Dark Secrets and Dead Reckoning, A Red Pine Falls Cozy Mystery (Red Pine Falls Cozy Mysteries Book 3)

by Angela C Blackmoore

  Gabe breathed a sigh of relief when none of them reached for anything or tried to run away. The three rangers exchanged glances before Gabe directed Conner and Julia to bring the biker they’d apprehended toward the firelight after the police officers had moved in.

  After a quick search, they found three more bikers passed out in their tents, and a very grateful Dr. Bennard sitting in one of the larger tents tending to two men that were bandaged and unconscious from the drugs Charlie had administered.

  There were dozens of pharmaceutical bottles and pills in zip lock baggies the bikers had looted from the clinic. It turned out that all the bikers that remained had partaken of them and various other drugs. It had been a real pharm party.

  “I tried to mitigate what they were taking,” Charlie said to the Sheriff as he climbed out of the tent. “I should probably get a few of those idiots back to the clinic as soon as possible. Some of the combination of pills I saw them swallow are dangerous.”

  “Do you recognize which ones?” The Sheriff asked with concern.

  Charlie nodded, then pointed to several of the bikers that were being led away. “Yes, those two for sure, and that one I think. They look like they are already struggling more than they should, not like it’s easy to tell the difference.”

  “We’ll figure something out, Dr. Bennard,” The Sheriff said as he monitored the other officers who were putting the bikers in a line near one of the fires. They’d sent several men off to retrieve some of the police cruisers. Conner and Julia had also left to get the ranger trucks. “None of them look lucid enough to talk. Do you know where the other bikers went?”

  Charlie frowned, thinking hard but finally shook his head. “I don’t know. They left about twenty minutes ago, but I have no clue where they went.”

  “Where could they have gone?” Gabe asked, standing next to the Sheriff as they both regarded the line of bikers. There was little chance of getting any information out of them, but there had to be a reason the bikers had all left this late in the evening.

  “I don’t know,” the Sheriff said, worry lacing his voice. “There has to be some reason. The only thing they were here for was Frank-” The man trailed off, his eyes going wide as he turned to Gabe. “Dammit. They’ve gone to the jailhouse. They’re after Frank!”

  Gabe cursed as the Sheriff began yelling into his radio, telling the deputies who’d gone after the police cruisers to hurry. They needed to get back to town immediately if it wasn’t already too late.

  Chapter 26

  “I can’t get ahold of the Sheriff,” Lanie said, stepping back into the room.

  “That’s not good,” Becky said, looking nervously back and forth between Abby and Lanie. “That can’t be a good thing, right? What does it mean?”

  Lanie held her hands up. “It only means I can’t get ahold of the Sheriff. They’re probably in the middle of the operation out at the campground and are in radio silence. At least, I hope that’s what’s going on.”

  “She’s right, Becky,” Abby said. “Calm down. It’s got to be nerve-wracking enough trying to sneak up on a bunch of bikers out in the woods. We’ll be patient. They’ll call when they can.”

  Becky seemed mollified, but they all felt a small sense of disquiet that settled around them like a quilt. After a moment, Lanie spoke. “Okay, well, I had just gotten everyone tea. Would you boys like anything?”

  “I didn’t get my tea,” Frank said plaintively from the holding cell.

  Lanie didn’t answer him, rolling her eyes instead and then looking back at John. The handsome man chuckled. “I’ll take coffee if you have it? Tea’s not quite my thing.” Reggie and Brian both opted for coffee as well, and Lanie moved to the back kitchenette to get their requests prepared.

  John stood and walked up to the police counter and leaned on it, giving Abby and Becky a bemused look. “When you told me the story of your past few months here, I could hardly believe it, Abby. But here you are, right in the thick of things again. I swear, someone should write a book about your adventures.”

  Abby sighed, tiredly. “It hasn’t been boring,” she answered. “Maybe I’ll take up writing? Who knows, people might get a kick out of this, and it would be cathartic to write this all down.”

  “Not boring at all,” John said before cocking his head to the right. “Do you hear something?”

