Neil nodded. “Thanks. Where do you want this one?” He indicated the SUV parked near the pumps.
“Pull it into the second bay before you discharge your passengers. I’ll raise both doors so your people can walk right through. There’s a bathroom in there my mechanic uses. Not as clean as some, but cleaner than most.”
“Right now, I don’t think we’re in a position to be too fussy about anything. What’s going to happen to that? What if someone comes looking for it?”
“Don’t you worry none ’bout that. By midnight, my boy will have that baby painted red and headed to Tampa. In the meantime, I’ll get coffee ready for you and get you some sandwiches. The boss says you know the drill. Stay off the roads during the day. There’s plenty of places to stop, but avoid the chains. You’ve got lots of fuel. The thing has an oversized tank, so don’t have apoplexy when you gas up.”
“Thanks, Lou,” Neil said, overwhelmed by the woman’s generosity. Where had Todd found her?
“Hey, anything I can do for you guys. Todd’s the reason I’m alive. Twelve years ago, he settled me and my sons here. Oldest boy’s a marine sergeant now. Young one graduates in June. I owe him. Take care, inspector. I ain’t coming out. Better I don’t know who’s with you.”
Neil nodded. That’s what Todd meant when he said he was taking a chance. He was using people in the program rather than safe houses. It was a bold move. Once cases were settled, relocated families tended to vanish into the woodwork, and after twelve years few would even remember Lou or whatever her name had been.
“I appreciate it, Lou. Your boys should be as proud of their mother as you are of them.”
“I’ll just get that coffee. Why don’t you move the car and then drop the keys here? I’ll have that food ready when you’re done.”
Neil did as he was told and then carried Nancy to the washroom. The place was cleaner than he’d expected, given what Lou had said, and he left Julia to help her. Dan waited to get her into the car while Neil went in to give Lou the keys and get their food. Lou’s coffee was hot and strong, just what he needed. She’d included juice and water bottles, too.
As soon as they were all comfortably ensconced in the new vehicle, Neil pulled the documents out of the glovebox, memorized the drop box numbers, and then examined the map. Within seconds, he was ready to roll.
“Everybody buckled in?” he asked, starting the engine.
The van was a newer model with reclining seats, and Nancy was in a supine position, covered with the quilt. It was as comfortable as he could make her. The rain was coming down hard, limiting visibility, and he took it as a good sign. Fewer people would be traveling tonight. It would be easier to tell if they were being followed.
Pulling back onto the highway, he headed north, but when Route 75 met Highway 10, he stayed on I 75.
“I take it we aren’t going to Oklahoma,” Dan said, as they passed the on ramp.
“No. That whole set up’s been compromised. Todd’s message said to head for the hills and that’s where I’m going. He also said Mac and Meredith were safe.”
“How do you know you can trust the messenger?” Dan asked.
“Because she’s one of us. Todd saved her life and she’s repaying him,” Neil said. “Not knowing who’s after us makes it dangerous for her to help us in any way, but she didn’t back down.” He had no doubt Lou had a gun or two nearby as well as a few friends who’d come to her aid in a pinch.
“I didn’t get a good look at her, but I don’t think I would want to cross her,” Dan said.
“You’re a smart man, lieutenant,” Neil agreed and smiled.
“What’s the plan, then?”
Neil lowered his voice. “Tonight, we’ve got a five-hundred-mile-drive ahead of us. We need to be well away from here and our original route by daybreak. If the FBI are involved, there’s no telling whom we can trust. We’ll stop outside Knoxville, Tennessee. It won’t be a five-star resort, but we’ll have beds to sleep in for a few hours and be able to get some decent food. We should be there before six in the morning. From there, I’ll decide what route to take.” He looked in the rearview mirror and saw Nancy had sat up, her eyes meeting his.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“Vermont, land of maple syrup, green hills, and the family farm. Mama’s waiting for us there.”
“Mama? I don’t remember meeting your mother,” Nancy admitted.
