“You just sicked the mother of all Feds on me. Now, he’s going to want to see pictures and do research to find out more.”
The mayor found that entertaining. “If he wants them, they’re in the library archives.”
“Chris! Shut the hell up!” she warned, laughing.
Blackhawk rubbed his hands together manically. “Hot damn! I’m going to see my girl dressed up in pink like some debutant and wearing a purty crown,” he drawled, mimicking some backwoods accent.
That made her snort. “I believe the dress was black and blue, and it matched the bruises that I’m going to put on Chris’s ass for even bringing this up. This is like dangling a juicy mouse in front of a slippery snake.”
There was now a side mission, and Ethan couldn’t wait to get one of the techs to head over there and do the deed for him. He wasn’t stupid. Elizabeth would definitely kick his ass for disappearing, but she would have to catch him in that act.
“Come on, Cowboy. We have an interview to do yet today.”
Blackhawk followed and winked at Chris. “Have a good day, Mayor.”
Despite her threats, Ethan knew his was looking up.
When they pulled up to the pig farm, the smell was outrageous. As much as Cyra considered herself to have a strong constitution, even this made her gag.
“Holy shit!” exclaimed Harper Stanton. “This place smells worse than you’d think it would. Bacon smells too damn good to come from this travesty!”
Cyra was with her partner there.
Getting out of the Denali, she glanced over at the newbie. “Harper, under NO circumstance are you to mention to this woman that her husband may have been eaten by a cannibal. Okay? If we let that cat out of the bag, you and I will be on Elizabeth Blackhawk’s dinner plate ourselves. She won’t think twice about having an agent snack.”
She understood. “I have a question. Is Director Blackhawk really this tough to work with? She scares the shit out of me,” Harper admitted.
Cyra crossed her arms. “Elizabeth Blackhawk is an enigma. As a new agent, you’re going to have to take your lumps when it comes to her. I know she can be scary, but once you work under her a while, you see that she’s just trying to train you to be a good at your job.”
Thank God that she didn't have to go through that initiation phase with the boss. For that one blessing alone, she would kiss Chris Leonard, while standing naked in a swamp full of poisonous vipers.
“Okay, if you say so.”
They headed towards the house. Once there, they didn't even have to knock on the door. It flew open and a woman with a twelve gauge shotgun stood there, pointing it at them.
Neither agent moved.
“Who are you?” the woman said, pointing from agent to agent.
Cyra swallowed and prayed that they could talk themselves out of this. Yeah, she expected a grieving woman, not one ready to shoot first and ask questions later.
“Ma’am, I’m with the FBI. We’re here to investigate your husband’s disappearance and ask some questions,” Cyra said calmly. “I’m going to reach for my badge and show you,” she offered, praying that the woman wasn’t trigger happy, or this was bound to end badly for her. Cyra’s life began flashing before her eyes, as she continued to focus on the woman’s trigger finger.
Standing in the doorway, the gun toting woman watched the blonde reach for her pocket. When she pulled out a leather case and flipped it over, she scanned the information.
As quickly as the anger appeared, it was gone.
“I’m sorry that I pointed my gun at you both,” said the woman. “Please forgive me, but since my husband disappeared, people have been harassing me.”
Cyra could feel her pulse throbbing in her neck. Shit, that was scary. Yeah, when she had been a detective, she had been shot at, but that was all pre-Chris Leonard.
It was before she knew what love was and had a reason to hold onto it for dear life.
“It’s okay, ma’am,” she replied. “Can we come in and talk to you?”
The woman quickly opened the door and ushered them inside.
“Who has been harassing you, Mrs. Williams?” asked Harper. Her boss told her to ask questions, and it was a miracle she could do that after facing down a double barrel shotgun.
“The town council is guilty as sin. They took my Duke and killed him, I know it! They wanted him to shut down our farm and move.”
Cyra made notes. “Why did they want that, Mrs. Williams?” she inquired.