  They all stopped to listen, and the unmistakable sound of many motorcycles could be heard off in the distance, but getting louder. Lanie came out of the back room with a worried look on her face as John signaled for Reggie to take a look.

  The large man quickly crossed to one of the narrow windows that sat on either side of the front doors and peeked out. He only glanced outside for a moment, and when he turned around to say something, none of them really needed to hear his words as the headlamps of numerous bikes said it all. He gave them all a grim look. “It’s the Sun Riders,” He reported to no one’s surprise.

  “What do you mean it’s the Sun Riders?” Becky said, her voice rising in pitch. “Didn’t the police go out to take care of them?”

  Lanie moved up to the counter though she didn’t move around into the lobby. “How many are there?”

  Reggie looked again and looked like he was trying to count. After a few seconds, he looked back. “I think most of them. I’m not sure how many they have in their gang, but there’s probably about twenty out there. They have guns out, too. It doesn't look like they’re messing around.”

  Lanie cursed and looked indecisively at the door, then at John and Abby. “I have to go get weapons from the lockers. Abby, can you use a gun?” she asked, her look pleading with Abby to say yes.

  “I… No,” Abby said, understanding Lanie’s predicament. “I mean I’ve shot a gun at the range with Danny but that was years ago, and we didn’t go often.” She sighed and pointed to John Troutdale. “It’s going to have to be him.”

  Lanie cursed again, this time louder as she stared at John. The man didn’t say anything, just waiting patiently for the police deputy to come to the only conclusion she could. With twenty bikers out front, they didn’t have a choice.

  “I can’t believe this,” Lanie spat, handing her gun over to John and then turning to run back to the weapons locker. “I’m arming a gangster and his goons in a police station! Becky! After this, I might need a job at your café. You’re hiring, right?”

  Becky laughed nervously as she and Abby ducked down behind the front counter to the lobby, peeking up over the top. They watched as John waived Reggie and Brian to wait, then ran for the door. Jerking it open, they all watched as several bikers began cresting the front steps of the walkway.

  They were armed with shotguns, pistols, and other assorted weapons, but clearly not expecting someone to open the front door and shoot at them. The leader, a large man with dark hair and a salt and pepper beard, looked up just in time to see John point his gun in their direction. His eyes widened as he dove to the side, the other bikers screaming and yelling as they scattered like bowling pins.

  “Hey, Wallace! Did you miss me?” John yelled as he fired the gun over their heads. He quickly closed the door, so only a crack was open, watching the bikers scramble for cover.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Lanie yelled from the back room, peeking out and yelling across the room. “God! Did you just fire at them?”

  John pulled away from the crack in the door and grinned. “I’m not a cop! Besides, I had to do something to make them back off. They were just about to march in here. They’re not interested in that, anymore.” He laughed, then went back to peeking outside.

  Lanie looked at him dangerously for a moment but finally moved back to getting the guns, coming out a moment later with a couple of shotguns and two pistols. She came over to the front desk and handed the two shotguns to Reggie and Brian before turning to Abby and Becky.

  “Do either of you think you can manage a pistol?” she asked just before everyone ducked at the sound of a bullet bouncing off t
he front door, followed by a few more shots. One hit the small window to the left of the doors, cracking the bullet-proof glass, but not shattering it. The bikers had started firing at the building.

  “Get back!” Abby screamed as the bullets started coming at them thick and fast.

  “I can’t, but don’t worry,” John called back, holding the door closed. “The doors are metal. It’ll hold against everything I saw them carrying. It’s the locks that are a problem. They can break them if they get up to the door. I’ve got to stay here and keep them occupied.”

  He ducked back as a fresh wave of bullets struck the door and walls outside, then opened the door and fired out to keep their heads down. Now that Reggie and Brian had shotguns, they moved to either side of the door, looking out of the bullet proof glass. They couldn’t fire out, but it would help in case any of the bikers made it to the door.

  After several minutes of this back and forth, the firing from outside stopped. A moment later they heard a voice yelling from outside.

