Lit Fuse (A Tanner Novel Book 44)

by Remington Kane

  Standing behind him, Tanner wondered if he was about to watch Joshua blow Miller, and his plan, to pieces.

  28

  Pointing Fingers

  Naya’s face was reddened by anger as she jabbed a finger at Miller. The two of them were seated on the sofa in the living room of the beach house. Joshua stood ten feet away and was aiming Miller’s shotgun at them. Behind him stood Tanner. Tanner had yet to say a word, and with his dark sunglasses, and a baseball cap pulled down low, he was unrecognizable, nor could he be easily described to anyone who might ask about him later.

  Miller had just stated that it was Naya who had killed Haley, causing Naya to explode and refute his claim.

  “I didn’t kill Haley! Morgan shot her in the back three times.”

  “That’s a lie, Joshua. Naya shot you in the chest and then turned her gun on your girlfriend. Why would I shoot her? I didn’t even know the woman.”

  “You shot her because my gun jammed, or whatever was wrong with it. When I tried to shoot Haley, nothing happened.”

  It was Miller’s turn to point at Naya. “See? She admits that she wanted Haley dead.”

  “I… I didn’t shoot her. Joshua, I’m telling the truth. Morgan killed Haley.”

  “You did have a gun in your hand, Naya. And you shot me in the chest.”

  Naya tried to look apologetic. “I got carried away because you burnt me with that lamp.”

  “Carried away? You shot me in the chest and tried to kill me. Do you deny it?”

  “No. I shot you.”

  “And you tried to kill me. Admit it.”

  “Yes… I tried to kill you. I’m so sorry, Joshua, and I’m sorry that Morgan killed Haley. But killing us won’t bring her back.”

  “You’re not sorry, Naya. You’re as bad as Miller is, maybe worse. He wasn’t the one who burnt down those homes in The Flats. That was you.”

  Naya was back to pointing at Miller. “He made me do that. It was part of his plan. And Joshua, the plan worked. Miller said you wanted money. You can have money, a lot of money.”

  “That’s right,” Miller said. “There’s plenty of money to go around.” He looked past Joshua toward Tanner. “Your friend there can come out of this wealthy too.”

  Joshua raised the shotgun. “Look at me. I’m the one you need to worry about, and I’m the one who knows the truth. You shot Haley, Miller. I was still conscious after Naya shot me and I watched you shoot Haley in the back three times. Why did you do that you son of a bitch? Why did you have to kill her?”

  Miller said nothing. He was staring into the barrel of the shotgun that Joshua had pointed at his face. His gaze drifted lower when he saw Joshua’s finger slide onto the trigger. Naya saw it too and leaned away from Miller, as if she were certain Joshua was about to send forth a blast from the shotgun.

  Tanner wasn’t certain, and he did nothing to interfere. It would be better if Joshua followed his plan, but he could understand the man’s hunger for vengeance.

  Miller whispered, “Please don’t, please?”

  Joshua kept the shotgun aimed at Miller’s face. After a slight shake of his head, he lowered the weapon.

  “I want you to tell me what you told me the other night.”

  Miller wiped sweat from his brow. “What? What do you mean?”

  “About how the riot was planned and would end up making millions. I want you to explain that to me in detail. I want to know how it works.”

  Miller swallowed a few times and then began talking and laid the plan out in all its aspects. He spoke in general terms, never naming any of his superiors by name, but he went into detail about Hexalcorp’s scheme to profit by the misery they caused the city of San Padre. Miller ended by stating that the plan had worked in other cities, although there had been fewer deaths and less destruction.

  “There’s a lot of money to be made, Joshua. You could become my assistant. I’d bring you into Hexalcorp and you’d make an easy six figures a year.”

  Joshua looked over at Naya. “Miller can be useful to me, but what about you?”

  Naya sent Joshua a smile. “I know you’re mad at me for shooting you, but that’s in the past. You and I could become closer, Joshua. You would like that wouldn’t you? I’d do anything you want.”

  A look of disgust appeared on Joshua’s face. He turned his head to look at Tanner and saw him nod. They had what they needed.

  Joshua removed a small computer tablet from an inside pocket of the jacket he was wearing. It was the tablet Tanner had bought the day before. It contained the same files as the original one, and had the same password, thanks to Kate Barlow’s hacker skills. Miller should believe that it was his.

  Joshua tossed the device to Miller before heading for the door. He spoke over his shoulder. “We’ll be in touch. The next time I see you, Miller, have fifty thousand dollars waiting for me.”

  Tanner followed Joshua, and the two of them left the house.

  As they walked away from the beach house, Tanner took the shotgun away from Joshua.

  “There was a moment there where I thought you might kill Miller.”

  Joshua spoke as he removed the latex gloves he’d been wearing. “I almost killed them both, but then I thought about Haley. By letting Miller live to tell what he knows, Haley’s death will mean something.”

