Puppetmaster (Coastal Fury Book 8)

by Matt Lincoln

  “What’s that?” I asked as my stomach growled loudly.

  Header chuckled and gestured to my stomach. “Let’s do it after we eat.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Bonnie chimed in, pushing herself up and walking over to the coffee maker.

  As the rest of the team followed suit and started milling about the kitchen and dining room making small talk, I took a mental inventory of my shoulder. Now that I’d been up for a bit, it was feeling so much better. I only hoped it continued to heal quickly because there was no way I was going to let this slow me down.

  Chapter 15: Ethan

  Tessa hadn’t been lying. The breakfast sandwiches were the best damn breakfast any of us had in a long time, and although I was stuffed about halfway through, I couldn’t stop eating it. Not only was everything cooked fresh, but the sandwich itself was enormous. I knew I wouldn’t be able to find something quite like that when we got back to Miami.

  “Shall we get this phone call with Farr over with?” Header asked, wiping the excess crumbs from the corners of his lips and crumpling up the wax paper that had been wrapped around the bagel.

  “May as well,” I agreed, pulling out my burner phone. I dialed Farr’s number and hit the speakerphone button before sliding the last bit of my sandwich away from me. As much as I wanted to finish it, I didn’t think I would be able to.

  “Yeah.” Farr’s voice came through harshly.

  “It’s Marston,” I responded. I looked up at the rest of the table. “It’s also, uh, everyone else.”

  “How’s your shoulder?” Farr asked, not unsympathetically.

  “It’s been better,” I confessed. “The EMT that helped, she did a great job. Tessa’s been a huge help, too. It’s not as bad as I originally thought it was.”

  “That’s good,” he replied, and I now realized why he was so curt. There were voices in the background, along with some shuffling papers. Farr was distracted.

  “Yeah, so listen,” I continued, exchanging a meaningful look with Header, “we are definitely appreciative of the help we received last night. I don’t know how you ended up being able to pull that off, but first and foremost, on behalf of all of us, I wanted to thank you.”

  “Eh, it was nothing,” Farr said dismissively. I heard a door click shut, and suddenly the voices in the background stopped. “People owe me favors all the time. I just cashed in on a couple.”

  “Well, thank you anyway,” I insisted. “What happened to the two people that attacked us?”

  “Don’t worry about them,” he promised. “They’ve been taken care of.”

  I shuddered to think about what the hell that could mean, and I was once again reminded of how far from MBLIS rules and regulations we were. “Well, the reason I ask is that it would have been convenient to interrogate them.”

  “Oh, of course!” Farr replied with a chuckle. “I took care of that first, but they’re at the bottom of the totem pole. They didn’t know whose bakery it was or what was in the packages they were supposed to pick up. They were pretty useless.”

  “Where were they bringing the packages?” I asked, annoyed that I hadn’t had the opportunity to question them myself.

  “Somewhere different each time,” he replied. “This time, their orders were to bring it to a specific corner in Queens, park the truck, and walk away. Sometimes it’s the Bronx, sometimes Brooklyn. It’s always a different corner. They’ve never lingered to see who picks up the truck.”

  “We couldn’t have dropped the truck off for them?” Header asked, the annoyance in his voice readily apparent.

  “No,” Farr insisted. “There was an alarm in the truck. As soon as they knew the shipment was compromised, the woman triggered it. My guys had barely cleared out when the mafia descended on the scene. There was no salvaging the situation.”

  “Damn,” I muttered, sitting back and going through the scenario once more in my head. “So we couldn’t track the shipment, we couldn’t get anything useful out of the two shooters, and now the mafia knows we’re actively trying to infiltrate.”

  “That’s right,” Farr concluded. “This means your job is that much harder now. I really need your shoulder to get back in the game.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed, “and I think Header and I need firearms and ammunition.”

  “I thought we agreed we were going to try to avoid that,” Farr said hesitantly. “I can arm you better, but the law won’t be on your side. This is New York City. The gun laws are not friendly, and you, Marston, are working very far outside the law.”

