David Wolf series Box Set

by Jeff Carson

  Wolf watched people scatter with subdued nods and incredulous glances to one another. “Connell was behind this.” Wolf rubbed the side of his neck. “Or the Connells. I don’t need to wait for the fire investigation to know that this was arson. I don’t leave that propane tank on when I leave. Ever. And I saw that flash just inside the door. The tank was turned on, and set to explode. Plain and simple. First they didn’t want me to be sheriff of this county, and now they’re willing to kill me to get me out of the picture.”

  “Wait, what?” Rachette frowned.

  Wolf told him about the night before—the job offer from Gary, the big navy SEAL, and Gary and Wolf’s falling out after he’d told him about Connell’s actions on top of the cliff, and then his refusal of the job.

  Rachette shook his head. “Okay, listen to me. Its time you tell me what the hell happened on top of that cliff. You bullshitted me before, and then went to Italy, and I just dropped it. I figured it wasn’t any of my business. I figured you didn’t want to rat out Connell. I get that. But now I wanna know. I need to know. I think I’m entitled to a little explanation, and don’t just tell me to suck it up again.” Rachette’s veins were popping out at his temples. “You gotta externalize this shit. Don’t keep it bottled up.”

  Wolf couldn’t stop himself from smiling.

  Rachette stood with his chin high and chest out.

  “All right. Fine. You’re right.” Wolf took a deep breath and looked up at the charred mountain. “Connell tried to push me off the cliff that day.”

  Rachette whiplashed his head back. “What? Wait … what? What do you mean, he tried to push you off the cliff?”

  “I mean he tried to push me off the cliff. I ducked. He missed.”

  “Holy shit.” Rachette turned and looked toward Connell’s truck as it sped away.

  Wolf nodded and began walking.

  “What happened? I need details here!”

  Wolf shook his head. “I barely remember. I ducked, he missed, so I lured him into the trees, and luckily I got the best of him.”

  Rachette strode alongside Wolf. “I don’t want to be in the same room as that guy again.”

  Wolf stopped and looked at him. “I don’t think you should be.”

  “Yeah, you don’t know the half of it,” Rachette mumbled.

  “Is that where the mark on your neck came from? Connell? Is that why you’re talking like you have a wad of gauze in your mouth?”

  Rachette rolled his eyes and walked slow. “He overheard me talking to you on the phone this afternoon, and jumped me in the garage.” He flexed his muscles and made two fists. “He shoved me up against the wall and ...” Rachette pointed at his neck and looked into the distance. “I really thought he was going to choke me to death for a second. Then he just let go and walked away.”

  Wolf stepped back, conviction filling him now more than ever.

  “What are we going to do?” Rachette asked.

  “There’s something going on here, and we’ve got to figure out what it is. And obviously we’ve both gotta watch our asses.” Wolf walked along the line of emergency vehicles.

  “We’ve got to get Connell out of the sheriff’s office,” Rachette said. “That’s what we have to do. And put him in jail.” Rachette’s voice went low. “Or kill him.”

  Wolf turned with a raised eyebrow.

  Rachette held up his hands. “I’m just kidding. Well. No I’m not. You say the word and I’ll kill the bastard.” His face was deadpan. “I know what’s going on here. The Connells are power-hungry bastards and want to keep themselves at the top. Simple as that.”

  “I don’t know. But if this was the Connells, it’s clear they want me out of the picture. Maybe that was why Gary offered me that job, and maybe, since I turned it down, now they want me dead.”

  Rachette looked at Wolf. “Yeah, but they tried to kill you last week. You just said Connell tried to kill you by pushing you off the cliff. Why would Gary offer you a job after they tried to kill you? Why not just skip that little formality and go straight to trying to kill you again?”

  “Maybe Connell and Gary aren’t acting together.”

  Rachette nodded and stopped. “Yeah. Connell’s always been jealous of you. I mean, let’s face it, everyone knows Gary looks to you as the son he never had, and he looks to Derek Connell like the—well, like the dumbass Connell is. Gary’s pretty much taken you under his wing ever since your dad died, right?”

