Loose Ends (The Hammer Commission Book 3) Page 9

  "I'm surprised there aren't more living here, now that you've got such a large family."

  "Well, word travels slow among the lycan clans. It's not like there's a news letter or a facebook site," Mark chuckled. "Part of why Helena wanted to touch base with her relatives back in West Virginia."

  The burgers came then and they spent the next several minutes eating.

  When they finished Mark paid the bill and then grabbing Michael he led him back towards the bar.

  "So, what's up?" George asked from behind the bar.

  "I need to speak to Kenneth. Is he working today?"

  "What's this about?" George asked, brows furrowing.

  "Apparently a friend of his got tangled up in something bad. We don't think his friend did anything wrong or broke any laws. But there are some people after him, and he's gone missing."

  "And you're looking into this, why?"

  "Because he's working for the FBI," Michael said and discretely flashed his badge.

  "Is Kenneth in trouble?"

  Mark shook his head no, "But we think his friend might be."

  "Fine, go on back and talk to him."

  "Thanks, George." Mark said and he headed into the kitchen with Michael in tow.

  "Ken!" Mark said as they came up to the large grill that a young man was working.

  "Oh, hi, Mr. Levin. What can I do for you?"

  "We're looking for Tommy Bayer, any idea where he is?"

  "Ummm," Kenneth said looking back and forth between Mark and Michael.

  "He's not in trouble with the law," Mark said. "But he is in trouble."

  "Why are you looking for him?" Kenneth asked, sounding just a little nervous.

  "I'm investigating a crime for the FBI," Mark said and showed him his badge while Michael did the same. "It involves an engine that Tommy rebuilt. But Tommy's missing and his apartment was trashed by someone looking for something. Beth's missing too."

  "Beth left him," Kenneth sighed.

  "She did? Why?"

  Kenneth shook his head, "I don't know, he didn't say. Just that they had a fight and she left him, and two days later he comes back to his apartment to find it trashed and some guys have been asking around about him. So he took off."

  "Where can we find him?"

  Kenneth sighed.

  "Ken? Want me to drag your father back here?" Mark warned.

  "He's in Astoria. He's staying with Curt, an old friend from school."

  "Got an address? A last name?"

  "Scheckly," Kenneth said, and then gave them an address.

  "He's not going to go to jail, is he?"

  "No, he's not in trouble with us. Though he is in trouble with someone, and those are the people we're trying to track down."

  Kenneth nodded.

  "Just out of curiosity, how'd you end up with a human for a friend?" Michael asked, surprising Mark.

  Kenneth shrugged, "We became friends in school, back in the third grade. He was always up for running off into the woods for a day, or playing hooky. As we got older, we became drinking buddies. He used to love tinkering on stuff; he fixed the old Harley I bought with a blown engine. Rebuilt my car and half of my friend's cars too, always there if you needed him."

  "Does he know about you?"

  Kenneth shook his head no, "Tommy's a great guy and all, but he drinks too much and isn't very good with rules or secrets."

  Michael nodded.

  "Don't tell him that we're coming," Mark said.

  "Of course not, Mr. Levin, I wouldn't dream of it."

  "Thanks, Ken."

  "Think he'll warn Tommy?" Michael asked as they drove out of the parking lot and headed off towards Astoria.

  "Nope, he figures I'd tell his dad or worse yet, tan his hide myself."

  "Would you?"

  Mark laughed, "Hell no! But I can't let him know that. Might as well call the office and let them know we won't be back tonight. By the time we leave Astoria it'll be time for home.

  "Where's Astoria at?"

  "On the coast, where the Columbia comes out. You can plug the address into the GPS if you want. There's only one-way for us to get there really, but I don't know my way around the town that well.

  Two hours later they turned onto the street that Tommy's friend Curt lived on.

  "You know, this was a lot easier than I thought it would be," Mark said, parking a couple of houses down from the one they were headed to.

