They checked the closet for clothes and/or a body.
They found the former but not the latter.
They holstered their weapons and looked at each other.
“Vanished,” said Reel.
“Seems to be a lot of that going around,” added Robie.
Chapter
23
THEY WERE STANDING in front of the abandoned B&B where Luke Miller and Holly Malloy had hooked up the previous night.
They had taken Parry’s dog and dropped it off at the sheriff’s office, where it was being fed and watered.
“Why are we back here?” asked Reel.
“I want to see if anything was left behind.”
“But wasn’t the place searched after the gun battle with the skinheads?”
“I never saw anyone do it. Malloy left to look for her sister. The ‘undermanned’ state troopers had their hands full with the skinheads. And look, they don’t even have police tape over the front door. So I doubt there’s an investigation ongoing. Now, I’m not a lawyer, but they’ve already royally screwed up any legal case by not securing the place and putting a cop on premises to guard it. Now it’s contaminated.”
“The Wild Wild West all over again,” commented Reel.
Robie opened the bullet-pocked door and they went inside.
They found it on the second floor in a closet.
A single suitcase. The nametag on it read “Holly Malloy,” with a phone number printed under it.
Robie pulled it out of the closet, laid it on the bed, and opened it.
Inside were clothes, toiletries, a passport, and apparently all of Holly’s other worldly possessions.
Robie checked out the passport. “This was issued to her seven years ago, before she came out here. No stamps inside. I doubt she’s been out of the country.”
He looked at the passport photo. “Holly Malloy. She’s obviously younger in this picture, but it’s the woman I was with last night.”
“So it looks like she was planning to leave Grand. Maybe with Luke Miller last night.”
“This suitcase is small enough to be carried on his Harley, so maybe they were getting the hell out.”
“But then his fellow skinheads came to town to stop that from happening.”
“Appears to be.”
“Well, Luke Miller owes us big-time. But for you and me he’s a dead man.”
“I don’t think he sees it that way.”
Robie looked at the phone number on the luggage tag, pulled out his phone, and punched in the number. “Worth a shot,” he said to Reel.
Three rings later a voice answered.
“Who is this?”
“Holly, this is Will Robie, the guy you piggybacked on out of the window. One question: Where were you carrying the phone? In your underwear or your bra?”
The line went dead.
“Was that her?”
“Sounded like her. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so flippant in my query. I’ll take another whack at it from a different angle.”
He thumbed in a text and sent it to the phone number.
“What’d you say to her?”
“If she wants her stuff, she needs to call me back.”
Two minutes later his phone buzzed.
“Hello, Holly.”
“What do you want?” she said in a strident tone.
“First, we’ve talked to your sister and she explained your situation. You got a second shot and I wish you nothing but the best. And I have no desire to get in your way of leaving this hellhole, but I saw the note you left in my jacket. Roger Walton? You know we’re here to find him. Or else you wouldn’t have left the note. So what do you know about what happened to him?”
“I…I don’t know anything.”
“Come on, Holly. I’ve got all your stuff right here. Including your passport. The cops missed it, but I didn’t. You’re not going to be able to get another passport, and at some point you’re going to need an ID. So this is your only ticket out. You want it, you can have it, in exchange for answers to my questions about Walton. That’s all I want.”
Holly didn’t say anything for a few moments. “I…I can’t.”
“The cops let Luke go, but you probably already know that. Are you with him now? His skinhead buddies are royally pissed at him and us and the cops let them go, too. They’re not going to make it easy for you two to get out of here. Maybe we can help with that. In exchange for information. That’s my offer and you’d be stupid not to take it, because the way I see it you’ve got zero better options.”
She sighed. “Where and when?”
“How about Walton’s cabin in an hour?”
“I can make it in two hours.”
“Okay. By the way, who did you hook up with last night after Luke Miller? We know somebody picked you up, and it wasn’t Luke, because he was with the cops.”
“That has nothing to do with Walton.”
“Fair enough. See you there.”
Robie clicked off, closed up the suitcase, and lifted it off the bed.
“You really think she’s going to show?” asked Reel.
“Yeah. I just don’t think she’s going to show up alone.”
Chapter
24
THEY PARKED THEIR Yukon well behind Walton’s cabin and entered the house from the rear. After searching it and making sure it was empty, they took up surveillance on high ground away from the cabin, but where they could keep eyes on the road leading up to it.
Reel had her scope out and was looking through it.
Robie did his surveillance with the naked eye. Then he checked his watch. “We’ve got some time.”
“Who do you think she’ll show up with?”
“Either Luke Miller or whoever helped her last night.”
Reel made a slight adjustment on her scope calibration and then shot him a glance. “I heard about London. Sixteen for sixteen with a spare for interrogation.”
He shrugged. “That was the assignment. I heard you did all you could and more in Iraq.”
She frowned and said, “Well, just goes to show that scuttlebutt is inherently flawed.”
“Outnumbered and outgunned and facing armor with a rifle? What options did you have that you didn’t employ?”
She shot him another glance, this one suspicious. “That sounds like you got debriefed on the mission.”
“Why did you volunteer for Iraq, Jess?”
“They needed a sniper and I fit the bill.”
“The Army has a lot of snipers who fit the bill.”
“Okay, maybe I just missed Iraq.”
“I’m glad you missed something.”
She sat back on her haunches and looked over at him. “We’re up to our asses in another mission right now, so why don’t we just focus? How’s that for a plan?”
“So just to clarify, all the things you said on the tarmac when we got back to DC were what? Just stuff to make me feel better?”
“Robie, this is not the time or the place for this!”
