He pocketed his gun and took out his cell phone. He had a weak signal.
He sent Tim a message.
Sniper at the mine. We’re going to run for the highway. Need pick-up ASAP.
Ideally, he’d like to sit tight and wait for the cavalry, but he didn’t know how long that would take, or if the sniper had friends. They could come after them here and he and Lucy would be trapped in the tunnels, with no idea of where the danger spots were.
He climbed back down the ladder.
“I have a plan,” Sean said moving the ladder to the right side of the ventilation shaft. “Leave everything except your gun.”
Lucy frowned.
“Luce-” He couldn’t believe she was poised to argue with him. She was smarter than that.
Lucy shrugged off her backpack, retrieved her Glock, and then the small bag with the jar of maggots. “If that’s the killer out there, I’m not leaving the evidence here for him to destroy.” She shoved the paper bag down her shirt, which was tucked into her jeans. She zipped up her dark jacket.
“I’m going to climb out, roll into the bushes to the right, and whistle. You get up this ladder as fast as you can when you hear it, but don’t show yourself. I’m hoping he’ll shoot at me so I’ll know exactly where he is. On the second whistle, count to three and get out, as low as possible, and roll over to my position; I’ll provide cover.”
She nodded, her jaw tight, and Sean kissed her quickly before he scaled up the ladder.
Lucy watched as Sean paused at the top, gun ready, every muscle poised, listening-feeling-for movement. Sean didn’t have to tell her how screwed they were-the sniper had plenty of time after spotting Sean to come closer. He could be standing at the edge of the mine, ready to shoot both of them as soon as they emerged.
She had her gun pointed at the edge, even though she had a very limited view of the surface. She looked for movement, shadows, anything that put Sean in jeopardy.
Sean gave her a hand signal that he was moving. He moved fast for his size, and five seconds later she heard the report of a rifle. It hit the spot where Sean had emerged.
Heart pounding, she almost didn’t hear his whistle. She quickly climbed the ladder and waited at the top. She tilted her head to spy where Sean was, but couldn’t see more than the bushes immediately in front of her.
Sean whistled again, and he was much closer than she’d thought. She counted to three, then saw Sean pop up on his knees, shielded by a boulder, firing his.45 at an angle over her head, toward the opposite side of the logging road.
She climbed out and scrambled over to him, lying low, her gun out.
Sean emptied his cartridge, popped it out into his hand, and slammed back in a reload.
“I can’t see him, but he’s shooting down at an angle-I think he’s in a tree. We can run for it because it’ll take him time to get down.” He gestured behind them. “I’m going to cover you while you run to that clump of trees. Then you cover me. Once we’re there, he won’t have a line of sight.”
Lucy nodded.
Sean used his fingers to count to three, and Lucy bolted, staying low, making herself as small a target as possible. Sean shot steadily toward the treeline until he was out of ammo; he reloaded and Lucy got into position. She could barely see the truck from where she was, but Sean had been aiming a bit south of it.
She caught his eye and nodded. She fired her Glock, calm and focused, knowing if she screwed up, Sean’s life was at risk. It angered her that someone was shooting at them; in fact she was more angry than scared.
There was one lone rifle shot, then nothing.
Lucy reloaded when Sean was on his knees at her side.
“Okay?” she said.
“Let’s go. That last one came from ground level.”
How he knew that, Lucy didn’t know, but she wasn’t going to question.
They ran through the trees in a zigzag pattern. Sean was falling behind, limping. Lucy slowed and he shouted, “Move it!”
If Sean thought she was leaving him behind, he didn’t know her. She kept the lead, setting a steady pace that pushed Sean but gave him a little slack. He had to have noticed, but he didn’t comment again. She cut through the path that the ATVs had forged the other day. There was no further gunfire, no sound of a vehicle or anyone in pursuit, but Lucy wasn’t about to stop and wait for a possible ambush.
The gully along the side of the highway was deep and muddy but Lucy jumped into it, rolling onto her stomach and looking back the way they’d come, gun ready, her eyes scanning the distance to see if anyone was in pursuit. Sean did the same less than thirty seconds later.
They both breathed heavily, but Lucy did her best to control her breathing to minimize noise. She hadn’t heard anyone coming after them, nor had she heard gunfire, but that didn’t mean someone wasn’t following, waiting to hit them after they thought they were safe.
Sean pulled out his phone. “Tim’s almost here.”
Lucy looked behind her. “Tell him we’re about fifty feet from where we found the ATV yesterday.”
Sean typed in the message while Lucy kept watch. “I don’t think our shooter followed us,” Sean said. “Once we got into the woods, there were no more shots.”
“But why shoot at us in the first place?” Lucy didn’t expect an answer. It made no sense that he’d let them go.
She heard a truck on the highway and cautiously peered behind her. It was Tim’s old red truck, followed by a newer Jeep that belonged to Adam. They drove slowly and as they neared where she and Sean lay in the gully, Sean stood up and waved. Tim pulled over.
“What the hell happened?” he asked through the open window.
Lucy jumped into the backseat and Sean into the front. “Someone shot at us as we climbed out of the mine.”
