upstairs don't think I've been sticking to the rules. They're under the impression that I knew where Mason was hiding out and kept it from the agency and the local authorities.”
“Oh,” I wasn't sure what else to say at that. “I'm really sorry but I'm sure once Mason has been cleared you will be to, right?”
“Let's hope so.”
“Who's going to be in charge while you're on leave?”
“I'm not sure. I found out about this only ten minutes ago, myself. I'm sure they'll be assigning someone in the next hour. I just hope they're smart enough to keep it in the same unit to maintain cohesion.”
“Then, who should I contact about this?”
“Contact someone on the team. Chris will be a good one to get in touch with. He was probably on a mission and couldn't talk right then but he'll have time for you soon I'm sure. If I see him before you talk to them, I'll make sure to tell him to give you a call.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you.”
We hung up the phone and I drove aimlessly for a bit unsure of where to go or who to talk to. I needed to call Chris back but he sounded so busy I didn't want to bother him. I wish that I could contact Mason and let him know that I had a possible lead. But I knew I couldn't contact him. Even if it wasn't too late for him to get calls or visitors, it wasn't a good idea for me to be around him until he was cleared. He lied about my involvement to protect me.
At about nine that night, I realized I still hadn't eaten anything for dinner so I hit the drive-thru on the way home. I couldn't think about cooking so late and it wouldn't be nearly as good as what Mason could do anyway.
I sat down with my food and flipped through the stations on television trying to find something to watch but nothing interested me. Nothing could take my mind off of everything going on. I had texted Chris and asked him to please give me a call as soon as he could. If nothing else he would call me the next day and hopefully I’d already have some good news for him.
CHAPTER 21
Hana
I rolled onto my back, the ache in my neck woke me from my sleep. I turned over, realizing I had fallen asleep on the couch with my takeout containers still on the coffee table.
I checked the time on my phone. 8:15 am. I was late. I was supposed to call the man from the gas station at eight.
I pulled the slip of paper from my pocket of the jeans I was still wearing from the night before and dialed his number.
“Wilson,” He answered on the third ring.
“Hi sir. My name is Hana. We met yesterday when I came in asking about the photograph. You told me to call you this morning to find out if you were able to find anything off of the security footage.”
“Oh yeah. I'm glad you called. He was definitely here. I’ll make you a copy and you can come by anytime today to pick it up.”
“Thank you, that would be wonderful. I should be able to be there in about two hours.”
“Sounds good.”
“Thank you again.”
“No problem. Bye now.”
I hung up the phone and quickly called Chris to let him know what was going on.
“Hey Hana? Everything alright?” he answered after only two rings.
“Yeah, better than alright. I got a lead. I’m going to pick up security footage that shows our guy in the store the night of the bombing which should help us with a timeline.”
“That’s great. I’d go with you but I’m dealing with a personal matter at the moment. Can you handle picking up the footage and just drop it off at the office?”
“Yeah, it's no problem.”
“Thanks,” and with that, Chris ended the call.
I took a few minutes to clean up my take-out containers before hopping in the shower. I wanted to hurry to get to the convenience store and get the evidence but I needed a quick shower first. I didn’t bother putting on makeup or doing more to my hair then just brushing and drying it before I hopped in the car and sped off toward the store.
I wasn’t sure that the video would exonerate Mason but it was more than what we had before. If nothing else, I hoped it would offer reasonable doubt.
Dark clouds loomed overhead and I prayed they would hold off until I was back home. I hopped in my car and raced down the road to Wilson’s station. I had to keep checking my speed, wanting to get there as fast as I could to get the evidence, I hoped would help break the case and free Mason. The store was a little drive from my house and about halfway there, the ominous clouds let loose a torrential downpour unlike anything I’d seen in a long time. The wind caused the rain to hit my car in bursts and I had to slow down until I was practically crawling down the road. There weren’t many cars out but I was still nervous with such limited visibility.
I looked around for a possible place to pull over to wait out the storm but nowhere looked like a very good option so instead, I kept creeping along. I was relieved when the rain let up enough for me to see the store set back off the road and I pulled in. I hadn’t brought a coat in my rush to get there, so I had no choice but to accept the fact that I was going to be soaked to the bone.
I parked as close to the door as I could and put my hands over my head as I ran for the front entrance. I swung open the door and ran inside, taking a moment to shake some of the rain off before I stepped off the front mat. Wilson wasn’t behind the counter where he was last time. It was close to lunch time and I suspected he might be stocking or taking a lunch break.
“Mr. Wilson? Hello?” I waited but there was no answer so I repeated myself again. Still no answer.
Maybe he’s wearing headphones?
