by Dale Mayer
“So you trust their findings?”
Erick nodded once, saying, “Absolutely.”
“And how do you tie all these accidents together?”
“The only tie I can see is the fact they’re all related to our unit.”
She settled back. “That’s a big tie.”
“It’s a really big tie. I can’t think of any other justifiable reason for so many accidents. It doesn’t make any sense.”
She had to give him that. “And you guys can’t think of any single one person who hates you so much?”
He shook his head. “No. And that’s another problem because that’s a lot for somebody to hate.”
“What about from your military service?” she asked.
“We’ve all gone through various missions in our heads, but we haven’t been able to come up with anything.”
“So you’re all connecting these more recent serial killings back to the land mine accident that took the seven of you out, or eight of you, considering the one who died?” she hurriedly corrected. “Because that’s a leap in itself.”
“The leap isn’t so much from the original accident to these. If we acknowledge that the original land mine explosion was a setup, and our team was deliberately targeted, then we have to follow through with the understanding that the subsequent accidents weren’t accidents either. They were just as targeted.”
She sat in silence, contemplating the scope of one man’s devastating actions. Then she realized something else. She thought about it for a long moment, then said, “I don’t think the man you’re chasing in Santa Fe is the same man responsible for all these accidents. I mean, he’s definitely connected. Maybe he did cause the accidents or murdered these people,” she said slowly, thinking it through. “But you have to consider he was moving money. That’s why he wanted the courier. So I think he’s been paid to do them. At least paid to do a lot of them if not all of them.”
She felt Cade’s start of surprise. Slowly he looked at her, and she watched as realization came into his gaze.
He turned to stare at Erick. “She’s right.” His voice was harsh, as if unused, rusty, and laden with emotion. “There has to be a reason why he was moving large amounts of money.”
“That’s likely to hide the source.” Erick leaned forward with excitement. “So that leads to the next question – why would he want to move the money?”
“Because he can’t spend it here,” she said. “Or because it’s getting too hot for him to stay here, and he wants to go somewhere else. But that means moving his money with him, to wherever he’s headed.”
The three of them looked at each other, and Erick brought out his phone. “We need to find out any known associates of this guy. See if we can track down whoever is behind it.” He glanced at Cade. “Does that make sense to you?”
Cade shook his head, as if coming from a long way away, then cleared his throat to focus on the topic at hand. “It makes more sense than if it’s all the same person. It’s risky to orchestrate all these supposed accidents and not get caught. Although, with as much time as there was between incidences, he had time to plan meticulously.”
“This Santa Fe guy did the Norway accident with Laszlo’s father. We know that,” she said. “Because that’s how you tracked him back to Santa Fe. If any had been done here, you wouldn’t doubt it being him as well. What you need to do is place him at the other accidents, if possible, see if he has any associates here in New Mexico who might be paying him for these jobs.”
“If he’s getting paid in cash, that person has to be local. Even if it’s a middleman, that individual will lead us to the boss man at the top. If it’s bank transfers or offshore accounts, it’ll have a digital footprint,” Erick said. “But Levi has Sienna, and she does a lot of forensic accounting. Maybe they can track his bank accounts and see.”
“And if it’s cash?” Faith asked.
“It’s much harder these days to deposit or cash out large sums,” Erick explained. “So, most of these hired-gun guys, if they have cash, they keep it as cash. But then it gets much harder to move from place to place too. It’s not impossible, but it’s definitely harder.”
“So chances are,” Faith continued, “he’s been paid in a large sum for these jobs, and he wants to take it away with him and is now having trouble moving the money. Maybe he doesn’t know how. Maybe he doesn’t have the job skills for that. Or maybe he was counting on it not being a problem, and he’s come up to this unexpected snag. It’s easy to travel the world alone,” Faith said. “I know. I do it for a living. But it’s an entirely different case if this guy is leaving a paper trail by transferring the money from bank account to bank account, like I do sometimes.”
“And those we can track,” Cade said quietly. “I think that’s the avenue we need to look at.”
“We have the name on the driver’s license,” Erick stated. “And we have the car registration, which is in the same name, so Levi is working on tracking down any information on that.”
“We need to contact the go between and Warren Watson,” Cade said.
Erick nodded. “I’ve sent in a couple email requests to the middleman and a request to Warren Watson. So far I haven’t heard back from either.”
“And no luck tracking down the middleman’s email address?”
“No. It’s a proxy server, which was expected. But I suspect he’s getting the messages. He just doesn’t want to get involved.”
At that, Faith decided she needed to shut down for the night. She got up. “It’s late. I need some rest.”
Cade nodded. “I’ll stay here for the night. Are you okay if the two of us sit here and talk for a bit before Erick leaves?”
She nodded. “That’s fine. Just make sure you lock up after him.” Her tone was dry because, of course, he would do that without her reminder. She headed into her bedroom.
Cade said, “A little too much?”
