The Priority Unit (Maine Justice Book 1)

by Davis, Susan Page

  “It’s an awful lot to swallow.” Harvey looked toward the church. “Do you think you’d like coming back here every week? I never in all my life thought I would like going to church, but this is totally different from the mental picture I had.”

  “If we decide we believe it, I think we would be very happy coming here,” she said, watching his face.

  “And if we don’t believe it, it’s a moot point.” Harvey handed her the Bible, and she felt a bit disappointed. Had she really expected him to believe it all at once? And did she believe it herself?

  He pulled out his handkerchief and laid it on the pavement, then knelt on it to look under the Explorer at the gas tank.

  “Get back, Jenny!” He jumped up and grabbed her around the waist and ran with her fifty yards away from the vehicle.

  Chapter 13

  “There’s really a bomb?”

  “Afraid so. Pipe bomb with a timer.”

  “Oh, no.” The amazement in Jennifer’s eyes turned to fear.

  Harvey took his cell phone from his pocket and called the police station. “I need the bomb squad pronto.”

  “You have a 10-71 at the church?” the sergeant asked.

  “No, it’s not a bomb threat, it’s a bomb, on a vehicle outside the church.”

  “Can you start evacuation?”

  “The church is empty. The vehicle is the only one in the parking lot. I think it’s got a timer, and the device could detonate any second.” The man was wasting precious time. Harvey described the bomb to him in detail. Finally the sergeant said he would send a squad ASAP. Harvey broke the connection and called Mike at home.

  “Mike, it’s Harvey. There’s a bomb under my car, and I’m afraid it could detonate before the bomb squad gets here.”

  Jennifer stood by him, white-lipped, and he reached for her hand.

  “Hold tight,” Mike said. “I’ll light a fire under those guys.”

  “Bad analogy, Mike.”

  “Where are you?”

  Harvey told him.

  “I’ll be there in ten minutes,” Mike said.

  Harvey put his phone away. “My captain’s coming. He’ll be here before the squad can get their gear on.”

  “What good will that do?”

  “Maybe none, but Mike has had demolition and incendiary training.”

  “Harvey, is the Explorer going to blow up?”

  “I hope not. But it could.” Wouldn’t the insurance company love that? He looked down at Jennifer. “You’d better get back to the Rowlands’ and tell them what’s going on, so they won’t have heart attacks if it blows.”

  She headed for the pastor’s house. Harvey stood watching his vehicle and feeling helpless. A couple of minutes later, Jennifer and Mr. and Mrs. Rowland came out of the house and stood looking toward him, and beyond him to the Explorer. He walked over to them.

  “Better not go any closer. These things can throw shrapnel a long way.”

  “Who would do this?” asked the pastor.

  “We’re not sure, but my other car was blown up ten days ago. It looks like the same M.O. to me.”

  “Jennifer says you’re a police officer,” Mr. Rowland said.

  “Yes, sir.” The topic hadn’t come up before. He took his badge out and clipped it to his jacket so the bomb squad would know he was a cop.

  “But you never found out who planted the first bomb, did you?” asked Jennifer.

  “We have an idea, but we haven’t caught him.”

  “Someone with a grudge against you?” asked the pastor.

  “We think it might be a guy I put in the state prison. But we were never sure the bomb was even meant for me. It could have been meant for my partner. He was driving my car that day. Someone could have hired this man to do it. We don’t know what the motive is.”

  Mrs. Rowland looked warily across the parking lot. “Is there danger to the church building?”

  “There’s always danger from these things, ma’am. Unpredictable. But I think it’s far enough from the building that the windows won’t break.” He measured the distance from the Explorer to the church with his eye. “I think,” he said again, doubtfully. “Be thankful the place is empty.”

  Mike’s car came tearing in seven minutes later. He drove up close and hit the brake, then jumped out.

  “Brief me, Harv.” The two stepped away from Jennifer and the Rowlands.

  “Pipe bomb with a box on the gas tank,” said Harvey.

  “Same as before. You eye-balled it?”

  “In person. It had a couple of wires attached.”