“Apparently, it’s complicated.”
She shot him a glance.
“You could have just sent a text, Jess,” he said quietly. “You didn’t have to break into my place.”
Reel looked away, started to sight through her scope but then slowly lowered it. “It is complicated, Robie. And I’m not prepared to talk about it right now.”
He looked out onto the road. “Well, that’s good, because here they come. An hour earlier than Holly said.”
It wasn’t a Harley coming their way.
It was a van with no side windows.
“How many people you think they can stuff in there?” asked Reel.
“About a dozen. From how far down the chassis is riding on the rear wheels, I’d say it’s pretty full of something.”
“You know, I was really hoping it would just be her.”
“Shows how much hope is worth,” replied Robie drily.
She slid her rifle out of its pack a
nd attached the scope on its rail.
Robie watched her load the Remington. “Why did you switch from Lapua rounds to Win Mags?”
“Just wanted something new, I guess.”
When she caught the rigid look on his face at this comment, she added, in a more contrite tone, “Someone I respect recommended them. That’s the only reason.”
“Yeah,” said Robie tersely before looking back at the van. “How do you want to do this?”
“On the off chance it’s just her and the weight in the van is due to something innocuous, let’s not open fire until it’s confirmed that she tried to double-cross us.”
Robie examined one of his M11s and then burnished the blade of his knife with his coat sleeve. “Works for me.”
She said, “If we keep this up, we’re not going to be too popular here.”
“We were never popular here.”
The van pulled up to the cabin and the doors opened.
“You ready to fight?” said Reel.
“It’s what I do,” answered Robie.
Chapter
25
“THAT’S DOCTOR KING,” said Reel.
“And his apostles,” added Robie.
It was indeed Doctor King climbing out of the van’s passenger seat. Five young men clambered out of the back, and one emerged from the driver’s side.
“And there’s Holly,” said Robie.
She was dressed far more modestly than the night before, in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt with hiking boots. Her hair was tied up in a bun at the back.
“I don’t see that they’re armed,” Reel observed.
Robie took out his phone and punched in the number.
They watched as Holly reached into her back pocket and pulled out her phone.
“Yes?”
“Why all the friends?” asked Robie.
Holly started to look all around as King watched her closely.
“Where are you?” she demanded.
“In a place where I obviously can see you and you can’t see me. Why did you bring all those people, Holly?”
“Because I don’t really know you, that’s why.”
“Okay. But why King and his apostles?”
“Because they found me last night and helped me. I was with them when you called. Doctor offered to come with me, just in case I needed any help.”
“Well, you don’t need any help, so you can ask them to leave. We’ll drive you where you need to go.”
“How do I know I can trust you?”
“I could have easily hurt or killed you last night, right? But I saved your life and then I let you go. Didn’t I, Holly? And we saved your boyfriend’s life, too. But for us, Luke’s dead.”
“That’s true, I guess,” she conceded.
“All we want is information. In exchange for that you get your stuff. But we’re not doing it with all these people here. So either ask them to leave or we’re out of here. And we’re going to take your stuff with us.”
“You promise you won’t do anything to me?”
“We’re Feds, Holly. We won’t do anything to you for lots of reasons, including the hassle of paperwork. I wouldn’t be doing any of this except for the note you left in my jacket.”
She pondered this for a moment. “Okay,” she said. “Give me a minute.”
She kept the line open and walked over to King. They could see her talking with him and then he said something back. She shook her head. He nodded, looked around the surrounding area, and called to his men. They climbed back into the van and slowly drove away.
Reel watched them leave through her scope. When they were far enough away she nodded to Robie.
They made their way down to lower ground and then took the path to the cabin. Holly was waiting near the front door and turned quickly to stare at them when they rounded a bend and came into view.
“Who’s she?” asked Holly, pointing to Reel as they drew nearer.
“She’s the one who saved your boyfriend’s life last night by taking out his fellow skinheads.”
She dismissively waved this comment off. “Luke’s not like that. He just joined those assholes to have something to do. He was bored.”
“He has a swastika tatted on his head.”
“It’s not a real tattoo. He did it with some temporary ink so he could take it off when he wanted to. He has it just to fit in. They have rules and crap. He’s going to take it off when we leave here.”
They stopped a few feet from her. “Okay,” said Robie. “About Roger Walton? We know that he came by to visit you at the rehab facility. Why was that?”
Holly said, “Where’s my suitcase?”
In answer Reel went inside the cabin and came out a few moments later carrying it. She handed Holly her passport.
“Signed, sealed, and delivered,” said Robie. “Now it’s your turn.”
Holly sat down on the porch of the cabin and glanced at Walton’s rental, which was still parked in front. She let out a long breath and looked nervously at each of them.
“I don’t want to get into trouble over this. I’m on parole.”
“Which means you probably can’t leave the area,” said Robie.
“I thought of that. I checked in with my parole officer and talked to him about my plans. They’re allowing me to transfer to another location where I’ll be checking in regularly with a new parole officer. I just can’t stay here anymore.”
“Your sister has been telling you that for some time, hasn’t she?” pointed out Reel. “She came out here because of you. She’s worried about you. She went looking for you last night but couldn’t find you.”
“My sister has been trying to run my life since we were little” was Holly’s surprising reply, her features hardening. “Did she tell you I was the brainy one? The golden girl?”
“She did. Are you saying you’re not?” asked Robie.
“Oh, I’m smart. I’ve got a head for math and science. I proved that. I graduated from MIT. I got offers from NASA and others.”
“But you turned them all down and came out here, why?” asked Reel.
“Because I wanted to get away from my family. I wanted to live my
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