SEALs of Honor: Hawk (2 page)

The two men were smarter than he gave them credit for as the one man pulled out a handful of change and tossed it on the counter. “There. No biggie. Gordon doesn’t mind.”

They backed up a step.

Hawk advanced. “He doesn’t?”

The two men shook their heads. The second one grabbed a chocolate bar off the shelf as he headed for the door. “Nah,” he called back defiantly. “He doesn’t mind in the least.” And the two raced out laughing like loons.

Hawk stood inside the door, looking out the window as he called his sister. “Eva, what the hell is going on?”

There was a weird crackling then her harried voice. “No one really knows, but some rumor started about there being a cache of weapons and bomb making equipment found in one of the caves, and everyone is making up weird conspiracy theories. Where are you?” she asked.

“In the general store, standing over Gordon’s dead body.” What the hell? Canford and bomb making equipment. Those two didn’t go together. Never had. This was country at its finest. Slow, easy, and very quiet.

He heard her cry of horror. “What?”

“He’s been shot through the back of the head.”

“Oh my God.” There was a shocked silence then she said, “Any sign of anyone else around?”

“Half the damn town appears to be standing around,” he snapped. “And they look both excited and terrified.”

“I know. I am too.” There was an odd sound like gears crunching. He looked outside and watched his beau-tiful sister get out of her ancient truck and run up the stairs to the front door, her cell phone still at her ear.

She burst through the door.

And ran into his arms.

He held her close, her long auburn hair hanging down her back and over his arms. He wrapped a hand in her long locks and hugged her hard. Finally he set her back a few feet and saw the worry in her face. He gave her a little shake.

“A cache of weapons?”

“And bomb making equipment and…” she took a deep ragged breath. “Chemicals. And many of the tubs are empty.”

He shook his head. “If that were the case, there’d be the military here. Hell, I could just as easily be called as well, depending on what’s needed.”

She nodded. “The sheriff hasn’t said anything. The locals are just rehashing gossip, but no one knows anything for sure.”

“Then I can guarantee that someone else knows because town gossip never stays local.”

“True, but the sheriff was trying to keep everyone calm until he could get the right people here. As in
his
contacts. As far as I know there is a mess of people coming, but in the meantime no one is allowed to leave. And everyone is terrified. No one is drinking the water in case it’s poisoned, etc.”

He nodded. Rumors ran rampant without any kind of control. But he also understood people. That meant there was going to be hoards of media within hours. Canford was off the beaten track, but there were good roads in and out.

They’d find the small town eventually.

Eva gripped his arms. “Did you mean it…what you said about Gordon?”

He tugged her back into his arms for a quick hug then stepped back and motioned to the office door. “He’s behind there.”

A fist went to her mouth and tears twinkled at the corner of her eyes. “Who would do such a thing?”

He shrugged. In his world people did all kinds of shitty things for minor reasons. His gaze roamed the back wall, and the question popped out at him. “When were you in the store last?”

She shook her head, her hands swiping at the tears trickling down her cheeks. “A few days ago I think. To see Mia.”

Mia. Gordon’s daughter. Right, and she was Eva’s best friend. “Any idea where she is?”

“Spelunking training,” she whispered. “I’ve been calling her but she’s not answering.”

Of course not. No reception underground. Spelunking. Really?

“And the gun case over there.” He pointed to the empty one on the wall. “Do you remember if it was empty before?”

She gasped and stared. “I have no idea.”

He walked over to the cabinet and could see the lock had been smashed. Had Gordon refused to open it? He would. He was that kind of man. He’d also have been damn mad to have his guns taken and used in a criminal offense. Especially in his own murder.

“Do you think it’s related?”

“No idea, but how could it not be? When a town goes wild, then the townsfolk do too. Anyone scared and not owning their own firearms might have considered this worth doing to protect themselves. And the theft of the firearms might not have anything to do with Gordon’s death. Given where he lay, they may not have seen his body. Or after finding the store deserted they might have just taken the opportunity to snatch the firearms. But chances are the two incidences were related. A stretch not to be.”

