by Robin Perini
She pulled out a folder. “I’m here for Shannon, and for Ashley. I have an investigation to complete. If we can work together, that’s fine. If not, tell me now and we’ll end our association in Winslow.”
Gabe brought out some notes. “Ashley is my top priority, and we want justice for Shannon.”
Whitney nodded. “Okay then.”
“What’s in Winslow, sis?” He tacked on the moniker at the last minute. Damn if he didn’t like and respect this woman more and more as he got to know her. There was a lot of hurt under that prickly exterior and he’d caused a good part of it.
“Look, I’m not an expert on how shell companies are created and used.” Whitney’s voice had thickened, revealing she wasn’t as unaffected by their acceptance as she wanted them to believe. “But according to my contact, one has popped up on the radar recently at the FBI Organized Crime Program. Hundreds of millions of dollars have filtered through EOP.”
“EOP?”
“The name of the company. The FBI has traced it back to the Gasmerati family. Here’s the kicker. EOP has the exact same address as Intelligent Solutions, the company that sent Deb the game. EOP also owns a warehouse outside of Winslow, Arizona.”
“Isn’t Winslow, Arizona, one of the locations of Gasmerati’s top secret construction projects?” Deb asked, her voice eager. “Could Ashley be in Winslow?”
“I can’t be sure, but if my sister were missing, I’d want to know exactly what was going on in Winslow at EOP,” Whitney said. “And I’d also be interested that EOP is P.O.E. spelled backward.”
The flight hadn’t lasted long, but by the time Zach touched down the plane with ease, Deb had nearly scratched a hole in her pants. Her leg bounced, nerves wound tight.
Gabe tugged her fingers apart from his seat next to her.
Thankful he’d pulled her to the back row for the flight, she glanced over at him.
“I’m okay,” she muttered under her breath. “Is this almost over?” Please God, let it be almost over. Let Ashley be safe.
Deb wouldn’t allow herself to consider the alternative.
“I hope so,” he said.
When Zach brought the plane to a halt, Gabe rose from his seat and checked his holster and ammo supply. “We make this simple, people. Find Gasmerati’s warehouse and get Ashley out.”
Whitney pulled out a slip of paper. “I arranged for a car. We’re looking for Rural Route 2, just south of the Navajo Reservation.”
“We go in quiet,” Gabe added, Deb standing at his side. “Whoever took Ashley doesn’t want her found.”
“What about the cops or Feds or something?” Deb asked.
Gabe shook his head. “We can’t trust them. Not after what’s happened in Denver with Tower.” He looked over at Whitney. “How about you?”
Whitney shifted, her entire body uncomfortable for the first time since Deb had met her. “I’m on my own on this one. I owe one huge favor to the guy who gave me the Gasmerati information as it is. I don’t have enough for a warrant.”
They really were on their own. Deb palmed the weapon Gabe had given her. “I’m ready,” she said. “Let’s find my sister.”
“I’m coming with,” Zach said, his face intent. “And I’m bringing a few toys. You guys draw more small metallic objects than a magnet. I want to survive to see my baby born.”
They exited the plane.
“How did Jenna take the fact that you weren’t coming right back from Angel Fire like you said?” Gabe asked his brother.
“For a completely hormonal pregnant woman, I think she took it pretty well.” Zach rubbed the nape of his neck. “As long as you guys bring me home safe, she’ll forgive me. Eventually.”
Gabe winced in sympathy. “You didn’t tell her we were shot at in Angel Fire, did you?” He shifted his arm. Deb had insisted he get the graze treated. A little antibiotic ointment and a bandage worked wonders. He could barely feel it.
“Hell, no. I’m not stupid.” Zach tugged out a high-tech gadget that looked like it came off a Hollywood futuristic set. Or at least out of the Transformers movie’s prop room. “So, we need to find a warehouse? This baby could locate the space station.”
Deb’s brow peaked. “Where did you get that tracker? Those are . . . rare.”
