by D V Wolfe
“Were they demons?” Luke asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I think they were just people and they were scared.”
“What did he mean about us seeing a ‘taste of what they can do’?”
“I think he meant the fight?” I said, not sure, “Maybe those five were told to stage a fight so they could threaten us, saying the whole city would turn on us and beat the crap out of us if we didn’t leave Griffith alone?”
“Maybe,” Luke said. “I have an idea. Go back to the police station.”
I sighed. “Sure, why not. A good rash will go well with my bruises.”
18
“Do you want to stay in the car?” Luke asked. I nodded. “Are you sure, considering the possibility that the good people of Griffith’s fan club may have followed us here and might be laying in wait, thinking that maybe we’re filing a police report against them?”
“Even though we don’t know their names and we can’t prove anything?" I asked.
Luke shrugged. “Mob mentality.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I guess a rash in the police station is better than a metal pipe to the head in front of it.”
“That’s the spirit,” Luke said. I’d parked in front of the cop shop this time, hoping that the mob, if they were still watching us, might be deterred. I closed Lucy’s door. It was pointless to try locking it. The thin metal locking rod had been broken on both sides. I was lucky the doors still latched shut at all. I shook my head. And I’d just gotten the quarter glass on my window replaced. It was always something.
“Can’t tell the damage from the outside,” Luke said, motioning to the truck doors.
“Isn’t that a blessing,” I said.
We crossed the street and Luke pulled the front door open, motioning me in before him.
“Good plan,” I muttered. “Just in case the fearsome five have broken out of their jail cell and are ready for round ten.”
The front desk area and waiting area were deserted except for one female officer sitting behind a desk. Not Parker.
“May I help you?’ She asked. She was petite and she had a voice that was soft and soothing.
Luke pulled his badge out of his pocket. “Agent Connell with Homeland Security. We were assaulted today by five men who were subsequently arrested. I believe they have links to an ongoing investigation my Department is following up on and I need to see their arrest records.”
Her eyes grew big and bird-like. She looked around her, either looking for a place to hide or looking for someone else to answer the request.
“I’m not sure that falls under policy. We generally don’t give arrest records to victims or agencies outside of the state unless we have the state authorities’ approval.”
“I’ve been co-opting an investigation into Bill Griffith with Detectives Marlowe and Thompson for the last week,” Luke said. “I believe the records of these five men are connected.”
She still looked conflicted. Her name badge said, Whitmore. Luke lowered his voice. “Officer Whitmore, I will sign an affidavit taking all blame and asserting my jurisdiction over this investigation if you will help me. Time is of the essence on this, I’m afraid.”
Those seemed to be the magic words because she sat up straighter in her chair and shook her head. “Not necessary. One moment.” She got up and went to Parker’s desk behind where she sat and picked up five file folders from a stack in the corner. She paused before handing them to Luke and said. “These can’t leave the building.”
“I understand,” Luke said. “Can we use the conference room?”
She nodded. Luke took the files and I followed him down the hall. I closed the door behind me and Luke dropped the files onto the table.
“Dig in,” Luke said.
I flipped the top file open and started reading.
Fifteen minutes later, we had all five files open and lined up on the table.
“All five work for Copia,” Luke said.
“Big plant, small town, I guess it’s not that surprising,” I said.
“Anything besides their arrest for the brawl jump out at you?” Luke asked.
I pulled a form out of Carl’s file. “Carl filed a missing person’s report a week ago for a coworker, Doug Meeker. He says that Doug was asked to stay late after their shift and he never made it home that night. Carl lives near him and says Doug’s van hadn’t come home since.”
“Meeker?” Luke asked, shuffling through the files, flipping pages.
“Yeah,” I said.
He snatched up another file and flipped towards the back. “Looks like Bert Garrison got a speeding ticket while driving a Ford Aerostar that was licensed to a Douglas Meeker. This was June 29th of this year.”
“That was...two weeks before Carl filed the missing person report,” I said.
Luke shrugged. “Maybe it’s like they said. They all just knew each other. I still think there’s something else going on here.”
“Well, Moses has an old arrest from his Marine days for drunken disorderly,” I read. I pushed his file away and reached for Braid Guy’s file. His name was Devon Furman, but I kind of liked “Braid Guy” better.
“Huh,” Luke said. “This might be something. Ernie Belcher, who was brilliant enough to give his name when he called in a whistleblower report, says that he witnessed upper management at Copia putting pressure on the armaments manufacturing department. In particular, research and development to remove a report they had submitted about vulnerabilities in a gun design to tampering.”
“That sounds familiar,” I said. “Wasn’t that something you said Griffith had started doing at another plant?”
Luke nodded. “Litigation is still pending on it. The courts don’t want to make the call on whether or not they should force Griffith’s company to redesign.”
I shook my head. “Well, being a whistleblower can’t make him too popular with the rest of his coworkers or the company.”
Luke nodded. “Good thing there are whistleblower protection laws in place.”
“This is weird,” I said, reading through Devon’s file. Luke moved so that he could read over my shoulder. “Remember I told you that Devon said he was just ‘passing through town and stopped to eat at the diner’? That he didn’t know any of the other four?”
