by Rose, Kristi
“From whom?” I shook a finger in his face. “I swear to everything that is holy, if you don’t stop talking in circles, I’m going to use my pistol.” To emphasize my point, I lunged for my bag and rifled through, pretending to look for the gun I hadn’t brought.
“You have to understand something,” he said. “If I tell you what I know, I can’t take it back. I don’t know if I can protect you, either. I’ve been following you like a shadow, and Ricci still got past me and roughed you up. You’re lucky he didn’t kill you. Next time, he won’t be so nice.”
I snorted.
Lockett put up a hand. “This is no joke. Whatever it was Carson discovered probably got him killed. It probably got Fulton’s son killed. It will get all of us killed if they think we know what it is. And they won’t stop at me or you or Precious there. They’ll take out your parents and sister and niece just in case. This is the big leagues.”
Lockett was forgetting one simple fact. There was no way I could undo the past. There was a good chance Cooper already thought I knew whatever it was. I was in danger. And by default, my friends and family were in danger, too. I might go down in a ball of flames, but I was going to take Cooper with me. No one, and I mean no one, messed with the Trues.
My stomach churned with unease, my palms sweating. “Toby, Precious? Are you sure you don’t want to cut bait and run?”
“Are you quitting?” Precious asked.
I shook my head. “I think Cooper already knows I have something. Or that I’ll lead them to it. There’s something really bad going on here, and I’m going to do my best to see it through. You two, on the other hand, can get while the getting is good.”
“Not a chance,” Precious said.
“Count me in,” Toby replied. “Though I could use a coffee. My nerves are shot.”
Precious chuckled. “Mine, too. I might need a hit off your special vape pen. If I’m going to die, then I at least want to knock one thing off my bucket list before I go.”
We chuckled.
“Before I die, I want to skydive,” Toby said.
“I want to surf Australia,” Lockett said. “I was supposed to be there now but, well, Carson had to go and die and jacked up my plans.”
Gallows humor.
“You two must have been really good friends,” I said. Because it would take a strong friendship for Lockett to get involved as he had done and possibly lose his livelihood, too.
He smiled sadly. “The best. He’s been my best friend since the first day of kindergarten when Tommy Smith stole my lunch and Carson knocked him down and took it back. That was the kind of guy he was.” Unshed tears glistened in his eyes. “But after Cooper kicked him out of the company, Carson changed. In hindsight, I see how he was spinning out of control. I was the sole person who could have changed his trajectory. Had I picked up on his anger and need to get back at Cooper, I might have stopped him from getting involved in your life, Samantha.”
There was no mistaking the guilt that pulled at Lockett’s haggard look. I had two choices. I could continue to doubt my instinct and have Precious kick Lockett to the curb, or I could bring the man into the fold. If I did the latter, I’d first have to remove his need to shield me from the truth. That damage was done. The horse had left the barn.
“Toby, show our lawyer friend the video.”
Lockett looked puzzled. “There’s a video?”
“Yeah, and when it’s over, you’re going to fill in more blanks and hold nothing back,” I said.
There would be no going back from here, but deep down I’d known that already.
33
Saturday
We gassed up then grabbed coffee from a drive-thru hut that was prevalent in the PNW. Precious parked in a lot of a sporting goods store and positioned the SUV to face the street. There was no telling if we were being followed or not. We’d done a crappy job of paying attention. We needed a game plan, and driving around endlessly wasn’t an option. I’d gotten sucked into an internet search of Jake and Cynthia Carson images. Cynthia Carson, the real wife, was a tall, leggy redhead who dressed impeccably. In the pictures, she clutched Carson possessively. And in the pictures of Carson and Cooper with her in them, she had hands on both men. Like they were both hers.
“That’s Senator Bolt,” Lockett said, touching Humpty on the screen of my phone, drawing my attention away from my dark thoughts. Thoughts that wouldn’t help me get my questions answered or put all this behind me.
