Loose Ends (The Hammer Commission Book 3) Page 14

  Apparently Woods was learning, Mark thought with a smile.

  The other ten agents had come down from Portland. They had left last night and driven here immediately. It might make things a little difficult with the other agents around, they weren't really cleared to know about what was going on, but they were still helpful and several of them had gone out to the crime scene to help Walters and Timms process the site.

  "Where at?" Mark asked.

  "A woman's fashion store over on the west side of town," Denise said looking at her pad. "Twenty minutes ago, let me put it on the map."

  "Well, we know she's in town now."

  "Yeah, but how is she getting around?" Denise asked. "Her parent's house is closer to the site than that store is. Why didn't she go there first and get her car?"

  "Probably doesn't want to tell her dad that she killed her mom," Michael said.

  "After killing her mom, I'm surprised that she's all that worried about killing her father," Mark said.

  "Well, maybe like most girls, she has her daddy wrapped around her little finger, and figures she can lie to him and he'll believe her?" Denise said looking at the two of them. "I mean really, Mark. You let your daughters marry the likes of him, against your better judgment, right?"

  Mark laughed, and Michael scowled.

  "Okay, you just may have a point there. Of course, my daughters are all perfect little angels, only my sons are inconsiderate slobs and troublemakers."

  Denise chuckled, "I rest my case."

  "Okay, so give the crew watching the house a heads up. Remind them that if they see her, they are to call us immediately and that they are not to make contact."

  "Will do," Denise said and picked up her cell phone and made another call.

  "What are we going to do, once we catch her?" Michael asked.

  "Kill her, of course," Mark said. "Those animals Kyle and I found? If she can do that to them, she can do that to us. Even you and me, or anyone else."

  "Yeah, but how? That gal in the pickup shot her eight times with a forty-five, and that didn't stop her."

  "It wouldn't stop you or me either," Mark pointed out, in a carefully lowered voice. "What we need is to pump a lot of bullets into her. Everything takes damage, Michael, everything." Mark paused a moment, "Well, except for most devils. Regular bullets seem to just pass right through them."

  "And just where did she get her new powers from?" Michael reminded him.

  "Which is why I had those two priests come over from the local church and re-bless our guns and ammo, as well as bless everything that Woods sent us."

  "Still, I'm concerned," Michael said with a sigh. "I remember that guy in the cave. He was pretty damn tough. Do you think cold iron will help?"

  Mark shrugged, "I don't know. That's why I've got the guys from my organization researching everything. This can't be the first time this has happened. Somebody, somewhere, sometime, had to have dealt with this before. It's just a matter of time until we get some answers.

  "But until then, we stick with what we know. Lots of bullets, lots of damage, don't let her get her hands on you, and once she's down, hack her head off."

  Denise hung up her phone again, "I share Mike's concerns," she said to the two of them, "however, I agree with the approach. We know she had to take some time to heal after getting shot. I just don't like the idea of having to take her down in town. A massive firefight like that? Too many chances of stray bullets and injured civilians."

  Michael looked over at Denise, "I didn't know you cared!" he said with a grin.

  "Oh push off. I don't mind smacking them around a bit, if they deserve it, but people will recover from a couple of love taps. Bullets? Not so much."

  Mark looked at his laptop, nothing much but a few more questions. He typed in a quick answer and told them to call him if anything important came up, and then shut down the machine.

  "Well, we better go grab one of those SUV's and head in the direction of Jeb's house. If she does show up, we're the three best suited to confront her."

  "What about Dave and the girls?" Denise asked.

  "I'd rather not involve them. Too many people would ask questions out in public like this. Plus, the two of you are a lot better trained for this."

  "Also, you don't want to risk your kids," Denise said.

  "I'd rather not risk my new son or daughter in-law either," Mark pointed out. "But I can't get in the way of you doing your jobs." Mark grinned, "Well, at least not yet I can't."

  "Well, let's get going," Michael said, standing up. "I'll drive."

  Mark nodded and the three of them grabbed their coats and Mark let the agent coordinating their interactions with the sheriff and the local police where they were going as they headed out the door.

  "Damn, it's cold out here tonight," Michael said.

  "Give it a month, it's only May still."

  "Should we call any of the wolves?" Denise asked, as they got into unmarked SUV.

  "Yeah, call them and warn them."

  * * *

  Beth pulled in the driveway and flipping up the hood of the large jacket against the cold, she got out and went around the back to go inside. Typical for eastern Oregon, they were having another cold snap. At least the jacket she had grabbed was warm!

  Going in the back door, she called out, "Mom! Dad! I'm back."

  As she suspected her father came running into the kitchen and hugged her tight. "I'm so glad you're okay! When you didn't come back, I thought the worst had happened!"

  Beth sighed and shrugged, and looked down at the floor. "Well, Mom and I had a fight, so I left Friday after the first ceremony. I've been staying over a friend's house, but I realized I should come home and apologize to her."

  Her father looked at her. "Your mother's not with you?"

  Beth looked at him and opened her eyes wider, "No, I said I left her and the others late on Friday. We had a fight. Why? Isn't she here?"

