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“Can you please tell us exactly where we’re going now?” Cora asked.
“You heard Eli,” Bear said. “We’re going to church.”
“Then we’re definitely on a fool’s errand,” Liam said. “I’ve known Boyd a long time, and I can promise you, the Lord’s house is the last place he’d go, even if the devil himself were chasing him.”
Bear made a sound that almost passed for a chuckle, but Cora couldn’t be sure. He stretched out in the back seat, taking up most of the space. “Church is a limestone cave. Part of a whole network of tunnels and caves. It’s the old meeting place for the original Booze Dogs. They were bootleggers back during Prohibition. Had a secret still and stored barrels of whiskey up there. Among other things.”
“The only caves I’m aware of are on the other side of the ridge,” Cora said. “I didn’t realize we had any here.”
“Most people don’t know,” Bear said, “and we want to keep it that way, you get me? But this thing with the captain is personal, and we need to catch him fast, so here we are.”
“Why would Boyd want to hide in the caves?” Liam asked. “If it were me, I’d take as much money as I could get my hands on, steal the fastest car I could find, and flee the country.”
“That’s probably his plan,” Bear said. “He’s not looking to hide. We store a lot of stuff at church. Ever since the Doghouse got robbed, Eli’s been having us stash more money from our business operations up there, too.”
Cora glanced back at him. “Stolen money?” She didn’t expect him to answer truthfully.
“Aw, you think we’d steal, sweet cheeks?” He slapped his hand against his heart, mocking her. “Now, that just hurts my feelings. All the money we put up there is earned.”
Right. Earned through an illegal gambling ring. She wanted to point that out, but Bear was helping them track a killer. Though it was tempting, she couldn’t afford to punch this gift horse in the mouth. “So, the captain is after your money,” Cora said. “But if it’s so well hidden, how does he know where to find it?”
“Maybe he followed one of the Booze Dogs when they were making a run,” Liam said. “That’s what Slice meant when we were waiting for the ambulance.‘He knows. Go to church.’”
Bear made a growly sound in the back of his throat. “That scumbag lawyer Blackwell was in on it, too. They’re always working together.”
Cora turned in her seat to face Bear. “What does he have to do with this?”
“Magnus Blackwell was messing around with Wally Jensen’s woman.”
Cora remembered the drugged-out biker from the Fantasy Palace motel weeks ago. He’d been trying to skip town with the two-thousand-dollar payout he got from the anonymous source, and he’d also been trying to impress his girlfriend in that honeymoon suite from hell. Both she and Wally were still in jail.
“She wasn’t supposed to know about church, but Wally’s always been a pussy when it came to her, and he must’ve let it slip,” Bear said. “She’s the one who convinced Wally to paint over the security cameras that night. Wally thought he was doing it for an anonymous source, but his girl knew all along. Blackwell must’ve sweet-talked her into helping. Maybe he promised her a fancy life. She ain’t too bright, that one. Anyway, Magnus didn’t just steal that money. He stole something much more valuable. Eli kept a map of the cave networks in his office. Old as dirt, drawn out by the original Booze Dogs back in the day. It was stolen the same night the money was taken.”
“Eli never mentioned it,” Cora said. She definitely would’ve remembered something like that.
“That’s because he only just realized it was missing.”
Cora began to realize why Eli was so spitting mad today. It wasn’t just the fact that Magnus had stolen two hundred thousand dollars from his office, which was enough to make anyone livid, it was that the Booze Dogs stood to lose so much more now that outsiders knew about the location of church.
Cora gave Bear the side-eye. “So, Magnus took your map...and now he’s dead.”
“Before you high-jump to any fancy conclusions, I’ll tell you right now, we didn’t kill him,” Bear said, glowering at her. “We only just found out about Magnus’s connection to Wally’s woman yesterday when our men were mucking out Wally’s old room at the Doghouse. She left a bunch of her stuff in his closet, and one of Magnus’s business cards was in there. We asked around and found out she’d been seeing Magnus on the side. One of her girlfriends knew the whole story, and eventually we got the information we needed. That’s when Eli put two and two together, and he realized the map had been stolen, too.”
“I still don’t see how Boyd fits into this,” Liam said, turning the windshield wipers on high. The rain was coming down in sheets now, lending a hazy quality to the highway and forested area beyond. “I’m not at all surprised about Magnus sleeping around and stealing treasure maps, but—”
“Those two are thick as thieves,” Bear said. “Your police captain and Blackwell have been making deals and taking bribes for years. The captain uses the Booze Dogs as his scapegoat whenever it suits him. Anytime something goes down and he needs an out, he points a finger at us. That’s why Eli hates him so much. The Booze Dogs don’t deal in drugs or nothing like that. We keep our business to ourselves. But we’ve been an easy target for the captain, and there’s not a whole lot we can do when he’s got that dirtbag lawyer in his pocket.”
“My God,” Cora said, shaking her head. “How long has this been going on?”
“Longer than you been around, doll face,” Bear said. “I’m guessing your captain and Blackwell have been working together to try to find church for a while now. Slice is one of our guys who runs the money up there after the...” He caught himself before he said something incriminating, likecage fights. “After we pull in profits from our business endeavors. They must’ve followed him on one of his runs. Turn there.” He pointed to a sign up ahead on the right. The rain was coming down in heavy sheets now, but Cora recognized the Providence Falls State Park sign.
“You were at church that day,” she said to Bear in surprise. “When I ran into you on the hiking trail.”
He grunted, which she assumed was an affirmation, but he was too busy searching the near-empty parking lot as they drove to the entrance of the park. The heavily forested trails were hidden beneath a canopy of spruce, pine, and deciduous trees, the rich medley of verdant shades etched in sharp contrast from the rain. Liam pulled the car to a jarring stop right beside an old blue station wagon. It was the only other car in the lot. Captain Thompson’s car was nowhere to be seen, but he could’ve dumped it and commandeered this one to stay under the radar. He was a bad man, Cora now knew, but he wasn’t stupid.
“Stay close,” Bear said when they stood at the bottom of the trail. “Where we’re headed, there ain’t no path, and it’s tricky even when it’s not raining like this.” The torrential downpour from a few minutes earlier had eased into a light drizzle, but the mud was going to make it harder to navigate. Bear took off at a fast clip, and Cora broke into a jog to keep up. Liam was right behind her.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Cora said under her breath as she scanned the darkening forest around them. She didn’t trust the captain anymore, and he could be anywhere. She wanted to call in reinforcements, but she’d promised Eli an hour, and she’d keep her word.