AKA classified.
“I know people.” Zach shrugged. “Besides, I’m not holding one advantage back until we find Ashley.”
“Thank you,” Deb said.
Gabe squeezed her arm. “Well find her.”
They piled into the waiting vehicle, stowing guns and ammunition in the back.
Gabe slipped into the driver’s side. “Where to?”
“Head north,” Whitney said from the passenger seat. She laid a map out on the dash. “It should be a large warehouse. Easy enough to spot.”
Deb sat behind Gabe, peering intently right, then left. She leaned forward and placed her hands on the back of Gabe’s seat. “How far?”
Five miles later, Whitney took another look at the map. “How could we miss it? It’s a huge building.”
Zach tapped the coordinates into his gadget again. “You sure about that address?”
Whitney double-checked her file. “That’s what it says. They could be lying. A lot of shell corporations do.” She looked back at Deb. “God, I’m sorry. I may have given you hope for nothing.”
Deb could barely breathe. Disappointment smothered her like wet wool. Her throat closed off. She couldn’t speak. She just gave Whitney a nod, pressing her lips together. She couldn’t say it was okay, because it wasn’t. If Ashley wasn’t in Winslow, where was she?
“Don’t give up yet,” Zach said. “I’m pulling the exact coordinates. Maybe it’s underground. Let’s see what we can find.”
Gabe made a U-turn. Deb rolled down the window. The cold air blew into the car, but she had a clearer view. It did nothing to quell the growing fear that this was a wasted trip.
“Less than a tenth of a mile,” Zach said.
Deb squinted, finally spotting something dark and square on the ground, far in the distance. “Stop,” she shouted. “There’s a concrete slab or something man-made out there.”
Gabe slammed on the brakes, backed up a few feet, and pulled off onto a barely visible dirt road, driving up within ten feet of the desolate site.
They piled out of the car.
A huge, cleared area lay before them. The concrete—charred, pitted, and cracked—was slowly being reclaimed by the desert. There had been a warehouse here all right. They strode over to the remains of the manufacturing site.
Gabe knelt down. “Fire decimated whatever was here, and it burned hot.”
“Military grade,” Deb said. “I’ve seen it before in Afghanistan.” The truth that Ashley wasn’t here pierced Deb’s heart. She bent over, her hands propped on her quaking knees. “God, Ashley.”
Gabe tucked his arm around her. At least he didn’t say anything. God, where did they go from here?
“Oh man,” Whitney whispered from the center of the slab. She crouched down.
Deb stood up. She and Gabe started toward Whitney.
“Don’t move,” she said, her face grim. “We’re on a crime scene.”
Deb looked down at the ashes.
A small whitish bone poked out. Deb stumbled back, her body quaking. She shook her head. “It can’t be.” She fell against Gabe. “Ashley!”
The park down the road from the sheriff’s office was deserted. Tower slammed his door closed and stalked to the waiting man near a Rolls-Royce SUV.
“Sheriff Tower, so glad you could make it.” Jeff Gasmerati smiled, his expression much too friendly.
“We agreed not to meet again until Luke Montgomery ended his investigation. Or he was eliminated.”
Gasmerati pulled off his leather gloves. “Your job was to divert Montgo
mery’s attention, Sheriff. You have failed. Rather spectacularly, I might add.”
Tower stiffened. “What do you want from me?”
“I want you to retire. You’ve gone soft. The eager sniper who took out that girl in the bus terminal eight years ago is dead. You don’t see the betrayal of those around you. Even in your own command. You’ve outgrown your usefulness.”
A chill emanated from Tower’s core and spread to his limbs. His hand eased closer to his weapon. “I can retire, if that’s what you think needs to happen. I can even disappear if you want.”
“Oh, you’ll most definitely be going away.” The crack of a single gunshot split the air.
Sheriff Tower fell back, blood pouring from the wound to his chest.
