“What drug ring?”
Alex looked at Annabelle. “Agent Hunter?”
Annabelle walked up to the diminutive Tyree, towering over him. “I thought you’d be a bigger guy. I rarely see shrimp like you in charge of an op this large.”
“I am the warden of this prison. You will address me—”
“Screw you! You’re lucky I’m not cuffing your scrawny ass right now. We have the shipments coming up from down south. Either the real oxy or manufactured pills. They’re addressed to the courthouse, which gives them cover. That’s where the old judge came in. The old judge on the run. When we find his ass he’ll turn government witness faster than I can say lethal injection. And you can kiss your butt so long, unless you killed him too. Like you did Shirley and Bob and Willie Coombs. And let’s not forget Debby Randolph and your bean counter in crime Rory Peterson. How much did he skim off the top before you stopped him?”
“You’re a lunatic!”
“I’m just getting warmed up. Then you’ll see how crazy I can really be when I have your ass with a grand jury indictment painted all over it. So where was I? Oh, then part of the shipment is peeled off en route and comes here. Maybe in the chopper rides where you transport prisoners. Then the stuff gets moved out to the back edge of the Riker farm. And the miner train comes by and picks it up in the dark of night, and slings it on up the pipeline under the guise of the poor addicts going to get their methadone. And the money comes pouring in.” She glanced at Caleb. “Agent Kelso?”
Caleb stepped forward. “And then the town investment fund is used to launder the drug proceeds. That’s where Rory Peterson came in. He kept the cooked books and parceled out checks to the good folks of Divine, with you and your partners keeping the lion’s share of the profits. What the citizens of Divine thought were payoffs from brilliant bets in the stock market were really drug monies. I believe that an investigation will show that you all have an ownership interest in all those businesses. Then you dump the laundered funds into offshore accounts. Peterson was killed because he was skimming. Josh Coombs was killed because he got wind of what was going on up here. You killed Shirley because after you killed her son you figured she might just turn on you.”
“Why the hell would I kill her son?”
Annabelle looked confident, because Tyree had told them what Stone had figured out. “Because he was close to Debby. She saw whoever killed Peterson because she was working at the bakery across the street from his office. Your goons killed Peterson and Debby and made her death look like a suicide. But Willie never believed she killed herself. He was making a lot of noise. You were probably afraid Debby might have called him back and told him something about what she saw before she was killed. You tried once to get him and failed. The second time it worked.”
Tyree slumped down in a chair.
She counted off on her fingers. “So let’s see, that’s at least half a dozen murders in addition to the federal drug charges. And on top of that we have reason to believe that you’re holding two federal agents here against their will.”
“What?” Tyree snapped.
“Right, I forgot to tell you that part. Where are they? One answers to the name Joe Knox, the other John Carr.”
Annabelle studied him closely. The man was a good poker player, but she saw the truth simply in how his blinking kicked up a notch and his fingers quivered just a hair.
“These accusations are ridiculous. And where’s your proof?”
“Our proof will be when we search this place and find our two agents. And the rest of the puzzle is coming together quite nicely. And when we nab the judge we’ll have our key witness against you.”
“You can’t search this place without a warrant.”
“Oh, we’ll have a warrant. By the crack of dawn tomorrow morning. And just in case you get a hankering to travel anywhere, we have a roadblock set up. So don’t even think of trying to slip them out that way. And leave the chopper grounded. Because we’ve got two of our own waiting to lift off the moment yours does.”
Annabelle leaned down close into the man’s sweating face. “By the way, we’re well aware of your rep as being an asshole to every con that’s ever walked through these doors. You like dishing out the pain, little man? Well, after your conviction, our strong recommendation to the correctional folks will be that wherever you go you’re to be placed in the general prison population. Might save the Commonwealth the cost of an execution. Get my drift?”
“How dare you!” Tyree suddenly moved to strike Annabelle, but a massive hand was placed on his arm by Reuben.
“I would not advise that,” the big man said. “Because then they’ll have to shoot you.”
Tyree looked around to see Harry and Alex pointing pistols at his head.
Annabelle said, “We’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning, Howie. Oh, and if I were you, I’d definitely get my affairs in order.”
CHAPTER 78
“THEY’RE COMING,” Stone said.
He and Knox stood and backed against the wall as the pounding of the approaching boots echoed down the hall.
“I hope you’re right about what you saw,” Knox said nervously.
“Cuff slot!” a voice barked.
Stone started forward but Knox stopped him.
“This one’s mine. They tend to kick the crap out of the first guy. Guess they run out of energy.”
“Joe, you don’t have to do that.”
“Why should you have all the fun?”
Knox backed to the door and put his hands through the slot. Someone grabbed them and pulled hard, causing Knox’s head to slam back against the door.
As he shook the pain away, he said, “You’ll have to do a lot better than that, jerk-offs.”
