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  against the side of the building as both a guide and a brake on his downward momentum.

  His feet finally touched down and he said, “Okay, we’re here. You can get off.”

  Sheila gingerly lowered her feet down to the ground.

  Shots were still coming from the front.

  Robie pointed behind him. “You run that way and keep going for about a minute, okay. Then just hunker down and stay there. I’ll come get you when it’s done.”

  “Mister, there’re a lot more of them than there is of you.”

  “Not anymore. Now go!”

  She turned and ran off.

  Robie hustled to the right and came up around the building adjacent to the one he had just been in.

  He peered around the corner to see the men taking cover behind the two trucks. Robie figured that was how the group had arrived in town.

  They were firing back at the hotel.

  Robie phoned Reel.

  “You good?” she asked.

  “I’m good.” He told her his position. “I’m the brush beater. You’re the cleanup. Aim low, no use killing any of these assholes. Too much paperwork.”

  “Roger that.”

  “And take out the wheels.”

  “Roger that too.”

  Robie put away his phone, pulled his M11, and attached his night scope to the rail. He sighted through it and opened fire. His bullets pinged off the truck metal.

  The result of this was instant chaos on the skinheads’ side. They were obviously not seasoned soldiers, because seasoned soldiers did not panic when caught in a crossfire.

  They started firing wildly around and running in all directions.

  And Reel mowed them down as soon as she had even the narrowest of firing lanes.

  All six men went down grabbing their ankles and calves where she had shot them, and screaming bloody murder.

  Then Reel turned her attention to the trucks and shredded two tires on each. For good measure she drilled holes right through the radiators, and next the windshields, where her shots tore off the steering wheels of both vehicles.

  Robie, keeping to the shadows, called out, “The state police are on their way. If you put down your weapons, lie on the ground, fingers interlocked behind your head, you’ll get triaged. Keep your weapons and we let you bleed out.”

  Weapons were tossed aside as men groaned and collapsed fully on the ground, hands behind their heads.

  Robie stepped out, and under cover of Reel’s rifle made his way to the fallen men.

  As he bound their hands with zip ties he received a steady stream of invectives.

  The older man who had bantered with him before swore to Robie, “I’m gonna see you dead, asshole!”

  “I think you got that backwards,” replied Robie.

  Chapter

  19

  IT MIGHT HAVE been the most excitement Grand had seen in decades.

  Malloy had shown up with her uniform shirt untucked and her boots unlaced, but her service weapon was out and her features were grim.

  Reel and Robie had triaged each of the men, stanched the bleeding, and bandaged the wounds using a kit Reel had gotten from the hotel. Ambulances were on the way to take the men to a hospital that was about an hour away.

  Derrick Bender showed up five minutes behind his boss.

  Luke had been revived and came outside to confront the men who had tried their best to kill him.

  After screaming matches back and forth, Malloy had cuffed Luke and stuck him in Bender’s cruiser.

  But both Robie and Reel saw Malloy say something to Luke, and she didn’t look remotely happy.

  When the state police showed up in the form of four troopers in a Humvee, things started to get interesting.

  The skinheads claimed that Robie and Reel had opened fire on them first and they had fired back to defend themselves.

  When Luke was questioned, all he would volunteer was that Robie had sucker punched him when he’d confronted him after Robie had broken into the building.

  While the troopers were interviewing the men, Robie and Reel pulled Malloy and Bender aside.

  “What is that building?” asked Robie.

  Malloy said, “It was a B and B, or it was planned to be one. Then the hotel came to town and the B and B plans got torpedoed and the owners ran out of money and the project went bankrupt. The bank owns it now, but people, from time to time, were using it for a certain, specific purpose.”

  “You mean as a hookup place,” said Reel.

  “Among other things.” said Malloy. “Until I put a stop to it. I locked it up tight and put up the NO TRESPASSING sign.”

  “Well you didn’t lock it up tight enough. There was a woman named Sheila in there with Luke. She climbed out the window with me. I gave her my jacket because she was half naked. I told her to hoof it a few blocks over and wait for me to come get her. But all I found was my jacket on the ground behind the B and B and no Sheila.”

  Reel looked at Malloy. “Who’s Sheila?”

