by Dale Mayer
Merk motioned from the far side of the house. Rhodes waited, watching as Merk snuck up to the deck, came around the side and reached for something, then disappeared back the way he came.
Rhodes quickly assessed the rear of the house. Good. They could gain interior access via the windows, but still there was no sign where the smoker had gone.
They returned to their vehicle and called Levi.
“Don’t go into the house,” Levi warned. “We’ll put a tag on that address. But given what you said, chances are he’s guarding something.”
Rhodes happened to agree, but that didn’t mean the guy was a criminal.
He and Merk grabbed two hotel rooms for the night. Their motto when traveling was easy. Get in, get out, get home. With any luck they’d drive into the compound tomorrow night and not too late at that.
At the hotel, they quickly downloaded and sent off to Levi all the images they had collected, including the ones Rhodes had taken of the militant-looking man smoking on the back deck. Maybe with the new facial-recognition programs they might identify him. Rhodes wasn’t sure if a terrorist bombing was something Levi was looking for, or Bullard for that matter, but the fact that he and Merk had found a house with a cache of explosives was bad news no matter what country they were in.
*
Rhodes and Merk were up and on the road well before dawn to make the trek to the final location on their list. They stopped at the fourth house early enough that the neighbors weren’t up and around yet. This time they parked around the corner and entered through the back alleyway. The rear of the house had a large porch that hid them from view—of the neighbors at least. As Rhodes went to open the door, they realized it had already been broken into. Taking a picture of the busted lock and doorframe, they pushed it open and called out, “Anybody home?”
“Hello, is anyone here?”
With a glance to each other, they both pulled their weapons and moved in, one high, the other low. They swept the first floor, moving in tandem. They knew the drill. No one was prepared to take a bullet at this point in his life. The downstairs was completely empty. But somebody had broken into the house for a reason. Unless they’d come in to clean it out.
They moved upstairs and found it completely empty as well. The staircase to the attic wasn’t latched. They looked at each other, and Rhodes lowered the access. Merk went up first. They stopped in the empty attic and looked around, puzzled. Something had been here. The place was spotless, no sign of dust collecting, like the cleaning service had come through, or this had all been emptied recently. At the far side of the attic were bags of some sort. The two studied them carefully before going closer.
The odor hit them first as they approached.
They found two dead men. Both wrapped in clear plastic and tied up with ropes. From the decomposition already working and the fluids filling the corners of the plastic, the dead men had been here for at least a few days if not a few weeks. Careful not to disturb them, Merk and Rhodes combed the rest of the small room. Nothing else had been left behind.
It would be damn hard identifying their faces through the plastic. Rhodes took pictures anyway and sent the images to Levi. Rhodes didn’t know what the hell was going on, but it was a damn good thing somebody was checking out these houses. Back outside again, they took several deep breaths of fresh air and waited for Levi to get back to them.
“Levi?” Rhodes asked as he answered his phone. “Not exactly what we expected to find.”
“Definitely not. I called the cops there. Stay at the scene. Explain that you’re working for us, and you were looking to speak with the inhabitants of the house. Don’t give them any details, just direct them to me. Say that you found the door ajar, broken into, and went in to investigate.”
“What about the house with dynamite?”
“The police raided that house. You can watch it on the news,” Levi answered in a laconic tone. “Some good media won’t hurt the local police.”
Rhodes laughed, but he wasn’t at all impressed with having to wait for the cops or the upcoming explanations. He and Merk sat down on the back porch and did as instructed. They’d been in this situation before.
When the cops arrived, he and Merk answered what few questions there were and quickly showed the men the bodies. After that, they were escorted off the property and asked to wait for investigators to question them.
The wait was just long enough that by the time they hit the road again, it would be lucky—if not near impossible—to make it home tonight. If not actually impossible. They still had one more address to check out.
“Damn,” Merk said. “I told Katina I’d be home tonight for sure.”
“There is no for sure in this business. Particularly with Levi.”
“Dynamite and dead bodies? Who would have thought?”
“And what’s the connection?”
*
They were still several hours away from the fifth house. Of course, this was the furthest away.
It was late afternoon when they pulled up in front of it. After what they’d found at the first and fourth houses, they had no idea what to expect here. When a family with small kids came out the door, playing in the front yard, they wondered if they had the wrong house. They double-checked the address with Levi, but sure enough a family lived here.
The three little kids all appeared to be under six years old. Mom and Dad were here, as was a puppy. It was the epitome of the happy American family.
Merk and Rhodes drove around the neighborhood, took a few pictures and headed along the back alley. This wasn’t what they were expecting.
On Levi’s instructions they were given the okay to head home. Damn good thing. They were more than ready to return.
Chapter 3
With Merk and Rhodes both gone, Sienna found the house quiet and lonely. She and Katina naturally gravitated together. In fact, Katina came into the office to help out. She was a fast learner. And her memory was a huge help.