“What do you think he and Cooper are up to? My guess is Cooper is doing a job for Humpty, um…Bolt. I also think land is involved.” I explained the family files we found. Toby was still working on improving the video’s sound and slowly breaking Carson’s encryption.
“I got one open,” Toby said and swiveled his laptop to us. “More geo-tracking off Carson’s phone.” Toby’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Why would he do that?”
“To show us where he’s been. It could be used in a court of law,” Lockett said.
“He did another number, too. I’m backtracking the number now.” He swiveled the computer back toward him.
Lockett said, “Senator Bolt is on the Appropriations Committee, Homeland Security, Government Affairs and one or two more. His state has military bases and a large company with a government contract, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he would do business with Carson and Cooper.”
Precious said, “Maybe Bolt needed protection.”
“Then why meet outside, at night, in a remote location?” I glanced at Toby, who shrugged. The motive for Carson taking the video wasn’t pairing with the information we had. “There’s something diabolical about this meeting.”
“Got it!” Toby said. “The other number belongs to Ben Fulton. Since the tracker shows latitude and longitude, I tried to match both of the numbers up and see when or if they intersect. Carson and Ben met twelve times over the three-month period. They met the day after the video was taken, too.”
I pointed my finger at him. “Keep trying to open those files. I need to call my dad. Besides telling him to watch his back, he might know some things.” I was about to step out of the car for privacy when Lockett stopped me by grabbing my arm.
“Look,” he said and pointed to a dark SUV at the light. We faced the main road that led to the interstate. “He’s gone around three times now.”
Precious asked, “How can you tell it’s the same SUV?”
“The tags. I started watching for cars and repeats.” Lockett leaned forward between the passenger and driver seat. “I’m happy to drive if you want. But once the light changes and he takes off, I want you to wait until he’s turned the corner to come around before you shoot out of here. Take the interstate.” He pointed to the onramp toward Seattle.
Precious blew into her hands as if warming them, then slapped them together and rubbed them gleefully. “I totally got this.” She looked at Toby, winked, and said, “Hold on to your titties, kitties.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Toby said and gripped the computer in one hand, coffee in the other. I buckled in and watched the light.
Thankfully, Precious had left the engine to idle so there was no indicator we were planning to move. When the car was out of sight, she crept forward. The tail of the other SUV turned the corner, its taillights fading.
“Green,” I said with maybe too much apprehension.
Precious gunned it. Her SUV shot out of the parking lot, jumped across the divider that separated us from the road, cut off a bread delivery truck, drove across four lanes, and fishtailed as she righted the vehicle into the lane. We took the on ramp at over seventy miles per hour, and I prayed there’d be no cops nearby. We needed all the lucky breaks we could get.
“Get off at the next exit,” Lockett said. “We can head to Seattle through back streets and see if we’re being followed again.”
I said, “We need a place to regroup and get organized.”
“I wonder if, like in movies, they can track us with our credit
cards. I used mine at the gas pump,” Precious said.
“Can we hole up at your office?” I asked Lockett.
“My partners and I agreed for me to stay away. For client integrity until my case is decided.”
The world suddenly felt very small. No safe place to hide was a knee-quaking, scary feeling.
“Let’s find a parking garage in case there’s drones out,” Lockett said and searched his phone. After finding what he wanted, he directed Precious to a hospital parking garage in downtown Tacoma. We parked on the first floor in the middle so we could see cars coming and going from both exits. I stepped out to call my dad. I needed to warn him. And who better to tell my mom than him. Hearing her voice would wreck me. The others got out as well.
The call was excruciating. How does one tell their parents to be careful but not worry? I explained how Carson was meeting with Ben Fulton but left out the part about Carson being wealthy and kicked out of his company. Though, he’d find out soon enough with his own digging.