She heard Cade’s comment as she shut the door. She wanted to shout and scream, Of course it’s too much. She was a normal average human being. She had worked hard to get to be where she was and was already dealing with Elizabeth’s accident and Mary’s odd standpoint. But to think somebody was out there systematically picking off these men’s family members—after blowing them up in a military truck, serving their country—that was just too much.
What they had to do was find the man behind it all. She now suspected, as they already did, that was who had arranged the original accident. But to think that much hate lived in this world was just beyond her. It wasn’t how she wanted to live her life. And yet she was obviously embroiled, and no amount of self-pity would take her out of it.
Erick left soon after Faith went to bed. He promised to check in with Cade in the morning.
With Faith in bed, the apartment now felt empty and was too quiet. Cade washed the few coffee cups and set them upside down on a tea towel on the counter. It wasn’t worth turning on the dishwasher for so few dishes. He did the same with the few plates and forks they had used with dinner. Then he turned to look at the couch. She hadn’t been exactly helpful in setting up a place for him for the night, but he was a big boy. It was warm in the apartment; he walked to the glass French doors, opened them wide and let the cool air flow through the room.
Inside he was still traumatized by the news that his sister had likely been killed while sitting in her vehicle, stunned from the initial car accident. But those car-related injuries she should have survived. He’d wondered at the time, but he dared not ask too many questions. It had been devastating to know she had died as it was. Getting the details would have been just too much. All he wanted to know was that she hadn’t suffered. And, according to the detective at the time, she hadn’t.
Now he realized, while she had not suffered, she hadn’t been given a chance to live. He lay down on the couch, his shoes at the front door, and propped his legs up on the arm at the other end. He didn’t know what size couches came in these days, but it seemed like every
body had little ones. What happened to something that would fit big guys like him?
As he lay here, Laszlo texted him. Is all okay?
It’s all okay, he replied. Except for the fact Levi and Ice’s dad have determined my sister was struck over the head after her accident, and that was what killed her. As soon as he sent that, his phone rang.
“What the hell?” Laszlo snapped. “Do you think they are correct?”
“According to what Levi told Erick, the evidence was pretty foolproof. The head injury was on the left side, but the crack in the windshield came from her right side. It’s as if the killer had something in his hand, swung it in an arc, and it came around on the right.”
“Like a baseball bat. Your sister’s lying against the driver’s side window. He hits her, coming around with as much force as he can, and she hits the windshield?” Laszlo asked. “And then what? Propped up your sister again?” His voice was raised in outrage. “Jesus, I can’t think of one single person in our world who would do something like that.”
“Neither can I,” Cade said in a tired voice. Just hearing Laszlo discuss his sister’s final moments was enough to hurt. “Chances are, whoever it was probably caused her accident in the first place. All the other vehicles in the multicar pileup apparently happened because her vehicle was in the way. They all tried to avoid her, to hit their brakes. The road was in bad shape with the ongoing blizzard. So one spun out, hit another, hit another, hit another. That type of thing.”
“I thought that’s what happened originally, and your sister was just in the middle of it all.”
“Apparently she was the first vehicle, and there would have been a lot of tire tracks to help recreate the accident, but it was snowing heavily. So, within seconds, Mother Nature had completely wiped out any evidence there was to find.”
“In other words, there’s no way to prove what Levi says is true. Since we don’t know who the attacker is, there’s no point getting the police to reopen the case.”
“According to them, it’s a done deal.”
“There was no autopsy done on your sister, was there?”
“No,” he said quietly. “There was no need.”
“No, of course not. Plus you were in between surgeries, trying to stand on your own two feet. Like the rest of us, the last two years have been a struggle to just survive. Dealing with the personal losses on top of that has just crushed all of us to the ground.”
“Which is exactly what this asshole is trying to do.”
“Do you ever wonder when he’ll stop?”
“I was just considering that,” Cade said quietly. “Think about it. Seven of us, Mouse, and eight of our family members. In Talon’s case, his best friend. All have been taken out—or close to it, in your father’s case.”
“So he’s injured all of us two years ago, killing Mouse. Then he’s injured our friends or family afterward. Now what does he try for? Another friend or family member or does he come back around and try to take us out again?”
“I wish he would try to take us out.” Cade barely held back his anger. “That at least would give us a target. And we’d be able to see who is doing this.”
“I know. It could be the only way we ever find out who is behind it.” Laszlo’s voice was tired. “I just heard from my brother. My father is going back into the hospital tonight.”
“Why?”
“He’s losing feeling in his legs,” Laszlo said sadly. “Apparently it started when I was there, but he didn’t want to say anything. And now it’s so bad that he’s tripping and falling because he can’t move his legs properly.”
“Is this from the accident?”
“When you’re seventy-four, I’m not sure they can say yes or no, but the accident didn’t help.” Laszlo’s voice was despondent.
Cade hated to hear that news. “Damn. It’s not fair to have targeted somebody of that age. He only had a few good years left.”
“I know. But, considering my brother is already dying from cancer, he probably figured that would double the torment for me.”