“Mama isn’t my mother, but she’s quite a character.”
“Will we be safe there? Won’t they check out all the places your family owns if they’re looking for me?”
“Todd’s arranged this. The farm isn’t really family owned. We used it four years ago until we could find a safe way into Canada and onto Alaska. I have no connection to the owner, but he and Todd have history, just as he did with Lou. The place isn’t too far from that ski resort you remember, but there’s no snow at this time of year. My ‘cousin’ looks after the house and farms the land. That’s the cover we used four years ago, so we’ll use it again. No one ever questions relatives dropping in. We’ll be safe there. Now, please have something to eat. Lou packed us some sandwiches and then you need to get some rest. Julia, too, since you’ll be busy running errands or sitting guard duty tomorrow while Dan and I get some sleep.”
* * * *
Nancy opened her eyes and stretched. The room was dark, the only light coming from the television set turned down low. Neil had exited I75 at Chattanooga, and gotten on the 440. Just after dawn, he’d pulled in to an all-night diner for breakfast. Before they’d stopped, at his request, Julia had used gauze, cotton batten and whatever else she could find in the first aid kit to bandage Nancy’s ankle. The bandage was large and bulky; anyone seeing her carried in would think she’d suffered a bad sprain. From the diner, they’d driven to Leroy, a small town about forty miles from Knoxville and checked into the Shady Glen Motel.
The place wasn’t a palace, but the room was clean. There were two large beds, a small sofa, a flat-screen television atop the large dresser, and a kitchenette, complete with mini fridge and microwave. She and Neil had taken one bed while Julia had claimed the other. Dan had the first watch, the rifle Todd had given him in his hands.
Julia must have heard her move and materialized beside her, holding the assault rifle Nancy had last seen in Dan’s hands.
“Dan’s gone for muffins and coffee,” she whispered. “Do you want to clean up? It’s almost eleven.”
Nancy nodded and managed to rise on her own. Using the furniture for balance, she went into the washroom.
“Here,” Julia said handing her clean underwear and a t-shirt. “Can you manage the shower? It’s hand held. You can sit on the side of the tub. Don’t worry about getting water on the floor. I’ll clean it up later. There’s a clean towel on the back of the toilet.”
“What about the bandage?” she asked.
“I’ll redo it when you’re finished.”
Nancy closed but didn’t lock the door. If she needed help she wanted to be able to get it. She quickly removed the bandages from her ankle, undressed, and showered, doing her best to keep the water inside the tub. Once dressed in the clean garments and yesterday’s jeans, she pulled on the wig and carried the bandages back into the main room.
Neil slept still.
She and Julia kept their conversation to low whispers while Julia bandaged her ankle.
“Any pain?” Julia asked.
“No, I’m good. My chest is a little tight and when I clear my throat it tastes the way I would imagine the bottom of an ashtray would, but...” She shrugged.
As soon as the nurse finished, Nancy hobbled to the small table near the kitchenette and opened the laptop to examine Paxton’s books, looking for whatever she might have found before that would be worth killing her and so many others. Neil might think the information on the USB was the reason, but she needed to prove that to herself.
Blowing up the house had to have been an act of desperation. She forced herself not to
dwell on how close the would-be assassins had come to killing them all this time. If they’d stayed any longer … She shivered.
Determined to be useful, she combed through each file and ledger page of Paxton’s books. Paxton Construction should’ve been making a decent profit. Contracts for both construction and demolition were up, and yet the company seemed to be bleeding money. Those payments to the various Claymore Investment funds didn’t make sense unless they were loan payments of some sort, or accounts where he was hiding money.
She wished she had more information on Claymore Investments, but didn’t dare try to go online. Websites were easily monitored, and if she happened to look up something she wasn’t supposed to, it would be the equivalent of drawing a bull’s eye on them.
Frustrated with her lack of insight, she clicked on the folder containing the files from the USB drive, and opened it. She didn’t know where the actual drive was now. For all she knew, it might’ve been in one of the suitcases in the tunnel.
