Toxin Alert

by Tyler Anne Snell

  Gina shook her head and turned back to the post.

  “You shouldn’t have to help fight for them,” she breathed out hotly. “They sure didn’t fight for you.”

  Noah knew Gina didn’t intend for her words to wound, but they did.

  “I’m not even sure I was all that helpful, to be honest,” he said, sidestepping the reopening of the old wound. “It’s not like I’m the most popular guy around town.”

  Gina waved a hand dismissively at him.

  “Whatever you gave those suits was more than they would have gotten from the community on their own. Don’t undersell yourself. If you think you’re cheap then you’re giving everyone else permission to think you’re less-than, too.” She took on a power stance, mindful to hold the shotgun with one hand so it didn’t fall. “And what is it that Dad used to say about confidence?”

  Noah could hear Frank Tuckett, standing in his work clothes next to the barn and wiping sweat from his brow onto his forearm.

  “‘Only you can make it and only you can break it.’”

  Gina gave a quick nod.

  “He wasn’t a man who was in touch with sentiment, but he wasn’t wrong.”

  Noah had to agree to that.

  “I’ll go look in the work shed to see if we have any extra posts still,” he finally said after a companionable silence stretched between them. That was the Tuckett way, after all. Shared silence with bouts of work requests. “If we do I’ll come find you and we can go ahead and mend this after I do my rounds. The ground’s still not frozen, so we can handle it. Sound good?”

  “Sounds good.”

  Noah started back for his truck, a chill in the air sliding into his jacket. The snow was gone but there was a forecast for rain coming up. He only hoped if it did snow, it wouldn’t do it for long. He wouldn’t deny that the farm and its almost one-hundred acres looked downright beautiful covered in white, but he also wasn’t going to deny it was a pain in the backside to do his job when everything was covered.

  Living in a scenery meant for a postcard was nice, but mending fences and other such chores with numb fingers was not.

  Noah spent the next little while going about his duties, mostly maintenance since Gina had already seen to their livestock, before heading to the work shed in a hunt for extra posts. Painted a nice dark blue to make the worn wood look nicer, the shed was a small structure, half the size of the barn, near the back corner of the property. When Noah was eighteen he’d told Gina’s father that the color had made the shed look like a piece of the night sky had fallen and gotten stuck in the trees. After ice had taken down a few of those trees that had once surrounded it, the rest had been cut and the fence had been built to include the shed in the field that went across one side of the property. Noah had also repainted the small building twice, keeping the same blue.

  So now it was still a touch of the night sky, no longer in the forest. Just with a nice view of it.

  Noah walked up to it with a smile, nostalgia moving through him like the chill in the air. He rounded the structure, trying to remember what all was inside before unlocking the door, but slowed in his tracks at the corner.

  The shed’s door was open.

  Not unheard of considering the entire farm had access and anyone could be inside looking for supplies during a normal work day.

  But today wasn’t a normal work day due to the investigation and, apart from Gina, no other staff was on the farm. He doubted she’d been here or she’d have already looked for the fencing posts herself.

  If that wasn’t enough to raise suspicion in Noah, the blood on the wet ground in front of the opened door would have.

  Without moving his gaze from the opening, he reached out and grabbed the only thing he could get his hands on as a weapon. The round-point shovel had a crack along its wooden handle but there was some heft to the tool. It would do in a pinch if needed. He flipped it upside down so one hand curved against the metal and the other around the wet wood. The muscles in his arms tightened. He moved to the door, careful with his footing so it didn’t make a sound.

  There were bloodstains, enough to notice but not enough indicating a substantial wound, he guessed.

  If Noah hadn’t been an observant person he would have missed the dark red spots, but there they were.

  At his storage shed, at the back of his property.

  During an investigation where farms in the community had been attacked.

  Noah pushed his shoulders back and hardened his jaw.

  Then, in one fluid movement, he rounded the corner, shovel held high.

  It was empty.

  Noah lowered his makeshift weapon after a quick glance around the room. Nothing was disturbed, though he could make out footprints that weren’t his as if someone had been walking around.

  They didn’t stray far from the middle of the space and then they backtracked and went outside again.

  Like someone had been looking for something but hadn’t found it.

  Noah managed to follow those footprints to the fence.

  He stood there, a bad feeling starting up in his gut, and stared into the woods where they disappeared.

  “What the hell?”

  Chapter Seven

  “I’m in a happy, healthy relationship with the love of my life, and even I can admit he’s good-looking.”

  Aria was checking the safety on her service weapon. They were outside of David Lapp’s house and readying to interview the boy as one of their two suspects. Axel and Selena had already gone off to handle talking to Eli Zook.

  As for Noah?

  Well, he certainly wasn’t in the vehicle with them.

  Which was great, considering Aria’s subject change from how to approach the Lapp boy to how cute their former Amish liaison was.