  "Only because you knew someone," Michael pointed out. "If we had to cold question all of those people, we might have gotten lucky and gotten the information we wanted. But even if we did, at least one of those people would have called him and told him we were looking for him."

  "True. Well, let's go up to the house and see who's home."

  Walking up to the front door, Mark noticed it was a small but sturdy built house. It got pretty windy out here, so there weren't a lot of windows, and even the picture window wasn't all that large. Opening the unlocked screen door he knocked on the wooden front door.

  "Who is it?" he heard faintly from inside, but rather than answer he just knocked on the door again.

  "I said, who is it?" Came from the other side of the door.

  "Curt, it's Michael," Michael called out with a smile, "I got those beers I owe you."

  "Curt's not home! Leave them on the steps!"

  "And have some kid steal them? Open up man! It's two cases and this shit is heavy!"

  Mark shook his head and looked at Michael who was grinning.

  "Dammit!" Came from inside and Mark heard the deadbolt unlock, and then the door opened.

  "Just put it...."

  Mark recognized him from his license picture. It was Tommy.

  "Hi," Mark said sticking his foot in the door and flashing his ID, "FBI, got a minute or two to talk, Tommy?"

  Tommy's eyes got wide and he turned to run. Pushing the door open, Mark jumped forward and grabbing Tommy by the left shoulder he yanked him back.

  "You're not under arrest, but if you don't sit down and talk to us, you will be."

  Tommy stopped and turned to look at Mark.

  "I didn't do anything illegal!" he said.

  "No, you didn't. But we have a few questions to ask, and we're also a bit curious about who broke into your apartment and trashed it."

  "This is about that stuff I pulled out of that wrecked engine isn't it?"

  "Why would you say that?" Michael asked.

  "Because up until I found that stuff, everything was going just fine. I had a hot girlfriend who cared about me, a nice apartment, and a decent job. Now I'm hiding out at a friend's house, too afraid to go anywhere."

  Mark let go of Tommy's shoulder and pointed to the couch, "Sit down and tell us what happened."

  Rubbing his shoulder Tommy went and sat down, looking up at them, while Michael closed the door.

  "So, we get these two engines in that were KO'd by a couple of birds they say. One of them isn't bad, but the other has some serious damage to it, and there's even flesh still in it, big stinky pieces of it too."

  "Maybe it was rotting?" Michael asked.

  "This time a year? Its too damn cold out for that. Besides, I've see lots of engines after they've taken a bird. Even after a couple of Canadian geese. That engine wasn't taken out by a bird. I don't know what the hell it was, but it definitely wasn't a bird."

  "Okay," Mark said, "So, you've got an engine full of what you know isn't a bird. What happened next?"

  "Well, I scraped out all of it, and tossed it in a plastic bag and sealed it to cut down on the smell. It was pretty rancid. Well, years ago, when I used to go out east and go digging for truffles, I met this guy looking for stuff in the hills. Said he was a collector of rare plants, fungi, and anything else like that. Said he worked in medical research and that they're always looking for stuff, and that they pay. He gave me his card and I stuck it on the mirror at home."

  "So you called him?"

  "After I got home and found the card, yeah I
did. He had a courier there the next morning with a couple grand in cash."

  "So, you gave it all to him?"

  "No," Tommy sighed, "I gave him half of it. I kept the other half and hid it."

  "Why'd you do that?" Michael asked.

  Tommy shrugged, "I donno, I just thought maybe I could find another buyer, and you know, double my money? I figured I'd start calling around research places and see if I got any interest."

  "And that didn't work out?"

  Tommy shook his head again, "Beth wanted it. She said it was magical and had magical properties and she wanted to take it back to her mother's coven in Klamath Falls."

  "And you said no," Mark said.

  "Of course I said no! I mean, I respect Beth's religion and all that, but magic? Really? Come on now! I wanted to see if I could get another couple of grand out of it. Pay off her car so she wouldn't have to go back to stripping. That new age store she was working at really didn't pay squat."