  When they reached the guard shack, they found it empty, as it had been when they’d arrived. That was Caleb’s doing. Through Amanda Eriksen, Caleb had arranged for the guard on duty to be taken in for questioning. Kate Barlow, being her usual thorough self, had uncovered the fact that there was a connection between Hexalcorp and the company that supplied the guards protecting the beachfront properties. It was enough for Eriksen to have the guard brought in for questioning. No one thought the security guard on duty at the time had a thing to do with the criminal conspiracy Miller was heading. They just needed to arrange for Tanner and Joshua to have easy access to Miller’s home. As a bonus, all the security cameras were shut off.

  Tanner held out his hand and Joshua took it. “I’m done. The FBI will be here soon; the head agent is named Eriksen. Be straight with her and she’ll do what she can to help you. If you’re held in custody or charged with any crimes, a lawyer will be sent to represent you for free.”

  Joshua removed the spy camera that was clipped to the collar of his shirt. Tanner had disabled the camera function so that it had recorded audio but no video. He’d known that there was a chance that Joshua might kill Miller. If that happened, he wanted Joshua to be able to claim he acted in self-defense. If there was video, that would be more difficult to do.

  “I hope this thing recorded everything they said in there. They just confessed to trying to kill me and shooting Haley. Plus, Miller implicated himself in setting up the riot.”

  Tanner removed the camera he had attached to the bill of his cap. His did record video as well as audio, but Eriksen and the authorities would never see that version.

  “If your camera didn’t work, I had a backup going. Give Eriksen that recording when she gets here and answer her questions, but do not speak to any other Feds or cops. Your lawyer will do the talking for you.”

  Tanner left the guard shack and headed for the open gates, where his car was parked. He was tossing the shotgun in the trunk when Joshua called to him.

  “Hey! What’s your name?”

  “It’s better if you don’t know it. And I’d appreciate it if you told Eriksen that you never got a good look at me.”

  “I’ll just say that you always wore sunglasses and a cap.”

  “That will work,” Tanner said.

  He was miles away on the road that ran parallel to the stream when two unmarked vehicles drove past him while going in the opposite direction. There were four police cars following behind them. In the front seat of the first unmarked vehicle was a blonde woman. She was Agent Eriksen. Tanner checked the clock on his dashboard. Eriksen was right on time and true to her word. Caleb had assured Tanner that she was tr
ustworthy.

  After Joshua and Tanner’s abrupt departure, Miller and Naya spent several minutes arguing. They had tried to sell each other out to save their necks, and were blaming each other for the mess they were in.

  They stopped their bickering when they heard tires squeal to a halt outside. By the time Miller reached the door someone was already banging on it.

  “FBI! Open the door.”

  Miller did so and found four FBI agents and six sheriff deputies staring at him. A seventh deputy was staying with their vehicles. Miller saw that Joshua was seated in the back seat of one of the unmarked cars.

  A petite blonde flashed her credentials at Miller with one hand and handed him search warrants with the other. When she spoke, she called Miller by his real name.

  “Keith Popovich, those warrants allow us to search this property along with the two cars parked in the driveway.”

  “What’s this about?” Naya asked.

  “Are you Naya Powers?”

  “Yes.”

  Eriksen nodded at one of the deputies who was a large woman with a no-nonsense face and a steely gaze. The deputy informed Naya that she was being arrested for attempted murder and for being an accomplice to a murder. A second deputy walked toward Miller with handcuffs. He stated that Miller was being arrested for murder.

  Naya and Miller protested but were ignored. When they were out of the house, the search began for evidence of their crimes. The computer tablet with Miller’s fingerprints on it was found on the coffee table and contained the same information as the original one Joshua had stolen. A copy of that information had been provided anonymously to Eriksen earlier by Caleb. Along with it was a typewritten note stating that a man going by the name of Morgan Miller, an employee of Hexalcorp, was the author of the files and the architect of the plan outlined. Thanks to a call from Thomas Lawson, it was enough to get a judge to sign off on the warrants.

  Written on a folded sheet of paper in Miller’s pocket were directions to a location where five dead bodies would be discovered. There was a time written next to the address. When Miller wrote it, he thought he was writing down the time and place where he was to meet Joshua later. He had written down the time, but hadn’t bothered to state that it was a.m. and not p.m.

  It would be determined that the dead men had been killed at approximately the time written on the note. Furthermore, the rifle that killed most of them would be recovered from the trunk of Miller’s Mercedes, right where Tanner had placed it before entering the house. He’d also left behind the cell phone that had the photos of the dead bodies at the shack.

  If Miller somehow escaped being convicted of Haley’s murder, he would still face charges concerning the deaths of Andrew Carter, and Tibbetts and his men. Combined with the legal difficulties that would be heaped upon him for his part in inciting the riot and the corporate conspiracy behind it, Miller wouldn’t taste freedom for a long time, if ever again.

  Joshua wasn’t under arrest, at least not yet. He was being treated as a witness. He watched as Naya and Miller were placed into the rear of separate police cars and driven away. He had enjoyed seeing the sick expressions on their faces.

  His phone rang and he saw an unfamiliar number. When he answered it, he heard the voice of Detective Ed Collins, the cop who had spoken to him when he was in the hospital.

  “Hello, Detective.”

  “I have news, Mr. Mullins. Sir, it’s about Haley Kent.”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m sorry sir, but Miss Kent’s body was recovered from the bay early this morning.”