Since Ewan had opened all but one file, she was able to examine the information they contained and try to figure out how she could’ve come to have a file that didn’t belong to her on this drive with her personal information. Taking her time, she examined each of the recent tax returns she found copied there, admitting that it was her name and information on the returns, indicating she’d done them, but didn’t recognize any of the client names or numbers. Obviously, she’d used this drive at work. She was surprised to note that three of her clients made small but regular payments into an IRA with Claymore Investments, one of the same funds Paxton paid into, and their returns were also low. Why invest in a losing proposition?
Opening another file, she found her resume had been updated only a couple of months before the incident—she must’ve been thinking of looking for another job, so maybe she’d known the place was downsizing and hadn’t been fired. Her bank statements in the next file showed she wasn’t rich by any means, but there was more money in her savings’ account than she’d expected, and she had a small but healthy portfolio—none of the assets tied into Claymore Investments. No doubt some of that money had come from the insurance she’d received on her mother’s death. She closed her eyes as the fact that her mother was dead washed through her once more.
“Having any luck,” Julia asked softly.
“Not really. The information in Paxton’s files doesn’t add up, but I don’t understand why. But I do know nothing there can be the reason people want me dead. Neil’s right. It has to be that encrypted file.”
Chapter Seventeen
Neil pulled the car to a stop in front of what was surely the largest barn Nancy had ever seen. After having spent two more days in nondescript motels, they’d finally arrived at their destination. Neil was convinced that whoever had hacked the government security file had to have exceptional computer skills, and any electronic device could be hacked. He used each cell phone only once before disposing of it, and had gone into a store and purchased five others, each with a twenty dollar card for later use.
From Leroy, they’d continued driving north, taking lesser highways and staying off the toll routes where they might be recognized going through one of the booths. During the day, they’d stayed indoors. Around ten at night, Neil would get them back on the road. In the back seat, she and Julia watched movies on the built in DVD player while Dan watched for night hazards and anyone following them. Neil took a circuitous route, driving seven or eight hours each night, sometimes doubling back. They’d stopped at a shopping center open twenty-four hours and purchased enough clothes to last them a month and a few more DVDs to add to the ones Lou had provided. They’d had breakfast at a truck stop near Montpelier before arriving here, wherever here was.
Neil turned off the engine. “Welcome to Pine View Farm.”
Nancy opened the van’s sliding door and looked outside. The sun was rising behind the mountains in the east, painting the sky in various shades of pink. She breathed in deeply and smiled at the fresh clean scent of balsam and fir, unable to imagine a more idyllic scene. Vermont, nicknamed The Green Mountain State, was an incredibly beautiful place. The last time she’d been here, everything had been coated in white, but now it was bursting with greenery. If she had to describe paradise, it would look a lot like this.
“You didn’t tell me it was a Christmas tree farm,” Nancy said, taking in a deep breath, and pointing to the row upon row of pine trees in all shapes and sizes.
“It’s actually a mixed farming operation,” Neil answered, lifting her out of the vehicle and setting her on her feet a few yards away from the van.
Julia joined her. “Farms back home don’t smell like this.”
Neil chuckled. “Well, parts of Pine View are more aromatic than others. Roy keeps dairy cows and plants a variety of food crops, too. He has chickens and pigs, and when we were here four years ago, he was trying out sheep in the far meadow. In the spring, he puts up some of the best maple syrup. I’m not sure if you’ll get a chance to meet him and his family. It might be safer for everyone if you don’t.”
His words sobered her momentarily, reminding her that their presence here could endanger the farms usual inhabitants. Next to the barn, there was some kind of large shed but no house.
“Where’s the house?” she asked. “We aren’t going to be staying in the barn, I hope. I know a stable was good enough for Mary and Joseph, but I was hoping for a bed.”
