Nikki sat stunned. Finally, she spoke. “Where does Agent Ringston come into play?” she asked.
“Mayor Brown,” Eric said in a simple voice. “Mayor Brown must have contacted Ringston, who is his cousin. We have no proof that he contacted Agent Ringston during the construction process, though.”
“Why are you still in Fall Cliff?” Nikki asked Eric.
Eric pulled a wooden pipe out of the front pocket of the heavy blue button-up shirt he was wearing and placed it in his mouth, more out of habit rather than want. “After the construction of the two bunkers, a hit was put out on me. I was nearly killed. That's the way of the CIA. I was prepared, though. Half way through the construction process I became suspicious that something was awry. Long story short, I faked my death and began a new life in Fall Cliff, waiting for the day the gold would arrive.”
“Will you help me stop Ringston and the thieves? Ringston has his plan, and the thieves have theirs. Warden Wayberry is obviously stabbing his half-brother in the back, and I'm not certain which side Mayor Brown is on. What I do know is that Lionel Perkins threatened my life and the life of everyone I love earlier this afternoon. I have to play his game, Eric. I guess I should be used to the threats by now, but I'm not.”
Eric didn't look at Nikki. Instead, he continued to stare at the front of the diner. “Ms. Bates, I'm an old man. I will be seventy soon. I have been hiding in Fall Cliff these last years because I have my own hidden agenda.”
“Oh no—you don't want the gold for yourself, do you?” Nikki begged in a miserable voice.
Eric laughed. “No, no. The gold is going to be delivered by the same man who tried to kill me. I want justice. But I never expected to take full custody of my granddaughter. Now, I am between a rock and a hard place. I am ashamed to admit this, but I must ask for your help instead.”
“My help?” Nikki asked, confused.
“Leave Agent Ringston alone. Let him bring the gold into Fall Cliff. Agent Ringston knows the bunker at the courthouse is a decoy. He's going to use the thieves to get the gold to the courthouse. When this happens, Agent Malloy Trally will be waiting with an army of men. They will arrest the thieves and pretend to relocate the gold to the real bunker. Fake gold will be stored in the real bunker, though. The real gold will be carried off, by train, to an unknown location, and eventually shipped overseas somewhere.”
“How do you know this? Perkins’ information came from an inside source. Do you have an inside source?”
Eric nodded. “I can't say who, though. I'm very sorry.”
“Why do you want me to help Agent Ringston?” Nikki asked Eric, allowing him to avoid naming his contact. “He'll get away with the gold.”
“If he doesn't, America will continue to attack the Middle East with a fully equipped financial arsenal. Ms. Bates, someone is going to end up with all that gold. In the end, America will get the gold back, but if we can keep playing hot potato, for now at least, we can slow down future wars and save innocent lives.”
“I never expected to become involved in this type of mystery,” Nikki confessed. “Eric, I can't let Agent Ringston escape with that much gold.”
“What do you suggest?” Eric asked Nikki. “As I mentioned, someone is going to end up with the gold. At least if Agent Ringston runs off with it, it'll slow down the wheels of war.”
“What about the thieves?” Nikki asked. “Why not give it to them? Men like the thieves will use the gold to live the good life.”
“Which is the problem,” Eric explained. “Thieves betray each other. The gold would cause a war for absolute power between them. Outside players would become involved—rogue countries. No, it’s too risky.”
“So, either the government gets the stolen gold to fund future wars or Agent Ringston gets the gold to do who knows what, or the thieves get the gold, which could end in disaster.”
“This situation will end in disaster regardless,” Eric told Nikki in a tragic voice. “Right now, Agent Ringston is the man I would allow the gold to be stationed with, but my concern, Ms. Bates, is not the gold. I want justice. I want Malloy Trally to suffer for his betrayal.”
“Killing a man will not bring justice,” Nikki told Eric.
“He's the only man who knows I'm alive,” Eric disagreed. “Trally is working with Ringston. Ringston is planning to do away with Trally, anyway.”
Nikki felt her head swim. Every man had his own agenda. And then there was the gold, which made her think of Warden Wayberry. “Warden Wayberry's license plate—”
“I know,” Eric said quickly.
