“Having a good day, I see?”
Justin’s voice made him wince and clear his throat. “Sorry.”
“Have you seen the latest blog post?”
“No. Why?”
“It claims the bombing of the training center is being linked back to Boyd Sullivan.”
“What? We haven’t said that officially. It’s just been speculated about. How would they know that?” He slapped the wheel again.
“Just like all the other information this person is managing to get her hands on.”
“It’s not Heidi.”
The line fell quiet. Then Justin cleared his throat. “Are you sure about that?”
Was he? Completely one hundred percent sure? “Yes, I’m sure. As sure as a gut feeling can be.”
“Sometimes a gut feeling is better than any evidence,” Justin said. “All right. We’ll keep looking. Not that Heidi won’t still be in the pool of suspects, but—”
The explosion rocked his car, throwing him into the passenger seat. The windshield shattered, raining shards of hard glass down on him.
Ears ringing, he lifted himself up to squint against the flames shooting from Heidi’s front window.
SEVEN
Nick pulled himself out of his SUV and let a barking Annie out of her area. Keeping the leash around his wrist, he stumbled toward the house only to fall back when the heat scorched him. “Heidi!”
Sirens were already screaming. Westley and Felicity hurried down their front porch. Westley reached him first and gripped his forearm. “Nick! Are you okay? You’re bleeding.”
“Heidi’s in there!” Horror clawed at him. His lungs tightened against the smoke and the fear. There was no way she could have survived that.
Westley went white and Felicity cried out, covering her mouth with her hand. “No,” she whispered. “I don’t believe it.”
There had to be a way in, a way to save her. Nick raced through the narrow pathway between her house and Felicity’s, rounded the corner and stopped. The fence. He’d forgotten about the fence. Scrambling for a way to climb over, he paused.
A noise caught his attention even over the sirens and the roar of the burning home. A cry? A cough?
He followed the fence line and turned to see Heidi sitting outside the fence, staring at her home.
“Heidi!”
She looked up at his call, her face streaked with tears and dirt. He raced over to her and dropped to his knees. Gripping her upper arms, he took in the sight of her, looking for any outward signs of trauma. “Are you all right?”
“No!” She swiped a hand across her cheek, smearing the dirt. She pointed. “Look what he did! Just look! It’s gone. All of it.” He pulled her to him and she buried her forehead against his chest. Annie whined and tried to shove her face between them. Then she licked Heidi’s ear. Sobs broke through and Heidi hugged him tighter and let him hold her.
“Heidi! Nick!”
Westley’s harsh cry pulled Nick’s attention to the man who’d followed the same path Nick had taken just minutes before. He hurried over to them. “Heidi! Boy, am I glad to see you.”
She sniffed and hiccupped, but didn’t move from Nick’s hold.
“What were you doing out here? Because whatever it was, it saved your life.”
She giggled, and Nick frowned. Was she going to get hysterical on him? She said something and he missed it. “What?” She pointed and he followed her finger to a white trash bag lying on the ground. “Heidi?”
“The trash,” she said. “I was taking the trash out.” Another slightly hysterical giggle. “Taking out the trash—a chore I hate with everything in me and put off until the last possible moment—saved my life. I’ll never complain about that again.” She dissolved into another fit of giggles, followed quickly by gasping sobs. Nick simply held her while her home burned.
His gaze met Westley’s. “We have to stop this guy.”
“I pulled security footage from the night of the training center explosion and saw the man she saw, but there’s no way to tell who he was. By the time Heidi said he pulled the ski mask off and turned, he was out of range of the camera. So far, we’ve gotten no leads on the sketch Carl worked up.”
Heidi had stopped crying and he figured by her stillness she was listening. “He pulled the mask off because he knew it was safe to do so. He knows this base. First we need to investigate every single person who lives on this base.”
Westley sighed, but nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. I’m also thinking it’s going to take a while.”
“Then we might as well get started.”
* * *
Heidi sat in the back of the ambulance next to Nick, who hadn’t let her out of his sight. The paramedic had checked her out, then cleaned and bandaged several cuts on his face, arms and hands.
“They’re not deep, but your face didn’t like the force the glass came with,” the medic said.
“I know. It’s fine.”
“No head trauma that I can see on either of you, so you can count your blessings for that.”
“I’m alive,” Heidi said, “I’m grateful.” But the loss hurt. She wouldn’t put on a brave face and pretend it didn’t. Her notes, her laptop, her files. Everything. Gone. Either to the explosion and fire or water damage. The only reason she wasn’t in a puddle on the floor of the ambulance was because she had almost everything backed up to the cloud. The only thing she might not be able to access was the latest piece she’d been writing. Unable to remember if she’d saved it to her online backup, Heidi gave a mental shrug. She could rewrite it.
A flash to her right cause her to recoil. She blinked and finally focused her gaze on John Robinson lowering his camera. “Really?” she demanded.
He shrugged. “I just follow the stories.”
“Right.” She wouldn’t get into it with him. One, it seemed to spur him to be even more obnoxious, and two, she simply didn’t have the energy.