When Sienna got up this morning, she’d found Stone and Lissa had returned from a visit to Lissa’s parents. An olive branch of some kind was being offered in exchange. Sienna didn’t know the full story, but Lissa appeared to be a little happier about her parents. Then again, she had Stone at her side. And he’d make anybody happy. That man looked like a great big teddy bear and obviously adored Lissa. She was lucky.
It made Sienna sad in a way.
Here it was, fast becoming couples’ land. Between Levi and Ice, Stone and Lissa—and now Merk and Katina, the last pairing that had happened while she was gone tying up her former life—she was feeling a little lost and lonely. And that was stupid. The time for that was when she’d been hitchhiking her way across the country, figuring out what her purpose in life was.
Not now that she was here with a job and a beautiful place to live with a very decent paycheck. Who knew how life would end up? She had never expected to be here, particularly finding out they were friends of Jarrod’s. There was something very synchronistic about that.
In particular, seeing Rhodes.
Now that she’d handed over to Levi whatever information on the banks she had found, she returned to the basic bookkeeping and office work that in a way she loved. Although it was mundane, dull, and boring, she could blindly do it, dreaming about everything else in the world. When she heard someone at the office door, she looked up to find Katina.
“Do you realize that none of us have any hobbies?” Katina asked. “Nobody here plays music, seems to paint or draw, or do anything along those lines. I wonder why.”
Sienna smiled. “Do you have any?”
Katina slumped in her chair. “No. But I plan to. I always wanted to play the guitar and learn to paint. But it’s probably a good thing I don’t learn the guitar for your sakes, and I doubt I would do very well painting because I really can’t draw.” She laughed. “I do like to garden, but have you ever seen a place lend itself less to a garden? This is a cement compound.”
“T
rue enough, but you can certainly do a lot with planters. Imagine great big cedar ones all over the place. It would really warm up the compound.” She nodded toward the door. “Talk to Alfred. He seems like somebody who would love to have a garden. Particularly if it was an herb one.”
Katina brightened. “That might be good for me. I never had a place where I could grow things before. I lived in a small apartment.”
“And how is it working out for you and Merk here?” Sienna asked carefully. “And if it’s too personal, I’m sorry.”
There was silence for a minute as Katina studied Sienna’s face. “Are you asking because of Rhodes?” Her tone was light, humorous.
Sienna felt the heat wash up her neck. “Is it that obvious?”
“It has been since the two of you met. Everybody’s noticed,” Katina said, her grin wide. “Sparks. But it seems like very controlled ones.”
Sienna gave her a look. “My brother and Rhodes are friends. That means I’m a no-no to him.”
At that, Katina laughed. “Well, you just have to change his mind. You’re an adult, not a little sister anymore, and Jarrod can butt right out. You get to make these choices on your own.”
“Yes, except Rhodes will never see me as anything but Jarrod’s little sister.”
Katina leaned forward and whispered, “Take him to bed. He won’t know what happened to him.”
At that Sienna snickered. The idea appealed to her. Yet she didn’t want to mess things up with Rhodes or her life here. Especially if her relationship with him wouldn’t be a long-term scenario. That would just make working together very uncomfortable.
And that was the last thing she wanted. This was his work and his home. She was the newcomer. She didn’t want to upset the apple cart just because she was attracted to him.
“I can’t do that to him. He’ll think it’s a mistake later and hate himself.”
“You worry too much. Rhodes is a big boy. Besides, once he chooses, it’d be a decision forever. His loyalty is something else. All of them together have formed a family network here that I’ve never seen anywhere else. It’s really wonderful for them.”
Katina looked out the window, seemingly someplace far off. “I had worried I wouldn’t fit in. That I would be the interloper. Or that I would in some way disrupt that sense of family.” She glanced over at Sienna and said, “You were even here before me. But what I found is that the family unit expanded. It’s elastic. It opens and closes as it needs to. And now I feel like I belong.”
“That doesn’t mean there’s anything between Rhodes and me.”
“Of course it doesn’t. But if you don’t work toward that, there never will be.” With a cheerful smile, Katina stood up and said, “I’ll head down and see if Alfred needs any help in the kitchen.” She glanced around the room and added, “You don’t need me, do you?”
Sienna shook her head. “No, I’m almost done with the paperwork. The guys should be back soon anyway. Apparently, they had quite the trip.”
“That’s true. They found dead bodies.” Katina shuddered. “Kitchen and office work is much better suited for me.” She gave Sienna a beaming smile and left.
Sienna watched her walk away. Katina was just so cheerful and upbeat. She was fun to be around. Sienna hadn’t considered herself gloomy, but she’d definitely had lost a lot of her bounce when her former job fell apart.
The phone rang. Bullard again. “Hello, Bullard. Now what?”
He laughed. “Do you think I only call you when I need some help?”
“Of course you do.” She looked around the empty room, tilted her chair back, kicking her feet up on the desk. “It is what I expect.”
“Not everybody in the world is out to use you,” he said in a cheerful tone. “Lots of good people are in the world too.”
“Those good people would use me too,” she said drily. “Back to business. What do you need?”
