The man held out his hands at his side. “Live and in the flesh, which is more than I can say for you two in a bit.”
“What have you done with my cousin?”
“Your cousin?” He looked genuinely confused. “I don’t know nothing about some cousin.”
“Not some cousin. Frank Jacobs’ daughter.”
He looked up for a moment and then grinned broadly. “Now there’s a name from the past. What’s ol’ Frank up to these days? I heard he went all straitlaced.”
“Don’t play dumb with me. You kidnapped Meg and are holding her hostage so Frank will retrieve the Bartholomew Fabergé egg for you.”
“What?”
“You’re forcing him to do ‘the job.’”
“Look, lady, I don’t know who’s got Frank’s girl or what job they want him to do, but it’s got nothing to do with me or that egg.”
“And we’re just supposed to believe you?”
“I don’t care what you believe, but Frank can tell you I got nothing to do with any of that.”
“How’s that?”
“Because the stupid guy returned the egg to Bartholomew the same night we stole it.”
“What?”
“Said he didn’t want a man like Bartholomew after him. He never cared about the haul in the first place. He was just there for Sarah.”
“And he just told you this?”
“Yeah. At the trial. Knew otherwise I’d come back for it. Said I could check out his story myself if I didn’t believe him.”
“And did you?”
“Yeah. I wasn’t just taking his word. I sent a friend into Bartholomew’s place. He confirmed the egg had been returned. Stupid Frank—that thing was worth millions.”
Kirra tried to grasp what that information meant to them. “So . . . if you aren’t after the egg, what are you after?”
“Nothing, when it comes to Frank.”
“Then why the elaborate measures to keep us off your trail?” Reef asked as he glared at Curly.
He gestured around them.
“Document fraud?”
He tilted his head. “I get caught, I go back to the pen, and that ain’t happening. I already lost twenty years of my life in that place.”
“We don’t want any trouble. We’re only trying to find Meg. This has nothing to do with us,” Reef said.
He was trying to get them out of a tight spot, but Watts’s glare told Kirra he knew full well the minute they walked out of there, they’d contact the police.
“I’m afraid it’s too late for that. Curly, tie them up in the next room while I decide how to take care of them.”
Kirra swallowed. Take care of us?
Reef pulled against his bonds, the frayed rope tight and biting into his now raw wrists. He had to figure out a way to free them.
“I can’t believe we’ve been chasing down the wrong trail this whole time,” Kirra said. “I kept believing we were getting closer to finding Meg, and we were only getting further away.”
“That’s not completely true. Jake is following a hunch on the pump stations.”
“I was so sure Watts was playing a role.”
“Me too, but how could we have known your uncle returned the egg?”
“It explains why Bartholomew just let the situation go.”
“And Watts wasn’t stupid enough to steal the same piece twice, even if he hadn’t been in jail.”
“But he’s stupid enough to start a document-fraud business.”
“No wonder he didn’t like us poking around.”
“Without us in the picture, his secret stays safe.”
“But Officer Bohart knows we were searching for Watts, and the police operator surely heard Curly threatening us. Our disappearance will only bring the heat on him.”
“He’s not just going to let us go. I saw it in his eyes.” The malice.
“Which is why we need to get ourselves out of here.”
“How?”
“I’m working on it.” Reef surveyed the room for anything that might be of help. The man who tied his restraints knew how to tie a secure knot. He wondered if Curly had done as thorough a job on Kirra’s bonds. “I’ve got an idea.”
“What?”
“Hop your chair over to mine as quietly as you can.”
The men were still arguing in the next room, which he hoped would cover any noise she might make.
“Okay.” She did as he asked, moving more silently than he’d expected. Impressive. The woman seriously just rolled with the punches.
“Now, I’m going to shift my chair around so we’re back to back.” He did, scooting backward until his hands reached the knot binding Kirra’s delicate hands. He set to work and, after what seemed an eternity of painstaking tugging and finagling, finally managed to loosen the knot enough for her to slip one hand free.
She turned, undoing the other, and then set to work unknotting his. He’d just started loosening the knots binding his ankles to the chair when the door opened and Curly entered with a gun.
“Down,” Reef hollered, swaying his chair back, knocking Kirra to the ground.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Curly slipped his gun in his belt and moved for Reef.
Reef twisted sideways, grabbing at the ropes on his feet. He’d managed to get one free and kicked out as Curly bent to right him. His boot collided with Curly’s jaw, knocking the lumbrous man off balance.
He quickly untied his remaining binding and moved for Kirra, who’d already freed herself. He helped her to her feet and pushed her into a run for the nearest window, chair in hand.
“Enough!” Curly roared, swiping blood from his mouth, his shoulders hunched as he lurched for them, gun poised to shoot.
Commotion sounded in the next room, and as Curly’s gaze shifted, Reef flung the chair. It knocked him in the chest, and he staggered back. Reef rushed him as his gun went off, tackling him to the ground, the bullet lodging in the ceiling.
Officer Bohart rushed in with support covering his back.
Kirra exhaled, tears beading in her gorgeous eyes. “You got our location.”