Nick stepped out of the ambulance and stood in front of the doorway so Robinson couldn’t see into the back where Heidi was. “Get away from here. Now.”
His low command sent Robinson stumbling backward. Heidi leaned to the right to see fear flash in the man’s eyes, but his chin was raised. “You have no right to stop me from getting my story.”
“You have no right to impede medical treatment.”
With a roll of his eyes, Robinson left. “I got my picture. I guess that’s all I need. I’d love a statement from the victim, but I’m assuming that’s not going to happen.”
He had that right. “Thanks, John. I appreciate your concern.” She couldn’t help it. His lack of professionalism infuriated her. No story was worth sacrificing the human touch, expressing sympathy to one’s fellow man. Reporters like him made reporters like her look bad. And she just plain didn’t like it.
“I can see the smoke coming out of your ears,” Nick said to her when Robinson left, “and it has nothing to do with your house blowing up.”
She scowled. “That man gets under my skin. Way under. I’ve got to find a way to let him and his actions roll off my back.”
“Be a duck.”
“What?”
“Your new mantra when it comes to Robinson.”
“Oh. Be a duck. Meaning let the irritation I feel for the man roll off?”
“Exactly. Come on,” he said. “Forget about Robinson. We’ve got to get you settled somewhere.”
“I guess I’ll have to find a hotel.”
He frowned. “No way. Not when you have friends.”
“I do have a few friends, but I’m not going to put any of them in danger. Not when this guy is going around blowing up houses.”
Felicity pushed her way through the gathering crowd. “Heidi!” She rushed forward and hugged her, forcing Nick to drop her hand and step back. “I’m so
glad you’re okay,” Felicity said. “At first, I thought you’d...that you’d...that you were—”
“That I was in the house when it blew?”
“Yes.” Another tight hug. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”
“Thank you.” Heidi looked back at the smoldering structure. “At least it was just mostly the front of the house that took the brunt of the blast. It wasn’t big enough to take the whole thing down. Or cause damage to yours.”
“I’m just glad you weren’t hurt.” Felicity squeezed her hands, then let her go. “What can I do to help?” She bit her lip. “You’ll need a place to stay.”
“She can stay with me and my grandfather,” Nick said.
Heidi blinked and her mouth rounded as she processed his words. “What?”
“We have a guest bedroom, and the colonel is there most of the time. And he obviously knows how to use a gun so you’d have built-in protection.”
“But I—”
“That sounds like the perfect solution,” Felicity said. “I’ll run back to my place and grab you some clothes to wear. I’m going to assume all your uniforms are gone?”
“Except the two at the cleaners, yes.”
Annie whined at his side and Nick stroked her ears. “We’ll get to work on this one soon, girl.” He looked up at Heidi. “We’ve got to wait for clearance from the fire department, then we’ll go in.”
Justin Blackwood climbed out of his official vehicle and approached. “Anyone hurt?”
“No, but not because someone wasn’t trying,” Nick answered for her. Surprisingly, Heidi didn’t care. The two of them talked while she rubbed her still-ringing ears. She just wanted to leave, to be alone and process all that had happened.
After some questions, she finally got her wish and Nick led her and Annie to his vehicle. “Stay here for now. I’m going to get the colonel to come take us to my house.” He squeezed her hand and called his grandfather. From the quickness of the call, she assumed the man hadn’t asked any questions. “He’ll be right here.” He glanced at his vehicle. “Thankfully, I was in my work truck. It’ll be impounded for evidence. I’ll be back with Annie to see if we can determine what caused the blast. Meanwhile I’m sure Justin will check out each camera within a mile of your home and see if there’s anyone suspicious.”
Three minutes later the colonel pulled to a stop just beyond the scene. He stepped out of his sedan and took in the sight with a shake of his head and concern in his eyes. “Are you two all right?” he asked as he approached them.
“We’re fine, Gramps. Just need a ride home.”
“Come on, then.”
Once at the men’s home, Colonel Hicks led the way up the front porch steps and into the foyer. Nick shut the door behind them.
“You’re welcome to stay here as long as you need,” the colonel told her.
“Thank you, sir.”
“Nick can show you where to stow your gear. I’ll get the bathroom ready for you.”
She followed Nick to the guest room and stepped inside to see a twin bed against the far wall, a dresser next to the door and a comfortable chair under the window.
“The bathroom is just outside the room, off the hall,” Nick said. “In the second drawer, you’ll find toiletries. We keep them for visiting family and friends. Help yourself to anything you need.”
“Towels and washcloths are by the sink,” the colonel said from behind Nick.
“Thank you very much.”
The colonel led the way back to the kitchen, where he gestured for her to sit. “Coffee?”
“Decaf?”
He laughed. “Of course. Even that keeps me up at night sometimes, though.”
With the mug in front of her, she wrapped her hands around the warm porcelain and took a deep breath. Someone had just tried to kill her. And almost succeeded. The thought almost didn’t compute. “How did someone get a bomb in my house?” she asked.
“Probably picked a time when no one was watching it,” Nick said with a sigh. “If you weren’t there, there was no reason to have someone on your home—or so we thought.”