He laughed. “Nothing. I wanted to give you an update. The first bank found their employee—the older guy I was telling you about, the IT manager, who will be retiring soon. He started pilfering off the top. He confessed readily. Trying to save his son, who could be involved in something much darker as he’s the one who had the spreadsheets.”
“Were they working together?”
“Not according to the father. His son is completely innocent if you listened to him.”
“I doubt it.” She laughed. “But the father almost got away with it.” She stared at her desk. “I caught some account numbers on the code you sent. The transactions were all international.”
“That makes sense. I’ll let you know when any of the other banks get back to me.” His tone turned calm. “I owe you one.” And he hung up.
She was still smiling when Levi walked into the room. He raised an eyebrow and asked, “What’s up?”
She quickly brought him up to date on Bullard’s case.
“This is really good work, Sienna.”
“I didn’t do anything. It was easy stuff.” She shrugged self-consciously. “That part was just luck.”
He laughed. “Something’s only easy because you’re good at it.” He headed to his desk.
She studied him as he sat down again and asked in a low voice she hoped was calm and disinterested, “When are the guys getting back?”
“They’re on their way now.”
She nodded. “Right. Going to be late then.” She looked over at him and asked, “Do you have any other work for me right now?”
“No, you’ve done a ton already this week. It’s much appreciated.”
She shut off her computer and stood up, saying, “In that case, I’ll see if I can round up a cup of coffee.”
She wandered out of the room and headed toward the kitchen. The compound was huge, and a dozen or so people lived here. There wasn’t a whole lot of social activity in this remote area, but when she had a chance, she did take trips into town. She didn’t want to feel like she was forced to stay in the compound. Because she wasn’t. She had gone with Katina, and sometimes Ice, to watch a movie or two in town, plus lunch outings and shopping. Sometimes the guys joined them. But her needs were minimal, and it was senseless to pay for a meal when Alfred was such a good cook.
In truth, she was bored. And she hadn’t expected that. Although she’d settled in here, with her brother leaving, there was a sense of loss. It was compounded by the fact Rhodes was gone these last few days. Then again, he didn’t really see her when he was here.
She wandered through the kitchen now with a cup of coffee in hand and headed out to the garage. She didn’t know very much about electronics. Harrison was bent over a laptop, swearing. She stepped up beside him and said, “What’s going on that has you so upset?”
He looked up at her with surprise and then grinned. “I’m not upset. This is actually fun for me. I like to see what people have hidden on their laptops and what they were doing with secret files they thought were erased. People always presume that, if they delete something on their computer, or damage the hard drive, it’s gone.” He shook his head. “And it isn’t.”
She nodded. “Same thing with code.” She frowned, looked at the mess, and said, “Is there anything I can do to help?”
He looked over at her and said, “If you’re serious, yes. Try to sort through all the different cables and set up bins for each type. Sometimes I have to hook up multiple units together, and if we don’t have an orderly system, it can take time to find what I need.”
She walked over to what appeared to be a brand-new storage system and asked, “Do you need things in any particular order?”
“If you use those bins, we can move them around to suit us.”
Taking a closer look, she realized the plastic boxes detached, so as long as she stuck one thing in each, he could organize them as he wanted. She turned her attention back to the large workbench completely covered with cables.
She sorted through what she could in the stash and put the obviously distinct ones into the top
three empty bins and then separated the remaining pile. She found everything from standard-issue cables to printer cables to a bunch of cut wires and big long ribbons of cloth-looking cables, plus a rat’s nest of who-knew-what. These were hubs, but she had no idea if they were to come apart or not. She set them off to one side to ask questions later and quickly delved into the big snake pile on top.
She knew software. This venture into hardware was different.
When the big double doors opened behind her, she turned in surprise. Sure enough it was Rhodes and Merk, driving the small truck. They pulled up, parked, and she just barely caught sight of Katina as she raced around to dive into Merk’s arms. As he held Katina tight, Sienna’s gaze bounced to Rhodes and off again. It was enough to see him studying her.
She quickly turned back and nudged Harrison to let him know the guys were here. And then she said, “I didn’t know what to do with the rest of the stuff.” She pointed out the items still on the desk. “I did get the others in the bins.”
“Wow, this looks great,” he said with a big smile. “What a huge help.” He glanced at the desk and said, “Okay, these guys we can do this with.” He quickly separated off the rest of the electronics, and as she watched, he tossed things into different bins.
She could have done that but not without knowing what he wanted. When she turned around, Rhodes was still glaring at her. She glared right back. “What the hell’s wrong with you?” she snapped.
“You,” he roared.
She fisted her hands on her hips and studied him. “Now what?”
“You’ve already put in a full day. What the hell are you doing out here helping Harrison?”
“Whatever I’m doing is my business,” she snapped. She glanced over at Harrison, but he had wisely stepped out of the way and was busy washing up.
She caught sight of Katina and Merk, both hiding their grins as they walked toward the door. Katina called back, “Rhodes, we held dinner for you, so it’s time to wash up and come in.”
As they disappeared, Harrison went in right after them, leaving her and Rhodes alone in the garage.