  “So you think it’s a timer, no remote detonator?”

  “I don’t know for sure.”

  “Probably safe unless you start the engine.” Mike started walking toward the Explorer, and Harvey hurried after him.

  “Mike!” Harvey grabbed his arm. “It’s a machine. It’s not worth the chance.”

  Mike stopped and eyed Harvey, then the Explorer, then Harvey. At 55, Mike had a wife who loved him, three grown children, and assorted grandchildren.

  “You’re right.” He ran his hand through his hair and looked at his watch. “Where’s that unit?”

  A siren wailed in the distance. “They’re coming,” said Harvey.

  They stepped back nearer Jennifer and the Rowlands.

  “How long you been here?” Mike asked.

  “We got here at 9:40. The church emptied at twelve. We didn’t go back to the vehicle then. Instead we went to this house for lunch,” Harvey gestured behind him to the Rowlands’, “and we came out about five minutes before I called you. I did my standard check underneath, and there it was.”

  “So they could have put it there at any time between 9:40 and 2:30.”

  “That’s right.”

  The sirens were loud now.

  “Probably a delay timer like the last one.”

  “I don’t know, Mike, but they’ve got to be watching me.”

  Harvey glanced behind him. Jennifer was staring anxiously at him. Mr. and Mrs. Rowland seemed to be looking at the ground, and he realized they were praying. He felt better.

  A patrol car, followed by two fire trucks, roared into the far end of the parking lot and cut their sirens. Mike and Harvey walked toward them. The fire trucks parked near the road, and the patrol car stopped halfway to the Explorer. Two men in protective gear hopped out, and Harvey and Mike went to them.

  “Hey, Reynolds. You guys are slow,” Mike said.

  “It’s on the other side, eight inches from the front of the gas tank,” said Harvey.

  Reynolds went on his back, and his head and shoulders disappeared under the SUV. Two firemen started getting a hose out, and the rest stood back in their gear, watching from a distance.

  Harvey held his breath as he realized what Reynolds was risking.

  Reynolds wriggled out from under the Explorer and stood up. He had a piece of galvanized pipe in one hand, and two colored wires dangled from the other.

  “Nasty little thing,” he said with a grin, pulling his helmet and face mask off. “Looks like something Bobby Nason would make. He was the last bomber we had in town, wasn’t he?”

  Mike said, “Could be his. But, then, could be anybody’s. You investigated that car bomb last week, didn’t you?”

  “Sure did.”

  “Well, that was Detective Larson’s old car,” Mike said, nodding at Harvey.

  Reynolds said, “Same M.O. Pipe full of black powder. Buy it at any gun shop. Mechanical timer as a delay mechanism. A wire hooked to the ignition circuit with an alligator clip, and another wire clipped to ground.” He showed them the timer, a battery powered alarm clock set at five minutes to twelve. “You turn the key, and five minutes later, when the hands come together, boom!” He shook his head. “We don’t get many bomb cases. Lots of bomb threats, not many bombs. This will be great for my men—a chance to see one that didn’t go off.”

  Mike said, “You guys go over that vehicle with a fine-toothed comb. I want
a report on my desk by 8 a.m., including fingerprints, if any. Harvey, you and the lady need a ride home?”

  The fire trucks left, and Harvey and Jennifer thanked the Rowlands.

  “We’ll bring Jennifer’s car back for the evening service,” Harvey told them. “The bomb squad should be finished with my vehicle by then.” He put Jennifer into the front seat of Mike’s Lincoln and got into the back.

  “So, Miss Wainthrop, I meet you at last,” Mike said.

  “Captain Browning.”

  “Your reputation has preceded you.”

  Jennifer blinked at him. “May I ask how?”

  “Eddie Thibodeau,” said Mike. “He informed me four days ago that you were ‘drop-dead gorgeous.’ Eddie usually exaggerates. I don’t know how he slipped up that day.”

  Harvey expected Jennifer to blush and stammer, but she just said, “Eddie has been nothing but courteous to me.”

  “Oh, I’m sure. He can charm the antlers off a moose.”

