“See, Carl? This kind of attitude is going to keep you here. Try again. You left your job four years ago.”
Carl looked at the floor again.
“Okay, next question. You said you heard shots fired and stopped at my place to see what was going on. The date and time stamp on your video, and the fact you recorded a cougar taking down the one assassin, meant you were in place before the shooting began.”
Carl eyed him for a moment, then glanced at Addie.
“What do you have to do with all this?” Dan asked. “I’m asking real nice right now in front of the lady. I won’t when she leaves.”
“Tough guy act.”
“You saw me kill the first assassin with my cougar canines. You know it’s not an act.”
Carl’s eyes widened. Dan was sure he still couldn’t quite wrap his mind around anyone being a cougar shifter.
“We have enhanced healing abilities, if you didn’t realize it. Which means I can keep tearing you up real good and allowing you to heal and start all over again.”
Carl looked up at him, skepticism written all over his face.
“Check your bandages. If your deep, cat bite marks haven’t healed all the way by now, they should be well on their way.”
Carl unwrapped his wrist and stared at the bite marks that were still red, but the tears had begun to heal much faster than humanly possible. He just stared at the wounds in disbelief.
“Tell me what we want to know. Why you knew to be at my house before we arrived and were already set up to take the video. Why none of the assassins discovered you were there and took you out. Because they did know you were there. To my way of thinking, you were part of their team, video recording the assassination to prove they did the job right. Only they didn’t get it right and the good guys won out. Except now you’re one of us and you can’t be on their team any longer. And frankly, we don’t want you on our team either. I’m just surprised we didn’t catch you out there at the time. You were damn lucky.”
“I was fired from my job at the Press. All right? I had promised them the story of a lifetime. I knew there was something wrong with you people. I’m damn good at my job, digging up the truth, investigative reporting, uncovering the story behind the story.”
“Except for with us.”
“Yeah, well, without the story, I was canned. Without a paycheck, I couldn’t focus on you or this place any longer. I’ve been freelancing since then and several of my jobs have taken me out of the country. I was approached by a woman, no name, who said she worked for a federal agency. She wouldn’t say which one. And she said she needed me to go to Yuma Town to watch your house, and video record the agents taking down the occupants. After the last time we had our showdown, I was eager to take on the assignment. An even bigger incentive was she said you and some of your cohorts were home-grown terrorists, but they needed a videographer who could show the takedown for future training exercises.”
“And to prove the ‘terrorists’ resisted arrest and had to be taken down permanently?” Addie asked.
“Who are you?” Carl asked, glowering at Addie.
“A federal agent. I’m with the FBI, and those men who were sent to kill me? They would have taken you out once they had the video recording. We have a mole on the task force I’m working on. Dan has been my undercover husband for ten and a half years. It wasn’t until six months ago that someone started targeting me. If you’re as good as you say you are, and you think you can help us investigate who’s behind this, I’m sure Dan would give you some leniency. We might even find someone willing to take you in.”
Carl looked at Dan to see his take on it.
“If you can help us, I’d consider it. Did you send the video off to anyone?” Dan asked.
“No. I was supposed to hand it over to one of the agents, only they weren’t agents, from what you say.”
“Right. They had long felony records, hitmen, every one of them,” Addie said, leaning a little against Dan.
“Be right back.” Dan should have thought of it before, but Addie needed to have a seat and he was going to get a chair for her. On second thought, if Carl could behave himself, he’d let him out of the cell so they could sit on the couches and chairs in the breakroom of the sheriff’s office since this was going to take a while. “If you’ll behave yourself, we can take a seat in the breakroom where we can be more comfortable.”
“Yeah. I’m not going anywhere,” Carl said, sounding resigned, but Dan still didn’t trust him.
Dan let him out, and then they walked back to the door and he unlocked it. “We’re sitting in the breakroom to discuss this. All of us,” he told Chase, Stryker, and Bridget.