  Wolf stopped and turned.

  Rachette raised his chin high again, looking Wolf in the eye.

  “Yeah, he did,” Wolf admitted, looking back up at the scorched earth behind the damp remains of the house, then to the orange sky in the opposite direction.

  Rachette continued. “So maybe it’s just Connell acting alone. He’s trying to finish what he started last week.”

  “I’m not so sure Connell could pull this explosion off. Plus, I’d be willing to bet Connell was at the station all day, or he has some other perfect alibi. I think it was Gary’s security guy. The large ex-navy SEAL I met last night.”

  Rachette kept silent for a moment. “The guy was big, huh?”

  Wolf nodded. “Listen, just watch your ass tonight. I mean, really watch it. No going out drinking.”

  Rachette closed his eyes and turned to the sun. “Oh, I’ll watch it. I sleep with my Glock under my pillow at all times.”

  Wolf gave him a sidelong glance. “That’s … psychotic. But good.”

  Chapter 12

  Gary Connell sat on the pebbly soil in between two sage bushes and dug his boot heels into the ground. He propped his elbows on his knees and looked through the Pentax hunting binoculars towards the construction site. The details of the commotion were fuzzy, as it was over a mile away, but he knew exactly what he was looking at. It was the unmistakable shape of another huge excavator sitting on the trailer of an eighteen-wheeler.

  Most of the workers were scurrying to their trucks and driving away. They were paying the mechanical beast no attention, maybe leaving it for the night shift to unload, or waiting to unload it the next day. Either way, it was bad news.

  “Well, they’ve got themselves a new horse.” He pulled down the binoculars and stood with a grunt.

  Earl sat unmoving on his four-wheeler, and Buck was a few feet away, taking a leak against a bush.

  Gary put the binoculars away and waited with hands on his hips.

  Buck returned in silence, his bushy white mustache twitching underneath unblinking eyes. He spat a dollop of black chew-spit on the ground and sat down on his ATV.

  “Get ready for another late night, boys,” Gary said. “Looks like they’re back in business. We’ll head out after dinner.”

  Gary’s cell phone vibrated in his Carhartt pants. He pulled it out and answered.

  “Yeah.”

  “You heard, I take it,” the crackling voice said.

  “Yeah. Come over for dinner tonight. We’ll talk about it.”

  A laugh was barely audible through the earpiece. “We’re not talking about anything—I’ve got a lot to do. Did you see the latest piece of equipment they have?”

  “Yes, I did.” Gary narrowed his eyes and looked around. Where was he? “Come on over for dinner, and we’ll talk about it.”

  Silence. Gary looked at his phone. The call was still connected.

  “Hello? Listen! Come over for dinner tonight, and we’ll talk about it. I’m not going to ask you again.”

  Was that a chuckle?

  “Hello?” He looked at the phone. “Damn it.”

  Buck leaned over and spat again. “What was that?”

  Gary was shaking. He wasn’t so sure about Plan B. Or C. Or whatever they were calling the godforsaken idea now. Things were getting way out of control, and he knew his head of security was enjoying it. Did Young screw up on purpose? Gary’s pulse doubled at the thought.

  “Nothing. Like I said, we’ve got another late night. Let’s go.” Gary fired up the four-wheeler’s thum
ping engine, cranked the bars and thumbed the throttle to the limit.

  Chapter 13

  The day’s light had completely faded, replaced by the rising moonlight, when Wolf pulled into the driveway of Sarah’s parents’ house.

  Mark’s truck was conspicuously gone. Wolf had begun to wonder if the man had moved in.

  Dennis answered the door and waved him inside. “You all right? What happened over there?”

  “Where’s Jack?”

  Angela came down the hall and gave him a hug. “He’s eating dinner. Get in here and have some too.”

  Jack and Sarah looked up from the kitchen table. Jack’s forehead had a long scrape on top of a slight bruise. Otherwise, he looked freshly showered and overall in perfect health.

  “How are you?”

  Jack closed his eyes and nodded. “I’m fine.”

  “How’s Brian doing?”