I didn’t want to leave empty-handed, especially after just driving all that way in the rain. I took a chance of angering the only person who’d been any real help in finding proof of Mason’s look-alike, and rounded the counter passed the employee only sign.
“Mr. Wilson?” I tried calling out to him again as I walked back into the store room. In the corner, I spotted an old dinosaur of a computer on a rundown desk. As I rounded some boxes, I gasped as I looked down at Mr. Wilson lying face down on the floor with a puddle of blood coming from under him.
There had been a struggle. Papers were thrown around and his office chair was turned over on its side. All the blood drained from my face and I felt like I might faint. It wasn’t like I’d never seen blood before but that was different. There was so much and I was pretty sure he was dead. I ran over to him and checked his neck for a pulse. I wasn’t sure if there wasn’t one or if my nerves were so bad, I couldn’t feel it from the pounding of my own heart.
I grabbed my phone from my pocket and dialed Chris. The phone rang several times with no answer until finally his voicemail came on. I hung up, not wanting to waste time waiting for him to call me back. I searched my phone for Hunter’s number and called him next. He answered aft
er the second ring.
“Hana?”
“Hey Hunter.”
“What’s wrong?” his gravelly voice demanded an answer.
“I found someone who had proof that Mason’s look-alike was in this area the night before the bombing and the night of. He was supposed to get me the proof today so I came to his store and... he’s dead.”
“Dead as in someone killed him or dead like he had a heart attack and fell over?”
“He’s lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Hunter, can you come here? Please?”
“You’re there now?”
“Yes.”
“Have you called the cops?”
“No, I called Chris but he didn’t answer so I called you.”
“He’s dealing with a personal matter. Are you sure no one else is in the shop?”
“I’m sure.”
“I’ll get a team together and we’ll be right there.”
“Thank you.”
I couldn’t stand the idea of staying in the room with a dead Mr. Wilson, so instead, I walked back into the main part of the shop. Luckily it was a slow time of day and no one came in that I’d have to explain what I was doing there. I paced the floor anxiously for what felt like hours but when I checked the clock on my phone had only been thirty minutes.
Hunter pulled up with two other vehicles including one that looked similar to an ambulance but without the same markings. I rushed to the door just as he stepped inside.
“Are you okay?” Hunter scanned me quickly and I nodded.
“Yeah, just a bit in shock.”
“Where’s the crime scene?”
“This way.” I led Hunter and the three other men to the back room and stood back as they took over checking Mr. Wilson.
“He’s dead.” the skinny man said.
Hunter nodded and looked at me. “Did you touch anything?”
“No. I don’t think so,” I answered Hunter while watching the other two men do a quick exam of Mr. Wilson’s injuries as well as checking his pockets and pulling out his wallet.
“Good. You said he had intel on Mason’s case?”
“Yeah. he said he had found video from the nights surrounding the bombing where he saw Mason’s doppelganger coming into the shop. What are they doing?”
Hunter followed my gaze to the other men then back to me, “they’re just getting a positive i.d. One is a coroner, the other is a detective with our unit.”
“Oh,” I watched as one man spread out a large black bag and the other helped lift Mr. Wilson’s body to help place him inside. I felt an eerie chill run through me knowing that he was killed trying to help me.
“Was he emailing you the video?” Hunter drew my attention back to him.
“No. I was supposed to come here and he was going to make me a copy.”
“Okay.” The two men carried the black body bag out. Hunter put on a pair of gloves and moved a few things around on the desk. Only one man returned, the coroner no doubt was transporting the body elsewhere.
“Monty, go ahead and check for prints on the computer so I don’t have to worry about using it. I want to check his security footage and files.”
“You got it.” the guy Hunter had addressed as Monty went to work dusting the desk and keyboard for fingerprints. Once he was finished collecting his evidence, Hunter took over typing and searching, his eyes always scanning the screen.
After several minutes, Hunter pulled back from the computer letting out a sigh of frustration. “It’s been wiped clean.”
“What? All of it?”
“Looks that way. I can have our tech guy check to be sure but it looks like they cleared everything.”
“He had proof that the guy was here. Actual proof that could have helped get Mason out of prison. It can’t be gone. It was our only lead.”
“I’m sorry. It’s gone.”
I slumped down, leaning against the wall as tears began to prickle my eyes. “I can’t do this.”
“You okay?” Hunter hurried to my side. The moment his hand touched my shoulder I burst into tears.
“No. I can’t do this. I can’t keep trying to find proof to get Mason out of prison. This was my only break and it's gone. I have to get Mason out of jail but I don’t know what to do. I can’t do this.” I sobbed.
“You don’t have to do this alone.” Hunter tried to comfort me.
