Two hours later, Gwen regained consciousness. She came to on the office floor with her ski suit removed, and immediately reached down with her right hand and felt that her gun, which had been concealed in a shoulder holster, was gone. “Amanda?” Gwen called out cautiously.
“I’m right here,” Amanda said. Standing with her back to the office door, she watched Gwen struggle to lift her head. “You were right; the bullet went straight through. I found the entry and exit wounds. I washed the wounds with peroxide, covered them with some bandages, and put your arm in a homemade sling I made out of dish towels. I also managed to get some aspirin into you while you were asleep.”
“Thank you,” Gwen said gratefully. Even though her head felt fuzzy and her shoulder was crying out in pain, she felt much better than she had before Amanda discovered her.
“Why are you in Sarah Garland’s office?” Amanda asked. “How did you get in here?”
“I had to hide,” Gwen explained. “I figured this coffee shop would be the last place Bradley would search for me. I was assigned to watch you and Detective Garland.”
“By Bradley?”
“Yes,” Gwen explained in a pained voice. “After we saw you at the lake.”
Amanda shook her head. “I’m not a cop, sister. My brain doesn’t wrap around all of this cops and robbers stuff. My friend Sarah can pick a clue out of a haystack with her eyes closed, but I’m not that gifted, so help me out, okay?”
“Biological warfare,” Gwen said. Her voice sounded weak. “Bradley Preston is planning to drop a very deadly canister, filled with a lethal virus, into the Old Faithful geyser. A small explosive charge will be attached to the canister, just powerful enough to blow it open. It will be set to detonate when the geyser is predicted to erupt.” Gwen closed her eyes. “My partners and I have been working undercover... getting close to Bradley. When we were at Yellowstone... Bradley was with us. He stayed in the shadows. But... Charlie Raymond managed to snap a photo of us talking with Bradley one night...” Gwen struggled to sit upright but clutched at her shoulder, and lay back down again, breathing hard.
“Take it easy, girl,” Amanda said. “We’ve got all night.”
“We’ve got very little time left,” Gwen warned.
“What do you mean?”
“Bradley is a rogue agent. He’s a very deadly man and he wants to attract the attention of some very deadly and powerful organizations abroad... well, somehow he found out that my partners and I were undercover. He’s already killed Gregory and Edward... I’m the only one remaining.” Gwen winced in pain. “He was supposed to purchase the virus from a seller on March 20th... months away. Somehow Bradley found out we were planning to catch him in the act of purchasing the virus. But somehow... we don’t know how... he arranged for the virus to be delivered to Yellowstone earlier than expected. So then he came here to kill Charlie Raymond... knowing me and my partners would follow.”
“You said we have very little time. What did you mean by that” Amanda pressed.
Gwen laid her head back down on the floor. “I overheard Bradley Preston talking on the phone the day he sent Detective Garland and Detective Spencer out of town.” She paused, breathing unevenly.
“Don’t stop talking now,” Amanda said. “My girl, you’d better get your mind up and working.”
Gwen closed her eyes. “The virus Bradley Preston is going to release is extremely contagious and deadly. Symptoms of the virus will not begin to appear for at least two weeks and Yellowstone is a major tourist attraction. How many people will become infected at the park... and then spread the virus? How many people will fly on planes, drive hundreds of miles home, or travel out of the country entirely?”
“I get it, I get it,” Amanda said, horror dawning on her.
“Bradley sent Detectives Garland and Spencer away because he knew they would pay Mr. Pence a visit at Yellowstone Park... and he planted the virus ...the seller would hide it in their car...”
“Oh dear,” Amanda said, “the virus... Sarah is carrying it right back to Alaska.”
Gwen nodded her head. “When she returns... Bradley is going to kill her and Detective Spencer, along with anyone who knew Charlie Raymond, including you.”
“But I didn’t know the man,” Amanda protested.
“You saw his body,” Gwen said. She opened her eyes. “The virus... it dies in the cold. It has to be kept in a special canister. Bradley is going to release it when Yellowstone reaches a suitable temperature for the virus to survive. If he gets the virus and escapes from this town... we’ll never see him again.”