  Carly side-eyed Aria from the passenger’s seat, eyebrow raised.

  Aria gave a small shrug.

  “What? I’m just saying. The farmer has that whole brooding, tall and dark-haired thing going on.” She adopted a hilariously deep voice. “‘I’ve seen things, Agent Welsh. That’s why I brood.’”

  Carly stifled a laugh, lest she encourage Aria to bring Noah up again when Max was back in the vehicle. For now he was just outside on the phone with Axel.

  “Calling other people brooders is like the kettle calling the pot black,” she replied. “You’ve met our team, right? We all get quite broody from time to time.”

  “True,” Aria admitted. Then she turned toward Carly and wiggled her eyebrows. “But I noticed that you didn’t disagree that Noah is a looker.”

  Carly rolled her eyes.

  No, she wasn’t going to disagree.

  But she wasn’t going to encourage the woman, either.

  Noah had been a good, well-tempered tour guide. One who had done what he could before delivering her back to her team.

  Was his past mysterious?

  Did she want to know more?

  Was he really that good-looking?

  Yes. To all three.

  But again, there was a job to do, and right now that job had them parked outside of a two-story white house at the end of a pocked dirt road that had seen better days. A job that needed them to focus on the nineteen-year-old who had been exiled. Had not left of his own volition.

  Max, thankfully, appeared at the driver’s-side door before Carly could respond to Aria’s teasing. He was frustrated.

  “That was a short phone call,” Carly said after the door was opened.

  Max sighed.

  “And, according to Axel, that was a short-lived interview. Apparently the Zook family were as forthcoming as a brick wall. A brick wall guarded by another, taller brick wall. The dad wouldn’t let the boy answer any questions and that was as much as he said himself.”

  Carly grumbled but wasn’t exactly surprised.

&nbs
p; “I was hoping the cold shoulder we got yesterday would have warmed when they realized we’re trying to help.”

  She got out of the car, moving her jacket back over her hip holster and the gun inside of it. Aria followed suit and soon all three were at the bottom of the porch stairs. Even though they were still talking, they each focused their individual attention on the house. There was a car parked at the side of the home but it looked like it hadn’t been driven in a while. Since the house was by itself and not a part of a farm, it was the only structure in the middle of the open stretch of land around it. Trees could be seen in the distance. Carly wondered how far away Noah’s property started but didn’t voice her curiosity.

  It would only get another teasing rise out of Aria.

  Though Axel and Selena being stonewalled by the Zook family did give her a valid reason to talk about the man.

  “If we don’t get anywhere with David Lapp, I’m going to reach out to Noah Miller again and see if he’s willing to help us. Better than us talking to ourselves and running around in circles,” Carly said.

  Both of the agents next to her nodded.

  Without studying their body language, Carly knew they were reverting into full detective mode. Aria was noting every entrance and exit, Max was readying for the wild card option that inevitably happened during some of their cases.

  Carly?

  She had split her focus into two categories: on the lookout for dangerous toxins, and readying to do a verbal dance with David Lapp to see if he had been the one behind the attack using them.

  “I’ll lead.”

  Carly bounded the steps and rapped her knuckles against the front door. She had her badge up and out by the fourth knock. By the sixth one she called out Lapp’s name, then her name, her affiliation and the need to ask a few questions. When that didn’t cause any movement inside, she said it was time to split up.

  “Check the perimeter to see if anyone is here. But be careful. Remember we don’t know anything about this David kid other than he was asked to leave the community.”

  “Which is kind of a red flag,” Aria added.

  “Agreed.”

  Max went the length of the porch and then hung a left around the corner. Aria did the same on the right. Carly stayed on the porch but moved to the two windows next to the door. Both had curtains drawn.

  She slipped her badge back into her pocket and kept going along the front to another set of windows. No curtains or blinds blocked the view of the room here. Instead, Carly could clearly make out a good-sized dining room with a table and four chairs. All five surfaces were filled with clutter.

  Magazines, books, papers. Beer bottles. An ashtray with several butts on and around it. An empty vodka bottle. There were also a few paper plates with balled up paper towels. One had half of a pizza crust on it. Carly even saw a few dirty-looking socks strewn around.

  Maybe David Lapp’s general hygiene and cleaning habits had led to him being kicked out?

  “Carly.”

  Max appeared next to her, his voice sharp, direct and low.

  He’d found something.

  “The bedroom on the back corner of the house has been trashed. Almost everything broken.”

  Carly pushed her jacket aside and unholstered her gun. Max already had his out, but low.

  “Sounds like probable cause to take a look inside to me. Let’s go.”

  They moved together to the back of the house, linking up with Aria. The back door wasn’t locked so they wasted no time. In sync, the three of them raised their weapons.

  Then they went into the house.

  If a red flag hadn’t already been waving in the wind before they entered, a trove of them were planted the second they were inside.

  Stale.

  Dirty.

  Carly shared a look with Aria.