“Yes, I do. You guys are all busy with James and Natalie, which I totally get. I want you all to find and save her but I can’t do this alone. I don’t know what to do.”
“You made a lot of progress by finding this lead. We will work together and find another. It will be okay.”
I straightened up and wiped the tears from my eyes, trying to control my small shuddering breaths when one of the guys called over to us.
“Hey guys, I think I found something.” He was leaning over the desk behind the computer trying to reach something when he finally rose holding a shiny round disk.
“What is it?”
“Let’s look and see.” Hunter popped it into the computer and security footage marked for the night before the bombing glowed on the bottom of the screen. We kept watching and within a minute, Mason’s look-alike walked into the store.
I wanted to cry again for a whole new reason as I barely got out the words, “that’s it. He must have made me a copy before they killed him.”
“It must have been knocked off during the struggle.”
“Is this enough to get Mason out of prison?”
“It's a start. We know now that he was in the general area on the nights in question but it would help if we could find a motive or a connection to the victim. Something to help offer a different story for that night.”
“Okay, so what do we do?”
“I need to get this footage over to our tech to see if he can work any of his magic finding us something we overlooked. While he’s doing that, I’ll get some guys to start sifting through our intel on the CI who was killed and see if we can find any connection to Mason or anyone who might be against him.”
“Okay, and what can I do?”
“You need to go home. Go about your normal life. I’ll let you know when I find out anything.”
“But—”
“Listen to me,” he took a step closer to me and lowers his voice even though there was no one else around to hear him. “Mason told the police that he held you hostage all that time in your house. You told them that too. That lie was to protect you. If we can’t get Mason off then you are still innocent in all this. But if the police find out that you are poking around in the case, they will start asking more questions.”
“I don’t care. I need to help.”
“Mason’s one demand was to keep you safe. I don’t know what happened during those couple of weeks he stayed with you but he cares about you. I’ve never seen him care about someone the way he does for you. He put his freedom in jeopardy to protect you and I’ll be damned if I let you throw that away because you’re being stubborn.”
I stepped back, surprised by Hunter’s stern words. He must have noticed the shift in my expression because he softened his words slightly. “You did a great job finding this lead but it's time to let us take over now.”
I let out a sigh of frustration. “The police don't have any reason to be keeping such a close eye on me. Mason’s and my stories matched and they seemed satisfied with the responses.”
“They very well may be but I don’t trust that they are the only ones keeping an eye on things.”
“What do you mean?” this time it was me who stepped closer, lowering my voice conspiratorially.
Hunter looked around and I followed his gaze. There was no one in the room now. Monty had left to take some evidence to his car but Hunter took hold of my wrist and pulled me into a smaller side room that contained a counter with a microwave, a mini fridge, and a tiny table barely big enough to fit the two chairs pushed under it.
“You’ve heard about the investigation i
nto the Director?” he whispered.
“Yes. But, what does that have to do with anything?”
“Who knew we were meeting there?”
“Only your team and me. Hunter, you know I would never—”
“I know. And no one on our team would either. I did some snooping and the agency has photos of the Director leaving the house just minutes after you left. That’s where they are getting their intel. Someone was following one of us.”
“Do you have any idea who it might be?”
“Someone we managed to piss off during one of our missions would be my guess.”
“So, there’s someone following your team, trying to get people in trouble?”
“I’m not sure what the hell is going on for sure. All I know is that a lot of shit has happened in a short amount of time. Don’t assume anyone is safe right now. We need to be careful.”
“Okay. I’ll keep my distance for now. But you’ve got to find a way to get Mason out. He looked awful when I went to see him. He tried to play it off but he’d clearly been beat up.”
“I’ll do everything I can.”
“Thank you.”
I left the shop, my mind whirling with possibilities as I drove home.
CHAPTER 22
Mason
Two weeks. I'd been in prison for two weeks and they already felt like months. Maybe it was the welcome beating the Russians had administered my first day that seemed to make the days drag on. Every time I saw them, they were eyeing me, silently telling me that they were waiting, watching, holding out for their next opportunity. I was aware of the fact that I hadn't made any friends in the criminal community over my years taking down the worst of the worst. Over the past couple of years, we had done our fair share of taking down Russians so it wasn't a big surprise that I had a few enemies. The strange part was that I didn't recognize any of my enemies as guys I’d taken down which made me suspect that there was someone higher up pulling the strings.
I'd managed to earn the respect of my cellmate which helped get me into his group from a local MC. I wasn't a member so I wasn't granted the same protection but I was given their respect. There was safety in numbers so I was grateful that they allowed me to hang out with them. There was no love lost between the MC and the Russians, some bad blood there but I didn't ask for details. I just took advantage of that. The enemy of my enemy and all that.