“Guess he forgot about the last sheriff’s retirement plan,” Jeff said to Sly. “Dump the body in Montgomery’s parking lot. That should give the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI something else to stew about. It’s time to clean house.”
Gabe paced beside the rental car while Whitney contacted the Phoenix field office. His half sister was something pretty special. Tough, smart. Hell if he didn’t like her. Zach seemed to, as well. But how would their brothers react to her existence? Or his mother?
At least he and Zach had seen her in action and her professionalism warranted respect.
He walked over to Deb and put his arms around her. “Are you okay?”
She shook her head, but didn’t speak, just burrowed in closer to his chest. He enveloped her protectively. “I thought she was dead. I thought those bones . . .” Deb’s voice trailed off.
“Whitney’s sure they’re at least five years old, maybe ten.” Gabe rubbed her back. He had to stop getting caught up in his own drama and remember what Deb was going through. She was so strong that it was sometimes easy to forget she needed him—even if she didn’t admit it. They’d all hoped to find Ashley here, or at least a lead. No one had expected bone fragments.
Whitney walked over to the two of them. “The Phoenix office is bringing a forensics team out. We’ll figure out what happened.”
“Can you tell how many?” Deb asked, her voice thin.
Whitney shook her head. “I’m not a forensics expert and the bone shards are small. But . . . too many. There were a lot of people killed there. The fact that a massacre happened in secret and no one knew . . .” Whitney didn’t finish the sentence.
Gabe tightened his hold on Deb.
“We’re nowhere closer to finding Ashley, are we?” she said, despair dripping from every word. Deb straightened. “There has to be some kind of lead out of this.”
“If our suspicion is right about the Gasmerati family and the game people working together, maybe there’s another location we can search.”
“Our . . . informant . . . mentioned other construction sites. One in Nevada, right? One somewhere else. Idaho or Ohio. He wasn’t sure.”
A possibility stewed in Gabe’s mind if Steve Paretti was telling the truth. “Version VIII is close to being released and Ashley has vanished. Shannon disappeared just prior to Version II releasing.” He raced to the vehicle and pulled out a list. He ran his finger down the dates of the missing kids. “There are clusters of kidnappings. I need the release dates of Point of Entry.”
“You got it.” Whitney pulled out a tablet and tapped for a few moments. She strode over to him and they compared the list. “Not bad, Gabe. You’d make a decent detective.”
“What are you saying?” Deb asked.
“Except for Ashley and Justin, there’s been a distinct pattern. Approximately six months before each issue of Point of Entry, several high-IQ teens have gone missing.”
Deb gripped Gabe’s arm. “They just take them? And they’re never found.”
Gabe didn’t know how to answer. He could imagine exactly what happened to them if the bone fragments here were any indication. The idea was too horrific to imagine.
A siren sounded off in the distance. Several vehicles sped toward them.
Whitney stepped back. “The local police are here to cordon off the crime scene. This is going to take a while. The FBI is on the way. State and federal forensics, too. I have to follow up, there’s nothing you can do here. See if your informant can identify any other locations. We have to narrow down where she might be.”
“I have access to equipment that will handle that,” Zach said. “We can find a penny on the ground from outer space, if we need to.”
Gabe nodded. “Okay, we’ll head back to Denver.”
Zach and Deb started toward the car. As he unlocked it, he yelled, “I’ll leave it at the airport for you, Whitney. Keys will be at the rental’s registration desk.”
Gabe hung back, feeling awkward. Should he hug her? Man, this was messed up.
Whitney shifted her feet and looked at him. She nearly held out her hand, but she didn’t. There was an awkward silence. “I’ll be in touch if I learn more,” she offered.
“Right. Same here.”
He started back to the car when the sat phone rang. He looked down at the number but didn’t recognize it. “Hello?”
“Uh, hi. I’m, uh, trying to reach Deborah Lansing. This is supposed to be her phone.”
“Hold on. I’ll get her.” Gabe bolted to the car, pulled open the door, and hit the Speaker button. He indicated the call was for her and Deb grabbed it.