That got him another slam, but he’d braced himself against the door so the damage was negligible. Knox smiled at this small victory even as his headache grew worse.
The two guards didn’t bother to search them this time, and they weren’t shackled. And it was George, the crotch-grabber. Manson was apparently still in the infirmary.
Or with any luck, dead, thought Stone.
“Where are your uniforms?” Stone asked George.
“Changing occupations?” Knox added. “I’m not sure that’s the drug dealer look you want.”
“Shut up!” roared the man.
They were hustled downstairs and through more corridors and then down a sloping, winding passageway until Stone could smell the pungent odor of wet dirt and slimy rock.
Up ahead they saw a light. When they approached the man came into view. Howard Tyree was dressed all in black and didn’t look nearly so smug as usual.
Stone looked down at him. “I see the visit today triggered some things.”
“How did you—” Tyree began, but Knox cut him off.
“Macklin Hayes has been under internal investigation for a year for basically being a deranged asshole. They were following him. He led them right to us. And you. You moron.”
“Shit!” blurted out Tyree.
Stone said, “So you might just want to surrender, Warden. It’s over.”
Tyree smiled, a dangerous look on his face. “They might be the feds but they’re not from around here. Don’t know our ways or our land.” He gave Stone a hard shove in the back. “Now move!”
They walked, the ground sloping down more with each step. Mold clung to the walls, and the heavy smell of damp gripped just as fiercely to their lungs. They finally came to a heavy steel door. George unlocked it. They all stepped through, navigated another short passage and came to yet another massive door. This was unlocked and they stepped into what had to be a mineshaft. Stone and Knox were told to wait as the other man headed off down a side corridor.
Stone looked around at the long tunnel and brace posts in the dirt floor and beams and thick wire across the ceiling holding back the rock. It reminded him of the place with the snakes. And there were rattlers with him tonight too, just of the human variety. Low
ceiling, dirt and rock, massive beams holding back the mountain along with the tonnage of the prison. It was claustrophobic, all of it. Stone didn’t know which was worse, the cell or the mine.
Maybe, in a way, they are the same.
His philosophizing stopped when he saw the guard coming back and leading another person with him.
“Abby!” As she grew closer, Stone’s rage swelled. In the beams of the flashlights carried by Tyree and her guard Abby’s face clearly showed the beating she’d endured.
Stone lunged at Tyree, but with his hands behind his back, he was easily subdued.
“I will kill you,” he said quietly to Tyree.
“I see it the other way around,” the warden replied calmly.
They walked on, Abby next to him while Knox shot curious glances at them.
“Abby, what happened?” Stone whispered to her.
“They came to the house and got me. Maybe killed the man Tyree had guarding me, I don’t know for sure.”
“Why would they want you?”
“Something to do with Danny.”
“So he is mixed up in this?”
A sob slipped from Abby’s mouth. She just nodded mutely.
Stone was going to say something else, but a billy club hit him in the back.
“No more talking,” the warden snapped.
Stone lost track of time. Minutes or hours, he couldn’t tell down here in the black of a mountain’s bowels. He couldn’t imagine spending his life down here on his hands and knees digging out rock. Digging his own grave.
Knox, Stone and Abby were suddenly grabbed and told to stay still. The two guards ran ahead and Stone could hear scraping sounds, large things being moved and the grunts and curses of the men doing that heavy moving.
Up ahead the darkness suddenly turned a bit lighter.
Tyree pushed them forward. Stone and Knox exchanged a glance. Neither knew exactly what was going to happen in the next few seconds. Stone kept as close to Abby as he could. If need be he would shield her with his body. He strained against the cuffs, trying to free himself. They probably only had a few seconds left.
They ducked down and came out into a moonlit night. Freedom at last from Dead Rock. Except for the cuffs and the men with guns surrounding them. And except for the fact that their lives were about to end. Stone could hardly believe that what many men with special skills had tried to do and failed, a pudgy warden from a backwater hole-in-the-wall was going to succeed in doing. Kill him. And yet as he glanced over at Abby, he felt far worse for her. The truth was he should have been dead long ago. He had done things that he deserved to die for. But not Abby. It shouldn’t end this way for her. And he told himself he would do everything in his power to prevent the woman’s life from ending violently here on this high rock.
Stone glanced around. They appeared to be in the middle of mountainous forest, but as his eyesight adjusted he was able to make out a wide path that had been cut through the heavy brush.
Tyree took ahold of Stone’s arm and propelled him forward. He tripped over a rock and fell awkwardly to the ground. He rose to his knees and looked at the warden.
“They have this place completely locked down.”
“There are ways out of here that I know that nobody else does. You don’t think I didn’t plan for something like this?”
Knox looked at the guards. “Must’ve been more guys than this involved. You just going to leave the others for the feds?”