Officer Bohart smiled.
Kirra sat in the Kodiak police station clutching a Styrofoam cup of tea. Henry Watts and his men were being booked for documentation fraud, assault, and attempted murder. Watts was headed back where he belonged, but she was no closer to finding Meg, and the despair biting at her was nearly overwhelming. Where did they go from here?
24
OUTSIDE OF UNALAKLEET, ALASKA
MARCH 15, 3:30 P.M.
Jake approached the Kaltag pump station after a fifty-five-mile trek on the snowmobile. Kayden had offered to fly him in, but it was tough terrain for landing a plane close to the station, and after a little discussion they all decided a snowmobile would not be as high profile—in case they were still being watched.
He’d stopped at Old Woman cabin, hoping to find Frank or some sign of him. It was clear musher teams had passed, and at least one had bunked out in the cabin, and another off in the woods behind the cabin. If Frank had stopped at that site, Jake bet he had camped up in the woods, out of sight.
There was also a set of snowmobile tracks, fresher than those of the sleds. It appeared Frank was still being followed.
Frank had picked up more of his dogs’ rations from Kaltag sometime during the night, but again, no one had seen him. Jake had tracked the boot prints back to where he’d left his team harnessed and waiting.
He moved on to the pump station, which appeared quiet. A wire fence enclosed the one-story concrete building, two large circular containment tanks, and what Jake assumed was a smaller cylinder-shaped overflow tank. He approached the gate and pulled his snowmobile to a stop beside another one. So the engineer from NorthStar had already arrived—at least he hoped that’s who had ridden in on the other snowmobile.
He climbed off and looked around. A crisp wind blew in from the east, snow preparing to fall again. A large animal—he was betting c
aribou—was lumbering in the woods just to his north. He turned back to the pump station. Someone was approaching the gate from the inside.
A man in navy coveralls and a bright-orange down jacket lifted his goatee-covered chin in Jake’s direction. “You Detective Cavanaugh?”
“Yep.”
“You got some ID? Boss is all squirrely now that there’s the possibility of equipment tampering.”
“Sure.” He pulled out his badge, thankful he’d brought it with him. It was habit. Badge and gun at all times. “You got ID?” he asked in return.
The man pulled his ID badge off his pocket clip and handed it to Jake through the gate slot.
Jake scanned the info—Andrew Ross, maintenance engineer. It appeared legit and matched the name and position NorthStar had provided of the man he’d be meeting. Jake handed it back. “Thanks for coming all the way out here.”
Andrew opened the gate. “I do whatever they tell me, as long as I’m getting paid.” He shut the gate behind them.
“You typically work on this pump?” Jake asked.
“Nah. I helped Frank install them, but this is his responsibility. He’s the designing engineer, and until the entire pipeline is running smoothly for the agreed-to amount of time, these are his babies.”
“Have there been any problems with any of the pumps?”
“Not that I’m aware of, but I haven’t been out here since we installed it.”
“Were you at the Anchorage pump during the protests?”
Andrew unlocked the building door. “Unfortunately.”
“That’s got to be frustrating,” Jake said, trying to build a rapport with the man.
“Annoying is more like it. But it’s the vandalism that gets under my skin. You want to protest, make your voice heard, fine. I don’t think it ever results in any change, but it’s not my breath wasted. But destroying property—that’s crossing a line.”
Jake agreed. He had no problem with people voicing their concerns—he shared some of them. He loved his adopted state and wanted to see the wilderness and the creatures residing in it protected.
People had every right to voice their opinion, and he had seen great change come from it over the years, regardless of what Andrew said, but he did agree that breaking the law was not to be condoned, no matter the cause.
Andrew led him down a flight of concrete steps, the metal railing cold beneath Jake’s hand.
“Pumps are over here.” Andrew directed, handing Jake a flashlight. “What are we looking for exactly?”
“Any kind of tampering, or an incendiary device.”
“Great.” He shook his head with an exasperated and slightly nervous sigh.
They spent the two hours searching every inch of the pump and machines surrounding it, and found nothing. Jake wished he felt relief, but all he felt was a sense they were missing something.
His sat phone rang. Reef. He looked to Andrew. “I need a minute.”
“Take your time.” Andrew took a seat on a thick metal tube and pulled out his phone. “Angry Birds.” He smiled. “Darn kids got me hooked.”
Jake lifted his phone to his ear. “Hello?”
“Jake, it’s Reef. We’re finished here.”
“And?”
“Watts isn’t involved.” Reef went on to explain all that had happened and everything they’d learned—including the dead end they’d hit.
“Looks like it has nothing to do with Frank’s past and everything to do with Meg’s present.”
“Such as?” Reef seemed tired and frustrated. But Jake knew he was game for the next step.
“Her connection to ROW, and whatever they are involved in. You and Kirra need to pay Sam Matthews a visit—find out what he has to say about his role in the pipeline vandalism. I can have Landon call Officer Hoffman and have him accompany you, if you think it might make Sam more cooperative.”
“No. I think it would have the opposite effect.”