“I brought Adam for backup. Are we going back to your truck?”
Lucy deferred to Sean. He considered. “I think the guy is gone. He didn’t come after us, but he could be waiting until we return. We go back, get as close as we can to the driver’s side, and I’ll use your truck as a shield.” He glanced back at Lucy. “You stay with Tim-provide cover.”
Tim made a U-turn on the two-lane highway. Adam followed. Tim used his radio to tell Adam the plan, then added, “You go first down the logging road. Get behind Sean’s truck and take out the rifle. If someone is there, he’ll know we’re serious.”
“Got it,” Adam said, and sped past them.
The turnoff wasn’t far, and Adam made the turn in his black Jeep, driving as fast as he could on the rutted, unpaved road. Tim followed.
By the time Adam was in view again, he had the door of his Jeep open, an AR-15 over the top of the window frame, scanning the area across the logging road.
Sean jumped out and got into his own truck. He looked around quickly, assessing potential dangers, but nothing seemed out of place …
… except a blank envelope on the dashboard.
He still had on the gloves from the mine. He opened the unsealed envelope and removed a single piece of white paper on which was typed:
IF I WANTED YOU DEAD, YOU’D BE DEAD.
GO HOME.
THIRTEEN
Sean slammed the door. He handed Lucy the unsigned note as he scanned the horizon.
“We should get out of here,” Tim began. “He could be-”
“He’s gone. He gave us a warning.” Bastard.
Sean continued to assess the landscape. If the sniper was telling the truth, he intentionally tried not to hit them. But the shots came close enough to make him believe, at the time, that the shooter wanted them dead. Or maybe when he missed, he wanted Sean to think it had been planned. Either way, he was enraged.
“He was up in a damn tree,” Sean said, having a hard time reigning in his temper. “I don’t think he stayed around long enough to clean up his brass.”
He started down the logging road toward where the shots had been fired.
Tim followed. “You can’t go out there. He
could still be around.”
“Dammit, Tim, he could have killed us!”
What Sean wanted to say was that the shooter could have killed Lucy. When he found out who it was, he’d pummel him. But his anger wasn’t going to help them here and now. He reined it in. “He’s gone. I’m sure of it,” Sean said with as much calm as he could summon from inside. “If there’s any evidence out there about who this bastard is, I’ll find it.” Lucy nodded at him. Sean was relieved that she understood. “Keep your eyes open, Luce.”
“Of course.”
“I’ll go with you,” Tim said. “Adam, stay with Lucy.”
Sean had identified the area where the shots originated. Heading that way, he noted three possible trees in the distance the sniper could have climbed, all the while scanning the area to make doubly sure he wasn’t wrong about the bastard’s departure.
If I wanted you dead …
First the tricky maneuver that led to his fall into the mine, then someone taking shots at him, now further threats. Sean had to find out if the vandalism was related to the shooter, because if it was that meant the dead girl was also connected.
The first tree Sean approached had a large, freshly broken branch near the ground. Sean looked up and noted several cracked branches.
“He shot at us five times,” he said. “I want the brass. There’s a good chance he didn’t wear gloves when he loaded.”
“I’m shutting down the resort,” Tim said.
Sean stared at him. “You’d give in to these scare tactics?”
“He could have killed you.”
“This is my battle now.”
Tim clenched his fists, showing a rare anger. “Like hell it is.”
“Dammit, Tim, he went after me. I’m not backing down, not until I find him.”
“I have to postpone the opening. I have a lunatic shooting at my guests.”
“We’re hardly guests.”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s only three weeks until my first real guests arrive, and I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to one of them. If we stop these people before then, great, but I’m still not opening until it’s settled.”
Delaying the opening was exactly what both Henry and Jon Callahan had suggested the night before. Was the shooting to underscore this so-called suggestion? The vandalism had escalated from property damage to arson to attempted murder.
If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.
“Let’s find the brass first,” Sean said. “Then, I want you to meet with the Callahans. Jon Callahan told us last night that he wanted to talk to you about postponing the opening. Suspicious, don’t you think?”
“You can’t think that the Callahans are behind this-why?”
“I’ll find out. They want to play hardball-I invented the game.”
A chill ran through Sean’s body. How easy it was to fall back into his old life, an existence prone to lawbreaking and violence. His brother Duke had, as a condition of opening RCK East, made Sean promise he’d stay on the right side of the thin line.
“We can straddle the line, Sean, but we can’t cross it.”
His brother had cleaned up Sean’s background, but it wasn’t lost on Sean that Duke was more than willing to tap into Sean’s expertise and old network when necessary. It was only when Sean wanted to do it that Duke balked, fearing his brother would slip back into his old bad habits. Bad habits? That was an understatement.
Looking back toward the trucks, he extrapolated where the shooter had to have been situated, then walked behind the tree he suspected was ground zero. Scanning the ground, he circled outward. The bullet casings could have been ejected quite a distance, depending on the type of gun, the wind, and the angle of the shooter.
He found a casing about ten feet from the base of the tree, on the right side.
