Fire Storm (The Gathering Storm Book 2)

by Marlow Kelly

  “Because Molly’s Mountain isn’t in Hopefalls.” Dana’s hands were now fisted and raised in a defensive position.

  “Put the gun down,” Finn demanded.

  “You self-righteous bitch!” Zoe pointed her weapon directly at Dana.

  “No.” Tim rushed at them, desperately attempting to close the distance.

  Dana seized the gun and pointed it to the sky.

  Zoe struggled, but Dana was too strong. She punched the older woman. Blood spurted from her nose. She slumped to her knees, her hands covering her face.

  Dana relieved her of the Smith and Wesson. In swift practiced movements, she released the magazine and then ejected the cartridge from the chamber. “Lady, you are bat-crap crazy.”

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Dana, who was officially off duty, sat next to Tim. He was slouched in her chair at the police station. She had forced him to take her seat while she finished her paperwork. Her chair was softer and more comfortable than the visitor seat she was using.

  The best way to describe him would be walking wounded. He was conscious, but he wasn’t talking. His quietness bothered her because it was impossible to tell whether he was simply tired or if he was in too much pain to talk. She could tell by the way he sat that his ribs and back hurt, but he had refused to go to the hospital until she had finished her report on the day’s events. She should’ve known he wouldn’t leave her. This nightmarish day had done a number on both of them. Dana had experienced real toe-curling fear when Zoe had pointed her weapon at Tim. For the second time today, she’d been scared she would lose him. That fear had honed her feelings about him. He’d said they were in a relationship, and she’d resisted. But now, she was done fighting. She wanted to get to know him and see if this attraction between them could grow into something real.

  The wind had changed directions, and now blew the inferno back in on itself. Denied of fuel, the wildfire was considered under control. Crews were still out extinguishing hotspots and flare-ups, but the residents could return home. The highway between Hopefalls and Wind Valley Ranch was closed. Tim wouldn’t be able to return for a while.

  She’d spoken to Logan again and had wanted to drive to Granite City to pick him up, but he’d asked her to wait. He wanted to ride back with Mia.

  This had been the longest day of her life. The knife-wielding maniac who’d showed up at Tim’s door had also murdered Chief Booley. Ben’s cabin had been set alight, resulting in a wildfire. On top of that she’d shot Ethan Moore—the psycho with the knife. It wasn’t the same as the first time she’d killed. She wasn’t traumatized. She had no doubt that Moore intended to kill Tim and had reacted accordingly. She wasn’t sorry for her actions. Maybe she’d feel differently later, but at the moment she was fine with it.

  Zoe Harris had been the biggest surprise of the day. She’d admitted to accidentally killing Ben over some gold coins. Detective Ramirez had taken her into custody. They were on their way back to Granite City. Zoe would be charged with manslaughter at the very least. The only question that remained was how much the mayor knew about his wife’s crime and if he’d covered it up. He had been at the cabin the day Ben’s body was discovered, as had Booley. They knew Booley had shot the dead body. What role had Mayor Harris played?

  Michael hobbled to the coffee machine. According to Shelly, he’d been a great help in organizing the emergency personnel. Special Agent Callaghan and his partner, Special Agent Morris, stood against the reception counter, watching them. Dana had no idea why they were still here.

  The place looked like it had been hit by a whirlwind. Papers were strewn about the floor. Empty coffee cups overflowed the garbage until they, too, were heaped on the floor. And to make the chaos complete, Booley’s office was a crime scene.

  She patted Tim’s good shoulder. “You need to go to the hospital in Granite City.”

  “The medical center in town will be fine.”

  “Granite City has better imaging equipment. Moore could have severed an artery or something.” She pointed to the stab wound in his shoulder blade.

  Tim grunted and then said, “He didn’t.”

  “How do you know?” She didn’t like the way he looked. Pain shadowed his eyes, every twitch and every movement, even the simple act of breathing made him wince.

  “If he had, I would be dead by now.” He squeezed her hand. “You knew I was there, didn’t you?”