“They said it was because of the smell. They told him that the stink was distracting to the town folks. Well, we’re far enough away and don’t have many neighbors out here. No one’s come to us to complain.”
Cyra figured the loaded gun was a good reason why. If it wasn’t, it should be. This woman wasn’t playing with a full deck.
“Duke wouldn’t give up. He told them to kiss his ass. This farm has been in his family for three generations. There was no way he was walking away from this.”
“How long after they threatened him did he go missing?” Cyra asked, pausing as the woman thought about it.
“Maybe it was a few weeks. They started coming out here often to put pressure on him. Then one day, poof! He was gone, and they stopped coming around.”
“Then why the gun, ma’am?” asked Cyra. “If they stopped harassing you, why are you toting around a twelve gauge?”
“We had another issue with some Injun.”
Cyra made a mental note to warn Ethan and Callen to not head out here. Not because they couldn’t handle a little racial slur, but because Elizabeth would lose her mind and possibly be in jail for murder.
“Tell us about the Injun,” stated Harper.
Cyra gave her a scathing look. God help her partner if she ever said that word in front of Elizabeth. She’d be working out of some satellite office in Alaska, or a pine box.
“His name is Maxwell Steppapaw. He lives on the next property over. He and Duke got into a fist fight a while back. Our pigs got out and went onto his land. They tromped through his garden and destroyed his ‘herbs’.”
Making notes, Cyra urged her to continue. “What else, ma’am?”
“The man approached Duke, and they got into a fight. I called the cops and the sheriff came out and took the Injun away.”
Funny, to Cyra’s knowledge, the sheriff never brought that up. She was sure that Elizabeth would have told them in advance had she known.
“He tried to sue us for money to repair his land, but Duke disappeared first, and he couldn’t get a penny out of us. You want to meet someone who could have taken my husband? Then you should head there after you talk to the council. They both had it in for us!”
The women both stood and shook the woman’s hand.
“Ma’am, we may need to come back here and ask more questions, okay? So, if we do, take it easy with the shotgun. It’s illegal to pull a weapon on a Federal officer. You could hurt someone,” she added. “The next time, I’ll have to arrest you.”
The woman nodded. “Now that I see what vehicles you’re drivin’, I’ll know you’re a Fed.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
Harper interjected, recalling that her boss wanted her to ask some questions. “I have one last question, Mrs. Williams, if you don’t mind?”
“Sure, ask away.”
“What was your husband’s hobby?”
Cyra looked at her partner like she was out of her damn mind. Where the hell was she taking that line of questioning?
“He liked to collect stamps. Why?” she asked.
Harper just shrugged. “Just covering all our bases,” she replied.
The woman escorted them out. Once outside, Cyra looked over at her partner. “Hobby?” she asked.
“Hey, Elizabeth said that she wanted to know everything, so I’m just following directions.”
Hopping up into the Denali, she simply shook her head in disbelief and wondered if she had ever been that damn green.
Callen and Tyrell sat outs
ide the café having their coffee. Before heading there, they had stopped in at the newspaper, and the deputy had indeed been right. So, to buy some time, they were sitting there and going over the file.
Well, mostly they were talking about personal things for now.
Whitefox had just asked Tyrell about his family and kids, and was enjoying his time with the man. He was pretty laid back and easy going, and that made him a pleasure to be around. Since their personalities were meshing, it took the pressure off.
“I’ve been married a long time,” Tyrell added. “Almost twenty years. My wife and I got hitched right out of high school, and then we began popping out the kiddos.”
Callen couldn’t wait to be with Elizabeth for that long. There was something appealing about having someone be yours for the length of your life. It was comforting to belong and feel that kind of love.
“How long have you been with Elizabeth?” Tyrell asked. “I’m sorry to pry, but Martha pretty much blabbed your relationship to everyone that works at the station.”
