by M T Stone
“No, I remember all of it very clearly,” she countered. “I told him that he kept everything in the cupboard on the far side of the kitchen. There was a bunch of stuff in that cupboard.”
“How did Leo get those medals again?” Dylan asked, his facial expressions changing as an idea rattled around in his brain.
“I think he said that someone from the Marines brought them to him. He didn’t talk about it much, since he didn’t like the idea of his dad being considered a hero.” She closed her eyes and settled back against her pillow. “I’m so tired of being tired.” She once again squirmed around, trying to get comfortable.
“You’re going to be okay. Just get some rest.” Dylan ran his fingers through her hair for several seconds before thinking of one last question. “Do you think Leo was into drugs, like cocaine maybe?”
Summer’s eyes popped open as she gasped, “Are you joking?”
“Detective Thomas said the bills he got from you were drug bills. They were contaminated with cocaine.” He continued to stroke her hair, not wanting to agitate her with the question.
“Well, based on how backward and sheltered he was, I can’t imagine he was into cocaine. I mean, the guy hunted, fished, grew his own vegetables, and made his own whiskey. I can’t imagine him spending his money on cocaine.”
“Yeah, it doesn’t seem too probable. Did he say anything else about the money when he showed it to you?” Dylan continued to press, obviously wanting to piece it all together. “Why did he show you the money in the first place?”
Summer struggled for a moment, trying to recall. “I remember trying to get him to drive back to town to get me some things,” she said, using all of her mental strength to concentrate. “I knew people would be looking for me, so I told him I needed shoes and some clothes.”
“But he didn’t want to go to town?” Dylan started jotting down notes on the back of the Facebook picture.
“No, he knew better. He said that once things cooled down, he needed to pay the real estate taxes, and after that, he would buy me some things,” she told him as she recalled it. She sat back up in bed, getting a surge of energy as the memories flooded into her mind.
“So, he knew he had to pay those taxes, but he never got a chance to do it,” Dylan replied as he began pacing back and forth in front of her bed, trying to make sense of things. “He hadn’t had that money very long if he hadn’t paid those taxes or spent any of it.”
“I have no idea. I just saw him pull it out of the freezer. Oh . . . he wanted a solar water heater too, so he wouldn’t have to heat water over the fire,” she added as something triggered the memory. “Yeah, I think you’re right about him not having the money for very long. He really needed that water heater.”
“What are you two scheming about?” Ryan asked as he and Olivia returned to the room.
“We’re just trying to figure some things out. Her memories are still coming back to her,” Dylan told them as he folded his notes and stuffed them into his pocket.
“How is your breathing?” Olivia asked, noticing that she still wasn’t wearing the ventilator mask.
“She’s been breathing okay, but she’s still really tired,” Dylan affirmed.
“You’ll be tired until you’re off that medication,” Olivia explained, stroking her daughter’s cheek with her thumb.
Dylan began to feel antsy as hell. He had so many thoughts running through his mind that he had to get out of there and do a little more detective work. “I have to leave for a little while,” he whispered in a hushed voice before leaning over to give Summer a sensuous kiss on the lips.
“That’s something I didn’t need to see,” Ryan said after clearing his throat. “Where are you going? I wanted to talk to you about your uncle and his business associate.”
“What business associate?” Dylan asked, motioning for him to join him out in the hallway. “Have you talked to him today?”
“Yeah, they were at my office when you called him earlier. He had some shady looking guy with him. I think he brought him along just to intimidate me,” Ryan speculated with definite fear in his eyes.
“It’s probably the guy who was interested in buying that land from him,” Dylan replied, glancing around to make sure that no one was listening.
“What land?” Ryan seemed completely stunned by the fact that Carson had a piece of land to sell.
“Summer can tell you about it. I’ve gotta get going,” Dylan told him, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable with the idea that his uncle had bought the land where Ryan’s daughter had been held hostage. He was just beginning to feel accepted by Ryan, so he didn’t want to be the one to break the news. “Would you have her call me when she wants me to come back?”
Dylan was growing increasingly anxious to get out of there and go somewhere quiet, where he could think. He got into his car and made a left after leaving the parking lot. His first instinct was to hit the library, but as soon as he headed in that direction his phone began to ring. He looked down and saw Carson’s name on the screen. He let it ring a couple of times before deciding to answer.
“What’s up?” He tried to sound casual while preparing for his uncle’s usual harshness.
“Can we talk?” he asked in an unusually calm voice. “Come meet me at the Starbucks straight ahead on your left.”
Dylan checked his mirrors to see if he was tailing him, but he didn’t see anyone. “Where are you?”
“I’m already at Starbucks,” he replied with a chuckle. “Pull in, and I’ll buy you a coffee.”
Based on his demeanor, he decided it was safe to meet him for a coffee. “All right. I’ll be there in a minute.” There was an instant flutter in his stomach after accepting the invitation. He thought of Alexander the Great being offered a glass of wine laced with poison. Alexander had been one of the few characters who captured Dylan’s full attention in world history. What a bad ass. With dread in his heart, he pulled into a parking spot, got out of his car, and walked inside.