“Who? Who could do this?” Cade snapped in rage. “I just don’t get it. I’ve gone through with a paper and pen, listing all the missions for the five years we were in the same unit while active in the navy, including the final year we shared with Mouse. I’ve gone over the staff members we worked with and the support staff we worked with, our unit members, and I know we shouldn’t have to question those peoples loyalties, but at least they’d have the skills to handle this. I keep coming up blank.”
“I’ve done the same thing,” Laszlo finally said. “And I’ve also come up with nothing. There were a couple asshole guys I didn’t get along with, but they weren’t anybody I had a problem with. They were just arrogant. But that goes along with the type of work we do. We all know a lot of guys in our units are arrogant asses in many ways. We must have a certain amount of self-confidence, a certain amount of bravado, to do what we do. And, every once in a while, there’s someone who ticks you off.”
“Except for Mouse. He never really had a chance to get that deep in,” Cade said quietly. “And, for that, I’m very sorry. He was a young kid. Younger than all of us. He shouldn’t have had to die so young.”
“None of it should have happened. We’re not to blame for what happened to Mouse. We’re not to blame for what happened to any of us. Some other asshole orchestrated this whole mess. That we’re still dealing with the fallout is unbelievable. But to think that the same person is going around, targeting our family members, puts this on a whole new level, and I just can’t get my mind wrapped around it,” Laszlo snapped.
“I hear you there. And what really bothers me is not one of us can come up with a person who would have done this.”
“What if it wasn’t one person?” Laszlo said, as if thinking out loud. “What if it was one of the groups we’ve dealt with who targeted us all, and now they’ve decided that, since we’re still alive, they’ll go after our families?”
“What? Like an Iraqi terrorist group?” Cade asked. “Why would they care? It’s not just us after them. It’s all the US Navy and military.”
“I know. I’m just thinking out loud.”
“Faith did suggest the bearded guy we’ve been chasing could be a hired gun. The fact that he wanted to hire Warren to move money adds credence to that. Maybe he was hired to run down your father in Norway, but he used Santa Fe as a base and was moving some of the money out of here.”
“The only reason to move large amounts of cash is if that’s the only way he could get paid.” Laszlo quietly contemplated. “And he can still move small amounts. But, as we know, it’s much harder to move bigger amounts without it being tracked.”
“Lots of people still move money by the suitcase though.”
“But Warren didn’t want to do that. So our guy’s still looking for somebody.”
“What about setting a trap?” Cade said suddenly. He sat up and leaned into the arm of the couch. “What if the contact sets us up as a courier?”
“That might work,” Laszlo said. “But it can’t be one of us. Because, if it happens to be the same guy who’s been targeting us, you know he’ll recognize us.”
“So, it has to be somebody else, like one of Levi’s men then. But I’d sure as hell like to be the bait.”
“We can’t take the chance.”
“No, and we need someone to set this up. It would be good to get somebody who’s got a lot of international travel connections.”
“Maybe Erick knows somebody we can use.”
“He’ll say one of Levi’s men. You know that,” Cade said. “And maybe that’s not a bad idea. They have a lot of experience. They’re also capable of dealing with assholes.”
“We can make it safe—or as safe as possible,” Laszlo said. “Once the money is handed over, we can pick up our bearded hired gunman and maybe even the contact person for a little chat.”
“And the money. I really like the idea of hitting this hired gun b
y taking his money,” Cade said, a snarl to his voice. “I’d like to do serious damage to him in more ways than one, but, at least if we take his money, that will help hamstring some of his operation.”
“Still, don’t forget. He could be just a hired gun. One of many even.”
“Sure, but we take out one, and that’s a connection to the next level. Eventually we’ve got to find the guy at the top.”
“Call Erick,” Laszlo said. “I have to phone the hospital and talk to my brother.”
The two men hung up, and Cade called Erick.
Erick’s voice was thoughtful. “It’s not a bad idea. Depends if Warren will help us set it up.”
“He should. It might also get the guy off his back.”
“He has to answer us first though,” Erick said drily. “So far he’s avoiding us.”
“He’s probably traveling.”
“Maybe. Look after Faith tonight. I’ll send out a couple emails to see if I can get anybody to bite.”
“We also have to find the right courier,” Cade said. “It’s got to be somebody who can handle this. But not somebody this guy could recognize, which means it can’t be one of us.”
“Meaning, it could be the same asshole who arranged our original land mine explosion, and he might recognize us?”
“Exactly.”
“I’ll talk to Levi.”
Cade hung up, lay back down on the couch and, for the first time in several days, he felt like, maybe, just maybe, they’d get some answers. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.
Chapter 13
Faith woke up to darkness in her room. She lay still for a moment, her mind frozen, wondering why she’d woken up. There were noises outside, a party, some drunken reverie, but she didn’t hear anything else. Until an odd noise came from the living room. She gasped and then remembered Cade was staying with her.
She threw back her covers and stood. She grabbed her robe, walked to the bedroom window, moving the curtains slightly. The moon was high. She checked the clock on the nightstand. It was just after one. She opened her bedroom door and stepped into the living room.