Blast from the Past (A Mac Faraday Mystery) (12 page)

“Where was she while her husband was being shot?”

The server paused to think before answering. “I wasn’t watching her. I can’t say for certain—I think she was behind the killer—on the other side of the road.”

“She wasn’t standing next to her husband when he was shot?” Mac asked.

Quickly, she shook her head. “I saw her running up while the killer was running around toward the lake.”

The three of them sat in silence. Mac and the server were digesting what had happened—she from memory, Mac visualizing what she had described.

Nora Crump was ignoring her husband while taking in the crowd…coffee with double cream and sugar …“one day all that fattening cream and sugar will kill you …”
he could see her saying.
The poison at the Dockside Café was in the cream.

“Show me where they were sitting.” Mac jumped up from his seat so fast that both the server and Gnarly were startled.

Choking on her tears, the server pointed at the very table from which Mac had pulled out the chair to sit down.

“Where was the wife sitting?” Mac asked her.

“In the chair that you’re sitting in.”

Mac turned around the chair and sat down at the table. The fireplace would have provided a warm ambiance for the couple. Looking around, Nora Crump also had a view of the mural of a Southwestern scene on the wall next to the fireplace; a view out the window at the outdoor café, which was closed for the season; one of a corner of the lake; one of the courtyard directly on the other side of the window; and one of the corner of the parking lot.

What made you suddenly leave? What did you see? Was it the killer? Were you running to or from something?

Mac was still gazing through the window when David came rushing in from outside. “There you are!” the police chief called to him. “Come on. We’ve got to go.”

Frightened by the anxious tone in David’s voice, Mac assumed something had happened to Archie. “What’s happened?”

David waited for Mac to get close before whispering, “The feds got a location on Ray Bonito. Randi got us permission to be there when they grab him.”  

Chapter Sixteen

Something isn’t right with that woman.

Archie had come into the kitchen to prepare a nighttime snack when she spied Leah’s smart phone on the floor next to the doors opening out onto the deck. She had seemingly dropped it while slipping it into her pocket before taking Sari down to the dock to feed the ducks before putting her to bed. After picking up the phone from the floor, Archie studied the screen.

What’s up with her? Why did she react the way she did when I caught her texting? Was she sending a note to a married man she was having an affair with? Or was it someone from her family that she had left behind when she went into the program? Someone she’s not supposed to be contacting.

With a pang in her heart, Archie recalled all the loved ones that she had to leave behind, many of whom she didn’t have a chance to say good-bye to, when she went into the program more than a decade before. Now, Randi had said they were faking Leah’s and Sari’s deaths before relocating them.

If Leah is so concerned for their safety, then who is she texting? The whole idea behind the program is to go deep underground. It doesn’t work if you have any contact at all with your past. Not only does it jeopardize your safety, but also the safety of your loved ones. If whomever you are running from even suspects that someone you love has been in contact with you, they are liable to be tortured or killed to get information about your whereabouts.

With one eye on the dock, Archie slipped the smart phone into her pocket, stepped out onto the deck, and hurried down to her guest cottage.

Many a child had fed the ducks down on the dock in the morning or evening as the sun was going down. The feeding would always be accompanied by childish squeals of delight. Not so this evening, Archie noted while trotting down the path to her stone cottage.
Sari won’t even talk to the ducks. How sad.

Watching for Leah and her daughter to come up from the dock, Archie placed her hand on the door knob. With the other, she clutched the phone concealed in her pocket.

“Everything okay?”

Her gasp ending in a shriek, Archie whirled around while pulling her blue Ruger out from behind her back to aim it into Hector’s face.

“It’s only me!” The security manager threw up his hands. “Easy, Archie.”

With a sigh of relief, Archie lowered the gun and replaced it in the waistband behind her back, under her shirt. “You should warn people before sneaking up on them.”

“You should warn people before pulling a gun on them,” Hector countered.

“If I gave killers a warning before shooting them, then they’d get the drop on me.”

“Point well taken,” Hector said. “What are you sneaking around about?”

“I’m not sneaking around,” Archie said.

“You’re lying.”

“I am not.” She threw open the door. “I need to get some folders from my office.”

Before she could hurry inside, Hector grabbed her by the arm. “I need to check it out first to make sure it’s secure.”

“Be my guest.” She stood back.

Hector pulled his gun out of his holster and stepped inside. The beating of her heart sounded like a clock timer in her ear while she watched Leah and Sari down at the dock. Silently, the mother and child sat on the dock. Sari would throw food to the ducks that were crowded beneath her feet while her mother, uninterested in the feeding, glanced around at the scenery.

“All clear,” Hector announced.

“Thanks,” Archie said while hurrying inside.

While the bodyguard waited, Archie ran through the small kitchen and down the hall to her office. Once inside, she dropped down to her knees in front of a plastic storage cart that contained five drawers and yanked open the third drawer down. That was where her organization ended. The drawer contained a wide variety of cell phones, from flip to slide to smart. Her breath quickened while she clawed through the phones until she found the style and model she wanted. She uttered a gasp of satisfaction when she found it.

