Darkness Of Truth (An FBI/Romance Thriller~ Book 6) (75 page)

Elizabeth needed clarification. “You mean the guy that I’m always seeing collecting the trash?”

Kane confirmed what she just stated.

Blackhawk stood. “That would explain how the killer knew things we didn’t release. The garbage the team threw away. They didn’t think to shred.”

Damn, he blended right in!

“What’s his name?” Elizabeth demanded.

Redwolf ran his hands through his hair. “Thomas Aster.”

She had her phone out and called down to Christina, placing the call on speaker. When the woman answered on the second ring, she blurted into the phone. “Do you have the families run on the first two victims, Christina?”

“Yeah, I’m working it right now and checking them against every police officer in the department.”

“Stop. I need you to run it against one name. Ready?”

“Shoot.”

“Thomas Aster.”

Christina
clicked away. “I can do this faster if I get off the phone. Give me five minutes, and I’ll call you back.”

She hung
up. “We need to find Rick and fast. Officer Redwolf, will you go see if he’s back in his office?”

He nodded, and turned at the door. “If it matters, the only other room
s downstairs besides the file room and the rooms the FBI are using is the janitor’s closet.” Kane hustled out of the room to go find his boss.

Elizabeth grinned. “Could we have the bastard?”

Blackhawk nodded. “He’d have been here when the email was sent, and he had access to all the files.”

Kane rushed back into the room. “Directors, you need to come fast.”

They all followed him out of the office.

“I didn’t touch it,” he said, pointing to the center of the desk.

Staring at the feather, Elizabeth knew they were too late. Her phone began ringing. “Blackhawk,” she answered, putting it on speaker phone.

“Elizabeth, we have a match to the first three victims.
I can link the police officer that was killed in the hit and run, Kevin Clark to the name you gave me. The man was his father’s cousin.”

There was the thread that tied it all up.

“Christina, get up to Rick Longtree’s office. We have another feather, and I believe a potential victim.”

“Thomas applied for the
officer position that’s now filled by Melanie less than a year ago. He couldn’t pass the entrance exam and was told he couldn’t have the job,” offered Redwolf.

“He’s seeking justice,” answered Elizabeth. “The first three killings were to avenge his great uncle, and the rest are to avenge people that are ‘breaking the law’ according to him.”

Callen shook his head. “Great. We have a Native vigilante who is psychologically over the edge.”

Blackhawk didn’t like the odds. “We need to figure out where he’d take Rick. We don’t have a whole lot of time either.”

She looked at her watch. “When did Rick leave?”

Kane mimicked her action
, glancing down at his own wrist. “It was less than an hour ago that we had our meeting.”

“We have time,” Elizabeth reassured, hoping
she wasn’t wrong. Elizabeth called Julian and Tori and began focusing on their plan to get the police chief back in one piece.

Blackhawk grabbed their attention. “His life depends on us finding this location.”

“Then let’s go do what we do best,” Elizabeth said, already working out the details in her mind. “We’re going to balance the scales of justice, not Thomas Aster!”

             
                            *   *   *

His vision wavered as a chill filled his body. Rick was in intense pain, as his head throbbed and his shoulder ached from
lying on the ground. He tried to focus on the flames he saw dancing before him, but the hit to his head was making his vision distort everything around him. This was all one really weird dream.

Then he realized where he was.

Shit!

His naked body was contorted with his limbs bound behind him.
Rick began probing with his fingers at the knots that held him captive. He was going to have very few chances at escape. Hog tied meant his heart was an easy shot for the man.

“Thomas, why are you doing this?” he asked, trying to pretend he was still groggy. Maybe the man wouldn’t think he was untying knots.

“Why? It’s all about justice of course, Rick. I’m getting revenge for those that were killed. Ben Soaring Eagle murdered three people without even caring. Each one had a family, and they were robbed from them.”

“You could have come to me,” he offered. “I would have reopened them and found the truth. I believe in Justice.”

Thomas shook his head. “My plan was to become a cop and then find the truth. When you wouldn’t let me on the force, I had to find a way around it. You think I like being a janitor? The only reason I took the job was to blend in and be invisible. No one sees me, unless they need something cleaned up or fixed.”

“We respected you, Thomas.
You were part of our family. I even told you that you could retest for the job if another position opened.”

“If you respected me then you would have bent the rules like you did for Melanie Freeman. She’s a brainless twit and you made her a cop. Yet I solved a twenty five year murder. ME! Not the FBI, not your cops. Me alone and you know what, Rick? When you’re gone there’ll be another opening to fill. I may not get to be
chief of police, but when Redwolf takes your position, I’ll get his.”

“I see you thought about this.”

He raged. “How could I not? Soaring Eagle killed my family! My father always wanted revenge, and I picked up for him. He used to practice magic of the skinwalkers, and he taught me how to disappear in plain sight. That’s how I blended in and stayed hidden from you all.”

Rick knew he was pretty much screwed. The man was out of his mind.

“I’m above the law, and I‘ll continue to find Justice. When the FBI leaves, I’ll monitor the reservation and do what the law can’t.”

He was sick to his stomach. “It’s murder, Thomas. You have to stop. You know what our people think about taking a life needlessly.”

The sick laughter bubbled up and filled the night air.