  "So, big fight?" Michael asked.

  "Heh, epic fight is more like it. She ended up by packing her stuff, grabbing the bag, and leaving after I'd gone to bed. I woke up to a note saying 'good bye' and not much else. Hell, half of her stuff was still in the closet."

  "So, what happened next?" Mark prompted.

  "Well, things just continued along. I finished rebuilding that motor, it was seriously busted up inside, but I got it right and working again. But a couple of guys come to the door one night after work and asked if I had any samples for sale."

  "What did you tell them?"

  "I told them that I didn't know what they were talking about. They got a little pushy, so I waved a gun in their face, and they left. Next day after work, I'm driving home and someone tries to run me off the road and takes a couple of shots at me. I lose them, thinking it's just some skinhead tweaker, but when I get back to my place I find it trashed.

  "So I grabbed a backpack, threw a bunch of stuff in it, and left."

  "Why didn't you call the police?" Michael asked.

  "I did, they laughed at me," Tommy grumbled.

  "Why'd they do that?"

  "I umm, I pranked them a few times, and well, I guess they thought I was pulling another one."

  "Can you describe the two who came to your door?" Mark asked.

  "Sure, one of them was a tall dark Hispanic guy, probably late twenties; he spoke like he had been to college. The other was a little younger and shorter, heavily built Mexican guy. He didn't say much."

  "Hold on, let me get my laptop," Mark said, "I might have a picture of that first one."

  Mark ran out to the SUV, got his laptop out and coming back inside he booted it up and called up the picture of Raul Silva from the morgue shots.

  "Is this one of them?" Mark said and turned the laptop around.

  "Ye...yeah, that's him, the older one. What's wrong with him?"

  "He's dead," Mark said.

  "Dead?" Tommy said and gulped, "From what?"

  "From trying to kidnap a federal agent," Michael said. "Was he the one in charge? Or the other guy?"

  "I, I don't really remember," Tommy said.

  "Where do you think Beth went?" Mark asked.

  "Her parents, I would guess. That's where she wanted to bring the stuff."

  "Have you tried calling her?"

  "She won't answer," Tommy sighed. "But I did leave her a message warning her that somebody came looking for the stuff and she better watch out and be careful."

  "Okay, I think that about does it," Mark said and looked at Michael, "you got anything?"

  Michael shook his head.

  "Hey," Tommy asked, "when can I go back home?"

  Michael took out his card and handed it to Tommy, "It's probably safe to go home now. If anybody was watching your place, they saw the FBI go through it yesterday."

  "You went through my house?" Tommy said, looking a little shocked.

  "Well, you are a person of interest in a kidnapping and murder case, and we were worried someone might have killed you as well," Michael explained. "Don't worry about getting in trouble over anything found. As we didn't have a criminal warrant, you can't be prosecuted on anything. Not that I heard they found anything illegal."

  "Well, that's a relief," Tommy grumbled. "Hopefully I still have a job."

  "Un-huh. Call us if you remember anything else."

  "Can you answer a question for me?" Tommy asked.

  "Probably not," Mark said.

  "Well, what was that stuff that everybody is so interested in it?"

  "No idea," Mark told him. "That's not our department. We're just tying up loose ends. We're as surprised about this as you are."

  "You're sure they're gone?" Tommy asked again.

  "Well," Michael said, "one of them is dead, and I suspect the other one is hiding someplace. But if you want to hang out here a few more days, that's completely up to you. If you want, call us when you head home and we'll assign someone to watch your house."

  "You'd do that?"

  "Well, just as long as you don't play any pranks on him," Michael said.

  "Thanks!"

  They shook hands and left, heading back to the car.

  "Are you really going to have them put somebody on the house?" Mark asked.

  "I already asked them to do it, in case he came back home. Once we write up the description of the other guy, I'll just ask them to watch for him instead. Might be our only way to catch this other guy."