  “I don’t know a Sheila. Describe the woman to me.”

  Robie did.

  Malloy let out a long sigh while Bender frowned and said, “Damn, Valerie, that sounds like your sister.”

  Robie and Reel stared at Malloy. “Your sister?” said Reel. “You said her name was Holly. Why would she call herself Sheila?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe she didn’t want you to know her real identity because of all the crap going down.”

  Reel said, “We were told your sister had a drug problem and was in rehab. And that maybe she was the reason you came out here. Is that true?”

  Malloy leaned against the front fender of her cruiser and rubbed her eyes.

  “Holly was the baby of the family. She came out here five years ago because she said she wanted to live in the outdoors and just get away from civilization. And family expectations.”

  “And what were those expectations?” asked Robie.

  “Holly graduated magna cum laude from MIT. She was a brilliant student. She was offered a position at NASA and another one at Google. She turned them both down and moved out to this godforsaken place.”

  Robie glanced at Bender to see his reaction to the harsh words about his hometown, but his expression didn’t change. Maybe he’d heard this before from his boss.

  “Burnout?” said Reel.

  “I guess, although she never showed any indications of it while she was in school. But as soon as she got the sheepskin it was good-bye.”

  “But you said she’d been here five years. And you came just recently.”

  “I had a life in New York and a career. And we all thought Holly was just going through a phase. That she’d get this out of her system and come back to reality. But as time went by we realized that was not happening. So I decided to come out here and find out what the hell was going on.”

  “And did you?” asked Reel.

  “It’s not exactly a new story. Holly was book brilliant and street stupid. She got in with the wrong crowd, got hooked on drugs, did some dumb things to get money to buy drugs, and did some time in jail. That’s where she was when I got to town. I visited her, got her sentence reduced, and she was finally released on parole three months ago. She went into rehab, got clean, and was released three days ago. I was in the process of getting her the hell out of here when she just vanished on me.”

  “When was this?”

  “I picked her up from rehab, dropped her at my place, went to work, and when I got back she was gone and so was her suitcase.”

  “So vanished, like Walton?” said Robie.

  “No, not like that. She left a note in her handwriting, so I knew it was from her. She thanked me for all I’d done but said she couldn’t go back to New York. She said she was too embarrassed. She said she was okay and would be moving on with her life.”

  “And she hooks up with a skinhead a few doors down from where her sister works?” said Reel.

  “Did she know this guy Luke before t
his?” queried Robie.

  “Why do you ask that?” said Malloy suspiciously.

  “Two reasons. She was half naked and having or about to have sex with the guy. Second, I saw you talking to Luke when you put him in the squad car. From the looks of things it seemed this was not the first time you two had met.”

  Malloy sighed again. “When I saw Luke tonight I thought he might know where Holly was. But he wouldn’t tell me anything.” She paused. “I really thought she’d left the area. I was praying that she had.” She looked at Robie. “Did she…did she look strung out on drugs to you?”

  “No. She was in full possession of her faculties tonight. Which means she was sleeping with the skinhead voluntarily. I don’t know which is worse, quite frankly.”

  “Shit,” muttered Malloy. “When she was staying with me, she must have taken the key I keep to the B and B. That’s how she got in, I bet.”

  “Why would she need to do that?” asked Robie.

  “Because she was obviously going to leave and probably thought she might need a place to hide out for a bit. I’ve got to find her.”

  “Well, like I said, she was half naked. I don’t think she could have gone far.”

  Malloy looked at Bender. “Can you finish up here?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  Malloy jumped into her car, started it, and drove off fast in the direction of the last place her sister had been seen.

  As the dust from her exit settled down, one of the state troopers came over to Robie and Reel.

  “Okay, we got a little bit of a ‘he said, she said’ here,” said the trooper. He was in his forties with a wiry physique and long sideburns.

  Robie said, “Well, what I say is they came here to kill the guy in that police cruiser. I was in the building at the time because I’d seen suspicious activity and went to investigate. The skinheads opened fire. The other guy returned it. I got out a window with the woman. And then my partner and I got into a gun battle with the skins. We identified ourselves and gave them multiple chances to stand down and they ignored every one.”