The next drawer down contained the cord that would attach the two phones. 

She plopped down onto the floor and went to work.

“Ducks all fed?” Hector called out in a cheery voice that made Archie jump.

Cool it, Archie. You’re as jumpy as a schoolgirl getting her first kiss.
She continued to download and copy the settings from Leah’s phone to the clone phone she was creating.
Just ten more seconds.

“Where’s Archie?” She heard Bogie call out to Hector.

“She’s getting something out of her office.”

She could hear their voices moving closer.

The screen on her phone read
“Cloning Complete.”
She detached the cord and tossed it onto the floor next to her desk. She slipped Leah’s phone into one pocket while dropping the clone into the opposite pocket.

“All done,” she sang out while coming out of her office and closing the door. “I was about to pour myself a cocktail. Do you two want some?”

“Love one,” Bogie said, “but we’re on duty. I’ll have a cup of hot tea if you don’t mind.”

Hector opted for a cup of coffee.

Archie led them up the path, across the deck, and into the kitchen where she opened the cupboard to take out the packages of loose leaf tea.

“I just got off the phone with Tonya at the station,” Bogie said. “The husband of that couple at the café this morning was murdered.”

“Seriously?” Archie stopped with the tea kettle in mid-air on its way to the stovetop. She turned to stare out the deck doors off the back deck to the dock, which was home to the speed boat and two jet skis. Since David had moved in, he had been riding her jet ski more than she did.

Leah and Sari came into the kitchen. Hugging her toy collie dog close to her chest, Sari had changed into an oversized nightshirt that Archie had offered to her to use for pajamas. It hung all the way down to the little girl’s ankles. The events of the day had not allowed them time to pack any clothes or belongings from home.

Recalling her staring at Gnarly when he was in the room, Archie turned to her when they came in. “Gnarly should be home soon, Sari.”

“Sari doesn’t like dogs.” Leah’s hardened tone grated on Archie’s nerves.

“Are you sure about that?” Archie looked down at the little girl staring with a longing look in her eyes out at the lake. “She doesn’t act frightened of Gnarly.”

“You can’t trust dogs.” Leah glanced around the room. “Have you seen my phone? I can’t find it.”

“No, I haven’t seen any phone laying around,” Bogie said.

“We’ll be on the lookout,” Hector said.

Archie took the phone from out of her pocket. “Right here.” She held it out to Leah. “I found it on the floor next to the door.”

Leah snatched the phone from Archie’s hand. “I don’t think so.”

“What?” Archie blinked.

“I think you took it.”

“Now wait a minute.” Bogie stood up to his height.

“She’s been snooping on me and Sari ever since we got here.”

“If Archie’s snooping on you, maybe it’s because you need to be snooped on,” Hector replied.

Ignoring the two men challenging her, Leah shook her phone in Archie’s face. “You stay out of my room and my business, or you’re going to find yourself in a lot more serious trouble than you had with Tommy Cruze.”

“You’re a guest in my home,” Archie remind her. “That means I can go anywhere I want, anytime I want.”

“Well, if you want to keep that pretty face of yours pretty,” Leah said in an icy tone, “you’d better think twice before getting in my way.”

“Is that a threat?” Bogie’s hand was on his gun.

“Yes,” Leah answered. “And what are you going to do about it?” She smirked at all of them. “I have the US Marshals watching my back. Because of me, they’ve broken up the biggest and baddest crime organization on the West Coast. Like you and your little play cops with your puppy-dog can even touch me.”

“Both of the assassins this morning had several texts from two cell phone numbers,” Randi Finnegan explained to Mac from her seat in the front of the cruiser. “One of them was a pre-paid phone which has since been shut off. That one had the place and time that Tommy Cruze was going to be at the Dockside Café.”

David was speeding as best he could on the dark, twisting dirt road going up to a remote section of Spencer Mountain. They were away from Deep Creek Lake in an area that Mac had never visited.

On the seat next to him, Gnarly was equally curious with his snout up against the window. Mac wondered how well dogs really see in the dark.

“Our people tracked the GPS for the other number to a cabin on Spencer Mountain,” she said, “They’ve known for quite a while that Bonito owns a hunting cabin up on the mountain.”

“Hunting’s not allowed in Spencer,” David said.

“Bonito doesn’t care about little laws like that,” she said with a smile in her voice before turning serious. “Turn off your lights. They’re going to be surrounding the place to go in when their man gives the signal.”

“By man, I guess you mean the agent that had escaped the café during the poisoning?” Mac asked.

Randi turned back around to face frontwards. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Leaning forward to peer through the windshield to navigate on the dark wooded road, David eased the cruiser onto a side road and through the brush. He parked off the road behind a black van that Mac didn’t see until after the police cruiser had come to a halt.

