When Dottie got home from work, she thanked Abby Rodgers and checked to see what all the kids had learned today. Abby was teaching them their letters, numbers, and coins. And she’d been working with them on printing letters and learning to tell time.
Jeff pointed at the oven clock. “It’s four-fifteen.”
“Very good.”
Trish said. “It’s four-sixteen.”
Dottie smiled. “Yes, it’s a minute later.” It was amazing how much she took for granted and she remembered Aunt Emily always saying she was born knowing these things.
“What are we having for supper?” Jeff asked.
“Spaghetti.” She gave them apple halves and a cheese stick to tide them over. They were always hungry, it seemed.
“Yum.” Trish sat at the table to eat her snack.
“Can we have pizza tomorrow?” Jeff asked.
“Yes. I’ll have to pick one up.”
“Is Daddy coming home to eat with us?” Trish asked.
“I don’t think so. But you never know.” Dottie could only hope. She hadn’t ever felt that needy before and though she kept telling herself she should stop feeling that way, just get done whatever needed to be done, she couldn’t help wanting him home.
“Okay, we have to call this armament cache in. I’ll let Chuck know we need some men to take care of this arsenal. In case there’s anything else, keep looking through the boxes for any clues as to what they planned to do with this stuff. I’m going to check the other rooms some more,” Leyton said to Jack.
“All right. Will do.” Jack couldn’t believe the veritable minefield they had here.
Leyton headed out of the room.
Jack found ammo, grenades, and all sorts of different guns, when he heard someone running down the hall. He immediately pulled out his Glock.
“Me,” Leyton said, his voice low. “Men are sneaking in the back way.”
“They have to know our car is out front,” Jack said, loading up a semi-automatic with rounds. He was going to be well-prepared to take out Hellion and Ralph if it was them.
“They came in the back alley. They might not figure anyone’s here.”
“We can’t let them take all of this with them,” Jack said.
Leyton nodded. “Our men will be arriving in an hour. I alerted them we have trouble. Chuck called in the local police. He said it’s too volatile a situation for us to handle on our own.”
“Which room?” a man in the hallway asked, someone they didn’t recognize. That meant they’d picked up another man for the job.
“I have no idea. Just start with the first one and work your way back. Might be some stuff in the attic.” It was Hellion’s voice.
“I’ll check the attic,” Ralph said.
A dark-haired and bearded man walked into the bedroom, and Leyton motioned for him to drop his weapon, but the guy tried to shoot him. Leyton shot him in the arm. He cried out and sank to his knees, screaming in pain, dropping his gun. Jack moved to get his gun.
“What the hell’s going on?” Hellion called out. He didn’t make a move to go to the bedroom, but suddenly sprayed rounds at the wall from the hallway. Both Leyton and Jack ducked into the empty closet.
One of the bullets ricocheted off the door jamb and hit the injured man. He collapsed face down on the carpet and didn’t move.
Sirens wailed. Someone fired again at the outer bedroom wall, then boots ran down the hallway. “Clear out,” Hellion shouted.
“But the weapons.”
“Cops are coming. Clear out.”
Jack raced into the hall and fired at Ralph, catching him in the shoulder.
“Shit.” Ralph whipped around to fire at Jack, but Jack shot him in the arm. Ralph dropped his gun and ran out after Hellion.
Leyton and Jack raced down the hall. The men were already in a blue SUV by the time Jack and Leyton ran outside. Jack thought the driver was Gigi as they took off.
Police swarmed around the house and Leyton identified himself and Jack, both of them showing off their badges.
After that, Jack checked the pulse on the wounded man in the bedroom. He was dead. “Did you find anything that can tell us what they were going to do with this stuff?” Jack asked Leyton as the police cordoned off the area and Chuck’s special federal task force arrived and took over. They had documents that looked like they belonged to a real government agency.
“If it’s anything that Jeffrey was involved in, these guys are all selling weapons illegally. From the looks of it, this has been sitting here for a while though. The tape and boxes are older. No recent smells in the house indicating that Bishop had been here. Like while he went to jail?”