  “She’s really dead?”

  “Yes sir, and I’m afraid that she was a victim of a homicide. Someone shot her in the back three times. Sir, I’ll need you to come in and give us a statement. This is now a murder investigation.”

  “I understand,” Joshua said, and ended the call. He could have told Detective Collins to contact Agent Eriksen and maybe mentioned Miller’s name, but his breath had caught in his throat as he began to sob. A part of him had held out hope that Haley may have miraculously survived somehow and been listed as a Jane Doe in a hospital somewhere. But no, Haley was dead.

  Joshua sat weeping in the back of Eriksen’s car and wondered what the future held for him.

  29

  Passing Sentence

  Miller was screwed and knew it. The FBI had the information from the computer tablet, the recording Joshua made, Joshua and Naya’s eyewitness statements declaring that he shot Haley to death, and he was also facing five other charges of murder after the bodies of Carter, Tibbetts, and three other men were found on the property where the shack was.

  Miller denied everything and let his lawyer do all the talking for the first few hours. That didn’t last once he understood what he was facing. He had killed Haley in front of two witnesses, and it didn’t matter that he hadn’t killed Tibbetts and the others. The authorities had a paper with the directions to the murder scene written in his handwriting; on top of that, he had listed the estimated time of death the murders had occurred. Anyone looking at the evidence would think he had gone to the site at that time for a meeting and had killed the men. Having the murder weapon found in his trunk was the final nail in that coffin.

  Agent Eriksen told Miller that his only option was to cooperate in the investigation into the riot and the true cause of it. Again, they had him dead to rights on his involvement in the scheme. Miller asked for immunity for all charges in exchange for his testimony and was denied. Eriksen told him if he didn’t fully cooperate, he would be dead soon.

  Miller’s lawyer bristled at the comment. “What do you mean by that, Agent Eriksen?”

  “I mean, counselor, that your client is the only one who can name the people above him. They obviously don’t mind killing people to make money. I’m sure they would eliminate your client to save their own asses.”

  Miller knew that was true. And he understood that his superiors would get to him if he wasn’t protected. Then again, spending the rest of his life in prison wasn’t very appealing either.

  Eventually, a deal was made that would see him spending thirty years in a medium-security prison without the possibility of parole.

  Miller made the deal and began spilling his guts. He’d be seventy-one years old by the time he was set free.

  Other than her statement about Miller killing Haley, Naya had little to bargain with and was facing charges of attempted murder and being an accessory to murder. This included the murders of Carter, Tibbetts, and the others. Since it wouldn’t affect his deal, Miller confessed to the murders, while also stating that Naya had been with him when they happened. It was his way of paying Naya back for turning on him. Naya would also be charged for her role in the arson of The Flats, inciting a riot, and for her part in the Hexalcorp conspiracy.

  Her lawyer made a deal that would see her serving twenty-two years. It was a good deal given the circumstances, but Naya believed that she could con her way past a jury and claim to have been under Miller’s control. She’d seen other good-looking women receive light sentences after playing the victim and eliciting sympathy, and she was willing to take her chances. The case never reached a jury, while in jail, Naya was beaten and kicked to death by two female inmates who were gang members and had grown up in Flat Town. The women were facing life in prison for murdering a man they were robbing, and the act had been caught on camera. A life sentence was a life sentence, so killing Naya wouldn’t add a day to the time they’d serve. And besides, they had to protect the honor of their hood.

  As Tanner predicted, Joshua was being looked at as a hero in the media for exposing Hexalcorp’s machinations and chicanery.

  That didn’t mean he didn’t have to face the legal consequences of his actions. He had broken into Miller’s rented beach house the night of the riot, had been accused by Miller and Naya of threatening them with a gun, and had stolen property, including the computer tablet.

  Tanner told Joshua that he would be represented by a lawyer fr
ee of charge. That was Sara’s doing. She had called her father and explained the situation. Warren Blake called a friend and colleague who was a defense attorney in California. The man often did pro bono work and agreed to help. He met with Joshua the day after Miller and Naya had been arrested. Joshua was in jail too, but as a witness needing protection.

  Joshua’s mouth dropped open in surprise when he met with his lawyer for the first time. He recognized the man. The lawyer was Charles Kensington. Joshua had noticed Kensington recently when he’d been dropping off a woman at the airport. He’d been envious of Kensington because the lawyer exuded success, and now he was going to be the recipient of the man’s generosity.

  Kensington displayed a firm grip as he shook Joshua’s hand, then said words that shocked Joshua.

  “I feel honored to meet you, Mr. Mullins. Because of you, a great injustice has been exposed and a lot of bad people are going to get what they deserve. In my eyes, and the eyes of many others, you’re a hero. I want to thank you for letting me represent you.”

  Joshua didn’t feel like a hero. He felt like a fool. He had fantasized about burning Kensington’s home to the ground because the man was rich, all while being affiliated with Naya, a woman who’d set fire to the homes of the poor. He knew that his desire to cause Kensington misery wasn’t because the man was rich, but rather, it was birthed by envy. Kensington and others like him were living a life that Joshua wished he could experience. He wanted to be successful someday but had been frustrated in his efforts.