Agent Delaney appeared none too happy when Randi led them to where he was crouching behind some bushes. On the other side, Mac could make out dim lights in a log home. Even in the dark, he could see by the rustic setting and shabby outdoor furniture surrounding it that the place was several decades old. It did not fit with the modern estate homes located down along the lakeshore and on top of the mountain where treetops were trimmed to afford clear views of the lake and valley below.

With no lake view, this cabin was located and built to not be seen.

In the darkness, Agent Delaney didn’t notice Gnarly until he moved in to sniff the gun he was wearing on his hip. “You brought the dog?”

“He turned out to be pretty handy this morning,” David said.

Recalling that Gnarly had taken out the hit man who had them all pinned that morning, Agent Delaney nodded his head. “Sorry, I forgot.” He turned to Gnarly. “Welcome to the team. Rule One: Don’t get cocky out there.”

Gnarly uttered a noise from deep in his throat and sat down. Eying the agent, he licked his chops.

“Cocky is his middle name,” Mac said.

“What’s going down?” David asked. Noting that a team of agents were moving in on a cabin that was in Spencer, Maryland, his jurisdiction, he added, “and why am I only finding out about this now?”

“Because we didn’t know this was where Ray Bonito was hiding out,” Delaney said. “We thought he had abandoned this place years ago after Cruze was put away.”

“He’s right,” Randi said. “If I knew that Bonito or any of his people were still active in this area, I would never have agreed to locating any of my charges here.”

“This place was burned as a mob safe house back when Cruze was put away,” Delaney said. “I guess after such a long period of no activity, we forgot about it, and Bonito figured it was clean again to bed down.”

“Sounds like you guys need to work on your long term memory,” Mac said.

“You’d be surprised at how long my memory is,” Delaney replied.

“What’s happening now?” David repeated his original question.

“Our hit man—” Delaney began.

“The one who escaped the poisoning at the café,” Mac said.

Delaney cast Mac a dirty glance before continuing, “He started calling back the number that one of the assassins had on his cell phone. He claimed to be TO’d about a hit going down while he was on the premises and demanded restitution for his silence, or he was going to the authorities. It took several calls, but he finally got a text from the number saying to come here to collect.”

Mac shook his head. “I don’t like that idea. Sounds to me like your man is walking into a setup. Why would they pay him?”

“Because the cover on our man is a first-class assassin. Bonito may be a psychopath, but he’s also smart. He’ll want our man working for him. He’ll bring him on board, and we’ll get all that we need to put him out of business.”

“Richardson says he’s a total paranoid,” Mac said. “The only people who have direct contact with him are his most trusted men, which didn’t even include Tommy Cruze. The only reason he’d let your man come out here is—”

The sound of gunfire completed Mac’s statement.

“It’s an ambush! Move it! Move it! Move it!” Delaney called to his men, who were already moving in on the dark cabin.

As the agents moved in, shots were fired at them from the cabin.

Randi was moving in when she saw a dark figure pop up from behind a wood pile. The killer was so close that she could see his laughing eyes trained on her as he aimed his handgun at her. Seeing the barrel of the gun an arm’s length from her face, she froze.
Do something! You’re acting like a complete newbie.

The blast deafened her. She waited for the pain that she expected to hit her body before darkness took over.

Blood spilled out of the gunman’s mouth before he collapsed down on top of the wood pile.

The noises around her echoed when she saw David come from behind the wood pile to grab her by the arm. “Don’t just stand there! You need to take cover! Now!”

The rapid fire of a machine gun drove them down behind the water well. She could smell David’s musky scent while he covered her with his body.

The series of gunfire was quickly reduced down to a spattering of shots from here and there as Bonito’s men were quickly eliminated. It was as if they had taken a code. No one was going to be taken alive.

Mac had counted a half-dozen. The count was then reduced to one man. Swinging an Uzi left and right in front of him to clear his path, he raced out the back door.

It was like a re-broadcast of the morning before, this time with a sea of federal agents being held at bay by one man. He had everyone pinned. With their semi-automatic handguns, the federal agents were out gunned.

“Any ideas, hot shot?” Delaney asked Mac while they crouched behind a rusted-out truck on blocks.

Before Mac could answer, the gunman rose and drove them all down while he ran towards the trees. Mac dove for the ground and aimed for the running legs. They were quick moving targets, but it was his only shot before they lost the maniac in the deep woods. There was no telling what he would do to innocent local residents in his desperation to escape arrest.

Under the truck, he could hear the pitter-patter of dog paws in the bed of the truck.
Gnarly! What’s he up to?

His answer came when he heard the gunman scream. There was a flurry of gunfire. Gnarly yelped. Mac heard a thud.

Silence.

Mac felt his heart in his throat. Crawling out from under the truck, he envisioned finding Gnarly a lifeless, blood-soaked fur bag after trying to take down the gunman.

In the darkness, he saw nothing.

“Where’d they go?” he heard Delaney ask from beside him.