“Why didn’t anyone find all of this before, when Bishop was under investigation?” Jack asked.
“His driver’s license was just issued so it gave this address.” Leyton flipped through his phone. “But for his court records, he had another address listed.”
“Okay, so there has to be someone on the outside who has been paying his property taxes, the mortgage, and utility bills, yard maintenance, just to keep up appearances.“
“Maybe one of the other guys who was here. Then again, I didn’t smell their scents when we first arrived.” Leyton looked through the dead man’s clothes and found ID. “John Smith. He’s from Denver. Hellion was in jail, so he wouldn’t have been here taking care of it.”
“If he had a partner in crime taking care of it, why not just sell it out from under him? You think whoever it was feared him getting out and retaliating?” Jack asked.
“Or, someone who was extremely loyal to him.”
“A brother, father maybe?” Jack wouldn’t be surprised. “Or a mother or sister. I smell the scent of a woman, though it’s probably closer to a couple of months since she was here last.”
“Could be. Some correspondence is located in a desk drawer in an office.” Leyton led him to the office while Chuck’s team confiscated all the weapons and loaded them up in a van.
Leyton opened a desk drawer and pulled out some greeting cards and letters and dumped them on top of the desk.
“Letters to him while he was in prison from one Anine Parker. Girlfriend? And some from his mother, all signed Mom.“ Jack looked through the envelopes. “Anine is in Alaska. Looks like she’s one of those women who hook up with guys in jail. In one case I know of, the woman was in prison because her husband raped and murdered several teen girls. She witnessed it, never tried to report it, and she even helped him. So what does she do? She hooks up with a guy in prison, corresponding with him after he’d murdered his girlfriend, while her own husband is in for life. Unfortunately, she’s as sick as he is and only got twelve years.” Jack looked up the address for the mother. “It looks like Bishop’s momma lives three streets over from here.” Jack showed the location on his cell’s GPS. “But if Bishop hadn’t returned home yet, how would the letters have gotten here?”
“Mailed to his mom maybe? And she just dumped them in his desk drawer. A woman’s scent is all over them.”
“I’d say that was a fair bet. Now whether she knew he had all the weapons stashed in here, that’s another story. If he’s in prison and she has to take care of the property while he’s locked up, don’t you think she’d be curious about what was in the house?” Jack would certainly have been.
“Yeah. Let’s go see her.” After Leyton talked to Chuck’s men and the police officers, they drove the short distance to Bishop’s mother’s place and parked. When they reached the front door, Leyton rang the doorbell.
In a housecoat and slippers, a woman answered, her gray hair mussed up, her gray eyes narrowed as she stared at them. “What do you want?”
Leyton showed his official ID. “We know your son was dealing in stolen weapons.”
She tried to close the door in his face. He pushed his way in, Jack following, and he shut and locked the door.
Jack was half expecting to see Hellion again. Maybe Hellion didn’t know Bishop’s mother lived clo
se by and was taking care of her son’s place while he had been incarcerated—if she had been.
“I’m not saying anything that will incriminate my son. He’s not done anything wrong. He did his time. Leave him alone.”
“Are you aware his house is filled with weapons that we’ve just confiscated?” Leyton asked.
She glowered at him.
“You don’t need to protect your son any longer. One of the men he hooked up with from jail killed him,” Jack said.
The woman collapsed on the leather sofa and looked shell-shocked.
“Because of what he was involved in and the kind of people he was dealing with, you have to know he was living on borrowed time.” Leyton crouched in front of her as if he wasn’t in charge and just wanted to help her out.
“You’re cops. You wanted him dead.”
“Worse. We’re with the CSF.”
Her eyes widened.
The CSF was known to remove the criminal cougar element permanently from society, not just give them the luxury of going to jail. It was just too dangerous for the rest of them if the murderous criminals were incarcerated and shifted so they could take care of any menace easily if someone was bothering them in prison.