“Okay. Let me know if you change your mind.”
“Will do. How’s it going on your end?”
“Not seeing any tampering or incendiary devices at this station.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“Not disappointed. Concerned we’re missing something.”
“Think outside the box. Sometimes it helps.”
Jake rubbed the back of his neck. Reef was right. He was looking at this straight on. Maybe it was time to flip things sideways.
“Andrew.”
The man half glanced up from his phone, his fingers still gliding over the screen.
“How else could the pumps be compromised?”
He shrugged. “Internally, I suppose.”
“Meaning sabotaged from the inside?”
Andrew slipped his phone back in his pocket and stood. “I suppose.”
“How would that work? For instance, if you wanted to sabotage a pump, what would you do?”
“I don’t know . . . I guess I’d misadjust the settings.”
“How?”
“The pumps run according to the settings we enter into the controls via the computer. Those settings are programmed to vary on a daily, even hourly basis, depending on expected conditions.”
“Can you pull up the settings that are in place, not just for today but for the next week? See if anything is set to change.”
Twenty-five minutes later, Andrew looked up at Jake, his face ashen.
“I’m guessing you found something?”
He nodded. “Looks like new flow rates have been entered and are set to be remotely triggered.”
“What do you mean remotely triggered?”
“I mean Frank recoded the system, and it looks like its being controlled remotely.”
“How do you know it’s Frank?”
“Because he’s the only one with the access necessary to make a change like that.”
“Okay, so what happens when the new flow rates are triggered?”
“The pump will overheat rapidly.”
“Meaning?”
“It will explode.”
“Can’t you just reset the codes, the flow rates?”
Andrew swiped his perspiring brow. “I tried, but I’m blocked out.”
“Isn’t there an override function?”
“One only Frank now has access to.”
“What about securing the power?”
“That was my first thought too, but Frank’s way ahead of us. He rigged it to blow if we attempt to cut power.”
Jake swallowed. “How many pump stations are there between Anchorage and Nome?”
“Ten.”
“Get on the phone. Call out whomever you need to. Each and every pump station needs to be checked ASAP. We need to know what level of disaster we’re facing.”
25
Reef held Kirra’s hand as they crossed the tarmac to board their puddle-jumper flight from Kodiak back to Seward. Fortunately they’d been able to arrange a flight out within an hour of Jake’s call.
He took the first of the metal steps up to the plane as his phone rang. Kirra glanced back.
“Jake,” he said to Kirra. “Hope he hasn’t changed his mind about us going to Seward.” They’d pulled a lot of strings and called in a lot of McKenna-family favors to arrange this last-minute flight. “Yeah, Jake?” he said. “We’re about to board our flight. What’s going on?”
“It’s not good, Reef. At least this pump station is set to blow.”
His heart sank. “Are you sure?”
“Positive. And we don’t know how widespread the problem is. The oil company’s calling people in, but it’s going to take time to get enough qualified people out to cover each of the stations. Andrew, the engineer with me, is estimating at least a day just to get them to all the stations. Frank has set up a remote trigger that only he has control of. If we can’t find him, the company’s engineers need to figure out a way to rewrite or override the codes Frank’s changed.”
“We’ve only got two days before Frank
reaches Nome.”
“I know. That’s why it’s critical you get whatever information you can out of Sam.”
“Do you think he’s part of Meg’s kidnapping? It is quite a jump from vandalism to kidnapping.”
“Even if he’s not playing a direct role, he knows more than he’s letting on. We need to know where they might be holding Meg and who else is involved. Joseph Keller can’t be pulling this off on his own—you saw at least one other guy with him, and somebody appears to be herding Frank. But I have a feeling they’re just players and someone else is calling the shots. We need to find out who.”
“Why? I mean, why do you think someone else is calling the shots?”
“I’ll explain later. Andrew needs me, and you have a flight to catch.”
Reef nodded and pressed the disconnect button as Jake’s line dropped. He glanced across the tarmac at a man standing by the metal terminal building.
He squinted.
It was him. The man who’d nearly drowned Kirra. The man who had been following them since the beginning of this nightmare was back on their trail. The hairs on the nape of Reef’s neck bristled. He stepped for the tarmac, rage bubbling inside. He was going to end this now.
“Reef,” Kirra hollered above the whoosh of the propeller.
He turned. She was standing in the open doorway, her blond hair whipping about her face. “The pilot says we need to go.”
“I’ll be right there.” He looked back at the man—at least at the spot where the man had been standing—but he was gone.
“Reef, come on,” Kirra called.
He scanned the tarmac, frantically searching the surrounding area, but there was no sign of the man. With a nervous twinge in his gut, he turned and boarded the plane to Seward.
“They’re headed back to Seward.”
“Why?” His cousin’s voice cut deep with displeasure.
“I’m guessing Sam.”
“Is he still there?”
“As far as I know. I tried reaching him, but he doesn’t have his cell on him. I told him how stupid that was.” He watched as Reef and Kirra’s plane flew over his rental car and flicked his cigarette in the snow.