  “John!” the voice called. “I don’t know what the hell you’re doing in there, but we’re after Frank. Send him out, and we’ll go away.”

  John and his men paused, and then looked back toward Lanie, Abby, and Becky. Their faces were unreadable.

  “Oh, jackrabbits,” Becky breathed.

  Chapter 27

  “Dammit, jackrabbits is so not a good enough word for this,” Lanie whispered, keeping her voice low. Abby and Becky both sensed the tension in Lanie’s voice and ducked a bit lower. All three women suddenly wondered if they made a mistake in giving John and his men weapons. For a few tense moments, Abby wondered if they might suddenly turn on them.

  Then John cracked the door open so he could yell out. “Wallace? You do remember it was me that you tried to kill five years ago when I told you we were done doing business? So forgive me if I have a hard time believing you. Besides, this is an idiotic idea. What do you hope to gain? Do you think you can just take Frank and waltz out of here?”

  “That’s exactly what I think,” Wallace yelled. “We’re going to get Frank, make him give us back our money, and then I’m going to let Bakes do what she does best. She got a new knife set. Some guy up in Vancouver forged some sweet Bowie knives for her, and she’s itching to test them out.”

  There was a faint whimpering from back in the holding cell. When Abby turned to look, she could see the mattress had been pulled off of the bed, and Frank had covered himself up in a corner. Lanie had relaxed slightly, nodding toward John when he looked back and made eye contact with her after he had spoken. Abby was glad that he hadn’t turned on them. For some reason, she actually would have been surprised if he had done so.

  “Wallace, you can’t be serious,” John called back. “I know you guys are a little crazy, but what makes you think you can get away from the state police? You can’t go to the other gangs. They’re as sick of you as I am.”

  There was a high-pitched laugh, followed by several of the other gang members chuckling. “We don’t need them,” called a woman’s voice. “Screw them! We have friends in high places! Those state patrolmen won’t be coming to help anyone, Fish Man! No one is going to mess with a Sen-“

  She was cut off by the sound of a fist hitting flesh. “Shut up, Bakes! Shut up! Jesus!” Wallace bellowed, his voice angry followed by an enraged squeal that Abby assumed came from Bakes, but the woman didn’t resume talking.

  John turned, hissing toward Lanie. “Go try to get the Sheriff on the radio. I don’t know what’s going on, but hopefully the Sheriff knows the bikers aren’t there by now. Maybe he’ll answer.”

  Lanie nodded, ducking down and trotting over to the radio room. They could hear her in there as she began trying to raise the Sheriff on the radio. John turned back to the door and peeked out. “What could she have been talking about?” he asked Reggie and Brian next to him. “Why would we be worried about Sen? Sen, sen, sen,” he repeated, thinking to himself.

  Suddenly, something one of the bikers had said in the Food Emporium struck Abby. Skeeves had said someone named Mr. C would pay them a lot of money for something John Troutdale did. John had been systematically cutting himself off from his underworld dealings for years.

  “Senator Clark!” Abby hissed suddenly over the counter. “I bet they mean Senator Clark! He had the superintendent for the State Police here last month trying to hunt down Hazel’s brother. The man was clearly in his pocket. The Mayor had the Governor make them both back off, but it makes sense if the bikers think the state police aren’t going to be a problem. If Senator Clark is involved with them, then he’s probably told them not to worry about them.”

  John had turned, watching Abby carefully as she spoke, but slowly began to nod. “Dear Lord, you’re right. And yes, that snake would completely be involved in something like this.” He paused before continuing. “Senator Clark and his family used to be very close with my father. We would…transport things for him from time to time, and we used to use the Sun Riders for some of the smaller things. I cut off ties with them both years ago, but the Senator’s continued to do business with our friends out there.”

  Abby frowned. Just what was Senator Clark involved in, and why did he want her grandmother’s house? Whatever scheme he had that involved them, it had been going on for over two decades. Suddenly, she heard a loud shot from outside, and then someone screamed. It was a terrible noise that ended with a gurgling, choking sound.