  Mike could be charming himself. He was always gallant with the ladies, but Harvey didn’t take it seriously. He knew it was only Mike’s wife, Sharon, that counted. At the station, the men all knew Mike was crazy about her.

  Jennifer directed him to her house, and Harvey got out and opened her car door. When she was out, he leaned down and stuck his head inside the car.

  Mike said, “Harv, your first hour tomorrow is at my desk, and we’ll go over the report on this thing.”

  “Got it.”

  “And check the lady’s car now, please.”

  It was the first time he’d thought about Jennifer being targeted, except when she was with him. But someone wanted to hurt him, and she was vulnerable. He walked around Mike’s car to Jennifer’s Escort and got down under it. His suit was taking a real beating today.

  “Everything looks okay.” He stood up and brushed off his pants. Jennifer stood by the steps, watching.

  Mike had his window down, now that Harvey was on his side of the car.

  “All right, you check her car and yours before every entry. I’d hate to see that pretty little girl blown up because she associates with an old reprobate like you. Better teach her to check it herself when you’re not here. She have your cell number?”

  “Yes.”

  “She got a cell phone?”

  “Yes.”

  “Watch yourself, Harvey.” Mike glanced toward Jennifer and said, “What does she see in you, anyhow?” He backed out of the driveway.

  Harvey smiled and shook his head as he went to Jennifer.

  “Mike says I need to teach you to check your car, and he’s right.”

  “All right. But you should change your clothes. Take my car.”

  *****

  Jennifer put on old slacks and a sweatshirt and took her hair down and braided it. She tried to forget how frightened she was. Harvey was back in half an hour, wearing jeans and a plaid shirt.

  “You need to do it before you open the car doors or anything,” he said as they stood looking at her Escort. “And do it every time you’re going to drive.”

  “That will a treat in the parking lot at work.”

  He looked at her sharply. “You’ve got to do it, Jenny. This is important.”

  She nodded. “I will, until you tell me to stop.”

  “Take a blanket or something to lay down on the ground when you need to.”

  They got down beside the car, and he described what to look for and where to look.

  “It might not be on the gas tank. It can be anywhere underneath, or under the seat inside.” He pointed out all the most likely spots. “Do you have a flashlight? Always carry one in your purse. If it’s at night, do the check with a light. Be thorough.”

  She nodded, fighting the fear brought on by the urgency in his voice. She would need extra time in the morning now. If she treated it as an exercise and didn’t think about why she was doing it, she thought she could handle it.

  Finally they went inside.

  “Harvey, why are they doing this?” she asked.

  “I wish I knew. Bomb cases are so rare in Maine. I’ve seen maybe eight in twenty years. Kids make them nowadays and explode them in their back yards, but still, we don’t get many. There was Bobby Nason. He blew up his boss’s store. And a couple of years ago we had a guy who threw a Molotov cocktail through a window. He was trying to torch his ex-wife’s house.” He shook his head. “Somebody’s got it in for me.”

  Jennifer drew a shaky breath and tried not to follow that thought through.

  It was almost supper time, and she put together a light meal.

  “Are you still up for church tonight?” she asked him.

  “I think so. How about you?”

  “I’d like to go, if you still want to.”

  “My Explorer’s still over there, anyway.”

  “Right. What did you think, overall?”

  “I need to ruminate on it,” Harvey said. “Mr. Rowland is pretty convincing, but I don’t think you can pick and choose what you believe in the Bible. It’s sort of all-or-nothing. I can’t say yet whether I could accept it all.”

  “There’s so much more to it than I realized.” She shook her head. “I felt so ignorant this morning.”

  “Well, we’ll just keep at it until we know, one way or the other.”

  “Right. Until we believe it or we don’t.” It came to her that one of them might believe it, and the other might not. That was a bleak thought.

  “I think reading the Bible will help,” Harvey said.

  She nodded. “Do we just read right through, or skip around?”

  “I don’t know. Do you want to read it together?”

  “I’d like that, but if we only read it together, that would really limit us, wouldn’t it?” she asked. “I might be able to read it on my lunch hour or something, but you wouldn’t be there.”