“What do you care? You’ll be dead,” Tyree sneered.
“Would it sound really stupid if I said you’ll never get away with it?” said Stone.
“Yeah, it would.”
“How about if I said it?”
Tyree and the others whirled around to see Alex Ford step from the shadows of the trees, his gun aimed at the warden’s head. When the guards pulled their weapons, a bullet sailed over their heads and the men froze.
A wisp of smoke floating from his gun’s muzzle, Harry Finn moved forward while Reuben leveled a shotgun at the men. Annabelle and Caleb stepped out of the woods and stood next to Reuben.
Tyree suddenly pulled Abby toward him and leveled his pistol at her head. He said, “You folks better back the hell off or this lady is dead.”
“Put the gun down, Howard.”
Tyree jerked at the sound of the voice and then looked for its source. His gaze stopped and held as Lincoln Tyree stepped from the tree line. “Put it down, Howard.”
A smile eased across the warden’s plump face. “You know you were never any good at telling your big brother what to do. Now why don’t you stop playing detective and just go on back down to your little town and pretend you know what you’re doing.”
“I know what I’m doing, big brother. I’m arresting you for enough stuff that you’re the one’s who’s gonna end up at Dead Rock.”
Tyree jammed his pistol against Abby’s neck, causing her to cry out in pain. “Maybe you didn’t understand what I said. If you don’t back off, this lady is going to die.”
“Put the gun down,” the sheriff said again. “Killing her gets you nothing. It’s over.”
“Gets me nothing? Nothing? I tell you what it gets me. Satisfaction.”
Alex said, “Last chance. To all three of you. Weapons down, now!”
“Go to hell,” screamed Tyree.
He started to pull the trigger. But his gun never fired because Stone slammed into him, knocking the pudgy man off his feet, his pistol flying away.
“Run, Abby,” screamed Stone, as he struggled to get up.
Tyree stopped rolling and sat up. Unfortunately, he’d stopped right next to his gun. He snatched it up and aimed for Stone’s head.
The shot rang out and the round caught Tyree in the forehead. For a second or two the warden didn’t seem to realize that he’d been killed. Then he fell on his back, his eyes staring up to the sky, the guard towers of Dead Rock visible in the distance, though he couldn’t see them anymore.
Alex shouted, “Where did that shot come from?”
No one had time to answer that question because another man emerged from the tunnel and opened fire. And the weapon he carried was an MP-5 submachine gun that laid down a solid wall of fire all across the tree line. Stone had been in position to see this before anyone else. An instant before he fired he had gotten to his feet, lunged and tackled Abby as she was trying to run for cover.
Alex, Reuben and the others fell to the dirt as rounds zipped past overhead, shredding tree bark and anything else in their path. Ripped leaves rained down on them like snowflakes.
Sheriff Tyree yelled out as a round caught him in the leg. He fell heavily to the earth, grabbing at his thigh.
Stone glanced at the mineshaft opening. It was one-eyed Manson wearing a neck brace now along with the eye patch trying to kill them all.
God, I should have finished the son of a bitch when I had the chance.
Knox had thrown himself behind a large boulder, while George and his buddy had run off toward the woods. His buddy didn’t make it very far because one of Manson’s errant rounds caught him square in the back and he fell facedown in a wash of blood.
Stone got up and ran with every ounce of speed he had. He made a flying tackle on George and both men went down hard. Stone was still handcuffed so he couldn’t hit him with his fists. He did the next best thing. He head-butted George flush in the face and the guard fell limp under him. Stone flipped over and, using his cuffed hands, tore at the leather pouch on George’s belt. His fingers closed around the key. He felt for the opening and unlocked the restraints. He grabbed George’s gun but looked down in dismay. The pistol had landed on a rock and the trigger had snapped off.
A moment later Stone ducked down as MP-5 rounds roared overhead and Abby screamed.
“Abby!” Stone slid like a snake through the dirt and rock, his clothes ripping and his skin tearing as he made his way frantically back to her. He’d done this exact same maneuver a thousand times through the jungles of Sout
heast Asia, yet never for a reason more important than now.
On his belly too, Knox had dragged himself over to the dead Tyree. He wrenched the gun from the dead man’s hand and slid back toward where Stone was heading.
Manson was barely ten feet from Abby. He stopped again to slam in another clip. Alex, Harry and Reuben opened fire, but Manson had wisely taken up cover behind a large rock outcrop. When he came back out with fresh ammo his firepower would overwhelm them at the shortened distance. But clearly Abby would be the first to die.
“Oliver!”
Stone looked up at Knox’s shout.
Still cuffed, Knox held up the gun between his feet and Stone nodded. Using his feet like a catapult Knox tossed and Stone caught. He had bare seconds.
“Stay down, Abby,” he warned.
She frantically dug into the earth with bleeding fingers, trying to get as low as possible.