Lit Fuse (A Tanner Novel Book 44)

by Remington Kane

  When his work was done in San Padre, Miller would be moving on to start a chapter of Die Fistulous in the Bluegrass State. Naya planned to be at his side.

  3

  Wrong Place, Wrong Time

  SAN PADRE, CALIFORNIA

  The funeral for Boyd LaMar was held on the day before the jury in the Anderson trial was handed the case.

  Franny had spent the days leading up to the funeral dealing with the arrangements and helping her Aunt Patty. The old woman had lost her husband three years earlier and now her son. Given her bad health, Franny thought that her aunt might not be long for the world herself.

  Other relatives had flown in for the funeral. Most had left to return home that same day since the funeral had been held in the morning; the rest had flown out early the next day. Franny stayed on. She still had to deal with a few details of Boyd’s life, such as supervising the transition of her cousin’s real estate business to the care of his assistant.

  The young woman was named Wendy Kim. Wendy was twenty-five and of Korean descent. Boyd had been teaching her the business and she had been renting the small apartment above the office. Wendy only had about a year of experience in working as a commercial realtor, but she was good with people and had assured Franny that she could keep the business running.

  Wendy was familiar with Boyd’s clients, and although she had a lot to learn, she knew enough to keep the business afloat. She had a background in real estate evaluation and had worked in that field prior to being hired by Boyd.

  After talking with her Aunt Patty, Franny convinced her to let Wendy Kim have a chance at keeping the business viable. The only alternatives would have been to put the real estate office up for sale or shut it down. Franny was acting as her aunt’s legal representative. She and Wendy had plans to meet with a lawyer and have an agreement drawn up that would finalize the deal.

  Franny wouldn’t make a dime from the arrangement. Any profit not going to Wendy would go to Franny’s aunt until the cost of acquiring the business was paid off and it became the sole property of Wendy.

  Wendy had also been a big help to Franny in planning the funeral, and Franny liked the young woman. With her good looks, ready smile, and pleasant attitude, Franny thought that Wendy would have a great future in a people-oriented career such as real estate. Wendy had also stayed behind at Boyd’s apartment to help Franny clean up after the gathering that was held there following the funeral.

  The two got along so well that they decided to meet for coffee before traveling to see the lawyer to discuss the transfer of the real estate business. Franny was aware that Kyle Anderson’s trial was going on, but she was surprised by how crowded the streets around the courthouse were. At Wendy’s advice, she had left her rental car parked in front of the real estate office and they had taken a cab. If she had driven into the area near the courthouse, Franny would have had a difficult time finding a parking space.

  “It’s the protestors,” Wendy told her as she ate apple pie with her coffee. “A lot of them drove here, but many were bussed in from all over and a lot of them look scary.”

  “I’ve seen more than a few men wearing leather vests.”

  Wendy nodded. “That’s how many of them dress, the women too. If the jury decides to let Kyle Anderson go free, I’m afraid there might be a riot.”

  “Has the case gone to the jury?” Franny asked.

  “Yes, it happened just before noon. There could be a verdict at any time.”

  Worry creased Franny’s forehead. “If you think there might be trouble, we can postpone the meeting with the lawyer. His office is close to the courthouse.”

  Wendy finished taking a sip of her coffee then pointed out the window. When Franny followed her finger, she saw a parade of police vehicles drive by on the street. It was an overcast day with rain expected later in the evening. The lack of sunlight made everything look dreary. And being November, the sun would set early.

  “There are a lot of protestors, but also a lot of cops,” Wendy said. “Besides, every expert on TV thinks that Kyle Anderson will be found guilty for sure. It seems foolish to me that he didn’t admit his guilt and take a plea bargain deal. I mean, he did hit that poor little girl and then drove away. That’s a fact.”

  “Juries have been known to set people free who were obviously guilty. I guess Anderson thought it was worth taking the chance that he might become one of them,” Franny said, and as she spoke, she was looking out the window again, where a man and a woman wearing leather vests and T-shirts were walking by, while on their way to the courthouse. The woman had blue hair.

  Joshua and Haley were filled with excitement as they hurried back to the courthouse after getting something to eat and using a bathroom. It was predicted that the jury would come back with a verdict within hours. People wearing leather vests were everywhere throughout the area, and so were the cops. There were also many residents from the city’s low-income area in attendance. They were there to see that Sharonda Washington received the justice she deserved.

  The San Padre police department was overwhelmed by the thousands of people gathered outside the courthouse. It was a crowd whose size they had woefully underestimated, just as Morgan Miller had planned.

  The San Padre police had asked for help to keep the peace and their request was answered. There were cops from neighboring communities, the highway patrol, and FBI agents. Some of the latter were said to be dressed in leather vests to infiltrate Die Fistulous. Joshua thought that it was no more than a rumor. He couldn’t imagine that he or any of his friends wouldn’t be able to recognize a Fed on sight.