Pulling tweezers from one of Lucy’s evidence bags he’d grabbed when they’d returned to the truck, he used them to pick up the brass.
A.270-caliber Winchester round. Very common among hunting rifles, particularly for deer and other large game. Here in the Adirondacks probably every household had a rifle, and half of them fired.270 bullets.
But it wasn’t hunting season.
He dropped the casing into the bag.
Tim said, “I called Duke last night.”
Sean barely controlled his flash of anger. “You called my brother, why?”
“To fill him in on what is going on. I’ve known Duke nearly twenty years; I wanted his advice.”
Of all people-dammit, his brother? For years Sean had been working to get out from under Duke’s thumb, to run the East Coast branch of the California-based RCK without unnecessary interference and unwanted advice.
“And what did he say?” Sean asked, though what he wanted to ask was How did I screw up? Because no matter how much Duke said he trusted him, he had never truly stopped second-guessing his little brother’s decisions.
“He said he’d have done everything exactly as you’ve done. Also, that he’d tap into other contacts for the background checks your partner is running. He told me to have you call him if you needed anything.”
Sean swallowed uneasily. He hadn’t expected that.
“But,” Tim continued, “I’m not so sure about any of this anymore. How did anyone even know you and Lucy were at the mine?”
“That’s why we’re upping the ante,” Sean said, though he didn’t have a firm plan in place. He spotted another casing, three feet from the first. He put it in the bag.
“What’s your plan?” Tim asked.
“We’ll talk at the lodge. I have a few details to work out.”
Meaning he didn’t know what the hell he was doing, but he wasn’t going to sit around and wait for the shooter to come after him.
It was time to go back to the Lock amp; Barrel, look everyone in the eye, and declare war.
FOURTEEN
Lucy paced the short length of Tim Hendrickson’s living room in the small house next to the Spruce Lake lodge. She’d been livid that it’d taken two hours for Deputy Weddle to arrive after the shooting, but nearly exploded when he focused on their excursion into the mine rather than the attack.
“Someone shot at us,” she repeated. How long was he going to ignore the more serious crime of attempted murder?
“We’ll get to that,” he said, “but first I want to know why you went to the mine when it’s a possible crime scene.”
“When you were here yesterday, you gave no indication that the missing body was a priority, and there was no police barrier blocking access to the mine.”
“It’s in the middle of the woods,” Weddle said. “I didn’t think I needed to tell people to keep out. The sign near the mine shaft says the same thing.”
She bit back the urge to explain the difference to him. “We didn’t disturb anything,” she said with forced calm. This cop brought out the worst in her.
Tim leaned forward from his chair at the table across the room. “Deputy, my guests could have been killed. This has all gotten out of control.”
“There’s nothing that tells me there’s a connection between the guy with the rifle and the vandalism you’ve been having,” Weddle said. “For all you know it could have been a hunter and he didn’t even know you were there.”
“That doesn’t explain the note,” Tim said.
Lucy glanced at Sean. He sat on the couch watching the deputy with a deceptively casual expression. He’d been so angry after finding the sniper’s note in their truck, and uncharacteristically silent after Weddle arrived. She forced herself to stop pacing, but she couldn’t sit.
“I’ll take it to the sheriff and see what he thinks,” Weddle said, “but at this point, we have more important issues to discuss, such as interfering with my investigation.”
“What investigation?” she snapped, unable to keep the sarcasm from her tone.
They’d decided not to mention she’d picked up three of the maggots they’d found. She felt uncomfortable
keeping the information from a cop, but he hadn’t taken her seriously, and she didn’t trust him. His attitude today told her they’d made the right choice. She’d already packaged up the bugs to ship to a lab once she figured out exactly where to send them for the fastest, most accurate analysis.
“There were strands of hair on the rock,” Lucy continued, “and the maggots I’d seen in the woman’s mouth were in the tunnel opening, right where the cart had been. It’s pretty clear someone used the cart to move the body.”
Weddle looked ill as she spoke, and Lucy was silently pleased. Childish, perhaps, but this cop wasn’t making anything easy. She’d been around law enforcement officers her entire life and expected them to do the job; most did. Weddle was one of the few who seemed both clueless and incompetent.
“I ran you both. You live in Washington, D.C., not Boston,” Weddle said.
Lucy frowned. “Boston? We never said we lived in Boston.”
“You said you were friends of Tim Hendrickson from Boston.”
“You know what they say about ‘assume,’ ” Sean spoke up for the first time.
Weddle didn’t get the insult. He continued. “And you, Rogan, should have told me you’re a licensed private investigator. You’re just on vacation?”
“Yes,” Sean said curtly. “When we found out about the vandalism, we told Tim we’d help him get to the bottom of the situation.”
“And found a dead body.” His voice dripped with sarcasm.
Lucy exclaimed, “The body was there! I told you there is evidence, but it needs to be collected immediately to avoid any more degradation. The larvae need to be collected as soon as possible and sent to a lab. They’ll be able to dissect them and detect human DNA, to prove that they grew inside a dead body, and possibly yield enough DNA evidence to identify the victim.”
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