Deep Dark Mire (An FBI Romance Thriller ~ book four) (67 page)

“Okay, I get it. Indians aren’t big into Christianity.”

“Native Americans,” corrected Elizabeth, almost automatically. “And they don’t mind Christians, it’s the white man that they have a problem with,” she added, grinning. “You know, good ol’ boys whose families came from Europe, stole their land, killed their men, raped their women, and forced them into impoverish conditions on the Rez…”

“
Okay there. The point is taken, Director Blackhawk. I beg your pardon, gentlemen.”

Both men nodded, and tried to not laugh. If there as one major hot button for Elizabeth
it was non-Natives using the word ‘Indian’ in a derogatory manner. It pushed her right over the edge. Granted she used it frequently, but context meant everything.

“I can get you in contact with the minister.”

“Can you tell me if it’s been the same minister for the last twenty five years?” asked Whitefox.

The man thought about it. “I do believe it was the same minister. Hold on,” he picked up the counter phone and buzzed someone. “Can you come up
here; we need your help with something.”

Elizabeth didn’t know what the man was doing, but she humored him for the time being.
Maybe he kept the minister locked up in the basement of the building during the day. With this town, who knew?

When Jonathan Delray walked through the door, he stopped
dead in his tracks when he saw who was waiting for him. “I didn’t do anything! I was here the entire time. I swear!”

Blackhawk lifted a brow. “How is he going to help us, Sheriff?” he asked,
staring at the skittish man in front of him.

“Well Jonathan knows the minister of the church personally. It’s his daddy.”

Elizabeth glanced back and forth between her two partners and each of their faces said the same thing.

Coincidences were a bitch.

                                *   *   *

Special Agent
Christensen waded through the boggy water, scanning the area for anything dangerous. It reminded her of walking through the streets in the Middle East. During her final tour of duty she saw some horrible things, and the swamp reminded her of that. Snakes and leeches ready to creep up and take your life, like the enemy she’d faced many times.

“
Hey are you okay?” asked Julian, watching the woman’s face. “You look like you're gone somewhere.”

She shook her head
still unable to speak. When she slipped back into the warzone, Tori found it was best to just not speak. Jibberish would sometimes find its way out, and people then thought you were crazy.

There was something about the woman that confused him. After a sweaty bout of really
amazing sex, they had pizza and she sent him back to his room, unwilling to let him spend the night. It seemed kind of odd, since they were bunking across the hall from each other, but what was he going to say? Now she seemed out of it, but not out of it at the same time.

This woman was a big mystery.

When he tried to get her to talk about herself, she wouldn’t give him any more details other than she spent time in the military, and the discussion was shut down from that point.

“Look,” she said, pointing and wading over to the object that caught her attention. Pulling out some gloves from her back pocket, she pulled them on before p
icking up the floating debris. Tori rolled it in her hand and studied it closely. “It’s detonator wire.”

Littlemoon looked around. “Chances are the rest is underwater
somewhere.”

Agent Christensen
sighed and unclipped the Glock on her hip. “I know I’m probably going to regret saying this, but I’ll do the dive and feel around.”

Julian was impressed
and completely horrified at the same time. Not many women he knew would go under water in a swamp to find some wires. “Are you sure?” he asked, taking the Glock she held out for him and her badge.

“I’ve submerged in worse,” she answered
, leaving it at that. She pulled the hair tie off her wrist and quickly braided her hair down her back in a long single braid.  “I’m diving blind so I’m going to probably stir up some creepy crawlies, so you're on snake watch for me.”

He
nodded, and he was pretty sure he wouldn’t have balls big enough to go underwater in a swamp. This woman had him perplexed and made him want to know more.

Agent
Christensen pulled off her t-shirt and tossed it to him. “I’ll need something dry after,” she looked around and felt with her foot that the water went deep.

Julian’s eyes
immediately went to the tags around her neck. He was pretty sure they weren’t there last night during sex. It would have been hard to miss them dangling between her breasts. When she flipped them over her shoulder to hang down her back, it reminded him of something his brother, who was die hard military, did out of habit. Now, he was really curious, and knew that her past was more than just a ‘little’ military experience.

“The bomber probably is familiar with this swamp. He knew it dropped off here, and that’s probably why he dumped the goods
in this location.”

“Are you sure about this
, Tori?” Julian was starting to look worried. A deep end meant branches and other things she could get caught in down there and be helpless.

“No, this is a damn terrible idea, but so is pissing off
Director Blackhawk.” With that she took a few deep breaths and stepped off the ledge and submerged herself under water, sinking feet first into the mess below.

Littlemoon watched the air bubbles to assure she was still moving, and then
kept an eye on his watch. Thirty seconds in, he saw the ripples end, and then silence in the swamp. Every five seconds he glanced down at his watch, and it occurred to him he probably should have asked her how long she could stay down. It was almost one minute and still nothing. There were little pieces of debris starting to float up to the surface, but no Tori.

His heart started to pound in his chest.
Glancing at his watch, she was close to being down for ninety seconds. Now he was looking around looking for air bubbles. None were visible.

“Tori!”
He started yelling for her. This had to be incredibly bad for her to be under this long. Then at the two minute mark he saw a bunch of bubbles in front of him, and slowly she stood in the water holding a black trash bag in her arms. “You scared the shit out of me!” he moved towards her, as she handed him the bag.