  “But their version is different. They said they were driving through town when you opened fire.”

  “And if you do an analysis of the gunshots, particularly in that door and building, you’ll see that they’re lying their asses off,” barked Reel. “And we’re Feds. They’re scum. Who are you going to believe?”

  The trooper looked offended by this comment. “I’m not going to get into that with you. We’re going to escort them to the hospital for treatment. But we may have to release them if we can’t get any more proof of wrongdoing.”

  “Did you talk to that Luke guy? They were coming to kill him.”

  “He won’t talk to us.”

  “What a surprise,” snapped Reel.

  “I’m just telling you how I see it,” the trooper snapped back. “And you just better watch yourselves, Feds or not.”

  “You’re really taking their side over us?” said Robie.

  The trooper lowered his voice. “In case you didn’t notice, there are a lot more of those pricks than there are of us. The guys I brought with me tonight—that’s it. It’s the full on-duty crew for this part of the state.”

  Robie looked over at the three other troopers. “I see your dilemma.”

  The trooper nodded, glared at Reel, and stalked off.

  Robie looked at Reel. “Nice shooting.”

  “From what, twenty yards? The day comes I can’t make that shot ten times out of ten, then just shoot me.”

  She walked off, leaving Robie alone in the middle of downtown Grand.

  He put on his jacket and placed his hands in his pockets.

  His fingers touched the paper there.

  He pulled it out.

  It was a note. And it got Robie’s full attention.

  I’m sorry about Mr. Walton.

  Chapter

  20

  MALLOY SAID, “I don’t know what to tell you, Robie. I didn’t even know my sister was acquainted with Walton.”

  It was the next morning and Robie and Reel were sitting across the desk from Malloy in her office.

  Malloy continued, “And the note is sort of ambiguous anyway. Everyone in town knew that Walton had disappeared. And that you were here to check on him. She might just literally mean what her note said, that she was sorry.”

  “If she wrote the note,” said Robie.

  “What do you mean?”

  Reel answered. “She was wearing basically nothing when she ran away. Robie didn’t have paper or a pen in his jacket. She obviously met up with someone to get it, and it had to be fast, because Robie went to check on her and found his jacket not that long after she ran off. That person might have written the note. It’s in block letters. You can’t confirm that that’s your sister’s handwriting.”

  “No, I can’t. But who would she have hooked up with?”

  Reel said tightly, “It’s your town and your sister, you tell us.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you because I don’t have the answers you want.”

  Robie shifted in his seat. “The trooper last night said he might not be able to hold the skinheads. ‘He said, she said’ issue. But really I think they’re intimidated by those guys.”

  “Look, the state troopers are good cops and they’re as brave as anyone in uniform. But they’re vastly outnumbered and outgunned. And Luke Miller is already out. There was nothing to hold him on. They were trying to kill him, like you said. He was just defending himself.”

  “And do we know why they were trying to kill one of their own?” asked Reel.

  “I can’t say I know their inner workings, but sometimes the shit hits the fan with these guys and they want to do a purge. I guess Luke was on the outs.”

  Reel said, “And why did he come into town to hook up with your sister? That must have been prearranged.”

  Malloy shrugged. “Well, I can’t ask Holly. And Luke will say nothing.”

  “Did they ever go to that place before?”

  “Not to my knowledge, no.”

  “Why is she with Luke?”

  “They had a thing a while back.”

  “Was Holly part of the skinheads?”

  “No. She’s not like that. But she’s screwed up, and apparently Luke showed her some kindness. And they sort of fell in love, if a guy like Luke can do that. I don’t really know him.”

  Robie said, “Someone knew he was coming into town last night to see her.”

  “What were you even doing there? You never said.”

  “I saw something suspicious and I went to investigate.”

  Reel spoke up. “This is all very interesting and totally irrelevant to why we’re here. I don’t give a crap about your sister’s romantic entanglements. We’re here to find Walton. That note from your sister indicates she may know something about what happened to him. So that means we need to find Holly. Do you have any idea where she is?”

  Malloy bristled. “If I did, I would have told you. I went looking for her last night and found exactly zip. I talked to the people she knew. I went to the places she’s stayed before. Nothing.”