  The gunfire from the bikers outside resumed, but as John peeked outside, he could see that some of the bikers were turned and looking behind them. Lanie came out from the radio room, holding onto a mic. “I’ve got the Sheriff on the horn. What’s going on? Did they resume shooting?”

  John nodded. “Yes, but something else is going on,” he said, calling back to the deputy. “Someone’s shooting at them. I see a biker down in the street, and from the angle of him falling, he was thrown forward toward us.”

  John was forced to close the door as the drum of bullets spiked. Despite the noise, they could hear the occasional rifle shot from a distance, followed very often by a scream or curse.

  “They’re panicking, boss,” Brian said, peeking out. “I think some are trying to go for their bikes, too.”

  John laughed and moved to one of the windows. “Wallace is having an aneurysm out there. Look at him screaming. I don’t know who’s shooting at them, but they’re doing a pretty good job. I see three down already.”

  Lanie had moved up to the counter with a portable radio. “Yes, sir,” she said, “Someone’s shooting at them from outside. We have no idea where it’s coming from, but I’ll be honest, I’m going to find them and hug them.” She clicked off, speaking to everyone in the station. “He’s on his way. About five minutes and he’s got some back-up with them.”

  Abby breathed a sigh of relief. They could hear the sirens already, and from the sound of them, there were quite a few more police then had left earlier that evening.

  Chapter 28

  “The Sheriff said we can unlock the door now,” Lanie said and turned to John, Reggie, and Brian. “You might want to let me have those guns back. I don’t know if you want a bunch of skittish police officers seeing you armed with weapons.”

  The three men nodded and without preamble, handed the weapons over to Lanie. John shook his head back and forth as he turned his over. “I certainly didn’t expect to get into a shoot-out when I came down here. I can’t say I missed it.” Looking at Abby, he grinned. “You sure do know how to throw a party.”

  Becky had come up beside her friend as they all stood in the lobby, preparing to step outside now that the coast was clear. “You won’t believe her nickname,” her friend said, nudging Abby.

  John’s eyes widened. “Oh, ho? A nickname? I have to know.”

  Abby gave Becky a warning glance, but her friend only grinned and leaned in, whispering though everyone could hear. “Hurricane Abby,” she said, eliciting a swat from Abby.

  They all chuck
led as Lanie opened the door, peeking out and waving her hands in view before stepping outside. Some of the bikers had escaped, but they could see several of them being lined up and sat on the curb with several deputies standing over them with weapons drawn. There were spotlights from several of the police cruisers, and all of the police officers had flak vests on, changing their look from normal uniformed police officers, to something more military and foreign. Still, Abby was happy they were here and in control.

  What she tried to avoid looking at was the bodies lying in the street by several overturned bikes. One looked like he’d tried to escape, but the bike had been shot out from under him, and he’d slammed into one of the tall pines that graced the streets. Abby couldn’t tell how much damage might have occurred to the tree, but it had to be in much better shape than the bike, or the man who’d been riding it.

  Gabe came running up about then, sweeping Abby into his arms and hugging her for all he was worth. Abby returned the hug, her terror over the past hour sweeping through her as she started to shake. They didn’t notice at all when Charlie and Becky did the same thing, not more than a few feet away.

  “I’ve got to go see if there’s anything I can do,” Charlie said, breaking away from Becky after giving her a long kiss. “Not that any of these thugs deserve it, but I made a vow.”

  Becky sighed, watching Charlie walk toward where someone was laying on the street, moaning in pain. She turned back to Abby and Gabe, then moved in and joined their hug circle.

  “Are you both all right?” Gabe whispered, just loud enough for them to hear. “When we realized the bikers had left the camp and headed into town, we came as quickly as we could.”

  Abby nodded against his chest and then looked up at him. “To be honest, I’m tired of having guns pointed at me. This time, it could have been serious. Those bikers! They would have killed us if it weren’t for John and his men, and whoever started shooting at them.”