  He didn’t go into detail so she qualified his question. “When you were in the bush in front of me and Zoe?”

  He nodded and sat up slowly, his actions stiff, careful.

  “Yes, I knew you were there,” she said. “The bush moved.”

  “Damn, I must be losing my touch.” His face was still covered in dirt and soot, and a twig stuck out of his messy hair.

  Dana ran a hand over her head, wondering if she looked as worn-out as Tim. Not that her looks were important right now. Logan and Tim were safe, and the town was out of danger. “Thank God the wind changed direction.”

  “Michael said it was arson,” Agent Callaghan said. He obviously needed more details about the day’s events. Details she didn’t want to relive.

  “I saw the fucker pour the gasoline over Ben’s cabin. Oh, and he killed Booley.” Tim held his left arm protectively across his ribs.

  “Who was he?” Agent Morris asked.

  Tim winced as he swiveled in his chair to face the room. “I know him as Ethan Moore.”

  Dana cleared her paperwork and sat on her desk, staring at the agents, wondering how much they knew about Ben’s death and Molly’s Mountain.

  Callaghan smiled at her and then addressed Tim. “But you don’t think that’s his real name?”

  Tim shrugged. “How should I know? I don’t play cop, but whoever this guy was…” He paused, seemed at a loss for words.

  “He liked to slice,” Dana finished for him.

  “What do you mean?” Agent Callaghan took out a notebook.

  “Moore toyed with Booley before he killed him. It was nasty.” Dana’s stomach heaved at the memory of the butchered body and all the blood.

  Agent Morris rolled Shelly’s office chair over to the coffee counter, but instead of sitting in it, she pointed to Michael and then to the seat, silently telling him to sit.

  Dana strolled to the percolator and poured herself a cup of coffee. “I think Booley was killed because he was blackmailing someone.”

  “What?” Agent Callaghan scribbled in his pad. “Why do you think that?”

  Dana pressed her lips together. “Jack said he had to take Ben’s guns away from him because he was drinking and planned to kill Booley.”

  Agent Morris joined Dana, helping herself to a mug. “When was this?”

  Dana shook her head. “I’ve no idea, probably years ago. According to Jack, Ben wanted to kill Booley because he knew the name of Ben’s mistress, which was a secret.” She decided not to mention how Booley had tried to blackmail Mrs. Anderson. That was something she would only use if she had to.

  “Knowing someone’s secrets isn’t the same as blackmail. Besides, if this happened a long time ago, why would someone kill over it now?” Agent Morris took a sip of her drink and grimaced.

  “I don’t think they killed over that. I’m pointing to a pattern of behavior. At some time in the past, Booley was prepared to blackmail Ben.”

  “And if he’s committed blackmail before, he would do it again,” Agent Callaghan clarified.

  “Exactly. Then there’s the messed-up office, and his laptop’s missing.” Dana pointed to the door, which was now secured with crime scene tape, probably Shelly’s doing.

  Callaghan shoved away from the counter. “If he was running, he might take his laptop with him.” He opened the door to Booley’s office and scanned the interior.

  Michael turned on Shelly’s computer. “You know a lot of computers automatically store to the cloud. If you have this guy’s email address, I can access his accounts.”

  Dana jotted down
the information and then moved to stand behind him. “You probably don’t want to use this computer. It’s on the intranet not the Internet. It’s an independent system.”

  “Not a problem. I can switch the settings to the Internet and see if there’s a wireless connection nearby. He pressed a couple of keys. A small white box popped up on the screen. “Hopefalls town hall Wi-Fi.” He then clicked on a tab and a search window appeared.

  Agents Finn and Kennedy crowded around Shelly’s desk, watching Michael.

  “That was way too easy. Could someone transfer police files to an outside source?” Dana was horrified. The police system was supposed to be secure, isolated.

  Michael nodded. “Yep.”

  “Damn!” She’d have to see about safeguarding their electronic files.

  Michael typed in the sequence of letters and symbols that represented Booley’s email. “As long as I have his email address, I should be able to access all the accounts, pictures, and documents he has saved to the cloud. I’m in. What do you want to look at first?”