“If we figured out the license plate, others must have,” Nikki said.
Eric glanced over at Nikki. “Exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
“I've said enough. I need to know, where do you stand, Ms. Bates?” Eric asked.
“I have my son to think about. If I make an enemy of the thieves, they will surely come after me and my son. If I make an enemy of Ringston, he will come after me. If I do nothing, then I'm in real trouble. Honestly, I don't know what to do. I'm being forced to take sides with one criminal or another.”
“I'm sorry,” Eric told Nikki, “but sometimes that's the way of it.”
“Eric?”
“Yes?”
“Maybe not,” Nikki said. “Let me play my game.”
“Play it well,” Eric cautioned her, “but please, as a favor to me, don't take sides with the thieves. I have to take down Trally. My granddaughter's life depends on it.”
“I promise that I will do what is necessary to save your granddaughter's life,” Nikki rested her hand on Eric’s shoulder. “Are you driving back to Fall Cliff?”
“Yes,” Eric replied. “You'll be able to find me at the restaurant.”
“Okay,” Nikki forced a smile to her tired face. “You're a good man, Eric.”
“No, I'm not,” Eric told Nikki. “I've done things in my youth that shame me today. By the time I learned the truth, I had already committed multiple crimes against humanity. All I want now is to give my granddaughter a decent life and erase what this modern culture has infected her with... a modern culture I am partly responsible for.”
Chapter Eleven
Nikki stood on a rainy sidewalk and kissed Hawk goodbye. “Be careful,” Hawk begged her. “I'm going to hide outside Fall Cliff. I won't be far away.”
Nikki placed her head down onto Hawk's wet shoulder as the rain soaked her hair. “I know I can't keep you away.”
“Never,” he said and pulled her tighter into his arms.
“When this case is over, I'm going to devote myself to my chocolate shop and my book,” Nikki promised Hawk. “I don't think trouble will find me in my chocolate shop.”
“I wouldn't count on it,” Hawk teased in a sad voice. Letting go of Nikki, he stared into her teary eyes. Nikki wasn't crying because she was scared. She was crying because it was hurting her to leave Hawk. Hawk gently wiped her tears away. “I won't be far. You have your hidden microphone on you. I'll be listening to every word you say.”
“You big jerk,” Nikki smiled. “You made me fall in love with you.”
Hawk smiled back. “Does this mean I get a discount on your chocolates?”
“Maybe,” Nikki said and glanced toward her SUV. “Tori is waiting. We need to go.”
Hawk painfully let go of Nikki. “I'll be an hour behind you.”
Nikki nodded and jogged over to her SUV. Waving at Hawk, she climbed into the driver's seat and buckled up. “Ready?” she asked Tori.
Tori was sitting in the passenger's seat with her laptop open. “Huh? Oh, yeah, sure,” she said.
Nikki backed away from her chocolate shop and drove out of town. “What's on your mind?” she asked Tori after passing through a roadblock. Wet and frustrated state troopers checked Nikki's license, ran her information through a criminal database, and finally waved her through.
“Holes,” Tori said.
“Holes?” Nikki asked, maneuvering the
SUV down a rainy backroad. Beautiful trees lined the side of the road, acting as doorways into lush, healthy, amazing countryside.
“Very deep holes,” Tori added. “Nikki, did you know how the town of Fall Cliff got its name?”
“No, as a matter of fact, I don't,” Nikki said.
“There's a very tall cliff four miles outside of town,” Tori explained. “And, at the bottom of the cliff, there's a deep cave. Nobody has ever been able to reach the bottom of it, either.”
“I get it...Fall Cliff, don't fall off the cliff,” Nikki said, and then a thought struck her mind. “Wait, did you say four miles outside of town?”
“Near an old, abandoned concrete company,” Tori confirmed.
Nikki felt her blood tingle. “Tell me more about this cave.”
“The cave was discovered in...” Tori began. Nikki sat in silence and listened. Mile by mile, her mind formed a plan. By the time she drove into the county that was home to Fall Cliff, Nikki knew what course of action she would take.