“But... we can call the FBI... the CIA... Interpol!” Amanda declared.
“Bradley will simply release the virus elsewhere,” Gwen said in a defeated voice. “A cruise ship, perhaps?”
“So this sour rat is just waiting for Sarah to return with the canister?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he now, Gwen? Can you tell me that?”
“Because I managed to escape... there’s no telling where he is hiding now. But... he won’t attack until he has the canister in his hands. He won’t risk anything until Detective Garland’s return.”
Amanda moaned miserably. “He never intended to harm my son or husband, did he? Only me.”
Gwen closed her eyes and nodded her head. “When you have no emotions, then you can’t be threatened. You... love your family and Bradley used your love to weaken you. He also used you to force Detectives Garland and Spencer to leave town.”
“Because they love me,” Amanda said.
“Yes,” Gwen explained. “You are the least of Bradley Preston’s worries... but make no mistake... he intends to kill you.”
Amanda looked down at the little kitten on Sarah’s desk, where it was happily batting around a crumpled receipt. “I have to call Sarah to warn her,” she finally spoke. “She and Conrad are driving back as we speak.”
“No,” Gwen said in an alarmed voice. “The canister has a bomb attached to it. If Bradley suspects that Detective Garland will not return, he’ll trigger the bomb remotely. Your friend is driving a great distance. They’ll become infected and... unknowingly infect hundreds, if not more.”
“Dandy, just dandy,” Amanda fretted. “You know, is it so much to ask for a nice hot cup of tea, while watching a silly romantic comedy? Huh? Is it? I mean, what is this world coming to? This is Snow Falls, Alaska, for crying out loud. This is where the polar bears play and the Eskimos live... this isn’t supposed to be a place for wacky models who like to build creepy snowmen... or Mr. ‘Forget About It’ himself along with all his silly sidekicks. My little town is supposed to be a place where a person can eat a custard tart in peace!”
“Wacky models... creepy snowmen... what in the world are you talking about?” Gwen asked.
“Forget it, you wouldn’t understand,” Amanda sighed. “So I guess all we can do is wait until my friends return and then watch them get filled with bullet holes, is that it?”
“Bradley has a listening device in Detective Garland’s Subaru. If you call them, he’ll set off the bomb,” Gwen explained. “The virus... it won’t just infect your friends, it’ll spread into the air... there won’t be any way of stopping it.”
“Well, I’m not going to just sit around and wait for Bradley Preston to kill my friends, me, and other innocent people and then go skipping through the land watching millions of people die. I have to do something.” Amanda pressed her hands up against the office door. “Think,” she told herself, “think... think...” And then she looked at the little kitten again and smiled. “I think I have a plan,” she told Gwen.
Gwen struggled to keep her eyes open. “Please, don’t do anything drastic. I just need a little time to gain my energy back...”
“And do nothing,” Amanda pointed out. “Listen, girly, I’m not daft.” She pointed at the telephone sitting on Sarah’s desk. “If you were an honest little bumblebee, you would have called your people across the pond and they would be swarming a
ll over Alaska and my friends right now. But instead, you have your own agenda. That’s why I took your gun and hid it.”
Gwen opened her eyes and stared up at Amanda in realization that the woman leaning against the office door wasn’t as dim as she first appeared to be.
Chapter Seven
Sarah didn’t like stopping. She was anxious to get back to Snow Falls and find Amanda. But her stomach was crying with hunger and she knew that if she and Conrad didn’t eat something substantial they wouldn’t be able to make the drive back to Alaska. “It’s not likely that Bradley is going to let us just drive down Main Street and unpack our bags in peace,” she told Conrad.
“Nope,” Conrad agreed as he took a bite of a turkey sandwich. The small roadside diner he and Sarah had stopped at was empty of patrons. A few lone vehicles rushed by on the main road out front, but not one of them stopped. “Snow is picking up,” he noted in a worried voice.