“I knew it,” Dad said excitedly. “Senator Fulton may be a ballbuster, but he’s always been a good guy with good intentions. I know a parent who loses a kid is grieving and might react from that grief, but the few times I covered politics and him, he was always a stand-up guy. He’s stayed true to his word and done our Native Americans right.”
“What do you know about Senator Bolt?”
Dad was a wealth of information. He growled. “That greedy SOB? He’d sell his mother if he thought it would make him buckets of money. He has his hand in all kinds of projects. Why do you ask?” Papers rustled in the background.
Oh, boy, time to show more of the ugly Carson. “I found some of Carson’s files, Dad, files on people of Wind River. Their secrets.”
“Carson had these?”
“Yeah, he did some PI stuff for a few people and kept copious notes.” I was hedging.
“That sounds normal. I’m not sure what you’re getting at, Sammy.”
I blew out a sigh. “These notes were more a list of people’s skeletons. And his file included notes on us. Our family.”
A long pause. Dad was working it out.
I continued, “The common factor is that everyone he had notes on owns land near Graycloud. Or is connected to that land somehow. Like the land broker named Marni Edgar. She’s with Ogleby’s International Realty. Her name sound familiar?”
More rustling. “Wait,” Dad said. A drawer slammed. “Here it is. Yeah, the last two offers that came in for the land came from Ogleby’s, and the broker’s name was…” I could picture Dad scanning the page. “Marni Edgar.”
“Graycloud has been there forever. Why now? And why this land?”
Dad was silent except for his pen tapping on his desk. “The last offer was from the shell corporation that was building those fancy resorts. Our land butts up to the reservation but also a portion of the wildlife refuge. It has views of Gifford Pinchot National Forest. The land has access to the river, is an easy drive to St. Helen’s, Adams, and Mt. Hood, so the outdoor opportunities are large. Hunting in that area is exceptional. And the interstate is close enough to get to the cities. Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver. There’s nothing like this land to the south, and as you go north, you might get more remote and better hunting, but you move away from the city and finer living.”
“Seems extreme to go to such lengths to get this land when surely others would do.” Everything about this seemed petty and unnecessary.
“Nothing is extreme when large sums of money are to be made,” Dad said. “The things I’ve seen people do for fame and fortune would astound you.” He sighed wearily.
Maybe not so much anymore. I told Dad about the video. “I think this video is the key to everything.”
“Send it to me if you can.”
I leaned against a wall and closed my eyes, willing strength to come find me. “I don’t know what to do, Dad. I’m in over my head.”
“You need contingency plans.”
“We need a plan, first,” I laughed.
“If what Senator Fulton says about his son is true and Ben was all about the environment, then perhaps Carson was talking to him not about developing the land but conserving it,” Dad said. His wheels were spinning.
“Yeah. I could make that leap.” If the land were conserved, then development would halt in its tracks.
Some clicking sounds from a keyboard were in the background. “Ben has a history of protesting commercial growth. I’m looking at several stories here about Ben, and it would seem the senator’s son was a member of #Conserve. You know who they are?”
I shook my head. “No.” Though I’d seen the occasional sign, I never followed up with researching it. I’d just written it off as another social media suck-in.
“#Conserve is young by standards of time spent fighting the government. They’re taking a different approach. They’re trying to talk to the government and reason with them. ‘Use what we have’ is their motto. Their platform is to conserve and retain history. They want companies that build these giant mega stores or malls and eventually abandon them for better locations to be held responsible for that abandoned property. Meaning they can’t go unless they demolish the building and return the land to its natural state or have a new company come. In theory, it’s a nice idea.”
Carson trying to turn the land my parents’ and others owned into conserved land didn’t jive. Wasn’t he supposed to be a bad guy in this scenario?
“Okay, I get it,” I said, straightening. “Do you think the Senator was helping Ben?”
“Give me the dates Carson met with Ben.”
I did.
“The senator was in DC during those times. He’s home now for Ben’s funeral. Hard to say if he knew about Carson, but he already suspects foul play. Let me say this, Sammy. If someone came to me and had evidence that my child might have been murdered, I’d move hell and high water to bring that culprit to justice. Senator Fulton has just the power to do it.”