Then he remembered the earlier visitors.

“Two young punks came in ten minutes before you got here. One planned to steal a pack of gum, and the other one did take a chocolate bar and laughed about it.”

“And you didn’t pound them into the ground?” she asked in surprise. “Wow, what happened to my big brother?”

“Gordon was lying in the office, and I wanted to find out if they knew. But outside of stealing and acting as if they knew Gordon wouldn’t know, they made no actions that let me see they knew anything about his murder.”

“Billy and Travis,” she said instantly. “Bullies and local rich boys.”

“So rich they have to steal?” He saw it often. Rich kids who figured the rules didn’t apply to them. Only Canford wasn’t a hotspot for the rich. Although the condos on the lake were changing that. If Billy and Travis were examples of the new arrivals he wasn’t impressed.

“Something like that. Billy’s father is buying up land throughout the area right now.” She shrugged. “Lots of people are selling and lots are holding out. Causing a big division in opinion locally.”

“The one kid mentioned his father was buying the store from Gordon.”

Eva shook her head violently. “No, Gordon was very against that, and he’d been offered a decent price. But he wouldn’t have anything to do with it as Tom, the father, planned to give the store to his son, Travis. Mia felt the same way.”

“I agree with Gordon.” Hawk glanced behind him. “But I wonder how she’s going to feel about that now.”

Chapter 2

M
IA DROPPED THE
rope she’d wound to a coil by her feet. She’d been doing search and rescue training for months now, but the spelunking was beyond the normal training. She’d been out practicing on her own ever since she’d realized she needed more experience with all the tourist business increasing. The accidents were increasing too. Not a good scenario. More trained personnel were needed.

She searched the gloomy circle of light produced by her headlight. One of the biggest lessons everyone needed to learn was that no one went into the caves alone. Including her. She had both the Bangor brothers with her. And a couple of other search and rescue volunteers all wanting to improve their skills. There was nothing worse than coming up against a lack of training when lives were in jeopardy.

“How is that arm of yours doing, Mia?” Paul asked.

She gave the arm in question a good shake. “It’s holding up well.” In fact, she was really pleased with it. It had been a good six months since she’d injured it during a bad climb. Months of recovery and therapy and she was back outside as normal. Even so, the arm was a shade weaker than she’d like. Strength was mandatory. During an emergency, weakness was a detriment.

She had to regain the full muscle mass.

“Make sure you don’t overdo it, today,” Peter warned from behind his brother. “It’s easy to do.”

“I know.” She shook out both arms then grinned. “They feel good.”

“Then let’s go. This system has some interesting caves further up. Let’s get at it.”

“I’ll lead.” She dropped to her knees and crawled through the tunnel, pulling the rope behind her. The others would follow. They’d been down here for a couple of hours already. Time wise they had about another hour then they’d have to turn back. This was the furthest she’d come so it was a success as far as she was concerned.

The return journey should be faster. Good thing. She didn’t really enjoy this hobby. And forced herself in here on the premise of work a related skill set. In truth she was a little creeped out being down here in the dark with several tons of dirt ready to come down on her at any moment.

Another reason for being here now. To face that fear.

She’d rather be home to help her friend Eva with the chores. The chores were too much for her on her own. And in truth, Mia enjoyed being around the horses and other animals. She’d been living in the trailer on Eva’s property for three months now. A setup that suited both women. Eva needed the cash, and Mia was looking for a place close by but not in her father’s house. They only had each other left in family outside of distant or estranged relatives and they were close, but she needed her on space.