Callen didn't mind talking about their lives. At one point, he was afraid to let the cat out of the bag. The last thing that he wanted was to hurt the people he loved. “We’ve been together almost two years,” he answered. “We don’t hide our relationship, so I don’t mind discussing it.”
At first, he wanted to keep it secret to protect Ethan and Elizabeth’s careers, but when they had insisted they didn't care, he let go of that last inhibition.
“I’d like to say I’m shocked that she has two men in her life, but I’m not,” Tyrell added.
“Really?” Callen stated. That surprised him a little bit.
“Yeah, I always figured it would take two men to deal with her wildness. She’s a handful, and always was one.”
That made Callen roar with laughter. Wasn’t that the absolute truth? Elizabeth was always saying something so off the cuff, or doing something dangerous, and they never knew what was coming next.
Tyrell glanced down at his watch. “Marcus Lewis should be in by now,” he stated. “Want to head over?”
Whitefox did. As they walked over, he glanced at Tyrell. “I’ll let you lead the questions. You know the man, and town, better. I’ll hang back and observe as much as possible. I really want to know if he left any personal effects, and what he was working on before he went missing, if possible.”
“Gotcha. I’ll get you both.”
Inside the newspaper, they were greeted by a person sitting behind a desk. Callen didn't think she was a secretary, since she was doing research.
“Hey, Ty, what’s up?”
He hugged the woman. “Not much, Tiffany, but we need to see your boss. Is he in yet?”
She glanced up at the clock. “Yeah, head on back to his office.” Then, woman’s gaze slid up and down the Native man’s body appreciatively.
Callen ignored it, but could feel her eyes on his back as he walked away. He didn't know if he should be sorry that his woman wasn’t here or if he should be glad. He loved when she got all bitchy when women checked out her Native eye candy. It gave him that warm fuzzy feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“Sorry about that,” Tyrell said. “Tiffany’s a reporter here, and she loves any man that crosses her path. It doesn’t matter the race, as long as they’re male and doable.”
Callen snickered. “Yeah, my doable days are way done.”
“Elizabeth would kill her and dance around her body,” Tyrell said. “In high school once, she beat up a girl who laid her lips on her boyfriend. It was at the annual carnival. Elizabeth got out of the parade car and went over to this girl, and while in her gown, they had a fist fight.”
Whitefox stopped him. “Wait, what? Gown? Parade?”
Tyrell laughed. “Oops. I just made a big faux pas on this one, I can tell.”
“Hell no! You don’t get to clam up now. I need to know! If you tell me, I won’t tell her it was you. I’ll say I heard it around town, or during the interview.”
The deputy thought about it and spilled the details. It wasn’t like Elizabeth could hurt him.
Right?
“Elizabeth was voted town Spring Fling queen. She had to wear a pretty dress, sit in the back of a Mustang convertible, and wave at the crowd. She looked really pretty, if I remember correctly.”
He actually giggled at this little gem. “Seriously? The mother of my children, and the woman who wore cowboy boots to her own wedding, was some parade queen?”
“Yeah. She campaigned hard for it too. Elizabeth would have won just by tossing her name into the vote, but she actually schmoozed people and tried to win.”
Oh God! This was the best damn thing that Callen had ever heard in his life. “I need to know about the dress.”
Tyrell pointed at him. “You better not say shit, or we’ll both be strung up and dead. I have kids that like their daddy!”
He made a crisscross motion on his chest and took a vow. “I promise, so spill it!”
“It was this sexy, backless number that fit her body like a glove. Her daddy nearly had a stroke when he saw her being brought into the station. Half the town could hear him yelling about how she snuck out of the house in it.”
“Oh, this is priceless.” Yeah, his brother wanted a clone of her? They were going to have their hands full for the rest of their lives.
“For weeks, the boys followed her around even more than usual. She blew them all off, because she was heading off to her fancy college. Let’s just say, she broke a few hearts and pissed off quite a few girlfriends that were dumped in the wake.”
Callen stored away the details that Tyrell had shared, because he found it entertaining.
