* * *
Flamethrower was pissed. The client was a useless toe rag. He had ordered a hit on the wrong target. Instead of the SUV belong to the quarry it belonged to Toe-rag's ex-wife. And instead of the quarry being a soft target, he had turned out to be a military hotshot. While it was nice to have a worthy opponent, Enright had brought Flamethrower to Homeland Security's attention. Toe-rag would have to pay for that.
Enright was now driving a red pickup truck. It was parked in St. Clair's driveway. St. Clair’s vehicle was presumably in her garage. Flamethrower cruised on past the bungalow in his nondescript hatchback, just another slob on his way home from second shift.
St. Clair's security wasn't invincible. Flamethrower briefly debated taking it out and checking out the garage. Not worth the additional risk. Enright would notice and know he had been surveilled. The information was unimportant in any case. He'd do the house when he was sure Enright and St. Clair were both inside.
* * *
At zero two hundred forty-two Flamethrower returned in his little hatchback. He stowed his vehicle with his usual precision and took himself and his little duffel back into the house. Doug let himself go to sleep.
Dawn brought a cold drizzle. Doug resumed his watch. He made a sortie to the marijuana patch. Flamethrower had added wiring to the interior yesterday afternoon. Doug traced the newly laid wires to another electronic remote fuse. This had been secured under waterproof screening.
Oops. Looked like the waterproof camo had blown off. Rain was going to short out that sucker.
Doug wended his way back to his lookout. The house remained still. Water dripped off the roof and the rusted out eavestroughs leaked. Puddles formed in the ruts on the track. Doug figured from the sag to the roof that it leaked too. He held his place and waited. Periodically he checked to see if Alexander had Intel for him.
At ten hundred he was told that one of the bugged vehicles had driven down Madeline's street without stopping last night, before it went into the city and parked outside of a club. It had stayed there for an hour and twenty-seven minutes before returning to the farmhouse. So Flamethrower still had Maddie in his sights.
At eleven hundred seventeen Doug heard a burst of gunfire followed by total silence. At eleven hundred nineteen Flamethrower came out. He was dressed entirely in black and carried his little duffel. He had tucked his pants into his boots and was wearing a balaclava.
He moved briskly around the puddles and unlocked the shed. He came out driving the ATV and puttered away through the fields, having secured the doors.
Doug melted into the woods and headed for his truck. Flamethrower was cleaning up. The blast came just as he was pulling his vehicle onto the main road. Alexander's team ought to be able to pick the bastard up.
* * *
"What do you mean you lost contact? The suspect left in a tagged vehicle." Doug kept his voice level with sheer willpower, but the hand holding his cell was white knuckled.
"Yeah. But the signal vanished about a mile from the house. When we found the point of last contact there was just a burned out ATV. Tire tracks nearby. Fortunately it had rained so we could see where another vehicle left the woods and headed for the highway." Alexander rattled off the details.
"What about the farmhouse?"
"Incendiary in cellar on timer. Took out west side of house, but left kitchen intact. Remains of meth lab and two burned male corpses. Bullets recovered.
"Shed burned but the explosives didn't detonate. We've secured the scene. Hatchback is scorched but interior is intact. CSI should be able to go over it by fourteen hundred." Alexander paused. "Marijuana patch was found intact. Fuse shorted out. Scene is being secured."
"Now listen up, Enright, I've saved the best for last. Eric Jonathon Parkhurst was discovered deceased at his residence at twelve hundred thirty by officers of the Portland Police. Possible suicide. Police are trying to trace the gun. And we have them looking for signs of forced entry."
Doug whistled. "You think that Flamethrower offed Parkhurst last night?"
"He parked his car a ten minute walk from the decedent's apartment building. We are having the club's security footage checked right now. Want to bet Flamethrower went in the front door and came out again just the once?"
"Nope. But it's not much of an alibi unless there are no other exits without cameras."
"Kitchen door has no CCTV. Owner has a problem with shrinkage. Has a separate cam that looks like a package of spare dishwasher parts. Moves it around. Last night it was trained on the door from the bar. Got a guy taking a look."
"Keep me posted." Doug ended the call. Flamethrower was still on the loose and he still had Madeline in his sights.
* * *
Maddie glared at Doug. In deference to Len's presence in the living room she kept her voice low. Doug could have told her that Len would be able to hear every word anyway, but she was already mad enough.
"If it isn't bad enough that you take off God only knows where, and I have to put up with Len making a nuisance of himself at the gym, now I have Colbert and Holland hinting that you killed Eric and probably rigged my car."
"Now, Maddie," Doug tried to take Madeline in his arms. She stiffened but eventually relaxed against his hard chest. It wasn't fair how safe he made her feel.
"Nuisance doesn't sound like Lenny. What did he do?"
"He didn't do anything. He just sat outside my office all day. And my staff kept popping in because they suddenly needed to give me something, or tell me a thing. I didn't get a damned thing done all day."