  Dana was shocked. It had taken him less than thirty seconds to switch to the Internet and access Booley’s private files.

  She stared at Tim, who smiled back at her. “He’s a genius.”

  “Does he have a photos folder?” Dana said, gathering her wits. Things were coming at her too fast to process. She needed to concentrate on one thing at a time. Right now, she wanted to know what her boss had been up to and why he had been killed.

  Michael punched a few buttons. Pictures of Paul Harris exiting the Elkhead County Records Office flashed on the screen, followed by another shot of a deed showing the mayor’s ownership of the mineral rights. There was a photo of Paul Harris in a compromising position with a woman with mid-length blond hair.

  “I take it she’s Lucy Portman.” Dana pointed to the woman who lay on the bed, enjoying Paul Harris’s sexual favors.

  Agent Callaghan’s head snapped up. “What do you know about her?”

  “Paul’s affair with Lucy was Zoe Harris’s motivation for drugging Ben,” Dana explained.

  Tim raised his hand. “Are you investigating her?”

  Agent Callaghan didn’t answer. Instead, he looked to his colleague.

  Agent Morris sighed. “Go ahead. Michael already knows. You need to warn Tim, who will probably share what he knows with Officer Hayden. So you might as well get it out in the open.”

  “We believe Mayor Harris is involved with a group of businessmen who call themselves the Syndicate. We think the Syndicate manipulate events to make money.” Agent Callaghan stated the facts.

  Tim stared at Agent Callaghan, his gaze unflinching, as though he was communicating with his friend using an unspoken language. “Were they involved with Marshall Portman’s attack on Marie last winter?”

  Michael stopped typing and turned in their direction. “The Syndicate ordered Portman to kill her and destroy her solar panel.”

  This was a lot for Dana to take in. “Whoa. What does this have to do with Hopefalls?”

  Agent Callaghan straightened, pulling himself up to his full height. “We think Lucy introduced Paul Harris to Lance Ackerman. Ackerman convinced Harris to steal the mineral rights from Ben. Then—”

  “Wait. Why just steal the mineral rights? Why not the land, too?” Dana needed to get all the details clear in her head.

  Tim gave a soft whistle and then said, “Everyone would know that was a lie. Ben would never sell his land.”

  Agent Callaghan continued, “Anyway, Harris steals the rights and sells them to Ackerman who then mines the coltan and corners the market for electronic devices. All your cell phones, computers, tables, GPS, everything would be controlled by them.”

  “Look at this.” Michael pointed to the computer screen. “Booley had pictures of the deed.” Then there was a photo of a crumpled piece of paper, which showed Ben’s signature copied over and over. There was another image of a receipt from an office supply store.

  Agent Callaghan laughed and then said. “Here’s our proof of forgery. Harris purchased forms that transfer property. Then he forges Ben’s signature and files the form at the county recorder’s office. That’s all he had to do to obtain the mineral rights to Molly’s Mountain. The mayor of Hopefalls is going to prison for a long time.”

  Agent Morris explained, “We suspected the mayor stole Molly’s Mountain’s mineral rights. There’s no record of North having any bank accounts, and Harris didn’t make a payment to him. But we can’t prove Ackerman’s involvement. He will walk away free and clear.”

  Tim’s pain-filled gaze settled on Agent Callaghan. “Let’s see if I’ve got this straight. The mayor effectively stole North’s home. Then his wife accidentally kills him because she wanted the gold he’d found. And somewhere on Wind Valley Ranch there’s a pot of gold. I can’t believe I said that with a straight face. It sounds like a bad St. Patrick’s Day joke.”

  Agent Callaghan nodded. “That about sums it up.”

  Dana paced the room, trying to figure out how it went down. She stopped when she got to Agent Morris. “Who is Ethan Moore?”

  The two FBI agents stared at each other and then shrugged in unison.