  Naya had been making the rounds among the group’s members and had eaten dinner with Joshua and Haley and several others the night before. Joshua had sat next to her and hoped that Haley couldn’t tell that he had a thing for Naya. At one point, Naya had touched him on the back of his hand and smiled at him. It sent a shiver down his spine. Naya made him feel like he had when he’d had a crush on a girl in high school. The girl back then had been a blonde cheerleader who wound up becoming the class valedictorian. And just like then, Joshua knew that Naya was out of his league.

  But it was okay. He had Haley, and sometimes Joshua thought he might be falling in love with the blue-haired, social justice warrior. He and Haley never fought, liked the same things, and enjoyed each other in and out of bed. What more could he ask for?

  As they neared the courthouse, Haley remarked that there were more TV crews on hand, and it was true. Anderson’s trial was news, but it had become a sensation because of the attention Die Fistulous had brought to it. The trial wasn’t only about a hit and run incident, it was about the lack of justice the poor in this country received as well as the entitlement the rich expected.

  Kyle Anderson was hoping that his father’s money had bought him a defense team of lawyers that would see him set free, despite everyone knowing he was guilty as sin.

  That wasn’t going to happen, not when there were thousands of protestors awaiting the chance to unleash their fury if the verdict came in as not guilty. If that happened, Kyle Anderson and the jury members would be lucky to escape with their lives.

  Franny and Wendy were in the lawyer’s office when the news came in that the jury had reached a verdict, and that it would be announced shortly. Franny had become increasingly uneasy about the situation developing outside. The lawyer’s office was on the third floor and granted a view of the area in front of the courthouse.

  The streets outside were packed with protestors and cops in riot gear had extended the perimeter around the courthouse. The protestors didn’t like being pushed back and angry shouts were exchanged between the cops and the activists.

  Franny was seated next to Wendy in front of the lawyer’s desk. The lawyer was a gentleman in his sixties named Mike Townsend. Townsend was a former Marine. He and Franny had chatted about their time in the military and realized that they knew some of the same people. Franny had been in the army, not the Marines, but her late husband h
ad been a Marine. Wendy had never served in the armed forces, but her boyfriend, Jake, had recently left the army to return to civilian life.

  Townsend’s legal assistant was a woman in her fifties who wore her white hair long. She appeared in the doorway and let the lawyer know that the jury in the Anderson trial had reached a verdict and were returning to the courtroom. Franny suggested to Wendy that they leave the law office and finish up the paperwork at another time. Franny’s instincts were telling her to leave the area.

  “But we’re almost done. Aren’t we, Mr. Townsend?” Wendy asked the lawyer.

  “My assistant is making the copies we’ll need, I’ll have you sign them, and then you ladies can be on your way.”

  “All right,” Franny said. “We’ll finish up today. But that crowd outside is making me nervous.”

  Townsend smiled. “Those troublemakers will be heading out as soon as the verdict is read. Kyle Anderson is guilty. There’s no way a jury would find him innocent.”

  The lawyer was right. The Jury had filed back into the courtroom and given their verdict. Kyle Anderson was guilty of second-degree murder in the hit and run death of Sharonda Washington. When the verdict was announced, most of the protestors outside the courthouse cheered, although there was a large percentage of them that wore expressions of disappointment. They were the ones that had wanted trouble and had been looking forward to rioting, to venting their frustrations, and they would have felt justified while doing so. Joshua fit that category.

  After the cheering died down where Joshua and Haley were, it was followed by the sound of loud laughter. The man doing the laughing was dressed like a motorcycle cop and was wearing a helmet and sunglasses. He wasn’t a cop. He and others in the crowd had been hired by Miller to instigate a riot. The phony cop pointed at several of the protestors who were carrying signs.

  “Hey assholes, why don’t you go back to your mommy’s basement and play video games. There’s nothing for you here.”

  Several in the crowd shouted insults back at him. One of them was a man with long hair and glasses. He was holding a sign that proclaimed Kyle Anderson was guilty. The sign had been proven right, but the man holding it was frustrated by the verdict. He’d been ready to riot and had plans to loot an electronics store for a new laptop. The motorcycle cop’s taunt had angered him, and he spat at the man and cursed him.

  Two other fake cops wearing helmets and sunglasses charged at the man and began beating him with batons. The other cops on the scene went on the alert and many brought out their Tasers to point them at the crowd. A bottle flew from somewhere within the ranks of the protestors and hit a cop on the side of the head. The bottle shattered and the police officer stumbled backwards, to be kept from falling to the ground by one of his friends. A piece of broken glass from the bottle had cut a different cop on his left cheek, right below his eye. He was another of the phony cops working for Miller. The man hissed in pain from the cut, brought out his gun, and began firing at the crowd. Throughout the long line of protestors and cops, similar scenes were playing out to enrage the mob.

  Someone amid the protestors brought out a gun and fired at a San Padre police officer. He was struck in the chest. The bullet hit his vest, but more shots were fired, and another cop was wounded in the leg. Meanwhile, a group of thirty protestors charged at five police officers and drove them to the ground, then stripped them of their weapons.

  More gunfire erupted on both sides as tear gas was released and the beginning of a full-fledged riot was underway. Outnumbered by odds of fifteen-to-one, the cops and the FBI agents on the scene were forced to retreat into the courthouse building. A news van was overturned, a reporter stabbed while on air, and a brick was tossed through the window of a sporting goods store. Despite a verdict of guilty being handed down, and justice being served, there would still be no peace in the city of San Padre. It was all by design.