"I can see how that would be aggravating," Doug said. "I'll speak to him about that. This morning I learned that the bomber drove past your house in the night. I asked Len to keep an eye on you again today because I couldn't get back here fast enough."
"Where were you? Colbert asked me, and I looked like an idiot when I said I didn't know. That's when he started implying that you killed Eric."
"Yeah. He suggested that theory to me. Trouble is he hasn't a lick of evidence. And he won't get any because I didn't have anything to do with Parkhurst's death." He gave Maddie a little shake.
"I told him so," she mumbled.
"But you didn't actually believe it."
Maddie twisted a little so she could look at his face. "They're not the only ones who thought it was odd for you to take off like that."
"I went looking for the bomber," he said. "And I shouldn't even be telling you that much. But the story is going to hit the news any second now. And I was never there. I had no involvement.
"Bottom line is the bomber is still at large and you, my sweet, are on lock down until he is caught."
"And just what do you mean by lock down?"
"You go nowhere without Len or me. Period. This guy is one scary dude. He has slipped neatly out of the net spread for him by a number of agencies. And he took out three of his confederates first. He's snipping off loose ends and cleaning up. And I'm afraid we're both loose ends."
"Both of us?"
Doug nodded.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Doug kept walking around the bungalow looking and sniffing. He stopped. "Smell anything?" he asked his cousin.
"Oh yeah. Someone's come this way, and it isn't you or me or Maddie. Smell like our guy?."
Doug nodded. "It's that bastard all right. Faint. Just like the driveway. Probably wearing his hazmat suit." He opened the little door to the space under the deck and peered inside. Nothing.
Len looked around the garden. "I think you're looking at this the wrong way. Sure this guy creates bombs. But he's not really a bomber. He's a hit man who uses bombs to start fires so he can make his kill. He hasn't necessarily planted a bomb."
"Huh," said Doug
"He doesn't want an explosion, he wants a fire. An accidental fire. If you were going to burn down this house fast enough so nobody could escape, how would you go about it?" Len persisted.
"Multiple ignition sites, all set to go off at once. Accelerant." Doug'
s response was swift.
Len shook his head. "That'd be efficient," he said. "But it wouldn't look like an accident. Guy wants the fire to seem like bad luck. You ask me he'll be looking to make it seem like this old place went up for the usual reasons."
"And those would be?"
Len ticked them off on his fingers. "Electrical fire. Wrong fuse in the fuse box. Squirrels in the attic chewing on the wires and shorting them out. Too many appliances on one circuit. By the way, your Maddie needs a new box with breakers."
"She's saving up," Doug said.
Len snorted and put up a second finger. "Spontaneous combustion of hazardous materials. Paint cans and old rags stored in a cupboard. Propane tank stored improperly."
"Maddie doesn't have crap like that."
Len looked pityingly at his cousin. "Easy enough to arrange. Most common source of domestic fire we see. It's why those hoarders on TV are a fire waiting to happen. And how would the Fire Marshal know Maddie wasn't keeping oil cans in her linen closet if she wasn't around to tell him?"
"Huh."
"And let's not forget the flammability of sawdust or gas. If you fill up the house with gas from the stove, or sawdust from all this construction, flick of a light switch could blow the place up."
"Jesus, Lenny. You make an ordinary house seem like an accident waiting to happen."
Lenny shrugged. "French Town Fire Department may be all volunteers, Dougie, but we deal with the real deal. You want examples? Boat house at my Uncle Pierre's place? Burnt to the ground. Left his gas can open.
"Old lady Butcher got tired of blowing fuses with that microwave her kids got her. On account they were afraid because she kept forgetting to turn off her stove. Popped in a thirty amp fuse and we were lucky to get her out alive. Good thing she had smoke detectors." Len paused.
"And you know we got a hundred and two rules about open flames and air quality at Enright. Your Dad pays for me and Al to go to Olympia every year to the Fire Conference and keep up. Has me check the sprinklers every Thursday. Every Thursday. Because when you put sawdust in a confined space it's a fire hazard."
"I hear you."
"No reason for our firebug to make a bomb," said Len, "When he can just rig up a common household accident."
"Which means he will want access to the house," Doug said.
"Probably." Len walked around to the shrubs that concealed Maddie's AC compressor. He pointed to a small pipe about five feet away. "Fresh air intake. Anyone could put anything inside that. Fill the house in no time. No need to go inside."
"Most houses don't have a fresh air intake," Doug pointed out.
"Which is why when he saw this puppy he got excited. You can smell his spoor all over."
"So you can." Doug headed for the door at a run with Len on his heels.
The basement was clean. So were the ducts.
"He didn't bring anything with him. He was just casing the place. But he'll be back." Len was positive.
"And we'll be waiting for him." Doug's voice was level and cold.
Lenny pointed to the vent. "Sure, we can set a trap. But it'll only take a second to seal that sucker." He whipped out a wrench and set to work.