  "Oh, dear goddess!" her father said, looking down at her worriedly. "She hasn't come back! I don't think that any of them have! I tried calling Howard, I've tried calling Elksong, I even tried calling you!"

  "My phone's dead," Beth said looking back at him, feigning a worried look of her own. "Did you call the police?"

  Her father nodded, "I called them on Monday. They sent a couple of guys out to investigate yesterday, but I haven't heard from them yet."

  Beth nodded slowly; most of the people in town knew what her mom did, so she wasn't surprised that the police waited until sending someone out. More than once her mom had stayed out for a couple of days on what was supposed to be an overnight affair. But her mom's special site, that was a well kept secret, so until someone stumbled across it, no one would know what had happened.

  Why, if she was lucky, some coyotes and other scavengers might make off with the bodies long before they were even found. Then it would become just another one of the many Oregon mysteries.

  Her father grabbed her shoulders, "Maybe you could take them up there, help them find her?"

  Beth blinked, "Take who up where?"

  "The police, the two men who came here, looking for her."

  "What did you tell them dad?" Beth asked.

  Her father shrugged, "Just that you all went up to Kelly's special place, and that I didn't know where it was. You'd found something, something that might be important." He shivered then, "You don't think anything bad happened, do you, Beth?"

  Beth shook her head, "I don't see how anything could. Nothing happened up there. I wanted to try something different, mom said no. We argued and I left.

  "Maybe I should have stayed...."

  Her father shook his head vigorously, "No, no Beth. It's bad enough that your mother is missing, but if something was to happen to the both of you," he shook his head again, "I don't know if I could bear it."

  Beth nodded.

  "I'll call the police again; you can take them up there, with you."

  "Umm, Dad? If mom's okay and I show up at her s
pecial place, she'll never talk to me again," Beth said. Which would be the truth, if of course her mom was still alive.

  "I'll deal with it, don't you worry, Hon. Your mother will listen to me. I'll tell her I made you do it."

  "Well, maybe," Beth said, hesitating. "Do you know who the officers were?"

  "I have one of their cards, here, see?" her father held out a business card to her. Taking it, Beth looked it over. It said 'Agent Michael Sykes, Federal Bureau of Investigation.'

  "Dad, those guys were feds!" Beth said looking up at him.

  "Well, most of the land around here is BLM, so I just figured they sent them."

  Beth looked at the card. How had the feds gotten into this? This wasn't good. Especially in a small town like this. If she had to talk to them, they'd figure out something was up. And there was no way she'd be able to hide from them until she built up her powerbase or found out just what her powers could do when she was fully sated.

  She debated a moment what to do. If they came back, her father would tell them that he had talked to her. She couldn't leave him here for the FBI to talk to.

  Looking up at him, she felt a moment of regret. Her father still cared about her, that was obvious, but the sad truth was, she couldn't afford to let him live.

  "Dad?" she said, putting her hands up to either side of his head.

  "Yes, Beth?"

  "I love you, Daddy."

  "I love you too, Hon."

  He bent over and she kissed him on the cheek. Using her strength to hold him there, she drained him, drained him dry. The look of shock on his face made her feel a moment of sadness and regret, but she was surprised at how much power her father had in him.

  Perhaps that was why her mother had stayed with him all these years? Beth wondered if perhaps her mother had been doing a little power tapping as well. If so, then maybe she had doubly deserved what Beth had done to her for abusing him all these years.

  She carried his body into the bedroom, and placed it on the bed. There weren't any marks on the body, so they'd probably figure he died of natural causes. She took a moment to position his hand over his chest, like he'd been in pain. Hopefully they'd just think that with all the stress, he'd had a heart attack. Heading for the back door she hesitated, she had brought a lot of her things back here with her, including her car.

  But she realized that if she took those with her, they'd know she had come back here. Better to just take Steve's car and go.

  Pulling her hood back up, she went back outside, closing the door behind her, and getting into Steve's car she backed out of the driveway and left. It was time to head back to Portland. Tommy would take her back in, she'd apologize and cry and he'd forgive her. Then she could start building her powers and if worse came to worse, she could hide and in a city that big they'd never find her. Then once she had things the way she liked them, just let anybody try to take her down. Even the government wouldn't be able to touch her!

  * * *

  Mark pulled up next to the stakeout car and rolled his window down.

  "Anything?" Mark asked.

  Both agents shook their heads, "Not really, a couple of visitors have come and gone, the last was just about five minutes ago."

  "You're sure none of them were Beth?" Mark asked.

  "We've run the plates on all of them, the last one was Steve Cole, here's the list," the agent said and passed Mark a sheet of paper.

  "You get pictures on everybody?" Michael asked from the other seat.

  "Of course," the agent said, the other agent in the passenger's seat holding up a camera with a large telephoto lens on it.

  "Upload them to the case files, I'd like to take a look," Michael told them.

  "Sure thing."

  "We'll be down the block, she's in the area, keep your eyes open," Mark said and rolling up his window he drove around the block, parking down around the corner, out of sight of the house and shut the engine off.

  "So, how long do we wait?" Denise asked.