“We can work through this, Thomas,” he pleaded
, trying to reach the smallest part of sanity that had to reside in the man’s soul. Surely no one was this evil inside.

“I gave you a sign,” he offered. “The night you took the files to the FBI, I left a white feather on your windshield. I gave you every chance to evade this.”

“I never got it. Can I have a redo?”

The man
laughed wickedly. “I’ll get set up for the ritual. Don’t go anywhere, Rick.”

There was more
snickering, as the man walked away to sharpen his knife.

It was just about time.

                                          *   *   *

The FBI team sat in the office with Kane Redwolf. They figured he earned it, since he gave them the final details to the puzzle. Without his information, they’d be lost still.

“Where would he take him, Ethan?” inquired Elizabeth. “I need your insight.”

Blackhawk was used to pressure. According to his mental time projections, Longtree had about an hour before he was dead. It was time to really work this one out.

“We took away his circle in the woods. He took Duffy there, and then hung up the skin laundry. I don’t think he’ll go there ever again. He knows we’ve compromised it. If we were to discover the feather before the ritual was done, Thomas would assume we’d check there first. That’s the most likely spot he’d want us to head.”

“
Okay, so he won’t go there. Where’s he at then, Ethan?”  Callen pushed.

He analyzed all the information whirling in his brain.
This was the hardest part of his job and the one aspect that would make or break an agent. If he was incorrect, Rick Longtree was dead.

“I need it
Ethan.” Elizabeth laid her hand on his arm. “I believe in you. You’re the best profiler in the whole FBI Realm. Talk crime scene to me.”

Redwolf watched him carefully; the pressure had to be incredibly crushing in him.
This is why he liked his simple job on the Rez. He couldn’t imagine the stress this caused.

“Thomas will use his own house. He won’t want to risk us disturbing him. Since he believes we don’t know it’s him, he’ll go to the safest place he has and that’s his own home.
He’s banking on us finding the feather, but not knowing the killer’s identity.”

Elizabeth kissed him fast. “Kane, you know where he lives?”

“Yeah.”

“Want to join us?” she asked, offering it up to him. He’d earned it.

“Yeah, you bet I do.”

             
                            *   *   *

Before long his legs were free. Rick worked as fast as he could, untying the knots. The entire time his eyes never left the man dancing around the fire. He’d watched him toss the dried herbs into the flames and the acrid smoke became thick. The billowy plumes wafted towards him, and he moved back from it the best he could. What he didn’t need now was some psychedelic mind trip into the man’s craziness. Remaining calm, patient and lucid would save his life.

Th
at and running like hell at the first chance.

The man finished his naked dancing and came towards him, glinting knife extended.

“At least put some damn clothes on,” Rick said, creeped out by the whole thing. This was too close to another naked man for his own liking.

“I plan on wearing your skin when I’m done. You’re a good man, Rick. I’ll retain that part of your energy.
If you hold very still, the kill will be instantaneous, and you won’t suffer. Squirming and fighting the inevitable will only prolong the pain, and ruin your skin.”

It simply wasn’t happening. As the knife headed towards parts of his body he was fond of and using, he kicked out, knocking Thomas back.

There was a yell of anguish and Rick was up and moving towards the trees. He recognized Thomas’s cabin and car. He knew his way out, if he could just get far enough ahead.

The gun shot stunned him as the bullet ripped through his
back and shoulder. At least it was his right one, and nowhere near his heart. He could still make it. The second shot filled the air, but didn’t touch him.

The man’s howls of anger filled the night, as Rick
had only one mission.

Running for his life!

             
                            *   *   *

They’d parked their vehicles down the road in the shadows of the trees. When they drove by the house, they’d seen Thomas’s car, and they knew he was home.

Now it came down to getting to the back yard in the dark, in new territory and for the first time. They opted for microphones and ear pieces to keep in touch.

They also opted to divide up.

Julian and Tori took the East side of the property. He was king at tracking, and she was perfect in night time ops. The woman had wandered the streets of a warzone in darkness; this would be a cake walk.

Ethan trusted his brother with Elizabeth. What it came down to was he was more scared for Callen being hurt than
his wife. They didn’t call her Tex because of her southern drawl. If it came down to taking a shot, she’d make it, and it would be precise. One of them had to have Callen’s back, and there was no way in hell he was leaving Redwolf with his woman, in case this was all a set up. The man came to them with the information, and then he found the feather. It just seemed too convenient to him, and he wouldn’t risk either of their lives if they were wrong.

If this was a trap, he would
handle it. Not his wife or brother.

The three teams
broke off taking their perspective sides, praying that they found Rick Longtree alive. Time wasn’t on their side, and fate was driving this one now.

The voice over the earpiece
was low and quiet. “This has to be it,” stated Tori. “I smell some nasty stuff being burned.”

As if timed, both Callen and Ethan replied. “Peyote.”

Elizabeth would have laughed. She simply shook her head at the men in her life, not wanting to know. There was no doubt that some of their reckless driving was peyote fueled fun fests.

“
I have visual,” stated Julian. “Rick is lying on the ground. He’s restrained and naked.”

Blackhawk came over the com. “Kane and I also have visual.”
He relaxed, trusting the officer beside him. They too could see the killer.

Elizabeth motioned to Callen to go one direction but stay in in sight. “I see him,” she replied. “I can take a shot
and bring him down,” she whispered, taking aim.