Everyone moved to the breakroom that Dottie had redone with some of the stolen money they’d recovered. She’d hated the breakroom, and always thought it should be a nice getaway from the stresses of the day, and even afforded them a nice place to visit with guests there. Dan and the rest of the sheriff’s office employees loved it.
A curved black table and black chairs offered enough seating for eight. A black and white kitchen, the upper cabinets white, the lower ones black, fridge, stove, microwave, and dishwasher looked super high tech and suited their purpose. The newly furnished and decorated breakroom gave the sheriff, deputies, and dispatcher a place to cook while taking lunch and supper breaks, breakfast even, for those pulling overnight duty. A large picture of a cougar sitting on a rock with his mate overlooking Carver Falls decorated one wall. On another, all those who worked for the sheriff’s office were pictured in their cougar coats: sheriff, deputies, the dispatcher.
“What if Carl shifts?” Stryker asked, leaning against a wall, looking ready for action.
“He’ll behave himself. We’re armed to protect ourselves and he knows that,” Dan said.
Bridget took a seat on one of the comfortable black chairs situated around a glass coffee table, her back to the kitchen. Chase sat at the kitchen table. He and Bridget were situated so Carl couldn’t make a move for any of the knives in there, though Dan didn’t believe Carl was combat trained and was certain the guy was smart enough to know if he moved toward the kitchen, he could be put down before he took a few steps.
Dan sat with Addie on the sofa across from where he motioned for Carl to sit in the corner, barricaded from making a move. Other than a small table situated between another sofa and the chair he was sitting on, he didn’t have anything he could easily grab as a weapon.
“Tell them what you told us, in case they didn’t hear what was said.” Dan knew they would have heard, but he wanted Carl to repeat what he said to learn if he varied his statement much, or if he had his statement down pat, rehearsed, in case things hadn’t gone as planned.
“They planned to kill you then,” Stryker said after Carl finished sharing his story, stating what Dan believed was obvious, but it didn’t hurt for Carl to hear it from others, confirming the truth of the matter.
In other words, they had saved Carl’s life.
“Hell,” Carl said. “If the assassins planned to kill me, then they probably still want to.”
Everyone smiled.
“Well, you don’t need to look so damned happy about it.”
“They didn’t kill you, and we saved you, so show a little gratitude,” Chase said.
“Yeah, but now I’m one of you! A werecat. And I can’t even do my job now because of having these damnable urges to shift into one.”
“We’re cougar shifters,” Addie said. “Not werecats. Describe what the woman looked like who hired you to video record the shootings.”
“Dark-haired, but she was wearing a wig. Her eyebrows were much lighter. She was wearing eye pencil to darken them, but I could tell. In my stuff, I’ve got a photo of her.”
“A photo?” Addie looked at Chase.
“Where?” Chase asked, standing.
“It’s in the driver’s side door panel.”
“We have your vehicle impounded behind the sheriff’s office. I’ll c
heck it out.” Chase left the breakroom.
“How did you manage to get a photo of her without getting yourself killed before you even took on the assignment?” Addie asked.
“I have a friend who does some freelancing too. He took the picture when I went to the meeting in Forest Park. Even though she was supposed to be one of the good guys, I wanted proof concerning who I’d met, just in case anything went wrong. I don’t like all this cloak and dagger stuff.”
“Yet, that’s your business,” Addie said.
“Uncovering it, yeah. Living it, no. Well, except when I’m digging around for the truth.” Carl turned to Bridget. “I know who all the others are and why they’re here. Who are you?”
“Cougar Special Forces agent. My mate and I work for a local agency that take down rogue cougars.”
“Like me if I don’t behave.”
“Yep.”
“What’s this all about then? If you’re not terrorists, why would anyone be out to eliminate all of you?” Carl asked.
“We were escorting Addie here. She’d been wounded by more of the same kind of thugs,” Bridget said. “We were trying to get her safely here, but we were attacked at Dan’s house.”
