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“Harkes!”
“You have a good night, Madame Secretary.”
Harkes walked out the front door.
CHAPTER
69
BUNTING AND PAUL FOLLOWED Sean and Michelle back to Machias. On the way Sean filled Michelle in on all that had been discussed at the restaurant. Hours later they pulled their vehicles up to the darkened cottage in the woods and cut their lights. Sean was first to notice something wrong. The door to the cottage was partially open. It was nearly four in the morning and still dark. Michelle noted the open door, too. She slipped out her gun.
Bunting, who had fallen asleep in the other car, awoke and said groggily, “Are we here?”
“Keep quiet,” warned Paul, who was driving his rental. “Something’s not right.”
When Bunting saw that all three had their weapons out he sat upright, fully awake now. “What is it?” he hissed.
“Stay here,” ordered Michelle, as she came up next to their vehicle. “And keep down.”
Paul said, “I’ll stay with Peter.”
Bunting instantly crouched down in the floorboard while Paul’s gaze swept the house and the surrounding woods.
Michelle entered through the back door and Sean the front, and they met in the middle of the one-story house. Michelle picked up the overturned chair while Sean looked at the smashed glass cabinet that had sat against a wall, and the upside-down table. Megan Riley’s legal documents were scattered across the floor.
But that was all secondary.
“Damn,” said Sean in a low voice.
Eric Dobkin lay sprawled on the floor next to the table. He was dressed in civilian clothes because he was doing them a favor. His last favor.
Michelle knelt down next to him. “Looks to be a single GSW to the chest,” she said, examining the bloody hole in the man’s shirt. She edged him over. “Slug’s still in him. No exit wound.” Michelle laid the body back down, rose, and stepped back. “I can’t believe this happened.”
“Front door’s been kicked in,” noted Sean. “And Megan is obviously not here.”
That’s when he saw it over behind the couch. Sean picked it up. It was Megan’s sweater, with blood all over it. He poked a finger through a hole in the garment. “Not a bullet. Looks like maybe a knife.”
“If she’s dead why take her body?” said Michelle.
“I don’t know. But we have to call the cops.”
“Wait.”
They looked up to see Kelly Paul and Bunting standing in the front doorway.
“We can’t wait, Kelly,” said Sean. “This guy is a state trooper. He was doing us a favor. And now he’s dead. He’s got a wife and three little kids. This is a nightmare.”
Michelle said, “And Megan has been taken too.” She looked at Sean and added bitterly, “Some guardian angels we were.”
They contacted the police. Sean and Michelle waited for them to arrive while Bunting and Paul left. It would have been far too complicated to explain the latter two’s involvement. They arranged to rendezvous later.
Before she’d departed Paul had said, “It will be coming soon.”
“How are they going to do it?” asked Sean.
“The only way they really can,” replied Paul.
“And our response will be?” asked Sean.