Pulling into the Hay Day, a run-down motel sitting all alone on a road lined with poor homes that the richer residents of Fall Cliff frowned upon, Nikki cautioned Tori to stay alert. “My ID was run through the system. It's possible Ringston was alerted to my leaving Maple Hills.”
Tori closed her laptop. Looking out at the motel, she grimaced. “Are you sure about this place? I think they should change the name to Cockroach Motel.”
“Yes,” Nikki told her. “We're not sleeping here. We're just checking in. You'll see. Sit tight.” Nikki jumped out of the SUV and hurried into the front lobby. Ten minutes later she returned, smelling like cigarette smoke. “Okay, we're good. Let's go.”
“Where to?” Tori coughed and waved her hand in the air. “You smell awful.”
“An old woman is manning the front desk. The entire front lobby is filled with cigarette smoke.” Nikki backed out of the parking lot. The rain let up as Nikki drove toward Fall Cliff. “Now we have to set a trap.”
Tori’s stomach fluttered. It was scary to be back in Fall Cliff. Even though the town was quaint and beautiful, a dark creature hid behind its false beauty, waiting to lash out at her at with deadly claws. “A trap?”
“I could have driven a different car,” Nikki explained, “but I want Ringston to know I'm back in town. As soon as he knows I'm here, I’ll start playing a little game of poker. Meanwhile, I want you to stay at the hospital.”
'The hospital?” Tori asked, confused. “Why the hospital?”
“I want you to pretend you're having a horrible stomach-ache of some kind. I want you to claim you ate at Eric's restaurant.”
“I'm very confused,” Tori confessed.
“I have to draw Eric to the hospital, and it will be your job to keep him there.”
“I'll...do my best,” Tori promised Nikki. “What about the cave?”
Nikki stopped at a stop sign, looked both ways, and eased through. Driving into an upper middle-class neighborhood, she watched as the homes went from poor to lovely in a matter of seconds. “I'm working on that,” Nikki told Tori and bit down on her lower lip. “First, let's get you to the hospital. And then I'm going to sit in front of City Hall.”
“Are you sure about this?” Tori worried. “Maybe I should stay with you, Nikki. We are a team.”
“We are a team, honey,” Nikki assured Tori. “And as a team member, your job is to keep Eric at the hospital as long as you can.”
Nikki spotted the small hospital and pulled up in from of the Emergency Room entrance. “You're a stranger in town. Eric is your uncle. You have the number to his cell phone. Make sure the Emergency Room staff calls him.”
“I will,” Tori drew in a deep breath as she exited the SUV. She slumped over and grabbed her small stomach as she wobbled her way into the front door of the ER. Nikki watched her disappear through a set of sliding doors.
“Go for it, girl.” She smiled and drove away.
Nikki pulled up in front of a small, one-story wooden building shaped like a giant gazebo. “City Hall,” Nikki said to herself, deliberately parking next to Mayor Brown's BMW. “Now all I have to do is wait. Hawk. I'm sure you're catching this, even though I can't hear you.”
Nikki turned off the SUV and listened to the tinny pitter-pat of the rain hitting her roof. “I have to play three hands of poker and bluff my way through each hand. First, I'll play poker with Ringston, and then with Warden Wayberry and the final hand with Mayor Brown, Hawk,” she whispered. “No one threatens my son.”
A few minutes later, Agent Ringston tapped on the passenger's side door. Without waiting for an invitation, he climbed up into the passenger's seat. “You're not a very smart woman.”
“I'm not so sure,” Nikki told him as her stomach tightened. “Agent Ringston, a very angry Lionel Perkins paid me a visit at my cabin earlier today. As you can see, it's getting dark. I didn't hesitate to drive back to Fall Cliff immediately after he left my cabin.”
Agent Ringston stared at Nikki. The situation was more serious than he realized. “You could be lying.”
“Lionel Perkins threatened the life of my son unless I agreed to come back to Fall Cliff and hound you,” Nikki took a piece of gum out of her purse and glanced at Agent Ringston's face. The man was set to strike at her at any moment. His eyes were sharp and deadly. “I had no choice but to come back and play his game. But let me make something clear: No one threatens my son and gets away with it. I was willing to stay out of this story. Honestly, I wanted nothing to do with investigating a prison break. So what if a bunch of clowns escaped? What's that to me?”