“Now, you can tell us what you know about the whole operation, or we can take you into custody. You know we have the right to keep our kind safe.”
“I don’t know anything about it.”
“Fine.” Leyton brought out a plastic tie.
“You can’t arrest me. I told you, I don’t know anything about it.”
“That’s fine. Our interrogation staff will take over and question you further. That’s not our job. They have techniques to make people spill their guts that I don’t even want to get into.”
“Besides,” Jack said, wondering if they really did have an interrogation staff, “once Hellion learns you know all about the operation“—he held his hand up to stop her from objecting—“he’ll come back for you. He killed your son, and he won’t hesitate to kill you.”
“All I know is what Bishop did before he went to prison. I went to his trial.”
“What about Anine Parker?” Leyton handed her a letter to Bishop from the woman.
Mrs. Adkins read the note and gave it back to Leyton. “He never met her. She’s one of those groupies who fantasize about having sex with an inmate.”
“You didn’t know what was stashed in your son’s house? You’ve been paying the taxes and mortgage on the place. Correct?” Jack asked. “Someone had to.”
“Sure. It didn’t mean I went inside. I didn’t even have a key.”
“Your scent was in the house,” Jack said.
Caught up in the lie, she ground her teeth. “I had to make sure the pipes didn’t freeze in the winter. I went into the kitchen and the bathroom. That was it.”
“Okay, so what do you know about Hellion Crichton or Ralph Solo?” Leyton asked.
“Nothing. When it came to the kind of work my son was doing, he didn’t involve me. Why would he? He wouldn’t have wanted me to go to prison.”
“How do you pay for his mortgage and taxes?” Jack asked.
She pursed her lips.
Jack and Leyton waited. But not for long. “So you were getting money and then laundering it from your son’s arms deals.” Leyton helped her to stand and tied her hands in front of her. Then he got on his phone. “We need you to have someone from the special interrogation unit pick up Mrs. Adkins for further questioning. She is involved up to her eyebrows in laundering the money for her son.” He gave them the address.
Jack helped Mrs. Adkins sit back down.
“All right. That Hellion you were talking about, I told my son he was a bad one. He just looked mean. Like a bully. Bishop was always good to me. No matter what else he did, he was always kind to me. But Hellion, he scorned me. He had an obvious dislike for the closeness my son and I shared.”
“You met him?” Jack asked, shocked. “You’re lucky he didn’t come here next and shoot you.”
“He…he didn’t know I lived here. I met them at the cabin a couple of weeks ago. That sister of his, Gigi too. She’s a viper. Quiet, but she listens to everything. Narrowed cat eyes. I didn’t trust her.”
“Ralph Solo is her boyfriend and part of this. Do you know him?” Leyton asked.
“He was there too. Yeah. Bishop didn’t tell Hellion where he had the weapons stashed. He didn’t entirely trust him. Bishop’s old partner, Butch, had been in charge. But this time, my son was. Then Hellion comes along, and I can tell he wants to be running the show. I told Bishop that Hellion did. He just waved it off and said he wouldn’t have any trouble with him. Hellion had nothing to bring to the table. No weapons. No contacts. No nothing. Does that matter? No. All Hellion sees is money. I warned my son about him. I hope you kill that SOB.” Then Mrs. Adkins broke into tears.
Jack suspected Mrs. Adkins really had loved her son. Too bad he hadn’t been a decent sort, and not into criminal activities. And she was just as guilty.
“Do you know where we might find them?” Jack asked.
“That cabin out west of here.”
“That’s where Hellion killed Bishop,” Leyton said.
She shook her head. “That’s all he talked about—going there to finalize some plans.”
“Can you tell us anything about Butch and why he returned for his wife Dottie and the kids in Yuma Town?” Jack asked.
“She was helping him by being his cover story. He knew those kids weren’t his. So he agreed to lie about it and be her husband. Just on paper. But he was killed going back for her and the kids. They were eager to see Butch. Bishop told him not to. That it would be too dangerous. And look what happened to him!”