  Max nodded toward the door nearest them.

  Then it was time to clear the house.

  They announced their presence a few times but were met with silence. Still they moved, guns drawn, through the first floor. At the stairs, Aria walked up while Max went along the back part of the house. Carly wound up at the door to what she thought was a pantry next to the refrigerator.

  But it wasn’t a pantry.

  It was a set of stairs to a basement.

  Carly turned her head to the side, taking a quick breath.

  A different smell wafted up at her.

  She couldn’t place it, but it didn’t matter.

  Something was way beyond not right.

  Something was wrong.

  She descended the stairs, her stomach tightening.

  At first the room seemed normal enough. It opened up on either side of the stairs, making a big box. Her gaze lit on boxes covered in dust, cloths covering bulky furniture, a few knickknacks clustered together on different surfaces.

  But by the time Carly walked off the last stair, everything about the basement, the house and David Lapp changed.

  “What the hell?”

  What was in the middle of the space to her right was so unexpected that Carly didn’t see the man right away.

  But she felt his knife.

  Chapter Eight

  The blood against her hand made Carly wish she’d kept her gloves on. It was oddly cold and concerned her a great deal. It meant that skin had been broken.

  It meant that she was, in part, exposed.

  It meant she was vulnerable.

  It was the reason the gun she had been holding in the same hand had fallen from what was supposed to be a firm grip.

  Carly internally swore.

  The blood wasn’t her only concern.

  Maybe number four out of her five.

  Her top priorities had already shifted three times in the last half hour since she’d been attacked in the basement and run after her assailant into the woods, Max coming up behind her when he’d heard her cry out. Aria had stayed to call for more help.

  Now her priorities shifted again.

  Find him.

  Stop him.

  Don’t get killed.

  Easy, right?

  Carly swore again. This time it was from pain. A throbbing was starting to run across the right side of her face, while her lip stung to let her know without looking that it was probably busted where her attacker had socked her. Then there was the cut along her forearm.

  The reason for the blood.

  The reason why she had to catch the man who had done it all as soon as possible.

  If he could attack a federal agent with such ferocity, there was no telling what he’d do to a hapless bystander who might have the bad fortune to be in the way.

  Then again, Carly didn’t expect to run into any wayward residents of Potter’s Creek right now. Not several minutes deep into the woods. Which she believed was why her perp had hightailed it right into the trees when he’d first taken off.

  Speeding through the dense trees and foliage would have been laborious under normal circumstances. Doing it in a pursuit was a downright pain.

  A pain that Carly felt as deeply as the thumping of adrenaline trying to keep pace with her objective.

  Her phone buzzed in her left hand.

  She kept her pace but hit Accept.

  “Where are you?” One of Max’s underappreciated skills, in her opinion, was his ability to still manage complete sentences that were as clear as crystal even when he was out of breath.

  Carly answered but she didn’t possess the same skill. Her words were choppy and few.

  She had been running for almost ten minutes under the vast tree canopy, and the pain radiating in three different places across her body was becoming an obstacle.

  “No idea. Before I lost visual he kept changing direction.”

  Movement rustled on the other side of the call. Max was so
mewhere in the forest with her but, what the Amish country might have lacked in modern technology, it absolutely more than made up for in expansive acreage and nature. The fact that she hadn’t seen or heard Max since they entered the wooded area highlighted just how seemingly endless their current surroundings were.

  “We might need to regroup,” Max said as Carly continued deeper into the unknown. “At least fall back to me since you aren’t armed. Aria’s getting backup, but they won’t know where we are.”

  Carly hated it, but she knew Max was right. She hadn’t seen the man she was chasing in at least three minutes. Unlike Selena and Blanca, she wasn’t a tracker. Her skills leaned toward toxins, biology and the mindset of someone who would use both as a weapon. She’d already started the ball rolling on an analysis of the anthrax used in the attacks. Samples were at some of the best labs in the country with trusted colleagues looking for clues.

  Now she needed to use her observational talents to figure out why her attacker would have been in that basement and if he had been connected to the spread of the deadly bacteria.

  But that’s why you want to catch him so badly, her inner voice reminded her. Because what you saw in that house didn’t make sense.

  Carly wanted answers.

  She needed them.

  “Carly,” Max prodded. “Running blindly into a fight is a fast way for that fight to be a quick one. We’ll find him.”

  He was right. Carly slowed her speed until she put her hand against a tree to catch her breath.

  “If I’m not completely turned around, I think if I head east from where I am then I’ll be out of here,” she said after a moment. “Then we can—”

  A branch snapped behind her and to the left. Carly dropped her phone, ducked and spun around just as a towering man with wide, dark eyes swung out with a closed fist.

  The hit narrowly missed her but the man himself didn’t.

  Whether he meant to or not his momentum carried him like a linebacker right into Carly. She barely had time to put her hands up to brace herself against his chest.