  "I'd guess if she hasn't come here by eleven, she's not showing," Mark said and looked at the clock on the dashboard, "it's nine now, so two hours?"

  Michael had his laptop open and was looking through the case files.

  "Anything interesting?" Denise asked.

  "Just looking at the people who showed up, and comparing their names to their drivers' license info."

  "Why?"

  "Because I was taught to, that's why," Michael said. "I don't know the guys from the Portland office, so I don't know if they double-checked everything. Besides, maybe one of these people knows where Beth might go, if she didn't want to go home."

  "Good point," Denise nodded and pulled out her own laptop and turned it on. "I'll start at the end of the list. How many are on it?"

  "Eleven. Apparently Jeb is a very popular guy, though this first one looks more like a customer, he showed up with a couple of large pieces of wood."

  "Hey, look at this," Denise said a couple of minutes later.

  "What?" Mark asked turning around to look at Denise in the back seat, as Michael did the same.

  "This is Steve Cole, the guy who was just there."

  "So?"

  "How many guys do you know who put the hood up on their jackets?" Denise said.

  "Hold on a second," Michael said, and typed in something on his keyboard, then read if off, "Steve Cole, height, five foot, eleven. Weight, one-hundred and eighty pounds. Brown hair, green eyes."

  "Whoever that is, they're not five eleven," Denise said, "and look at those pants, those aren't guy's pants!"

  Mark turned back in his seat and started up the engine. "I think we need to go have a talk with Jeb."

  "You think he warned her?" Denise asked as Mark drove around the corner and down to the house.

  "What could he have warned her about?" Michael said, "We never told him why we were there, he just assumed it was because of his missing person's report."

  "Well, we can ask him that too," Mark said and stopping in front of the house he shut off the SUV and they all piled out and trotted up to the front door.

  Michael knocked on it and they waited. After a short wait he knocked on it again, "Jeb! Are you in there?" Michael called out.

  "I don't hear anything," Denise said.

  "Yeah, me neither, try the door," Mark said.

  Michael grabbed the doorknob, "It's unlocked."

  "Yeah, people don't lock their doors around here," Mark said. "Let's go inside."

  "Umm, warrant?" Michael said.

  "We know she's killed one of her parents already," Denise said, "This goes under probable cause."

  Michael nodded and pushed the door open and they all went inside.

  "Lights are on in the kitchen," Michael said.

  "And the bedroom," Mark said walking into it as Michael went to check the kitchen.

  "Found him."

  "Is he?" Denise asked, coming into the room.

  "Dead," Mark said and leaned over and took a sniff, "Yup, she killed him. Has that same smell of corruption on the body."

  "I found something on the floor of the kitchen," Michael said coming into the bedroom.

  "What?"

  "My card. The one I gave Jeb there after we interviewed him."

  "So she saw the card, and panicked, and killed him?" Denise said.

  "Makes sense," Mark said. "He's the only one who knows she's alive, and she knows he talked to the police. So she kills him, brings him in here, and takes off..."

  "And with no marks on the body, hopes people thinks he died of natural causes," Denise finished for him.

  "Exactly."

  "He's a pretty big guy, at least one-hundred and eighty. She carried him all the way in here?" Denise said looking around.

  "Probably got super strength along with the death touch," Michael said. "But I have a more important question."

  "What?" Mark asked as he and Denise both looked at him.

  "What happened to Steve Cole?"

  Mark swore, "
We better get over there, right now, in case she's headed back that way!"

  Running out of the house they jumped into the car.

  "Denise, call the stakeout team and tell them to lock down the house, that it's now a crime scene. Michael, you got a current address on this Cole guy?"

  "Putting it in the GPS now," Michael said.

  Mark looked at the screen; it was on the west side of town, not far from the store Beth had been shopping at.

  "Call our guy at the station and tell them we need them looking out for that car."

  "Odds are she's on the highway out of town already," Michael said.

  "I bet you're right," Mark said, pulling out his cell phone, "but we better check to be sure." Dialing the pilots as he drove he told them to go warm the jet up, they'd be leaving within the hour.

  "Where do you think she's going?" Denise asked from the back.

  "Portland. Lots of people, easy to get lost in the crowd," Mark said.

  "Lots of food you mean," Michael said, finishing up on the phone with their man at the sheriff's office.

  "Yeah, that too."

  16: Route 97, Oregon

  Beth looked at the gas gauge on the car as the light by it came on, she hadn't thought to check the gas before, it must have been low when she left. She had no idea what kind of mileage that Steve's car got; it was some big custom mustang, so she suspected it wasn't all that good.

  She started watching for a gas station. Though it wasn't likely she'd miss one, as there wasn't much else on the road. The biggest problem would be finding one still open this late at night.

  When she saw the truck stop, she pulled right in and up to the pumps, and taking out her credit card she got out and gave it to the attendant at the pump who swiped it and then handed it back to her and started to put gas in the car as she stretched her legs.

  "Wow, nice car!" A guy said coming up to her while the attendant filled the tank.

  Beth almost rolled her eyes, and then remembered the heavy coat she was wearing; the guy might actually not be coming on to her.