“Go on.” Agent Ringston pulled back his jacket and nodded at the Glock sitting in his shoulder holster. “I want the truth. Do I make myself clear?”
“Don't threaten me,” Nikki snapped. “I'll drive away and you will never know what Lionel Perkins and his band of thieves are planning.”
“I have my men under complete control,” Agent Ringston told Nikki.
“Sure, and the tracking chip you're forcing each man to have placed under their skin is your secret weapon, right?” Nikki asked in a sarcastic tone.
Agent Ringston widened his eyes. “So Lionel Perkins did speak with you.”
“Yes,” Nikki popped the piece of gum into her mouth. “I need help, Agent Ringston. I need you to protect me and my son. If you guarantee that you will protect us, I will tell you what Perkins told me. But please, you have to pretend that I'm doing as he asked. He told me I would be watched. I have to talk to Warden Wayberry and Mayor Brown and pretend I'm doing my reporter bit.”
Agent Ringston considered Nikki's offer. He saw fear in the woman's eyes. Nodding, he changed his tune. “Of course, I will offer complete protection. And please, forgive me for being so abrupt. You could have been working for Perkins. I have to be cautious at all times.”
“I get that,” Nikki replied. “I'm trying to be strong. But the truth is, I'm terrified.”
“It's understandable to be scared. Perkins is a dangerous man. Now please, Ms. Bates, what did he tell you?” Agent Ringston asked in a sickening, polite voice.
Nikki exhaled, as if she were exhausted. “Perkins said that his job was to kill you. That's why he shot the bank teller in Maple Hills. He had to lure you to town. But then you found out I lived in Maple Hills and went back to Fall Cliff before he could complete the task. So, for whatever reason, he decided to use me to bring you down. He said I was to tail you for a few days and then go back home and write a story on this mess.” Nikki exhaled another deep breath. “But the truth is, his true agenda is to make sure you're occupied.”
“Occupied?” Agent Ringston tilted his head as he smoothed his hair back with his hand.
“Fort Knox,” Nikki said in a voice that slapped Agent Ringston across the face. “He said you have all the gold in positon to steal. The thieves are planning to change out the real gold for the fake gold while you're here trying to chase me down.” And with those words, Nikki waited. She had crossed th
e red line. Now it was time to see what cards Agent Ringston slammed down.
“Perkins doesn't know I'm using the gold to capture a group of wanted terrorists operating inside the United Sates,” Agent Ringston lied.
“Please,” Nikki begged, “play along. Whoever is watching me has to believe I'm doing what Lionel Perkins ordered me to do.”
“What else did Perkins tell you?” Agent Ringston asked and drew out a damp cigarette. “Do you mind?”
“Go ahead,” Nikki waved and rushed the conversation forward. “Lionel Perkins said you orchestrated the prison break because you needed the Twenty-Four Thieves to steal the gold...gold stolen from Libya, or maybe it was Egypt? I'm not good unless I have my notepad, and Perkins was talking fast. It was also hard to understand him at times because of his British accent...not to mention that I was scared.”
Agent Ringston drew on his cigarette and exhaled a steady, even breath. “Yes, I understand that it can be difficult to remember details when you are scared. But please, try.”
Nikki wanted to slap cigarette smoke from her face but hesitated. “Agent Ringston, the bottom line is that there is a man named Malloy Trally who is giving all the orders to Lionel Perkins and the rest of those losers. Perkins said it's too difficult to kill you now, so you have to be crippled using a different avenue.”
Agent Ringston narrowed his eyes at Nikki, and he nearly hissed, “This information must remain confidential, are we clear?”
“Only if you let me pretend I'm doing my job. My son's life is at risk.”
“Yes, yes,” Agent Ringston clenched his jaw, “speak with Wayberry and Brown if you must.”
“Don't get mad at me. I'm only trying to help,” Nikki snapped.
Agent Ringston recognized his mistake. “I'm sorry, Ms. Bates. Of course, you are. I understand that you are under difficult circumstances. I appreciate your help and concern. Now, please, I must go. I will be in touch.”
Gold Flake Chocolate Murder (A Maple Hills Cozy Mystery Book 6) Page 6