Two of Chuck’s men arrived at the house, and the one said, “We’re the agents from the special interrogation unit.” He looked tough and all business. Jack swore he was fighting a smile.
When Jack and Leyton left the men to handle Mrs. Adkins, Leyton said to Jack, “I wouldn’t believe Mrs. Adkins concerning Dottie. Mrs. Adkins received the information from her rotten son. Maybe that’s what Butch told Bishop. Who knows. In any event, Dottie thought he was returning to her originally. She never knew he was a criminal. When he didn’t return, she divorced him and never looked back.”
“I don’t believe Mrs. Adkins either. She either was confused, Bishop told her wrong, or Butch did. In any event, Dottie wouldn’t have been eager to see him. So what happens to the money?”
“That’s how we get our funding. We sell off the properties, confiscate the cash, use it to fund the CSF.”
“Makes sense. Where are we going to now?”
“Home. Until we can come up with another plan.”
“At least we confiscated their stash of armaments and took down another one of those men, and have Bishop’s mother in custody. Maybe they’ll learn something further from her. Jog her memory a bit.”
“We don’t use torture,” Leyton assured him.
Jack smiled. “I didn’t really think so, but it’s good to hear.”
When they arrived that night, it was midnight and Jack called to let Dottie know he was coming in so as not to scare her. He was glad to learn how much he’d cheered her with the news.
As soon as he drove up in the driveway, she rushed out to see him in her robe and slippers, her long hair curling about her shoulders, and she looked totally loveable. He scooped her up and carried her in the house, kissing her all the way.
“Are the kids sound asleep?”
“Yes.”
“I want to see them.” Jack had wanted to see them after they’d gotten married and before he had to go on the mission. He didn’t want to chance getting a call to go out again and miss seeing the kids.
They went to Trish’s room first and he kissed her on the forehead. “I’m home, Trish. I just wanted to say goodnight.”
Looking like an angel tucked under her covers, a big stuffed cougar wrapped in her arms, she didn’t stir.
&nb
sp; “I don’t think she’ll wake. Jeff will though.”
“Night, Trish.” Jack kissed her cheek, then he went in to see Jeff in his cowboy-decorated bedroom. Jack sat on the edge of the bed. “Hey, cowboy. Did you miss me?”
Jeff’s eyes popped open and he stared at Jack as if trying to figure out who he was, then frowned. His eyes widened and he grabbed his dad in a hug. “Daddy! You came back.”
“Yeah, but I might have to leave again soon. At least I was able to come home for tonight.”
Jeff hugged him and wouldn’t let go. Jack hugged him right back. It was heartwarming to feel loved and to love his child back. “I told Trish I was back but she didn’t wake.”
“Aww, she’s always like that,” Jeff said.
“Well, you need to get back to sleep and I’m going to bed now too.”
“Where are you going to sleep? Wanna sleep with me? I can move over.”
Jack smiled. “Mom and daddies sleep together. I’m going to bed with Mommy now.”
“Okay.” Jeff bit his lip. “If I get scared can I still go to Mommy’s bed?”
“You bet. Night, son. Hope to see you for breakfast in the morning.” Jack gave him another hug, covered Jeff up, and left with Dottie to go to the master bedroom.
“So what happened?”
Jack told her everything that they had learned.
She shook her head concerning the part that Mrs. Adkins said about Dottie wanting to be with Butch. “I doubt he wanted to see the kids or me. Why he returned was a complete mystery.”
“You never know about people. Maybe he realized how good he’d had it. At least for me, I know.”
“Thanks, Jack. The two of you are night and day.”
They went to bed and though Jack loved his job, he was thinking just how much he’d love to be home nights after working a regular nine-to-five job.
11
The next morning, Jack kissed Dottie on the cheek while they were waking up. He sure wished they could have a family day today. “I’m going to call Leyton and see what’s up with this case. If we’re sitting tight, I’ll just have fun with the kids, and maybe your sitter can be available if I have to go in?”