"I'll take first watch, Doug. You go have yourself a reunion with your lady."
* * *
Flamethrower scanned the news for reports of the fires he had set in Newberg. Nada. It was a shame no one knew how clever he had been, but the fact that it hadn't been reported meant that he was a long way ahead of anyone looking for him.
Hammerhead wasn't due back to pick up the meth until tomorrow. When he found the place blown up he would report back to his superiors, who would blame the narcs or a rival gang. Flamethrower didn't care, so long as they decided that he was also dead.
And since they didn't know about the ATV, he figured they would. With the house blown to kingdom come, there wouldn't be any evidence to the contrary.
He had taken care of Toe-rag. He would have preferred to tell the douche bag why he was dying, but that would have spoiled the perfect set up. The death had been announced as a suicide, and he wasn't going to tell anyone any different. He was a professional.
He hadn't wasted words on the two meth cookers either. Just dropped them at the stove. Picked up the casings. Moved on. Professional. That was him. Once he had done St. Clair and Enright he could reinvent himself someplace else. That was the beauty of the internet. You could operate from anywhere.
He had a beauty of a plan too. Just involved finding the right gas. But that wasn't even hard. He just had to be sure St. Clair and Enright were home asleep.
* * *
Doug was sitting up bare chested in bed wearing a pair of reading glasses and reading the paper when Maddie came out of the bathroom. His chest hair was curling damply after his shower and his chin was smooth and shiny she noted happily. She had missed the big lug.
He put the paper down and grinned at her. He took the glasses off and slipped them into a slim gold case and put that on the table with the paper. "Well, hello," he said approvingly.
Maddie was glad he liked her new nightgown. The package had been delivered the day he left town and she had had no opportunity to wear it. Her curves glowed through the sheer black silk and the built in bra nest gave her girls just enough lift to be sexy. She swayed just a little as she tidied up before turning out the lights and getting into bed.
Douglas was making husky noises. She hoped he wasn't going to choke, poor lamb. She scooched closer to him and big hands seized her waist and lifted her astride him. He groaned as her wet and naked sex pressed onto his belly. She rubbed herself back and forth on his happy trail, enjoying the delicious friction of his furry belly and rock hard abs against herself.
The hands at her waist clamped tight to try to hold her still. "If you don't quit that, it'll be over before you know it." Doug's voice was a rumble on the pillow. She stilled. She had to remember that this man was still a neophyte.
"Turn the lamp on," she suggested.
Doug couldn't believe how glorious Maddie looked. Her breasts were pale pink globes under the filmy fabric. Her coral colored nipples were making points in the fabric. His mouth watered. He cupped the sweet soft mounds gently and pressed them together. Maddie giggled and leaned into his hands. He sat up so suddenly she slid down onto his lap and had to steady herself against his thighs.
He kissed her deeply, thrusting his tongue into her mouth and tasting all the tender recesses. He kept his hands on her lush breasts enjoying the soft weight of them. Daringly he plucked at one distended nipple. Maddie rewarded him with a moan of pleasure and sucked his tongue.
He was dying to taste the sweet fruit he was fondling. He kissed his way down her throat to her glorious bosom and found the hot tight peaks with his mouth. He suckled her through the thin fabric and she pressed herself against his mouth. Her legs snaked around his waist as she rubbed her bottom on his aching erection.
He knew she was aroused. He could smell the musky aroma of her wet pussy. Would she ride him again? He moved his hands to her sweet round ass and kneaded her haunches fiercely. He lifted her a little. Would she take the hint.
Maddie could have lingered longer amusing herself on Doug's belly. But his frantic hands pressing her buttocks were an urgent signal. This big bear was hunting pussy. She chuckled and moved so she knelt over him. She pushed him back onto the pillows and let her slick depths envelop his steel to the hilt. She was rewarded by his elemental groan as he grabbed her hips and lunged upwards.
Poor bear. He wanted it hot and fast tonight. Well hot and fast could be good too. Maddie squeezed the walls of her vagina and gave him the ultimate caress. He bucked and groaned again. She cantered on setting a bruising pace that had her lover-bear thundering after her, until he gripped her hips hard and flooded her. Almost at once he was asleep.
Maddie dismounted from her lover and switched his light off. She danced around to her side of the bed and slipped under the covers. There was she thought a great d
eal to be said for honest passion. Surely he could not make love to her like this if he didn't love her?
CHAPTER TWELVE
Doug awakened as soon as the cell under his pillow beeped. He didn't bother to dress. He took his clothes with him to the back door. Len had already taken human form and he slipped inside wordlessly. He put on the jeans he had left in the kitchen.
Doug was already on the deck taking bear form. Six hundred pounds of American Black jumped silently over the steps and hid in the dense bushes that Maddie was so proud of. The briars that would have torn human skin to shreds slid past his bear fur. He had a clear view of the compressor and two strides would take him to it.
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