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They checked the closet for clothes and/or a body.
They found the former but not the latter.
They holstered their weapons and looked at each other.
“Vanished,” said Reel.
“Seems to be a lot of that going around,” added Robie.
Chapter
23
THEY WERE STANDING in front of the abandoned B&B where Luke Miller and Holly Malloy had hooked up the previous night.
They had taken Parry’s dog and dropped it off at the sheriff’s office, where it was being fed and watered.
“Why are we back here?” asked Reel.
“I want to see if anything was left behind.”
“But wasn’t the place searched after the gun battle with the skinheads?”
“I never saw anyone do it. Malloy left to look for her sister. The ‘undermanned’ state troopers had their hands full with the skinheads. And look, they don’t even have police tape over the front door. So I doubt there’s an investigation ongoing. Now, I’m not a lawyer, but they’ve already royally screwed up any legal case by not securing the place and putting a cop on premises to guard it. Now it’s contaminated.”
“The Wild Wild West all over again,” commented Reel.
Robie opened the bullet-pocked door and they went inside.
They found it on the second floor in a closet.
A single suitcase. The nametag on it read “Holly Malloy,” with a phone number printed under it.
Robie pulled it out of the closet, laid it on the bed, and opened it.
Inside were clothes, toiletries, a passport, and apparently all of Holly’s other worldly possessions.
Robie checked out the passport. “This was issued to her seven years ago, before she came out here. No stamps inside. I doubt she’s been out of the country.”
He looked at the passport photo. “Holly Malloy. She’s obviously younger in this picture, but it’s the woman I was with last night.”
“So it looks like she was planning to leave Grand. Maybe with Luke Miller last night.”
“This suitcase is small enough to be carried on his Harley, so maybe they were getting the hell out.”
“But then his fellow skinheads came to town to stop that from happening.”
“Appears to be.”
“Well, Luke Miller owes us big-time. But for you and me he’s a dead man.”
“I don’t think he sees it that way.”
Robie looked at the phone number on the luggage tag, pulled out his phone, and punched in the number. “Worth a shot,” he said to Reel.
Three rings later a voice answered.
“Who is this?”
“Holly, this is Will Robie, the guy you piggybacked on out of the window. One question: Where were you carrying the phone? In your underwear or your bra?”
The line went dead.
“Was that her?”
“Sounded like her. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so flippant in my query. I’ll take another whack at it from a different angle.”
He thumbed in a text and sent it to the phone number.
“What’d you say to her?”
“If she wants her stuff, she needs to call me back.”
Two minutes later his phone buzzed.
“Hello, Holly.”
“What do you want?” she said in a strident tone.
“First, we’ve talked to your sister and she explained your situation. You got a second shot and I wish you nothing but the best. And I have no desire to get in your way of leaving this hellhole, but I saw the note you left in my jacket. Roger Walton? You know we’re here to find him. Or else you wouldn’t have left the note. So what do you know about what happened to him?”
“I…I don’t know anything.”
“Come on, Holly. I’ve got all your stuff right here. Including your passport. The cops missed it, but I didn’t. You’re not going to be able to get another passport, and at some point you’re going to need an ID. So this is your only ticket out. You want it, you can have it, in exchange for answers to my questions about Walton. That’s all I want.”
Holly didn’t say anything for a few moments. “I…I can’t.”
“The cops let Luke go, but you probably already know that. Are you with him now? His skinhead buddies are royally pissed at him and us and the cops let them go, too. They’re not going to make it easy for you two to get out of here. Maybe we can help with that. In exchange for information. That’s my offer and you’d be stupid not to take it, because the way I see it you’ve got zero better options.”
She sighed. “Where and when?”
“How about Walton’s cabin in an hour?”
“I can make it in two hours.”
“Okay. By the way, who did you hook up with last night after Luke Miller? We know somebody picked you up, and it wasn’t Luke, because he was with the cops.”
“That has nothing to do with Walton.”
“Fair enough. See you there.”
Robie clicked off, closed up the suitcase, and lifted it off the bed.
“You really think she’s going to show?” asked Reel.
“Yeah. I just don’t think she’s going to show up alone.”
Chapter
24
THEY PARKED THEIR Yukon well behind Walton’s cabin and entered the house from the rear. After searching it and making sure it was empty, they took up surveillance on high ground away from the cabin, but where they could keep eyes on the road leading up to it.
Reel had her scope out and was looking through it.
Robie did his surveillance with the naked eye. Then he checked his watch. “We’ve got some time.”
“Who do you think she’ll show up with?”
“Either Luke Miller or whoever helped her last night.”
Reel made a slight adjustment on her scope calibration and then shot him a glance. “I heard about London. Sixteen for sixteen with a spare for interrogation.”
He shrugged. “That was the assignment. I heard you did all you could and more in Iraq.”
She frowned and said, “Well, just goes to show that scuttlebutt is inherently flawed.”
“Outnumbered and outgunned and facing armor with a rifle? What options did you have that you didn’t employ?”
She shot him another glance, this one suspicious. “That sounds like you got debriefed on the mission.”
“Why did you volunteer for Iraq, Jess?”
“They needed a sniper and I fit the bill.”
“The Army has a lot of snipers who fit the bill.”
“Okay, maybe I just missed Iraq.”
“I’m glad you missed something.”
She sat back on her haunches and looked over at him. “We’re up to our asses in another mission right now, so why don’t we just focus? How’s that for a plan?”
“So just to clarify, all the things you said on the tarmac when we got back to DC were what? Just stuff to make me feel better?”
“Robie, this is not the time or the place for this!”
“Apparently, it’s complicated.”
She shot him a glance.