  “He’s okay, I guess. He’s got a cast on his arm, and he had to get five stitches in his head. They said he had a piece of wood stuck in his skull.”

  Wolf raised his eyebrows and looked to Sarah.

  Her eyes watered as she turned to rub Jack’s brown hair, and then she pulled him close and kissed him.

  Angela set a plate of chicken and rice down and motioned for them to sit.

  “Thanks.” Wolf dug in, inhaling his plate and sucking down the tall glass of water with ease. Angela was quick to bring him a second helping, which he gratefully ate as well.

  When Wolf was done, he looked up and noticed the scared look on everyone’s face.

  “Do you think this was arson?” Dennis asked.

  “I’m going to find out tomorrow. We have a couple of investigators going through the scene.”

  Sarah was staring at him. Her sapphire eyes sparkled as tears welled up. One rolled down her cheek, and she made no effort to wipe it away.

  Wolf’s breath caught. He didn’t know whether it was from seeing her in such a state of concern, or because of her heart-crushing beauty.

  “If you don’t mind,” he said, “I’d like to stay the night here if I could.” He looked at Dennis and Angela.

  “Of course. Of course, son.” Dennis placed his hand on his shoulder. “You stay here as long as you need. And in case you’re wondering, yes, I have plenty of ammunition.”

  “I’m going to call Nate and see if you can stay in his place in Durango.”

  Dennis narrowed his eyes. “Do you think we need to?”

  Wolf took a sip of his drink, scanning the scared faces around the table, and stopped at Jack’s worshipping stare. He thought back on the flash inside the door. “Yes.” He looked them all in the eye. “But we’ll be fine here tonight.”

  Wolf would just have to make sure of that.

  Wolf put his phone in his pocket and came inside from the front deck, rubbing the cold out of his hands.

  Dennis and Sarah sat on the long couch with their socked feet on the coffee table, staring at a muted nature show on the television.

  It had been dark for a few hours, and Angela and Jack were already in bed upstairs. Dennis bent forward, picked up a cold Newcastle from the table, and pointed it at him.

  “Thanks.” Wolf took a seat next to Sarah and gave cheers to her dad. His body ached, and his mind was fuzzy; both were in need of a good rest. He took a long pull of the beer, and decided the warm massage of the alcohol would do for now.

  “What did Nate say? How’s Brian doing?” Sarah asked, pulling her hair behind her ear.

  “He’s doing okay. Broken arm, mild concussion, a few stitches, but he’s all right.” Wolf took another sip and glanced at Sarah, and did a double take when he noticed she was looking straight into his eyes.

  She turned away and readjusted her leg so it rested lightly against Wolf’s.

  At that moment, he was completely aware of her breath, the fragrant scent of her shampoo. Looking at her leg as it pressed lightly against his, he couldn’t help but feel aroused at the sight of her taut thigh muscles underneath her white sweatpants.

  “Hey.” Dennis was leaning forward, glaring at Wolf.

  Wolf froze and looked at Dennis. “Yes?”

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you this for a while now.” He shifted forward on the couch. “Do you know a guy named Bill Chester? Or William Chester?”

  “No. I don’t think I do. Never heard of him. Why?”

  Dennis shook his head with a gasp and took a sip of his beer. “He’s got that property on—”

  “Jeez, Dad, don’t you ever think about anything else?” Sarah raised her hands.

  He paused, not taking his eyes off Wolf. “Anyway. He has that huge property on the east side of Cave Creek, on the side of the low mountain, kind of at the base of Winslow Peak. A thousand-plus acres.”

  Wolf nodded. He’d seen the property many times. Anyone who was driving into town from the north had.

  Dennis looked disappointed. “You don’t know him?”

  “No, I’ve never heard of the guy. Why?”

  Dennis leaned back and shrugged. “I want to buy it from him, but I can’t find him. He bought it back in the late nineties, and then he just let the land sit there. He has the same house sitting on it, an old piece of junk, completely falling over. It’s just strange. I guess I was just wondering if you had an inside story, being in the department and all.”

  Wolf shrugged. “I have no clue. But, you know, I wasn’t here much during the late nineties.”