“Yeah,” Luke said.
“He’s listed Copia Industries as his employer, but his permanent address is in South Carolina,” I said.
“Maybe he’s moving up here?” Luke said.
“Then why didn’t he say that instead of the ‘passing through town’ thing?”
Luke shrugged. “Scared? Slip of the tongue?”
I shrugged. “Maybe but with all five working for Copia, do you think they staged that brawl to draw us in and kill us?”
Luke looked doubtful. “That would be pretty far odds on us stopping and getting dragged into the fight with them.”
“So you think it was a demonstration? A muscle flex?” I asked.
Luke sighed. “I guess, but again, what were the odds that we would be driving by?”
“Maybe there’s a tracking device on your car?” I asked.
“There is,” Luke said, “but it’s tracked out of Washington. The locals would have to call the office up there and request access to the GPS login.”
“And they wouldn’t do that, right?” I asked.
Luke shrugged. “I mean, I suppose they could, but why?”
“Something is going on in this town,” I said. “A demon and an angry mob of workers, desperate to keep their jobs and warning us off of narrowing in on their boss. I wouldn’t put anything past either one of them.”
Luke sighed, staring down at the open files. “Well, I don’t think we’re going to get any more out of these tonight.”
We cleaned up the files and handed them back over to Officer Whitmore who looked relieved and carefully placed the files back on Parker’s desk. We headed back out to Lucy and I paused before opening the driver side door.
I bent down and started feeling under the frame and the fenders.
“The damage isn’t that bad,” Luke said.
“It’s not that,” I said softly. “I’m looking for a tracking device. Check your side.”
Luke took the hint and we felt our way all around the truck frame. No luck. I got the penlight out of the glove box and crawled underneath Lucy.
“What are these scorch marks?” Luke asked, looking at the warped and partially melted metal under the front end.
“Long story,” I said. There was a black plastic circle stuck to a magnet back under the truck bed. I pulled it off and crawled back out. I gave it to Luke.
“Shit,” Luke said. “Then they know where you’re staying.”
“Where we’re staying,” I said.
“Crap, if they’re monitoring it closely, they’ll know if we destroy it. And if we leave it here, they’ll know because they’ll drive by the station and your truck won’t be here,” Luke said.
“Screw them knowing,” I said. “I just don’t want us to be ambushed again by a pissed off mob ready to bash our heads in.”
“I think we take it with us to the hotel and get rid of it from there. They won’t think anything is wrong if they see it’s at the hotel. Then, we can figure something out.”
We got in the truck and headed back to the motel. Luke went inside and I went to the main office to extend our stay another night beyond the check out time in the morning. There was one older man in front of me. He had a sidearm strapped to his leg and a wide-brimmed Stetson on. Probably not a Pennsylvania local.
“How many nights?” The frail woman behind the counter asked, looking over her granny glasses at the screen.
“Just the one, ma'am,” he said. “Gotta start heading back home tomorrow.” He pulled out his driver’s license and set it on the counter for her. Texas was home. A plan started to form in my head.
“Sir, do you have a carry permit for that gun?” She asked, fear creeping into her voice as she leaned back from him at the counter.
“Oh yes, ma'am. I’m bond enforcement. I already sent my cargo back home. I just wanted some shut-eye before heading that way myself. I’ve got papers if you need to see them.” He gave her a fifty dollar grin and she answered it with a nervous laugh and a head shake before handing him a room key.
I watched him head outside and get into a big green dually. He wheeled it around and out of sight.
I extended our stay and headed back outside. I spotted the dually parked in front of a room door, five down from ours. Better and better.
“Give me the tracker,” I said to Luke when I pushed through the door. Luke was laying down on one bed and Noah was on the other. Noah was on his side, facing the wall. Luke sat up and pulled the tracker out of his pocket. I looked at Noah and then back at Luke. He held up his hands as if he was at a loss as to what to do about Noah.
“What are you doing with the tracker?” Luke asked.
“Sending us to Texas,” I said.
I jogged back outside before Luke could ask me to elaborate and I looked around the lot. There were only about a dozen vehicles at the motel tonight. None of them were occupied that I could see. I moved as quietly as I could and when I reached the dually, I dropped down and crawled under the bed. I put the tracker in about the same spot it had been on Lucy. I messed with it to make sure it was secure and then I headed back into the room.
I made a big deal of dusting my hands off and grinned at Luke.
“You’re pretty happy with yourself,” Luke said. “You want to share with the class?”
“The guy in front of me in the main office is from Texas and he’s heading back there tomorrow.”
Luke nodded. “So you’re sending us to Texas.”
“Exactly. Now, whoever is watching will think that we just left town and headed south.”
“It’ll buy us some time,” Luke said. He dug through his pockets and came up with a cell phone. “I’m going to make a call and figure out if local authorities have requested access to the GPS logs for my car.” Luke cradled the phone between his shoulder and ear while he moved his briefcase onto the little table and started digging through it.