Chapter 27
Dylan glanced around the coffee shop as he headed up to the register to place his order. He spotted Carson sitting at a table way in the back, so he acknowledged him and motioned that he was going to grab something to drink. Carson rose from the table and met him at the till.
“Here. I told you I’d buy you a coffee,” he said, handing him a twenty. Without another word, he turned and headed back to the table.
Dylan just wanted black coffee, so within a minute, he had joined him. “So what have you been up to?” he asked, laying the change from the twenty on the table between them.
“I had a couple of meetings. They went well.” Carson stroked his beard as if he were hesitant to say what was on his mind. “Those two hundred-dollar bills that I gave you last night were a test, and you probably realize by now that you failed miserably.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Dylan shifted in his seat as his apprehension was affirmed. Something was different this time, though. Carson was crazy calm. He had never known him to be so mellow, almost like he had taken a sedative or something.
“Detective Thomas received two sequential bills from Summer that were cocaine tainted. He called me yesterday afternoon to find out who was moving coke in the area.” He paused to take a sip of his coffee. “I didn’t tell him much, because I kinda like the guy. I didn’t want to see him waking up dead one morning.”
“So you gave me a pair of sequential bills hoping that I would notice?” Dylan asked, feeling more than a little irritated by his uncle’s tactics.
“Yeah, I could tell that you were getting turned on by the idea of being a detective. So I thought I would mess with you a little. It’s easy for someone with no experience to let their imagination run away from them.” His phone started to buzz, so he picked it up to see who was calling. He clicked to ignore the call and set it face down on the table. “I’m going to give you a little fatherly advice. Never get caught up in things that you don’t understand.”
The steely look in Carson’s eyes sent a chill down Dylan’s spine. “You don’t spend a dozen years in the Marines and eight more working for the feds without learning how things really work in this world. People die unexpectedly every day, and it’s often because they know something that they shouldn’t.”
“Okay,” Dylan replied, gripping his coffee and trying to remain calm.
“Anyway, the bills I gave you were brand new, so if they’re dirty, then the local bank is involved in the drug trade. What were you expecting? That I had gone back to Leo’s place looking for a measly forty-eight hundred bucks?” he asked with a perturbed look. “Hell, I bought the place, so technically, everything on the property belongs to me now anyway.” He sat there staring at Dylan, causing him to fiddle with his cup out of sheer discomfort. “I know I’ve been a little tough on you, but that’s because you grew up surrounded by women. I thought it was up to me to toughen you up a bit. It’s something your dad would have wanted.”
“Is that what this is about? Scaring the shit out me to make me tougher?” Dylan lashed out, feeling a combination of anger and betrayal.
“No!” Carson leaned into him and lowered his voice once again. “This is about you making it to your next birthday.” He gave him a death glare that would make the most hardened criminal quiver in his boots. “You’d better squelch any thoughts that are rolling around in that head of yours and tell your girlfriend to do the same.”
“She’s fine. I’m the one who apparently has the overactive imagination. You’re moving so fast that I was starting to wonder if you knew about Leo’s place before we even went out there. So when you gave me those bills last night, I guess it did send my mind into overdrive. I’m sorry. It just seemed like too much of a coincidence,” Dylan tried to explain.
“That’s because it wasn’t a coincidence. I was playing you, testing your loyalty.” Carson picked up his phone and opened an app. “Let me show you something. I can click on any piece of property in the U.S. and instantly know who owns it, how much it’s worth, and whether there is any money owed against it. I can use this other app to track the license plate of any vehicle registered in all fifty states, and this app right here allows me to track down the location of any smartphone that’s active on any network. Why do you think drug dealers use disposable burner phones?”
“So that’s how you’ve been tracking me?” Dylan asked, feeling violated once again.
“I can track you a half-dozen different ways, but yes, that’s how I’ve been tracking you.” Carson sat there for a moment just shaking his head at Dylan with the expression of a disappointed father. “I’ll be taking off tonight. I know you guys don’t want me around. Patty doesn’t even let the girls come home because of me.”
“Do you know everything that goes on?” Dylan cringed, knowing that Carson hadn’t even been in the house during that particular discussion between his mother and him.
“It’s my job to know what’s going on. I’m paid to watch, listen, and learn,” he said with a rather sad expression settling his face. “Sometimes, it’s not much fun to know what people are doing or saying behind your back.” He sulked, indulging in a little self-pity. “From here forward, I’ll stay out of your business and you stay out of mine. We rescued your girlfriend, so now you’re a hero in her eyes. Somehow, I’m going to have to accept the fact that I’m never going to get Olivia back, so it’s time to move on. I can’t stand to see the two of them together. I’m flipping that piece of land to an investor for cash, and as part of the deal, he’ll hang around and collect the reward money from Ryan. If it isn’t paid in full within the next sixty days, he’ll start losing body parts.” Carson laughed and rapped his knuckles on the table before pushing his chair away from the table.
“Are you going back to Denver?” Dylan asked, completely shocked by the sudden turn of events.