  “Farr, ordinarily, I’d say I can handle myself,” I spat, “but I almost got shot in the head twice last night. I’m done playing it safe. I’m not doing it again.” I felt Tessa stiffen beside me, and I cringed inwardly as I remembered how much I hadn’t told her about last night.

  “Alright,” Farr agreed. “I’ll have someone drop off some things this afternoon. I assume Header wants his share?”

  “Absolutely,” he agreed. “Marston is right. We need to be better protected.”

  “Consider it done,” Farr assured us. “Is there anything else?”

  “Yes,” I added, leaning forward toward the phone. “Senator Paul Russo. What’s his deal?”

  “Ahh,” Farr acknowledged. “I am looking into him. I want to see exactly what he is doing and when he is doing it. If he is the one pulling Whittington’s strings, I want to know his every weakness and his every move, so that I have my best chance at stopping him. I’m not making any decisions until I have all of the information.”

  “You’ll tell us before you take any action, right?” Header asked pointedly. “I don’t want to find anything out after the fact. There are too many moving parts. We can’t afford any more surprises.”

  “I completely agree,” Farr assured us. “I will let you know before I do anything so that you know what to expect. Until then, consider Russo to be a loose end.”

  “Yes, sir,” Header replied curtly.

  “If that’s all,” Farr concluded, “I’ve got a few unrelated tasks to tend to. Keep me abreast of what is going on.”

  “We will,” I promised, “thank you.”

  I hung up the phone and looked around at the table. “Not that I think that we would have any say in his decision-making, but at least we wouldn’t end up surprised by something he did.”

  “Exactly,” Warner nodded. “That’s really all we need, anyway… just a heads up.”

  “Well, Bonnie, dear,” Header announced, looking over at her with a playful smirk. “Looks like the ball is in your court.”

  “Looks like it!” she declared. “I’ll get to work on it right now. Clyde already sent over the files, so I’ll let you know as soon as I know more.”

  Bonnie excused herself from the table and headed into the living room, where she had taken over the small computer desk in the corner with some of her lab equipment and her laptop. Warner went to grab his own computer and headed out to the patio to work on it out there. As for me, Tessa placed her arm very gently on my shoulder and gave me a stern look.

  “You, sir, are going to sit on the couch and put your feet up.” Her tone left no room for negotiation, so I merely followed her orders. She joined me on the couch with Raven’s makeshift first-aid kit that she had left behind and set to work.

  After tending to my shoulder, Tessa put away the first aid kit and then brought me a glass of lemonade, a blanket, and the remote controls for the television that we had all largely ignored since we’d arrived at this house. It was nice to be able to be off my feet, although my racing mind felt otherwise. I was seriously worried about the seemingly uphill battle we seemed to be fighting here. Not only did the mafia know we were here, now they knew that we were after them.

  Would they come after us next? What about Holm and his family? Were we putting them in even more danger by poking at this impossibly big bear without backup? The worry and stress weighed on me as I tried to relax, and the lack of a distraction made them weigh on me
even more.

  Eventually, I asked Tessa if she wouldn’t mind bringing me my tablet. I was met with a very stern look, and I had to promise to stay away from work, but she did bring it to me. I settled deeper into the cushions as I opened up the file for Marcus’s log from the Searcher’s Chance. With nothing to do except distract myself, this was the perfect time to dig through the log for clues. If ever I was going to find something useful in here, it was now.

  When Header and Tessa called out that they were taking a walk, I waved my arm half-heartedly in their direction in acknowledgment, and I opened up the digital files and began to pore through it. The transcription Dr. Silver had given me wasn’t quite perfect. There were a few sections marked illegible or missing, and as I looked through the digital files, I saw exactly why. Maybe Marcus had been in a rush to get his thoughts down onto the paper, or maybe they hit a rogue wave that sent his hand across the page, but there were smudged ink and illegible scribbles in certain parts that left his thoughts unfinished and the details untold.