“Of course.”
His phone buzzed and he glanced at the screen. “Looks like it’s time for Annie and me to go to work.” He called for the dog and she rose from her spot by the fireplace to pad into the kitchen. “You ready to go catch some bad guys, girl?”
Her tail wagged, and he slipped her into the harness hanging near the door. Then he added booties to protect her paws. He looked over his shoulder at Heidi and his grandfather as he slung his pack over his back. “You two lie low. I’ll be back soon.”
* * *
Nick arrived at Heidi’s home to find the place roped off and the crime scene unit working in an organized grid. He showed his ID to the officer in charge and was allowed to pass under the tape.
Annie trotted at his side. Justin was still on the scene and Nick made his way over to him and Westley.
“Glad you’re here,” Justin said. “Let us know what you and Annie find.”
Even though firefighters had put the fire out, just like with the training center, he and Annie started examining the debris farther away from the hot areas. While they worked, Nick thought. What was the best way to catch the guy who wanted to wipe Heidi off the planet? Because failing to do so wasn’t an option.
Footsteps behind him caught his attention and he turned to see Westley.
“Find anything, Nick?”
“Some scraps that Annie found interesting. She was most interested in the den area. Looks like he hid a bomb, possibly dynamite or C-4, in the den area. We’ll see what the lab says.”
“ATF is here once again. Didn’t even have to use the GPS this time. We’ve got to stop this guy.”
Probably hadn’t had to use it the last time, either. But Nick got the point. Two explosions on base were two too many. “My thoughts exactly.”
“Security Forces are going crazy scanning video footage of the training center explosion. And now this.” He gave a disgusted sigh and shook his head. “I’ll leave you to it. Let me know what you find.”
“Of course.”
The man left and Nick and Annie went back to work. Once the place cooled down, he and Annie and the ATF investigators would go inside and see if they could find what triggered the explosion. When they had some of the materials, they would be able to compare it to the training center evidence.
However, Nick was pretty sure he knew exactly who the bomber was. It had to be the guy from the training center. He was scared Heidi could ID him and he was going all out to make sure she didn’t. He was a guy who wanted Heidi dead and he had to be stopped before he succeeded in getting what he wanted.
EIGHT
Heidi sat curled up in the large chair next to the fireplace and sipped her second cup of decaf coffee. Her eyes had grown heavy as the hours passed. The colonel had finally declared he was headed to bed. The weapon in his hand made her wonder, but she hadn’t argued. She wanted the time alone to think. And she’d had that. Now she was tired of thinking and just wanted to go to bed.
But her mind wouldn’t let her.
The fact that Nick wasn’t back kept her glued to the chair.
Minutes later she heard footsteps on the front porch, followed by voices. She walked to the window to look out.
“...might be back on base,” Justin said.
“When did you learn that?”
“Just now. When we were finishing up at Heidi’s house, Vanessa Gomez reported that someone was watching her house. When MPs arrived, the person ran.”
“Vanessa got a rose from Sullivan. You think he’s back to make good on his threat?”
“I do. I don’t have proof, though, so keep this under your hat.”
“Of course.”
“I was on the way home and figured I’d stop
by and let you know. Anyway, get some rest. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Thanks.”
The door opened and Heidi stumbled back. Nick raised a brow, then frowned. He stepped inside and narrowed his eyes. “Guess you heard that?”
“Um...yes. I guess I did. But I wasn’t eavesdropping on purpose. I heard voices and looked out the window.”
He sighed. “That’s not to go in the paper, understand? We don’t need to cause a panic on base until we have more information.”
“But you think Sullivan’s back.”
“There’s evidence to indicate he is. Yes.”
“Nick, people have to know. They have to be on guard.”
“And we’re going to let them know. As soon as we’re positive. So, please. Nothing in the paper about it until we’re sure.”
“But you’ll let me have the exclusive?”
“Sure.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
“You wouldn’t have printed it, anyway, would you?”
“No, but I figure it doesn’t hurt to weasel the exclusive.” She took a sip from the mug. “So, how did it go at my house? What’s left of it, anyway.”
He sighed. “Annie did a good job as always. There weren’t any other explosives to be found and we scooped up some evidence that the lab will examine. Now she’s back at the kennel getting some much-deserved rest.”
“Good, I’m glad.” She stood and began to pace.
“Heidi, what’s going through that head of yours?”
She stopped and faced him. “Who am I, Nick?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, tonight, just about everything I’ve worked for has been destroyed. Sure, all my files are safe, but I’ve been thinking. What if they weren’t?”
He took her hand and pulled her over to sit on the sofa, then planted himself opposite her. “I’m not following.”
Palming her eyes, she fell silent, then lowered her hands and looked up. “I guess what I’m trying to say is, if I can’t do my job—and right now, that’s looking pretty iffy—then who am I?”
“You’re still you. First Lieutenant Heidi Jenks. And not being able to do your job is just a temporary problem. As soon as we catch this guy, you’re back to being a star reporter.”
Explosive Force Page 10