“Yeah, there was probably a newspaper story about it. You should ask them for copies of the microfilm.”
This day was getting better and better. Wait until his brother heard this one. This was like the husband coup d'état. It may get them hurt, but it was going to go down in history.
At the door marked ‘Editor-in-Chief’, they stopped. Tyrell knocked and they waited until they were called inside.
A man in his late fifties sat behind the desk. His face was weathered, and he looked like he lived a long hard life.
“Hey, Marcus,” greeted Tyrell. “I’m here to ask you some questions.”
The man glanced up. “That’s new. Are you trying to steal my job?” he teased. Marcus couldn’t help but notice the man standing beside the deputy. “Who’s the muscle?”
Whitefox introduced himself, and it was hard not to notice that the man perked up. Yeah, he was all about a news story. You could see it in his eyes. Showing up there might have been a tactical error, and now the media had just been alerted to hints of smoke in the air.
Soon, they’d smell the big cannibal BBQ.
Callen’s only hope was that Marcus would assume that it would have something to do with the Native people around the area.
“What do you need to know?” he asked.
“We’re here to talk to you about Herman Peterson, and the day he disappeared.”
The editor leaned back and waved them to the chairs in his office. “I remember it well. He was out working on a few stories. Herman was the king of multitasking. The man could balance five assignments at once. I still haven’t been able to replace him.”
“What was he working on at the time he went missing?” Tyrell asked.
Marcus didn't even have to think about it. “He was taking pictures of the carnival grounds for the ‘before and after’ story on how the Spring Fling destroyed the land. He was concerned with the environment. Herman was a gem. The rest of his stories were feel good pieces about high school fundraisers.”
“Did he have any problems with anyone related to that first story?” pushed Tyrell.
“Nah, he was golden there. The council even gave him an interview, and he was excited.”
Then, the man got quiet.
“What are you thinking about?” Callen asked. “Did someone bother Herman?”
He leaned forward. “We did have one issue come up. It was a delicate matter, and we really thought that something big was going to happen because of it, and I don’t mean in a good way.”
Now, he was talking.
“What?” Tyrell asked.
“Herman had a good heart, and like I said, he really wanted to help the environment, but it may have gotten him in trouble. Right before he went missing, he found himself in a sticky situation. He wandered a little too far onto the Native lands and was taking pictures.”
Callen watched as the man seemed to get a little wary of sharing the details, and it didn't shock him. After all, there was an Indian in his office.
“What did he get photos of that caused the stink?” Tyrell asked.
“Some Indian burial ground.”
Oh boy.
Callen got it immediately, even when the men in the room didn’t. “In our culture, you just don’t do that. Burial grounds are sacred. We don’t take pictures of them or disturb them. Many different tribes, once they lay their dead to rest, don’t even go back. It’s very taboo in some tribe cultures. In ours, we visit, but the site is sacred. We decorate it with beads and feathers, as we bid our loved ones farewell.”
“Yeah, so we found out the hard way,” Marcus Lewis said. “He was working on a piece regarding the scariest places in Salem. He heard that the burial grounds were old and haunted, so he thought to take pictures. I was told that he may have even touched some of the adornments on the grave markers.”
Yeah, also a really big no-no.
“Who caught him?” Tyrell questioned.
“It seems that Chief Runningwolf was there visiting his ancestors for some yearly tribute and saw him. He called the authorities and had him booted off the land. They have their own police, so they handled it.”
Callen saw this as a potential lead. “Did they charge him with anything?”
The man shook his head. “No, and after he explained, and I called reassuring them that Herman was a friend of the environment and meant no harm, the police released him. I don’t think Chief Runningwolf was really happy though, either way.
Whitefox didn't doubt that. He’d be pissed too if someone touched the graves of his family, and he wasn’t nearly as superstitious.
Consumed by Wrath: An FBI/Romance Thriller (An FBI/Romance Thriller ~ Book 8) Page 24