  Sarah’s leg moved away from his.

  “I’m telling you, though, that guy bought the land for 1.2 million dollars. And he just leaves it? Never goes in there? It’s just strange.” He pointed the remote at the television. “I want that property. There’s a really good opportunity there, and he’s wasting it.”

  Wolf was in the camp that letting a thousand acres sit and grow pine trees was a fine use for land.

  “Can’t you just look up the contact details on public record?” Wolf leaned up, stealing a glance at Sarah, who was now glaring at the television as if it were an old enemy.

  “You would think. But he’s got a paper trail that just disappears.” Dennis yawned, slugged the rest of his beer, and stood up. “All right.” He looked at Sarah, who was blank-staring at the TV, and then to Wolf. “Well, if you ever hear anything about that guy, let me know.” He nodded at Wolf and kissed his daughter. “Try to get some sleep now.”

  Wolf nodded, watching him leave up the stairs; they both knew sleep wasn’t on the schedule for him tonight.

  The room fell into a deep silence. Sarah sat motionless.

  “Sarah.”

  She rolled her eyes a little and looked at him. “What?”

  He shifted on the couch to look straight at her. “What’s going on? Everything okay?”

  “What do you mean?” She kept her eyes on the muted TV.

  Wolf reached for the remote and shut it off. “I mean, I really need to start getting answers from you about some things.”

  Her face soured. “Answers about what?”

  “All right, how about this? You’re sober now, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you feel like you’ve kicked the pills for good?”

  “Yes.”

  He looked up at the full moon in the window above her. “Then can you tell me what happened all those years ago? Why you started using? Is there a reason? Was it something I did?”

  She stared at her hands, picking her nails for a while, and then her lip started quivering. A tear trickled down her cheek.

  Wolf narrowed his eyes.

  “I-I’m really scared to tell you, David.”

  This was new. “Scared? About what?” He rested his hand on her shoulder, then thought better of it and pulled it away gently. He didn’t want to stop the first real attempt at communication he’d had with her in over ten years.

  “I-ah” Her voice cracked. “When you left, after your dad died.”

  He nodded, encouraging her to go on. “When I went into th
e army.”

  She nodded, looking up at nothing and a tear slipped off her chin, landing on her shirt.

  “What about it?”

  “I did something really bad.” She looked at him with glistening eyes.

  “Okay.” He raised his eyebrows.

  His phone erupted into a vibrating conga drum ring.

  With a silent scream, he dug in his pocket and hit the button to kill the call. “Sorry.” He blinked. “Okay. Go ahead.”

  She rolled her eyes and leaned forward. “David, we have to talk about this. But—”

  His phone rang again. This time he pulled it out and looked at the screen. Rachette.

  “What’s up?” His voice was a little hotter than he meant it to be.

  “There’s been a stabbing,” Rachette said.

  Wolf stood up. “Where?” He walked out of the room and down the hallway to the front door. “Who?”

  “At Beer Goggles. Baine just called me. I’m heading out now to go down. He’s there with Connell and Vickers. It happened over an hour ago.”

  And Connell had successfully kept them out of the loop for over an hour. “All right. So they have it covered. Why are you going over there? What happened?”

  “I think the victim is a guy you know. The guy Sarah is seeing. Isn’t his name Mark? Mark Wilson?”

  Wolf’s pulse jumped. “Yeah. Yeah it is.”

  Chapter 14

  Beer Goggles Bar squatted in the trees just above a sharp bend in the Chautauqua River. It was a one-story log structure with an outdoor patio that overlooked the rippling water. The locally brewed beer, quality bar food, live music, and ambience of the back patio typically attracted consistent crowds of locals and tourists.

  Wolf parked his SUV on the shoulder of the dirt road leading to the lot, behind Rachette’s silver Volkswagen. Apparently he’d lost his department vehicle privileges while gaining his PT duty.

  Rachette stepped out in full uniform. When he shut the door, his rear window dropped down five inches. “Shit.” He grabbed the window and yanked up on it, slamming his fingers on the top. “Dammit!” He turned to Wolf. “Hey. How are you?”