  Another important difference between the digital copies and the typed up transcription was in the sketches and drawings. Marcus seemed to like doodling in the corners of the log or making side notes as he went along. It was like flipping through a high schooler’s notebook. The more boring the subject matter, the more scribbles appeared in the margins.

  As I flipped through the pages, I started uncovering a pattern. The seemingly aimless markings bordering the pages seemed to pick up where they left off on the previous page. After flipping back and forth a few times, a pattern began to emerge. I couldn’t be sure of what I saw until I got ahold of a pen and paper though, and looking over at Bonnie, hunched over under a bright light and staring intently at her laptop screen, I couldn’t bring myself to interrupt her to ask for some, despite her earlier assurances that I should let her know if I needed anything rather than get up to get it myself. I made a mental note to grab a paper and pen later on in the day and sank back to continue my reading.

  The combination of the harsh light of the tablet and my lack of sleep from the night before left me fighting to keep my eyes open, and eventually, I gave in, resting the tablet on my chest and closing my eyes. With Warner outside and Bonnie working quietly in the corner, there wasn’t much as far as ambient noise in the house, and with nothing to keep me awake except for the nagging stress in the corners of my own mind, I finally let my exhaustion carry me into a deep sleep.

  Chapter 16: Ethan

  I was startled awake by a loud shriek coming from the corner of the room.

  “What happened?” The scrape of a dining room chair and a couple of pairs of running feet followed Tessa’s question, and I opened my eyes and sat up to find myself surrounded by the rest of my team, including Warner, who had just stepped in through the sliding glass door.

  “It’s a freaking match!” Bonnie shrieked again, and now I was fully awake.

  “It is?” I sat straight up, but based on Bonnie’s stance on the edge of her seat and her wide, excited gaze, I knew I needn’t have asked.

  “Yes!” She shouted happily. “This means… what does it mean? It means the Mezzanottes have ties to the Dominican Republic and to Puerto Rico. It confirms what Warner has found, and it means the people you were chasing in Puerto Rico were connected to all of this!”

  I sat back and absorbed all of the information.

  “Wait,” Warner interrupted, “didn’t the cocaine actually come from Haiti?”

  “Yeah,” I confirmed, “but that was only to hide it from the President. There weren’t any higher-ups running it from Haiti. They just needed a safe place to transport from.”

  “Also, we stopped all of that,” Header pointed out. “The cocaine transport between the islands should have stopped when we put the people responsible down.”

  “Right,” I agreed. “All this really means at the moment is that we once again unintentionally pissed this family off. Once in Hawaii and once in Puerto Rico.”

  “Maybe you should start avoiding tropical islands,” Header teased, punching me in my good shoulder. I rolled my eyes at him.

  “Don’t you dare say that,” I insisted. “I’m going back to Puerto Rico.”

  “I’ll tighten up security before you arrive,” Header laughed. His jab earned some small laughs from the others as well, but despite the humor, this was a serious situation.

  “So, what can we do about this information?” I asked pointedly, looking around at everyone. “All I hear is that our uphill battle just got steeper.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I heard, too,” Warner chimed in.

  Bonnie sank into her chair, slouching her shoulders in defeat. “I thought we were onto something.”

  “You did great!” I assured her. “We’re connecting a lot of dots here. We know that even though we severed the cocaine smuggling thread down in the Caribbean, it didn’t die completely. That same cocaine is up here now. How did it get here? Why did it move up here? Where is it going?”

  “You did help,” Header reinforced. “We just need to figure out where to go from here.”

  “I’ve got a few stones I can overturn,” Warner offered. “Give me a bit and let me see what I can find.”

  “I’m getting antsy,” Header announced, looking down at me.

  “Don’t look at me!” I tossed my hands up in defense. “I’ve been antsy, but Dr. Tessa over here won’t let me leave the couch.” I looked back at Tessa, and although she’d remained quiet during this entire conversation, she grinned proudly back at me now.