Neil chuckled. “Don’t worry. We have something a little less rustic in mind. The farm house is about three miles from here, down close to the main road. Roy and Barb have five kids. The place where we’ll be staying is back in the woods, half a mile.”
The reality of another trek through the woods asserted itself. “I can’t walk that far on my own, even if I lean on two people,” she said, noting Julia nodding in agreement, “and I doubt you can carry me either. You’ve been awake all night.”
Neil laughed. “Why do you persist in doubting my male prowess? I most certainly could carry you, but we have another means of transportation at our disposal. We’re going to use the gator to get there.”
“Gator?” Nancy asked. “What’s that?”
“It’s a small utility tractor with wagons attached to it. We’ll use it to get to the house.”
Dan unloaded all the gear from the van, and Neil opened the doors to the barn and went in, driving out minutes later on a miniature tractor with carts attached to it. The green and yellow piece of farm machinery was unlike anything she’d ever seen.
“It looks like a lawn tractor,” Julia said, grinning like a kid at the fair. “This is going to be fun.”
Nancy eyed the vehicle and scrunched up her nose. The wagons were uncushioned and made of steel. They wouldn’t be very comfortable, but at least she’d be able to stretch out in one of them. She took another deep breath. It felt wonderful to inhale fresh air after more than three days either sitting in the car or in a stale motel room. The scents here were far different from the floral aromas she associated with home, but she liked them. She could be happy in a place like this.
Neil stopped the tractor next to the van
“Load up the gear while I put this away,” he said to Dan, before getting into the van and driving it into the barn.
When he came out, he closed the door and locked it, punching in a code on the electronic key pad on the wall.
“Let’s go. I think we have a visitor waiting at the house. It looks like Todd beat us here.”
“Are Mac and Meredith with him?” she asked, as Neil carried her to the gator. Her legs had gotten a little stronger since she’d been exercising them in the motel rooms, but she wouldn’t be doing too much walking on her own for days to come yet.
Neil settled her into the wagon. “I don’t know if the girls are with him, but I recognize the rental car in there. We’ll know soon enough. It’s a short ride.”
“I feel like a little kid in my big brother’s wagon,” Julia said.
Nancy chuc
kled. “I didn’t know you had a brother.”
“I don’t,” she laughed, “but the neighbor kid used to drive me around and pretend he was. He was the youngest of four, and since I was an only child, he kept trying to convince Mom and Dad to adopt him so he could look after me.”
“I would’ve liked someone like that in my life,” Nancy agreed. “I was an only, too.”
Dan tossed the gear into the last wagon, and jumped in directly behind Neil who started the engine.
“Here we go,” he said. “Kindly refrain from tossing objects out of the vehicle and keep your arms and legs inside the cart at all times,” he joked parroting the carny on the rides she’d taken as a kid. “Next stop, the homestead.”
Driving around the barn, Neil headed through the hayfield toward the pine trees.
The ride was bumpy, but not as uncomfortable as Nancy had expected. When she was sure Neil was driving toward a solid wall of trees, a narrow path she hadn’t noticed led into the forest. The rows of pines soon gave way to birches she recognized by their distinctive white bark and maples by the shape of their leaves. There were other trees she couldn’t name, but she vowed she’d learn all about them before she left this place.
The fear which had been her constant companion the last couple of days filled her. While it was true the house was off the beaten path, could that not be a problem as well? The house in Florida had been isolated, but they’d found it anyway. Those people had blown up that house; what was to stop them from doing that here?
Her gloomy thoughts vanished as a small clearing appeared. In the center of it stood a beautiful, log cabin, its walls gleaming gold in the early morning sun. Along the left side, tall poplar trees grew, no doubt as a windbreak. Rose bushes abounded at the edge of the veranda. Neil stopped the gator and Dan got out to open the heavy metal gate on the fence surrounding the house. Nancy shivered as she noted the fence was electrified, the warning sign large and clear. The put electric fences around prisons, didn’t they? Would this be a sanctuary or a jail?
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