A clod of dirt fell down in front of her nose, raising a plume of dust to float up her nostrils. She coughed several times then cleared her throat several more times. She struggled to pull her water bottle forward so she could take a drink. Only it wasn’t possible given the confines of the small tunnel. There was nothing else to do but carry on. She crawled forward, still coughing slightly. When she made it through to another cavern, she shifted off to the side, yanked on her rope a couple of times and pulled her water bottle clear. After a long drink, she settled back down against the dirt wall and waited for the others to come along. She’d never been in this section before and knew a lot of this area was full of unchartered caves.

It didn’t take long for Peter to poke his head through the whole. He skimmed forward on his stomach. She laughed. “If you gain any more weight, you’re going to have trouble getting through to the next cave.”

He gave a rustic laugh as he stood up and brushed the dirt off his shirt and pants. “I’m a while off of that fate.”

She grinned. “I can just imagine,” she said in a mocking voice. “Help 911. There’s a rotund man stuck underground. He’s caught in the tunnels between the caves. You’ll need a large back hoe to rescue him.”

“Hey, it’s not that bad.” And in truth it wasn’t, but she loved to tease him. It was almost expected. He’d known her since she was in diapers. He’d been teasing her for just as long.

Paul popped his head through next. “Hey. Are we carrying on again, or is this as far as we’re going?”

Peter took a look at his watch. “Time is short. We’re going to need to return soon.” He pulled out his map and checked the cave chart system. “We have options. There is another exit close to here, but we’d have to walk up hill to the vehicles. There’s a lot more territory we’d enjoy covering given the time, maybe that’s an idea for next trip. We could enter close by and pick up from here.”

“I’m good to do that, but for today, this is probably as far as we can go.” She took another long drink of water and surveyed the huge cavern they were in. This was one of the major destinations in the system. It was fascinating if a little scary to be this deep underground.

As the last person made his way through the tunnel, she stood up, checked that everyone was okay and in good health. Then she took a short walk around the cave. Interesting place. There were other tunnels in the system. All headed off in various directions. Fascinating. She could spend days down here and still not explore them all. It would be dead easy to get lost. And that was something she had no intention doing.

There were available maps of the caves that had been charted, but the GPS points were listed with the realization anything electronic was not dependable underground. Although many enthusiasts were trying to shift wholly to digital cave surveying, it was hit or miss at best. And in the dark, shadows lying long in the cavern, she knew how easy it was to get turned around.

And that was often what brought her down here. People who’d lost their way and needed help to get back to the surface. So far, they’d been lucky. No fatalities.

If they were leaving soon, she wanted to take a moment and explore. There was something almost alien about these caves. So huge, so empty, and yet you knew they weren’t completely empty when something scurried away into the dark. The air was stale, stagnant yet cool with a mysterious unknown quality to the place. She didn’t know what to think of it. She’d been in many caves in the last year, but not like this. Not this deep. Not this far away from the sunlight. In a way it was the sunlight that she missed. The caves themselves to her were like old musty basements. Someplace she needed to go but hated the cramped shadowy spaces that hid more than they revealed.

It was never going to be her hobby.

As long as she learned to do rescues down here for when she was needed to help out, then she was good to not come for pleasure. And based on that…she’d better take a serious look around in case she never returned. She wandered the perimeter of the cave, marveling at the sheer size of the room. Her boots clinked on something metallic. She bent down and found a shell casing. Interesting. Not a good place for shooting practice. She glanced around, but there was no sign of anything having been shot. Still, casings meant people and people meant litter. She slipped it into her pocket. Each of the caves in the system had its own name. She’d forgotten which she was in. They went on and on like a hidden ring of pearls.

There were nooks and crannies that were impossible to see until she was right beside them. There were fallen rocks making the walking treacherous and dirt fell off the roof enough times to remind her they were miles underground with tons of dirt and rock above her head and nothing but more dirt and rock holding it all up.

A freaky thought.

After completing one loop around the cave, noting at least three places where tunnels appeared to head off in different directions she walked slowly back to the others. There was no water in this cave, she’d seen some in others, but as she walked across the dusty center she could see the ground was softer and might get waterlogged during different seasons as groundwater rose.