“You’re right, Dad. Thanks,” I said. A black SUV passed in front of the garage, same make and model as the one we’d seen earlier.
“I love you, kiddo. Be careful,” Dad said with a hitch in his voice.
Tears filled my eyes. “I love you, too, Daddy-o. I’m sorry I’m causing so much drama,” I said, walking toward Precious and the others.
“Baby, you’re doing what’s right. I couldn’t be prouder.”
“Call Rachel, Dad. Tell her these people could have access to the base, and she needs to watch her back. Tell Mom I’m sorry.” The SUV entered the garage. “Gotta go, Dad. Love you,” I said and disconnected. Taking in the scene, I brushed the tears from my face as I jogged to Precious’s SUV.
Toby was leaning against the passenger side back door messing with his vape pen. Precious was by the driver’s side texting. Lockett was standing a few feet in front of the SUV and was on the phone, too. I pointed over my shoulder to the SUV moving down the first lane, only four lanes separating us. He swiftly returned to Precious’s SUV while disconnecting his call. Not wanting to yell and call attention to us, I ducked low between cars and rushed Precious, pulling her down.
The loud concussive boom of a gunshot sounded through the garage. Precious and I gasped, clutching each other as we pressed our bodies into the ground.
“I’ve been hit,” Toby yelled.
Precious and I watched in horror as he collapsed to the ground, the SUV between us. Toby writhed on the ground, his hand over his shoulder, blood filling the space between his fingers.
“Where’s my vape pen? I could use a puff. This hurts like all get out. Jeez, I’m gonna die,” Toby moaned. “I didn’t think you were serious, Sam, when you said we could get hurt.”
Lockett appeared next to Toby. He inspected the wound, all the while telling Toby to bring it down a notch.
“Pst,” I said. He turned and looked under the SUV. I asked for details by raising my brows.
“It grazed him. He’ll need stitches.
” Lockett said.
“Snitches get stitches,” Toby whined. “Help me, Lord.”
I was on the driver side, Lockett and Toby on the passenger. I gestured to the SUV and then mimicked like I’d drive. I pointed to Toby and then the car.
“We’re at a hospital,” Lockett hissed.
“Yeah,” I said. “And the emergency room is way over there.” I pointed in the other direction.
“Just shut up and get in the car,” Precious said.
“On three,” I whispered. Which in hindsight was stupid because they knew where we were.
I held up one finger, then two, and before three, Precious jumped to a low crouch and opened the driver’s side passenger door. I climbed into the driver’s seat.
“Stay down,” Lockett said and shut the passenger door behind Toby. Lockett got up front with me.
Toby was sprawled half on the floor and half on the seat, whimpering.
Leaving was a risk, but being a sitting duck bothered me more. “Precious, I’m going to drop you and Toby off at the ER. You should be safe there.”
“We’ll all be safe there,” she said.
“But it’s temporary, and I need to end this once and for all.” I glanced in the rearview mirror. Precious looked worried and ticked off. I sighed. “No matter where we go, they find us.”
“Geo-tracking,” Toby said through gritted teeth.
“What?” I asked. I scanned the area and threw the car in reverse. The SUV following us was to my left, two lanes away.
“Like Carson did, he geo-tracked his steps. They’re probably doing that to us.”
Toby was right. How could we be so dumb? Or maybe it was naive. “Everyone turn off your phones.” I tossed Lockett my phone to turn off.
I whipped out and aimed the SUV at the exit. “I’m going to speed out of here and across the lot to the ER. I’ll get as close to the door as possible for you, Toby.”
He gasped. “I’m to go in by myself?”
“I’ll go with you,” Precious said, sounding angry. I tried not to personalize it, but they were here because of me. “But you have to come back for us,” she said and pushed at the driver’s seat.
