“Got a few minutes to go for a little walk?” Franker asked.
“If we walk fast,” Wolf said. “And if you don’t mind the way I smell. I haven’t showered in about four days.”
Franker smiled. “I’ll try to stay upwind.”
They fell into step together, walking side-by-side at a slow pace.
“That girl give anything up?” Wolf asked.
“Cherrie, with an I E?” The FBI man smiled. “Started singing like a canary. Claimed to have been an innocent victim brought along by Smith and his partner Riley. Claimed she cooperated out of fear for her own safety and to protect the kid. Basically corroborated your account of the shootout in the town but said that your buddy McNamara had a rifle that we still haven’t recovered from the scene. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”
Combat loss, Wolf thought. “What did Mac say about that?”
“Not much. He lawyered-up, too.”
“How’d the siege of Fort Lemand turn out?” he asked.
“Over before it started,” Franker said. “As soon as the militia guys found Colonel Best’s body, they folded up like a Japanese lantern.”
“Been a while since I saw one of those.”
“Yeah, me too.” Franker sighed. “You know, I really expected more out of you. You promised to come clean with me for helping you and then all you did was lawyer-up in there.”
“Not true,” Wolf said. “I called you and gave you the location of the dead bodies and the stolen bank loot, didn’t I? And I stood by until your SWAT team arrived and arrested me.”
“True, and we appreciate that. But there’s still a lot of unanswered questions about all this.”
“And maybe someday,” Wolf said, “when I have all the answers, I’ll give them to you.”
Franker snorted a laugh. “Yeah, right. I won’t be holding my breath on that.”
“It’s never a good idea to hold your breath,” Wolf said and stopped.
The Escalade came to a jolting halt.
Wolf started to turn, then paused and held his open palm out toward Franker.
“Until the next time,” he said. “And thanks.”
Franker canted his head and gazed down at Wolf’s hand, then shook it.
“See you around, Wolf,” he said and headed back toward his sedan. “Stay in touch.”
Wolf got into the front passenger seat. Chad waved a welcome from his car seat with both hands and Kasey reached forward and gave Wolf’s shoulder a squeeze.
“How you doing, little guy?” Wolf said.
“I’m good,” Chad said.
“He’s fine,” Kasey added.
Wolf smiled and nodded. He shifted around in the seat and fastened his seat belt.
“So we got to go dig up Miss Jenny?” he asked.
“Nah,” McNamara said. “After I dropped these two off at the ER, I went down the street and rented myself a car with a solid looking trunk. I then parked the rental in the hospital lot with Miss Jenny and her friends inside. Left them there for the duration.”
Wolf grunted an approval. “Where’d you find that lawyer?”
“Ms. Dolly recommended him,” McNamara said. “He do all right by you?”
“The guy was great. We prepared a general statement and read that, then he told me to clam up, which I did. He threatened to go to court with a habeas corpus and they had to let me go without any charges.”
“Kept my you-know-what out of the ringer, too,” McNamara said with a laugh. “Of course, we haven’t got his bill yet, but I ain’t worried. You want to know how much was in that damn money-belt?”
“Surprise me later,” Wolf said. “Right now all I want to is to get home and stand under a hot shower for a couple of hours.”
“And speaking of lawyers,” Kasey said. “There’s no sign of that Soraces guy at Bailey and Lugget anymore. Seems he was only temporarily employed there.”
“I gave his name to the feds,” Wolf said. “And I’m sure his employer, Mr. Von Dien, was less than pleased when he found that his bandito contained nothing but solid plaster.” He snorted a laugh. “I’ll bet it was reminiscent of that scene in The Maltese Falcon, minus Bogey of course.”
McNamara turned up the air-conditioning and hit the gas as they got onto the northbound entrance ramp of the freeway.
Wolf leaned back and closed his eyes. He’d had plenty of time to ruminate on the situation over the past 72 hours and plan his next move and there was one thing he knew. There was a video out there that could clear him, and come hell or high water, he was going to find it. And as for Von Dien, it was time to stop dodging his attacks.
Wolf was tired of being the stalked. It was time to do some hunting of his own.
“As long as it takes,” he said aloud.
Wolf rotated his head and saw Mac glancing at him out of the corner of his eye and looking like he could read his thoughts.
“How far?” McNamara asked.
“All the way,” Wolf answered.
“Damn straight.”
Watch For Devil’s Advocate (Trackdown Series: Book Four)
By Michael A. Black
WILL REDEMPTION EVER COME?
That’s the question former Army Ranger Steve Wolf keeps asking since he served time for a war crime he didn’t commit.
Wolf has been struggling to rebuild his life and ultimately clear his name, and when a path to doing just that materializes, Wolf finds himself being stalked by shadow-like foes who seem to know his every move. Unbeknownst to Wolf, his adversaries are being funded by the same wealthy sociopath who set Wolf up for the false war crime charges back in Iraq, and this rich man will stop at nothing to obtain a priceless artifact and see Wolf destroyed.
Following this trail to possible salvation, Wolf and his friend and mentor, Jim McNamara, find themselves facing a brutal gang of bikers as well as a group of highly proficient rogue CIA-trained killers. In a desperate struggle to save an innocent life and seize his last chance at redemption, Wolf must face overwhelming odds in a battle against the powerful forces that have tormented him for so long.
AVAILABLE NOW FOR PRE-ORDER
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Thank you.
Michael A. Black
About the Author
Michael A. Black is the author of 36 books and over 100 short stories and articles. A decorated police officer in the south suburbs of Chicago, he worked for over thirty-two years in various capacities including patrol supervisor, SWAT team leader, investigations and tactical operations before retiring in April of 2011.
A long time practitioner of the martial arts, Black holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do from Ki Ka Won Academy in Seoul, Korea. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Northern Illinois University and a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction Writing from Columbia College, Chicago. In 2010 he was awarded the Cook County Medal of Merit by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. Black wrote his first short story in the sixth grade, and credits his then teacher for instilling him with determination to keep writing when she told him never to try writing again.
Black has since been published in several genres including mystery, thriller, sci-fi, westerns, police procedurals, mainstream, pulp fiction, horror, and historical fiction. His Ron Shade series featuring the Chicago-based kickboxing private eye, has won several awards, as has his police procedural series featuring Frank Leal and Olivia Hart. He also wrote two novels with television star Richard Belzer, I Am Not a Cop and I Am Not a Psychic. Black writes under numerous pseudonyms and pens The Executioner series under the name Don Pendleton. His Executioner novel, Fatal Prescription, won the Best Original N
ovel Scribe Award given by the International Media Tie-In Writers Association in 2018.
His current books are Blood Trails, a cutting edge police procedural in the tradition of the late Michael Crichton, and Legends of the West, which features a fictionalized account of the legendary and real life lawman, Bass Reeves. His newest Executioner novels are Dying Art, Stealth Assassins, and Cold Fury, all of which were nominees and finalists for Best Novel Scribe Awards. He is very active in animal rescue and animal welfare issues and has several cats.
Website: www.MichaelABlack.com.
Devil's Brigade (Trackdown Book 3) Page 28