“Has anyone tried to contact you—” Dan paused. “I guess we have your phone.” He smiled for making the slip. “I just wondered if the woman, or one of her cohorts, had tried to get in touch with you to see what went down after the whole incident. We haven’t seen anyone else who’s been suspicious in the area.”
Stryker brought out Carl’s phone. “No one’s called. You can imagine she believes everyone died—and I mean, the bad guys, Carl.”
“Let’s keep it that way,” Dan said.
Carl sank against the chair a little, looking relieved.
Chase stalked into the breakroom and handed the disk and camera to Addie. “I figure if anyone knows who she is, you will.”
Addie inserted the disk into the camera and began scrolling through the pictures. When she came to one, she frowned. “Paris Pepion. She’s on the team I’ve worked with for the past six months. She and Dirk Carter were my backup when the assassin knifed the courier and took off.” She showed the picture of the woman to Carl. “Is this the woman who hired you?”
12
Dan’s phone rang, and he pulled it out of his pocket while everyone in the sheriff’s office breakroom looked at him. The caller was listed as unknown, and he answered, “This is Sheriff Steinacker.”
“This is Clinton Briggs, and I need to speak with Addie, if she’s available.”
“You’re her boss?”
“Yeah.”
“All right, just a second. You guys watch him, will you?” Dan asked Chase, Stryker, and Bridget, motioning to Carl.
“Yeah, he moves, we take him out,” Chase said.
“Good deal.” Dan and Addie left the breakroom and walked into his office and shut the door. “Briggs wants to speak with you.”
Addie took the phone and sat at the sheriff’s desk, putting the call on speaker.
Dan took a seat on one of the chairs opposite his desk.
“Yes, sir? Did you learn anything that will prove I’m not crazy?” Addie asked.
“First, the scene where you were to meet the courier was clean.”
“I told you cleaners had to have showed up and taken care of things.”
“I haven’t finished,” Briggs said curtly. “Trace amounts of blood were found in the soil. The problem is, we can’t prove it’s the courier’s because his body vanished.”
He believed her.
“And it wasn’t your blood, which we have on file. As to the hospital, it’s as you said, no one knows anything. Which is just incomprehensible. When I dug deeper, I found a doctor who said he was told not to say anything to anyone about the matter because an attempt had been made on your life and whoever it was would try again. That it was a federal matter and no one was to say a word about it. The doctor, and the nurse who assisted, were in the operating room working on a gunshot case when you must have had all the trouble at your hospital room. They confirmed a federal agent had taken a position at your door, serving as your guard. The receptionist said she remembered the deeply-concerned sheriff coming to see his wife, and the room number she had given matched the one you said you were staying in.”
“You know I was telling the truth.”
“It appears that way. Assassins, missing bodies, well, I have no clue what’s going on.”
“We have other news.” Addie wasn’t sure if she should tell her boss everything, but if he was involved, he already knew all this anyway, and he would still plan to get rid of her. “Your boss is my mother, only she’s not really my mother.”
“I talked to her about what was going on. She did tell me she had served as your mother for some years.”
“Seven, and then she took off when I was eight. What is this all about?”
“I don’t know. I really thought you’d been faking all this business, six months ago. I knew you didn’t have amnesia and I’d discovered you had gone to Yuma Town to visit your undercover husband.”
Addie frowned at Dan.
“Then you vanished from there. I thought you just wanted to be with him, that you’d had some kind of mental breakdown on the job and needed to get away. It happens. I let on that I believed your amnesia story.”
“Okay, so the two agents assigned to be my backup, Paris and Dirk, they were there when the courier was killed. Or at least they were with him when he was dead. Dirk didn’t come with me to provide backup. I raced after the assailant, and well, he got the best of me at first, but I killed him. Now there’s an investigative reporter who took—” she paused. She couldn’t mention the video recording. They had to destroy it. She had to mention his tie in with Paris. “…who was hired to take video of the assassins killing Dan and me at his house. He was told that the assassins were federal agents who were after terrorists. Dan’s arrested him for trespassing, and learned that the woman who hired him was Paris Pellion. A friend of his took a picture of him speaking with her, and of him taking the deal.”