I moved over to Noah’s bed and sat down beside him. He didn’t move. I pinched the toe of his ratty sneaker and gave it a shake.
“What’s up?” I asked.
Noah moved the pillow so I could see his face. It was mottled and red and his eyes were puffy. I thought about making a sarcastic comment but immediately decided against it.
“You ok?” I asked.
Noah shook his head. I glanced up. Luke was now talking in the professional Fed voice he’d been using at the police station.
“Wanna talk outside?” I asked Noah.
Noah thought about it for a minute and then nodded and followed me out the door. I closed it behind us and moved to lean against the wall by the room window. Noah sat down on the narrow ledge above the exterior part of the climate control unit. We were quiet for a few minutes. I didn’t know exactly what was ailing Noah so I wasn’t going to be the first to speak.
“We had a fight,” Noah said quietly. He sniffed and lowered his head, wiping at his nose with his arm.
“You and June?” I asked. Noah nodded.
“She was kind of upset that you and Luke were making badges for the two of us and not one for her. She really wanted to go with us.” I nodded and Noah said, “I know why she’s not going with us and I told her I didn’t want to do anything that would threaten her safety….because…. because I care about her.”
It didn’t sound like Noah was done so I didn’t say anything. I just patted him on the shoulder. He looked up and gave me a watery grin. “I guess I understand better now why you and Rosetta were always trying to send me home and leave me behind.”
“In the beginning,” I said. “But you’ve proven that you’re able to handle all of this crap. And you’re like the rest of us hunters, not a lot of ties to compromise what you have to do.”
Noah nodded. “June has her aunt and she’s planning on going to Penn State in the fall. You know she even said that she wished I could go to Penn State with her?” His mood was lifting and I smiled.
“Don’t worry, Noah. Just put yourself in her shoes. You’ve been there before, feeling left out and left behind. And now you know why. Try to give her a slice of whatever understanding you have now for why it’s best she sits this one out.”
Noah nodded. “I’ll take her to breakfast in the morning, early, before we go to Copia if that’s ok?”
I nodded. “You two hackers worked out that ten a.m. is the best time to go based on the system refresh or something?”
Noah rolled his eyes. “Never try to pose as anyone who knows anything about technology.”
I bunked with Noah that night, mostly because I needed sleep. I slept on top of the blankets and Noah slept under, rolling himself up like a burrito and causing me to slide off the bed somewhere around two a.m.
“Morning Sunshine,” Luke called as I opened one bleary eye and stared at the clock. It was eight-thirty. I groaned and rolled out of bed. All my bruises and cuts screamed in unison under the hot shower spray. I’d borrowed a sewing kit from the main office and rough-stitched my dress shirt and pants back together. With the suit jacket closed, it almost hid the bloodstains on the shirt. I got dressed and was trying to decide if the purple hair or the facial cuts and bruises were going to be more unsettling to the people at Copia when the room door banged open. I swung around to see Noah, holding a skateboard. Waves of panic were rolling off of him as he held the board up. I could see blood spatter on the checkered wood.
Noah gasped. “They got her.”
19
“Wait, someone has June?” I asked. “Who?”
Noah was almost hyperventilating and Luke and I steered him onto the edge of one of the beds to sit down.
“I went to meet June this morning at Piggly’s for breakfast, but she wasn’t there. I went to her aunt�
�s house but her skateboard wasn’t out front and she never goes anywhere without it so I thought I just missed her. She was still mad about us not taking her to Copia and when I couldn’t find her anywhere between Piggly’s and her aunt’s, I ran over to Copia to see if I could find her there. This,” Noah held the board up, “was sticking out of the bushes in the back of the lot.”
“Noah, get changed, we’re going now,” I said. Noah grabbed his suit and started tearing his clothes off. I turned to Luke. “Explain to me again why your car is still safe to drive?”
“I told you,” Luke said. “When we dissolved our assistance with the local cops, D.C. deactivated their temporary login for my GPS. Now I’m back to only D.C. being able to track me.”
I nodded. “Not that it will matter. If we get to Copia at the same time as someone else coming for work, our cover’s blown anyway.”
“This is going to have to be fast and dirty,” Luke said. “We better know exactly what we’re going in for and how to get it.”
Luke and I were the first outside. “I guess I should go hide Lucy in case whoever is tracking us gets confused about how we’re on our way to Texas and still here in the lot.” Luke nodded and I took off to move Lucy around behind the motel. There was a service alley where the dumpsters were kept and there were a couple of after-thought parking spaces for “no vacancy” nights at the Rosewood. If the trackers drove around the motel, they’d spot Lucy, but at least if they were just doing a drive-by from the road, it would look like we’d headed out.
“Done,” I said, jogging back to the room door.
“Good,” Luke said. “It’s hard to say how close they’re tracking us, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful. To be honest, I’m more worried about the five brawlers today. I hope they get remanded at arraignment.”
I paused to look at him. “What do you mean?”
“Well, they all work for Copia. How do you think that mob will feel about Copia being connected with their arrests?”
“You think they’d kill them?”
“What is it you said earlier?” Luke asked. “You wouldn’t put anything past them?”