Sarah looked out of the window next to their table and studied the falling snow. The outside world appeared so cold and unfriendly, while the inside of the diner felt warm and inviting. The smell of fresh coffee and apple pie filled the air. Even though the diner was small, it was obvious the owner took great pride in his establishment. Cozy as the diner was, though, Sarah felt a prickle of anxiety in her stomach as she looked at the gathering snow outside. “We’d better hit the road.”
Conrad pointed at Sarah’s half-eaten plate of meatloaf. “Eat,” he told her.
Sarah sighed and focused on her food. “Any idea how we’re going to get into town without being seen?”
“Yes,” said Conrad, finishing his turkey sandwich.
“Well?”
Conrad picked up his glass of water and took a sip. “Our goal now is to save innocent lives. I doubt that pinning the murder of Charlie Raymond on anyone is even possible now. What we need to do is get into attack mode and hit Bradley when he least expects it.”
“We’re running out of time.”
“We have plenty of time,” Conrad assured her. “We’ll drive in shifts and reach Snow Falls with a full day to spare.”
“And what will we do when we get there?” Sarah asked. “Bradley will be waiting for us.”
“I know.” Conrad gestured for Sarah to eat while he talked. “We’re going to slip in under the cover of night. I would call Andrew, but the last thing I need is for him to go into panic mode. Andrew is a good man, but he doesn’t have the training to deal with MI-6.”
Sarah took a quick bite of meatloaf and looked back out at the snowy road. “Okay, so we go in under the cover of night. Then what? Bradley isn’t going to make his position known to us. The man will know we’re not coming back to Snow Falls to shake hands with him, Conrad.”
“When we get back into town, we split up. You find Amanda and I’ll go straight to the police station. Bradley can’t hit two locations at once. Once you find Amanda, I want you two to stay in your coffee shop, assuming that’s where she is.”
“She’ll be there,” Sarah assured him.
Conrad nodded. “Bradley went after Charlie Raymond because he came across some very damaging information. We agree on that, right?”
Sarah put down her fork. “Yes,” she agreed.
“And a drive from Snow Falls to Yellowstone and back would take about a week, right?”
“If you’re driving in shifts and make very few stops, maybe even less,” Sarah pointed out.
“And,” Conrad continued, “Bradley didn’t send us out of town expecting us to go sightseeing at the Grand Canyon. He must have known Yellowstone was our target.”
“So he wanted us to go to Yellowstone,” Sarah concluded.
Conrad nodded. “But why? That question made me think about what Pence said, about Bradley’s people taking all of those photos.”
“To plan their terrorist attack,” Sarah said. “It has to be.”
“I agree... but then why did Bradley let us go to Yellowstone? He wanted us—needed us—to go to Yellowstone, and he used threats to force us out of town.”
Sarah dropped her eyes down to her lap and tried to think. “Maybe he wanted us to talk to Mr. Pence. But that doesn’t make any sense, does it?”
“No,” Conrad said. “Here’s what we do know: Bradley sent us away for a reason. When we return, I think it’s safe to say he’s going to attack.”
Sarah shook her head, feeling frustration settle into her mind. “This is bad, Conrad,” she said, standing up. “Bradley has the high ground on us.”
Conrad rubbed the back of his neck and slowly rose to his feet. “I know,” he said, sounding tired. “If we can just figure out why he wanted us to go to Yellowstone...”
Sarah closed her eyes. “He wanted us to believe that the three people Charlie Raymond showed around the park were his enemies... and he asked me to stand down.”
“Because Bradley knew he was eventually going to send us to Yellowstone and didn’t want us connecting the dots,” Conrad pointed out. “He had us looking to the right when we needed to be looking left.”
“Okay, so he played a little mind game and led us down the wrong path,” Sarah admitted. “But he gave away his position when he ordered us out of town for a week.”
Conrad tipped his head to one side as he thought about this. “We’re making assumptions here, but yeah, that’s the way it seems.”
“Okay, so assume Gwen, Gregory, and Edward are a part of Bradley’s team and that they’re planning a terrorist attack. This means that they aren’t really part of MI-6.”