“Sorry, it was wedged down there under some tree branches. I had to dig for it.”

Julian stared at her incredulously. The woman just found a black bag at the bottom of a sludge hole. Everyone who ever thought that he could track and find things should meet her.

She took the shirt that was over his shoulder and used it to wipe off her face and neck. “It’s pretty messy down there.”

Littlemoon stared at her.

“What?”

“You have a leech on your shoulder,” he said, pulling it off for her and then turning her around and removing two more from her back. He glanced at the tags, and they indeed were hers. “I have so many questions for you right now and no idea where to start with them.”

Tori
laughed at the way he said it. “How about we open that bag and see what we found?” Discussing any questions he may have wasn’t on her list of things that were happening. Ever!

Julian stared down at her
, as she pulled a military style pocket knife out of her back pocket and slit the bag open.

Again, Tori ignored the questioning look on his face.
“We found more evidence. I think the bosses will be pleased. I bet we have trace and DNA on the loot. Let’s get it back to the bomb techs.”

“You can’t leave the swamp in a bra, Tori,” he said, laughing and then pulled his shirt off for her. “You did the
dive; I at least can give you my shirt.”

“Thanks, Julian
!” Tori swapped with him, and slid into his shirt. It smelled like him and heated her body, reminding her of the night before.

“
Come on. Elizabeth and Ethan are going to love what you found,” he said, grinning.

“
I certainly hope so.” It amazed her that everyone seemed to be on a first name basis with her bosses, and yet she found that staggering. It was ballsy to call them by their first names, but then again, maybe that was just because of her background. You certainly didn’t call your superiors by their given names.

Julian
wanted to get back as soon as possible. When he could get Ethan alone, he had a few questions for him. The biggest one on his mind was ‘who the hell was Tori Christensen?’

                                *   *   *

Suspects tended to be edgy and jumpy, but the man sitting before all three of them was ready to bolt. It wasn’t like they just accused him of killing anyone
. Well, not out loud and to anyone quite yet. This time it was all about his father.

Ethan Blackhawk leaned against the wall in one of the
sheriff’s interrogation rooms. As his wife did the talking, he was doing the assessing. It piqued his interest as to why the man looked so rattled.

Granted they stirred him up the other day, but no more than any other suspect in any other assignment.

“Tell me about your dad, Jonathan,” asked Elizabeth, dropping the heels of her boots on the corner of the table. She was very comfortable in an interrogation room; in fact, she loved this part of her job. Who wouldn’t? Scaring the potential bad guys was always entertaining and if it got justice for the fallen, well worth it.

“I don’t know what you want me to tell you. He’s an old man. Dad’s been the minister for a long time. I think my whole life.”

Elizabeth stared at the man. “Where can we find him?”

“I don’t know. I don’t live at home with him. How the hell am I supposed to know what he’s doing right now?”

Whitefox slid the man’s phone across the table. “Call him and tell him that we request the pleasure of his presence. We’ll even come to him.”

He shrugged and dialed his dad’s number. “Dad, it’s Jonathan.
The FBI needs to talk to you about some things. Can you meet with them?”

He paused, listening to the answer and then looked up at them. “He’s on his way to the church to start working on Sunday’s sermon.”

“We’ll meet him there.”

Jonathan Delray relayed that to his father, and then hung up the phone. “Anything else
, or can I actually go back to my job?” he asked, standing. “I’m assuming I’m not under arrest.”

“You're free. Have a really fantastic day,” smiled Elizabeth, watching the man closely. When he left the room he slammed the door
behind him, and Elizabeth laughed. “My, my, he’s stirred up.”

“You did knock him out a few times, Lyzee. That might stir up the hornets’ nest a bit,” offered her husband.

“Or that you scared him the other day by making him believe you were going to water board him,” suggested Whitefox, grinning.

Elizabeth
shrugged noncommittally. “I scare a lot of people. Suspects, minions, and sometimes the men in my life on a good day. I’m just a scary bitch.”

Both men laughed knowing the truth. Elizabeth Blackhawk was a big softy once you got past the shell.

The three
exited the station to their waiting rental. It was another Escalade, and this time Ethan Blackhawk moved in front of his wife before hitting the lock disengage- just in case. When it didn’t blow up, he allowed her to move past him. Yeah, it was silly that he was bothering. Chances were the bomber wouldn’t ‘accidentally’ attach the bomb to the wrong wires again, but just in case, it gave him a small measure of reassurance.

Elizabeth
chose to ignore how both men were acting like a shield. Now she needed to focus on the problem at hand.

Who had it in for the Adare family?

Sitting in the back, Elizabeth pulled out all the papers she had with her. Something had to be in the journal that belonged to Trinity Adare. There had to be some little tidbit that she was missing. As she read, her husband drove them towards the church.

“Anything?”
questioned Whitefox.

“No, and it’s making me crazy. She talks about
God, and being dedicated to the ‘father’. I sincerely doubt God came down and hid the bodies in the swamp. I mean, he’s God. Can’t he just snap and they ‘poof’?”

They both knew when she was
frustrated; Elizabeth used sarcastic humor to alleviate her stress when she was overwhelmed.

“All I have in this journal is that she thinks Mr. Sexy is a ball of sexual fun
and hot in the sack. Apparently, he’s dedicated to the ‘father’ and she’s been with him for a while. What I need is a whiteboard and to write it all down. I think better when it’s staring at me in the face.”