“Hello, this is Deborah Lansing.”
The voice on the other end broke. “This is Ashley’s boyfriend, Justin Connell. We were kidnapped. You have to help me rescue her or she’s going to die.”
* * *
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
* * *
DEB GRIPPED THE phone in her shaking hand. “Justin! Oh God, Justin, do you know where Ashley is?”
Zach and Whitney came running.
Staring into the phone as if she could see Ashley through the device, Deb gripped it tight with two hands. “Where are you, Justin? Where’s Ashley?”
“Idaho.” Justin’s voice had gone urgent.
Gabe met Deb’s gaze. Ernie had been right. So had Steve.
“D-desert somewhere in southern Idaho. There’s a bombing range nearby.”
Zach immediately began searching his phone and Whitney her tablet.
“What’s the nearest town?” Deb demanded.
Gabe tightened his hold. “Keep it together,” he whispered. “Get as much detail as you can.”
Deb nodded.
“I don’t know. But a couple of miles from here is a weigh station. It got hit with a bomb and exploded. They tried to kill us. They won’t stop.”
Bombs, explosions, what the hell was going on? “What are you talking about, Justin?”
“Just let me talk. I don’t know how long this phone will last.” Justin took a deep, shuddering breath. “Ashley’s in trouble. I tried to convince her to come with us, but they put a tracking chip in her and someone had to disarm the security system. She’s the best—”
A sob escaped him, then an urgent whisper sounded in the background.
“Shut up, Dave,” Justin hissed. “I know. I’m trying to be quiet. We hitched a ride, but they found us. The truck driver is dead, his rig exploded. We barely got away. We had to run. We’re still in the desert somewhere near there, but I saw a sign advertising Reno. Black Rock City, too, though I don’t know how far away they are. I don’t think we’re near the Nevada border yet.”
He cursed. “My battery is on red and blinking.”
Deb could barely talk around her fear. “Where’s Ashley?”
“Still at the compound with the others. A huge gray warehouse kind of building, but it’s filled with electronics. They had us working on computers. Look for power usage. Has to be huge. But the place is fortified like a prison. Guards. Guns. Sensors. The works.”
Deb heard a wheezing sound in the
background. “Are you hurt?”
The phone started cracking.
“Dave . . . bad. Hospital.”
Justin’s voice could barely be heard now. “No police. Can’t trust them . . . hiding . . . men searching . . .”
“Justin!” Oh God, she was losing him. Her only connection to her sister.
“. . . scared . . . help . . . Ashley.”
The phone went dead.
“We’ve got to find them.” Deb held the phone tight. “He’s our only link to Ashley.”
“We know about where they are,” Zach said. “There can’t be too many exploding weigh stations in southern Idaho.”
“With the cell phone dead, we can’t track their signal.” Gabe frowned.
“I can search for them from the air,” Deb insisted. “They know I’m a helicopter pilot. Maybe they’ll leave me a sign or come out when they see the chopper.”
“That could work against them if the other search party has one, too.”
“I don’t know what else to do.”
Zach pulled out his credit card and his phone. “I’ll find a chopper to rent in Black Rock City until we get a better location.”
“Since I have to stay here for now,” Whitney offered, “I’ll check for any possible dummy companies or warehouses near southern Idaho and toward Reno. That will narrow down the possibilities.”
“Thank you,” Deb said.
Gabe tugged her in his arms. “We’ll find that weigh station and those kids before they get shot or freeze to death. This damn game won’t claim another life if we can help it.”
Ashley lay in her brick-hard bed and checked to make sure the screwdriver tool was still tucked in her bra. Boots stomped up and down the hallway outside her room half the night and all this morning. The compound was on lockdown while the place was inspected before the big event tomorrow.
The Warden wanted nothing to go wrong. His threats had half the kids in tears. He pretended that if the presentation went well, they’d all be free. Ashley knew better. They were all dead anyway. No matter what happened tomorrow.