  Mark nodded as they got into the SUV and buckling their seatbelts he started it up and drove off.

  "So now what?" Michael asked, "Klamath Falls?"

  "Looks like. We're going to have to get someone at the office to buy us tickets. I really don't feel like spending a day driving there."

  "I'll call the office and have them set it up while you drive. Got a preference as to what time?"

  "Get us on an early flight."

  "Don't want to see if we can catch a late one tonight?"

  Mark shook his head, "They've had that sample for well over a week now. Any trouble they're going to get in, they've already gotten in it."

  10: Outside Klamath Falls, Oregon

  Beth sighed as she pulled up in front of her parent's house, it had been a long drive and going through the mountains at night wasn't always the safest. You never knew when a sudden storm could blow up and cover the road with snow, even this late in the spring. Thankfully she hadn't needed to use the chains. Chains which were sitting in the closet back at the apartment because she'd forgotten to grab them. At least she'd grabbed her heavy jacket, it was definitely cold enough this early in the morning.

  Damn that Tommy! She sighed and swore again as she parked the car. Why couldn't he just do what she told him to? He'd given up drinking and drugs for her, why the hell wouldn't he have given her this as well? She liked Tommy, he was a good guy, and since they'd met two years ago when she was dancing at that club, things had been pretty good.

  She'd found out early on that he had that same physical kind of magic like her father did. Oh, they couldn't feel it, and in her dad's case they didn't believe that they had any power at all. But their power was nature and magic at its most basic: the power to do.

  Tommy was a great mechanic because he could do anything with his hands that he set his mind to, just as long as it was on machines. Her father's talent lay with wood, and the working of it.

  But unlike her father, Tommy wasn't an old broken down hippy living in the middle of nowhere and eking out a living making custom furniture and fittings for the poor people in a small town. Tommy worked for his grandfather at a very successful company with a lot of well paying contracts for the airlines. A company that Tommy was set to inherit, and all the money that came with it.

  Beth liked money, and she liked the power that came with it. She'd spent the last two years straightening Tommy up, and getting him firmly under her thumb.

  She glanced at the cooler in the back seat as she turned off the car and opened the door. She c
ould feel its power, there was magic in there alright. She wondered briefly if it was Tommy's coming in contact with it, that gave him the power to stand up to her gentle persuasions, and even harder pushing? She didn't have a problem with him sending off half of it to that guy he knew back east, the money they got for that was a nice bonus after all.

  But she wanted to experiment with the rest of it. There was power there, and Beth wanted it. She had always hated the fact that she could sense the power, but she had so little of it herself. Her mother had even less than she did, but had always been happy with it, but then her mother had always been willing to settle for less. But not her! No, she never settled for less than her due, and after giving Tommy two years of her life and spending all that time improving him, he owed her this!

  Sighing loudly she grabbed the cooler and getting out of the car she walked up to the front door. She'd called her mother last night to let her know she was coming home. Opening the door and going inside she set the cooler down.

  "Mom?" she called out.

  "Beth! Is that you?"

  Beth's mother, Kelly Nightwind came into the room. Beth sighed and smiled, her mother's powers might be small, but her mother was still lovely, and always welcoming. She could have done so much better for herself than her father. Beth honestly didn't know how they came to be together, or why her mother continued to turn down all others to stay with him.

  "Hi, Mom."

  "What happened? Where's Tommy?"

  "I told you, Mom, we had a fight. He found something, something powerful, and he was just going to sell it all."

  "And you left him over that?" her mother said, looking rather shocked.

  "Mom, it's power, real power. I've never felt anything like it before! I let him sell half of it, but after two years, dammit, he owes me a little something! So I took it and left."

  "Beth! You don't throw over a good man like that! Tommy is warm and kind and very generous. He's been very good to you and he's let you into his life and shared it with you. You had balance with Tommy."

  Beth rolled her eyes, her mother just didn't understand sometime.