Conrad pointed at her brown paper cup of coffee still sitting on the table. “Maybe yes... maybe no,” he said, moving toward the front door of the diner. “Remember, Charlie Raymond did call the FBI.”
Sarah grabbed her cup of coffee and followed Conrad outside. A gorgeous snow-covered landscape of rocky hills and soaring trees stood before her. For a second, Sarah stood very quietly and absorbed the beauty into her heart. She was struck by the contrast between the stark beauty before her and the complexity of the case in which she found herself and her loved ones tangled so deeply.
She shook her head once to clear her thoughts. “Conrad, are you implying Bradley and his team might be rogue agents?” she said after a moment.
“I’m implying that Bradley could still have the ability to access inside information somehow,” Conrad said, walking over to Sarah’s Subaru. “I’m—” Conrad suddenly stopped.
“What?” Sarah asked.
“I'm not sure.” Conrad stared at the back of the vehicle. “The spare tire attached to the back of your Subaru...”
Conrad reached out to the spare tire and gripped it, pressing in deeply with his fingers. Sarah watched him, curious. Conrad examined the rim of the tire. It was gray with dirt, snow, and salt. “What is it?” she asked.
Conrad turned his attention away from the rim and examined the tire valve stem. With cautious hands, he felt the black cap screwed onto the stem. It appeared to be just an average valve stem cap, but the more Sarah looked at it, the more she saw there was something odd about its shape.
“Tracking device,” Conrad said, carefully removing the cap from the tire stem. “I almost didn't see it. I just noticed that the spare tire appeared less full.”
Sarah watched Conrad examine the cap. “If there is a tracking device—”
“Then there might be a listening device,” Conrad finished with a worried look in his eyes. “Sarah, check the inside of your car.”
“You’re the one with the eyes of a hawk.”
“You'll be fine,” Conrad explained. “just be quiet about it.”
Sarah nodded, jogged to the driver’s side door and pulled it open. With methodical eyes, she began examining the interior of the Subaru as Conrad dropped to his knees to search the underside. The Subaru only allowed room for two seats and a small storage area behind the seats. The storage area held two bags of clothes she and Conrad had purchased on their way to Yellowstone, a case of water, and two pairs of boots.
Sarah didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
She reached her hand behind the driver’s seat and began feeling the back side of the seat. With a sinking feeling, her fingers found a small bump on the lower part of the seat. Sticking her head farther in, she looked down and saw a small black circle, no bigger than a button, at the very bottom; it was nearly invisible against the black upholstery. Slowly, as if the device were a bomb, she eased out of the Subaru and walked around to the back of the car. “Conrad—”
“Wait a minute,” Conrad called out urgently from under the Subaru.
Sarah could only see Conrad’s feet sticking out from beneath the car. Seconds later she saw his legs appear, then his stomach, and finally his chest as he inched out from under the vehicle. He held a silver canister in his hand. “Take this,” he said.
Sarah reached out and took the canister uneasily. A symbol was stenciled on it in a sickening shade of neon green. She recognized it as the same symbol used for medical waste disposal “I found the listening device,” Sarah said in a hushed voice. “It’s behind my seat, near the floor. It wasn’t hard to spot.”
Conrad scrambled to his feet, brushed snow off his pants, and took the silver canister back from Sarah. “This is why Bradley sent us to Yellowstone... to be his errand boy. Pence... that rat,” Conrad cursed.
“Just be grateful,” Sarah said. “All this because you thought to check the spare tire.”
Conrad stared at the canister in his hand. “This symbol means it contains some type of a biological weapon... a virus, most likely. We have Bradley in the palm of our hands. Now the question is, how do we save our friends?”
Sarah shoved her hands into the pockets of her coat. “We need a plan and I think I have one,” she said, feeling her mind go to work. She looked back at the small diner. “This canister looks just like an old coffee thermos, doesn’t it?”
Snow Happens (Alaska Cozy Mystery Book 3) Page 7