“I’ll be in the area for the next few days. There’s going to be a huge drug bust just south of town on Thursday. After that, I’m outta here,” he told him with a smirk. “I’m going to give the higher-ups an ultimatum. Either they appoint me as the regional director or I’m turning in my resignation. Believe me, our office can’t afford to lose another senior agent right now.” He grinned like a poker player who was about to take down a huge pot with a bluff.
“So you’ll finally have that cushy office job?” Dylan asked, thinking back to a prior conversation. He was still hoping to be able to disarm him a bit.
“Listen. I’m going to share one last thing with you.” His voice became hushed again. “The key to wealth is power . . . not the other way around. Put yourself in a position where you have power over others, and wealth will quickly follow.” Following his pronouncement, he rose from the chair and Dylan followed. Carson stuck out his hand and shook Dylan’s as if they had just concluded a business deal. “This fall, you should either get your ass back into school or join the military. Make your father proud.”
“I’m looking into starting college in August,” Dylan told him with confidence. “I’ve decided to go into law enforcement.”
“Well, you might be a good detective one day, but remember what I told you. Put yourself in a position of power and stay out of shit that you don’t understand.” He slapped his nephew on the back of the shoulder. “By the way, the FBI has closed the investigation on the Sullivan case, and I confirmed with Chief Sanders that they are following suit. Make sure you do the same.” Carson’s eyes shifted back and forth as he appeared to be waiting for a reply that never came. “We do a lot of deep cover work, so everything isn’t always as black and white as it might appear,” he added as a final thought before turning and walking away.
Dylan blew out a choppy breath and slumped back into the chair. Carson didn’t look back as he made his way toward the door, and he was on his phone the second he was out of the building. He had some major shit going down and was most likely returning the call that he had ignored moments earlier. After watching his black SUV disappear out of sight, an overwhelming sense of anger and frustration settled back into the center of Dylan’s chest. None of his earlier suspicions about his uncle had been eased by their conversation. If anything, he was more convinced than ever that something was terribly wrong. But now, everyone else had dropped the investigation.
His hands trembled as he picked up his phone and punched in the security code. That bastard had been tracking his every move, and it was time to put an end to it. He typed How to Keep Someone from Tracking Your Smartphone into Google and found the instructions on how to disable all the geolocation features. He went back and forth between Safari and his settings until everything had been turned off. Just as he finished changing the last of the settings, the phone buzzed in his hand. It was a text from Summer. She needed to see him.
Summer’s condition had been improving all day. Her body was responding well to the latest course of treatments and her lungs were beginning to function on their own. This was a huge relief for Olivia, Ryan and the rest of the family, but it also meant that Summer’s mind was beginning to clear. All the bits and pieces that she had been recalling were now falling into a continuous timeline and she was becoming quite agitated by some of the memories. “Could I have some time alone with Dylan?” she asked her parents after he entered the room. She wanted to talk to him about that picture and a few other things in private. Her parents had already been through enough, and Olivia had become visibly upset when she had brought up questions about Carson and the investigation. They wanted to put the whole thing behind them and focus on her recovery, but she couldn’t let go of a few lingering thoughts and fears.
“I just met with Carson at Starbucks,” he whispered once they were alone. “He called me right after I left here and basically forced me to meet him for coffee. He said there is going to be a big drug bust on Thursday and he wants me to forget about the land deal. He basically warned me that people get killed all the time for knowing too much.”
“Wow!” She gasped, wondering what they had st
umbled into. “I wonder if Leo did a favor for a drug dealer and that’s why the money was dirty?”
“Anything is possible at this point. Drug dealers are always carrying around stacks of hundreds. But what could he have done for them?” Dylan asked. “It’s not likely that he had any connections or anything.”
“No. But he did have a place out in the boonies,” she replied, raising her eyebrows. “He could’ve stored a ton of coke out there and nobody would ever know the difference.”
“But you didn’t see any drugs, did you?”
“No. I saw a couple of cases of whiskey, but that’s it,” she replied, trying to remember if she had looked under his bed. “I’m getting tired of being in bed. I haven’t seen the sun since last Friday.”
“Let’s call the nurse. Maybe you can get up for a while.” Dylan reached over and clicked the call button.
Within seconds, a nurse and both parents appeared in the doorway. “I’m fine.” Summer giggled. “I just want to get out of bed and maybe get some fresh air.” She threw back the covers and quickly realized that she had nothing on but a skimpy little hospital gown. “Whoa.” She giggled again, looking up at Dylan, whose eyebrows were raised.
“Okay, you guys go visit in the hall for a few minutes while I help her put on something a little more appropriate,” the nurse ordered, shooing Dylan and Ryan toward the door. “Olivia, would you grab the robe from behind the door?”
The two men hustled out into the hallway, stopped, and looked at one another for an awkward moment. “Let’s go down to the cafeteria. I’ll buy you a cup of coffee,” Ryan suggested, breaking the silence. “I’ll send a text to let them know that we’ll be back in a few minutes.” He fished his phone out of his pocket and began the slow and painful process of composing a text message. Dylan wanted to just send one quickly on his behalf, but he decided to just wait patiently for him to complete the daunting task.