  “Well, when we’re together, we can read together. I’ll leave this Bible the pastor gave me with you tonight.”

  “No, he gave it to you. I think you should have it.”

  “I’ll get you one tomorrow,” he promised.

  “Thanks. I’ve got that new computer program almost ready for you.” She had stayed up late several nights to work on it, but neither of them had mentioned it since the night of Donna-jean’s arrest.

  “Great. Would you want to come to the office and install it?”

  “Sure. I could come tomorrow after work.”

  “I’ll clear it with Mike.”

  She washed the dishes, and Harvey dried. She felt comfortable doing the mundane task with him. They sat down in the living room afterward, and she listened raptly as he read the first two chapters of Genesis aloud. She had never heard it before. It was like poetry, or a legend, or some other literary genre she couldn’t classify, but it was beautiful. When he stopped reading, she sighed.

  “Do you suppose it really happened that way?” she asked. “God just spoke and things appeared?”

  “Maybe. Why not? Does it make less sense than a huge explosion in space? But I’m not sure it makes any more sense, either.”

  She stretched her arms. “I guess it’s time to get ready for church.”

  “Jenny, before we go, there’s something I need to tell you.”

  Her pulse accelerated by about thirty beats a minute. “What is it?”

  “Take it easy. I would have told you this morning, but I didn’t want to ruin our day together, and then with everything that happened … well, I’m sorry, but I want you to hear it from me.”

  “You’re scaring me, Harvey.”

  “I don’t mean to. It’s just … well, I might as well just say it. They found some remains up in Franklin County last night—”

  Jennifer gulped. “Remains? You mean, a body?”

  He nodded. “There’s no identification yet. The M.E. took it to Augusta. But … it could be Nick Dunham.”

  She sat still as a wave of faintness swept over her. “Pretty awful.”

  “Yes.
Well, no. I mean, if it is him, his wife will know, at least.”

  She nodded. “I don’t know whether to hope it’s him or not. She can keep hoping, if it’s someone else.”

  “That’s pretty hard to live with, not knowing one way or the other.”

  “I guess you’re right. I’d rather know for sure than wonder for years and years.”

  “It’s probably on the news tonight. They may not be able to make a positive ID for a while, but people will wonder.” He smiled. “So. Now that I’ve wrecked what’s left of the day, we’d better get dressed.”

  Jennifer looked out the window at the car in the driveway. “I wish I knew …”

  “What?”

  She smiled ruefully. “The same old thing. I wish I knew about God. If I knew he was real, I could pray for Lisa Dunham today. This has got to be hard for her, either way.”

  He went out to check the car again in his jeans, then took his church clothes in and changed in Donna-jean’s empty room while Jennifer watched the car from the window. Then he went outside and sat on the steps while she put her dress on and found a notebook.

  At the church, Harvey parked next to his Explorer, and they went in. They sat close to where they had that morning, and everything was more familiar. They sang more that evening, and she recognized one of the songs, “Amazing Grace.” Singing with Harvey made the last of her tension slip away.

  The pastor’s text that night was in Ephesians, chapter six, on “The Whole Armor of God.” It described the armor of a Roman soldier and related each part to the spiritual realm. The helmet was salvation, the breastplate was righteousness, or goodness, the pastor said. The sword represented the Bible. Jennifer’s favorite was the shield of faith, which quenched fiery darts. A belt of truth and shoes of the gospel of peace completed the armor. Harvey and Jennifer both took notes.

  When the service was over, Ruthann Bradley greeted Jennifer enthusiastically. “You came back! There’s someone here I want you to meet.” Beside her stood a young woman with shoulder-length dark hair, vibrant brown eyes, and a wide smile. “This is Rick’s sister, Beth Bradley,” said Ruthann. “She’s staying with us.”

  Jennifer liked Beth immediately. The three of them chatted, and Rick went around the women and talked with Harvey, bouncing Ethan up and down gently all the time. Clarissa hung between her mother and her aunt, sleepy and a little fussy.