“Then you need to turn this reporter over to me, and we’ll see what else we can learn from him.”
Dan was shaking his head vehemently, saying no.
She knew that. Carl would shift and be a cougar in Brigg’s custody. What a disaster.
“I’m sorry to say he died shortly after that. One of the assassins was told to kill him after the job was done, we’re certain, and he’d been shot. After he was questioned, he died of his gunshot wounds. We couldn’t find the video recordings he took, if he even managed to get any.”
“And the assassins?”
She looked to Dan for his help. They’d have to turn the bodies over to the feds.
“At the morgue. All known hitmen,” Dan said. “The feds are welcome to them.”
“I’ll send a team to pick them up,” Briggs said. “They’ll be coming from one of our offices located closer to you and should be there in a couple of hours.”
Was he in on all this after all? Had he pretended to investigate her situation, already knowing full well everything that had gone on? Was he having the bodies picked up to hide what he’d been responsible for?
“I hate to do this, Addie, but until we can verify that everything you say is completely true, I’ll have to ask for your resignation. You’ll have to turn in your badge and gun.”
She ground her teeth. She supposed she knew this was coming. “You’ll have to get it from whoever took them from me before or after I ended up at the hospital. All I had were the bloody clothes I was wearing.”
“All right. I’ll check with the hospital then. Men will come and take the bodies today.”
“What about Paris and Dirk?”
“I’ll question them, but so far as I know, they said that you were to meet with the courier and disappeared. He never showed up, and they returned to the office and reported you’d done your vanishing act again.”
?
??And of course, you knew then they were lying through their teeth.”
“I’ll speak with them.”
“And let me know what’s going on.”
“You’re off the case, out of the Bureau, Addie. We’ll handle this from here on out.”
“Thank you for your service.” She hung up on him, and tried calling Briggs’s boss. When a woman identified herself as Alicia Shields, Addie nearly dropped the phone. Out of habit, she said, “Mother?”
“Oh, Addie, dear, I’m so sorry. I can’t tell you how much I wanted to keep you and your father safe and how terribly I failed.”
Tears stung Addie’s eyes as Dan came over to hug her.
“What’s…what’s going on?” Addie asked her.
“Your mother, God rest her soul, had unearthed something big. She was working with the Bureau when she met and married your father. They were very happy for the five years they had together. Someone discovered she’d learned about dirty coverups, and she died when you were only a year old.”
“She was murdered.”
“In a car wreck, made to look like an accident. Luckily, you survived. I was assigned to be your father’s wife and your mother, to learn if he knew just what she’d gotten involved with. In the seven years we were together, I never discovered anything that he knew about. I was told my time there was terminated. You have to believe it was the hardest thing for me to leave you, even though I was trying not to fall in love with you, knowing I could never be with you after your dad and I separated. Then something he did alerted some of those in power that he’d known just what Cecilia, your mother, knew, and that got him killed.”
“I didn’t know about any of this. Is this why someone is targeting me now?”
“That’s what I suspect. I had you moved to this task force over ten years ago so I could watch over you.”
“If you’ve been watching over me, then you know all that’s happened to me.”
Alicia gave a bitter laugh. “After the fact, but barely any of the details. Briggs has told me what he’s learned.”
“And Dan?”
“I know you. You had to make your own choice. Dan probably won’t remember me, but I met him some years earlier when he was just finishing college and Army Reserve Officer Training Corp requirements, and he came to a job fair at the college. He stopped and talked to me while I manned the FBI booth. Most boring job ever, but I said if he ever wanted a job with the Bureau, look me up.”