  “Once we recover the body, we might be able to get fingerprints or DNA to help us identify him.” Dana rubbed her eyes. It would be a long time before she would be able to sleep through the night. The image of the freak with the knife was a nightmare that would be hard to banish. The only comfort she could take was that he was dead and couldn’t hurt them anymore.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Finn exited the Dumb Luck Café carrying a tray with three coffees. It had been a long day. Tim had gone to the medical center with Dana. It was clear that she was not only concerned for Tim, but that she cared for him. If someone had told him a year ago that his friend would fall for a cop from Hopefalls, he wouldn’t have believed it.

  Michael had come with Finn to Granite City. Leaving him with Tim wasn’t the best decision Finn had ever made. He should’ve found somewhere better, a place where no one would look. Normally, Michael could’ve disappeared, lived below the radar, bummed around, and worked odd jobs for cash, but that just wasn’t possible in his present condition. He needed a place to lay low for a few months, at least until he could fight again.

  A man standing at the fountain caught Finn’s eye. There was something familiar about him. He was around forty, wearing a suit. He had gray-streaked hair that was swept back and the distinguished handsome face of an actor.

  Finn inched closer. “Are you Paul Harris?”

  Harris nodded and switched his gaze to the police station.

  Finn placed the coffees on a nearby table, his hand automatically covering his weapon. “We’ve been looking for you.”

  “I’m going to jail, aren’t I?” His voice cracked.

  Finn wondered if he was going to cry. “Yes.”

  Harris stared, blankly, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. His eyes were bright, almost feverish. He was a fragile man who’d made mistakes. Finn suspected he would be the fall guy for the Syndicate, but proving that might be difficult, if not impossible.

  Finn inhaled. First, he needed to make a connection with Harris. Any attempt to strong-arm him might fracture his already fragile state of mind.

  “Let’s go inside. It gets chilly in the evening at this time of year.” He pulled a cup from the tray. “Would you like a coffee?”

  Harris took the cup and walked with Finn to the federal building.

  “So where have you been hiding?” he asked casually.

  “I was with Lucy at the Sharp’s Inn and Resort.”

  That was Ackerman’s hotel.

  “Why were you staying at a hotel? She owns a house in town.”

  Harris shrugged. “She said she preferred to keep her home life separate from her extra-curricular activities.”

  Which translated to mean Harris was just the entertainment and not part of a meaningful relationship. “Where is she now?”


  “I don’t know. She took off. I woke up this morning and she was gone. I tried her number, but the line’s dead, and I’m not allowed to contact her at work. Do you think she’s in trouble?”

  Finn almost laughed. He believed Lucy Portman was a survivor, who had strung Paul Harris along because she needed him for the Molly’s Mountain mine, but now the deal had gone sideways, she had cut him loose.

  Kennedy leapt to her feet as they entered the office. Finn shook his head, warning her to be quiet. Michael, who was seated in Finn’s ergonomic swivel chair, began searching Finn’s desk, probably looking for a video camera to record the interview.

  Finn sat Harris down in a chair and pulled up another seat so they were opposite each other. Without a word, Kennedy set up the video equipment.

  “Tell me about Molly’s Mountain. Why don’t you start at the beginning?” Finn suggested.

  “Lance Ackerman and Lucy Portman concocted the whole thing to get the coltan.”

  “How did they know the coltan was there in the first place?”

  “Some geology students stumbled upon it when they were doing a survey.”

  “What happened then?”

  “Ackerman contacted me—”

  “When?”

  “About two years ago. He was interested in building a mine near Hopefalls. It would’ve created work for the whole town.”

  “Whose idea was it to forge the documents that transferred North’s deed into your name?”

  “Lucy’s. She said the deal would be made with or without me. All I had to do was get the mineral rights. Ben would still have his mountain. We just wanted what was beneath it.”

  Finn glanced at Kennedy, who held her breath as she stared at Harris.

  “Let’s talk about the Syndicate.” Finn doubted Harris knew much.

  “I only know two members—Lance Ackerman and Lucy Portman.”

  This was his proof, a witness, and confirmation of the Syndicate’s existence. Finn needed more. “How do you know about them? Are you a member?”

  “No, Lucy mentioned them. She liked to talk while we had sex.”