  The motorcycle cops who had started the trouble weren’t police officers, but mercenaries. They had done their job, but they also had an agenda of their own. While the looters ripped off retail establishments, the mercenaries would be robbing the banks in town. Afterward, they would slip away in the chaos, and would be rewarded well for their work.

  Franny was on her feet after hearing the first shot. From her viewpoint inside the third-floor office of the lawyer, Townsend, she and Wendy watched as pandemonium and madness broke out on the street below. Franny silently cursed herself for not heeding the warning voice in her head and wondered if she would make it out of the building alive.

  4

  Change Of Plans

  Cody had been piloting his private plane at an altitude of twenty-two thousand feet above California when he learned about the rioting breaking out in San Padre.

  Sara was seated behind him on his right in the passenger compartment, with the children at her side. She had been on her phone and had seen a breaking news report about the riot. After telling him what was happening, she looked at Cody with a worried frown.

  “Franny is somewhere in the middle of that. I hope she’ll be all right.”

  “She said she was staying at a hotel. She should be safe there if she stays inside.”

  “I’m going to call her.”

  Franny was startled when her phone rang. She had been gazing out the window of the law office and watching a city be torn apart. The protesters had begun looting the shops along the avenue and here and there she could see the body of a police officer lying in the street, along with several protestors.

  Wendy was already on her phone and talking to her boyfriend, as the lawyer was on his office line and speaking to his wife.

  Franny removed her phone from her purse and saw that Sara was calling. “Hello, Sara. Are you aware of what’s going on here in San Padre?”

  “That’s why I’m calling. Are you all right, Franny?”

  Franny hadn’t made out Sara’s words over the drone of the airplane’s engine and the sounds of the riot.

  “I couldn’t hear you, Sara. It’s noisy here and there’s a loud sound coming through the phone.”

  “We’re in the air right now,” Sara said in a louder voice. “We want to know if you’re all right.”

  “I am right now, but I’m in an office building near the courthouse and it’s chaos outside.”

  “Oh God. Will you be safe where you are?”

  “I hope so. I’m on the third floor and looking down on the riot. Hopefully, the rioters won’t come up here. If they do… I don’t know what will happen.”

  Sara relayed Franny’s words to Cody. He told her to have Franny tell her exactly where she was.

  “I’m at 332 Main Street, in the law office of a man named Mike Townsend, and there’s a young woman with me named Wendy Kim. Why did Cody want to know that?”

  Sara didn’t have to ask Cody to know what he was thinking, she said, “He’s coming to get you and keep you safe.” When Sara looked over at her husband, she saw him nod in agreement with her statement.

  “Tell him not to come here; it’s too dangerous. Anyway, I thought you were still in the air.”

  “We are, so it will be a while before Cody gets to you. But he’ll come there.”

  “It’s too dangerous.”

  “You’re like family, Franny. We look out for family. And believe me, Cody can handle himself in any situation.”

  “Yes. I’m aware of that.”

  “What was that, Franny? I think the connection is breaking up. Franny? Oh, I think I lost the cell tower I was using.”

  “That can happen in flight,” Cody said. “See if you can get her back on the line.”

  “Daddy.”

  “Yes, Lucas?”

  “Is Franny all right?”

  “She will be buddy. Daddy’s going to get her.”

  “Okay. Can I come?”

  “No. Mommy will rent a car and drive you and Marian to your Uncle Caleb’s farm.”

  “Can’t you land the plane there like last time?”


  “Normally I would. But I’m making a detour to get Franny,” Cody said, then he got on the radio to request permission to land at the closest airfield near the city of San Padre.

  Sara was unable to reach Franny again until they were on the ground twenty minutes later. Cody landed at an airfield that was twelve miles away from San Padre. Franny reported that the situation outside had gotten worse and that the rioters were setting fire to police cars. Cody told her he would be there as soon as possible.

  “If we have to leave this building, Wendy and I will make our way to the real estate office. There’s little of value to steal there and I think the looters will realize that. Wendy also lives in the apartment above the shop; that’s where we’ll be if we can’t stay here.”

  Cody got the address of the real estate office and told Franny that he would find her. When the call ended, he kissed Sara and the children goodbye. Sara had rented her own car so she could drive to Caleb’s farm, which was about ninety miles away.

  When their kiss ended, Sara caressed Cody’s cheek. “Be careful. I know you’ve been in bad situations before, but a mob is unpredictable.”

  “That’s why I have to get Franny out of that city.”

  Cody waited until he knew Sara and the children were on their way and then he climbed into his rental and headed toward San Padre. When he turned on the radio, there was news that the National Guard was being deployed to stop the rioters. They also stated that the courthouse was under siege. The normally quiet coastal city of San Padre was turning into a war zone.

  Franny considered leaving the law office after seeing rioters force their way into a similar office building across the street. She wondered if they wouldn’t do better out in the open rather than risk being trapped inside a closed space.