  “Good!” Header barked. “You shouldn’t leave the couch. Take your meds and rest. We all know you won’t be able to fully heal before you’re back out there, so we all need you to get all the rest you can while you can still get it.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” I mumbled, slumping back against the cushions.

  “Warner, can Bonnie help you out?” Header asked, shifting into a more authoritative tone.

  “Sure!” Warner nodded, and Bonnie sat up straighter beside him.

  “I’d love to,” she agreed.

  “Good.” Header clapped his hands together and looked over at Tessa. “I know you’ll take care of Marston here, and Marston, don’t fight her on it. If she tells you to do something, do it.”

  I turned to shoot him a rebuttal, but he held his hand up to stop me. “Don’t argue with me, Marston. I know your history with taking medical advice.”

  Bonnie and Warner broke out into laughter, and I knew I had no leg to stand on with that argument. My history of injuries at MBLIS had solidified my reputation for ignoring medical advice, although, in my defense, I was trying to solve a case at the same time. This was no different.

  “Okay, okay.” I threw my hands up in surrender. “I’ll follow Tessa’s marching orders, at least until we have some actionable intelligence.”

  “Thank you,” Header replied softly. I knew this was about more than just the case. After running together for so long, it’d be weird if the man wasn’t worried about me. If the roles were reversed, I’d be saying all of the same things.

  The doorbell chimed then, redirecting all of our attention to the front door.

  “Are we expecting visitors?” I asked, suddenly feeling ridiculous under this blanket on the couch. I threw it off my legs and sat upright. Tessa stood up to argue, but I silently reassured her that I wasn’t going anywhere.

  “Not a visitor,” Header reminded me, “but a delivery. The kind of delivery that really needs to be discrete and personal. We are on a military base, after all.”

  Header walked over to the front door, and from my position on the couch, I could see Farr’s broad shoulders taking up most of the doorway. In his hands, he held two large briefcases, and I knew they contained a hell of a lot more than mere paperwork.

  “The things I do for you,” Farr mumbled as he carried the cases into the house. He set them down on the dining room table. “To be perfectly crystal clear, you did not get these from me, and I know noth
ing about this.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I assured him, but in the meantime, I was craning my neck for a better look. Header and Farr stood over the table, and Farr swung the cases open to reveal their contents.

  The first gun I noticed was the Glock 30. The .45 caliber pistol was a good, reliable gun, and I was glad it was one of our options. The men’s bodies blocked the rest.

  “Two pistols each, Marston,” Header shouted back to me. “We also have some accessories here. Ammo, holsters, and whatever is in this bag.”

  “Open it carefully,” Farr warned. “I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”

  Header unzipped the bag and peered inside. No amount of neck-craning could have gained me any more visibility, so I sank back and waited impatiently.

  “Is that… is that a folding AR?” Header gasped. “Damn, that’s on my wish list!”

  “What?” I asked sharply, sitting up. “Seriously?”

  “Brother, look at this,” he gushed, gathering the bag in his arms and carrying it over to the coffee table. Warner, Bonnie, and Tessa all surrounded us as he pulled the rifle from the bag. Sure enough, it was folded, and as Header unfolded and situated it, the AR-15 took its final shape.

  “Whoa.” I leaned forward and took it from him, but paused once it was in my hands. “Wait, do you mean to tell me that you, Jake Header, the man with all of the toys and weapons and even an incredibly high-tech stealth boat… you don’t have one of these?”

  “Not yet,” he shrugged. “I promise, though, as soon as I get done here, I’m buying one.”

  “You and me both,” I agreed. “This thing is badass.”

  I looked over at Tessa, and my excitement faded just a bit. She looked uncomfortable.

  “Here,” I muttered, handing it back to Header. “You can have it back.”

  Farr walked over to us then with a smile on his face. “I had a feeling you two would go nuts over this thing. Also, if you need to go in a bit more covertly, I figured the folding option could come in handy.”