Hunted, A Romantic Suspence Novel (19 page)

“Hagen…I…know that name.”

“Get her a glass of water, Luke.” Matt knelt in front of her, rubbing her hand between his. “Didn’t you tell me he died?”

“Billy Hagen. He died from a bomb I built.”

“You built a bomb?” The information punched Matt in the gut. His Katie built bombs? Hell, why should
that
surprise him? And hell, when had he started thinking of her as
his
?

She nodded then gulped at her water.

“So this Robert Hagen, is he related to the one that died?” Luke asked, sitting across from her.

She nodded. “Bobby was his twin brother.”

“Would he be about twenty-five now? Dark hair?”

“How do you know?” Matt, still kneeling in front of Katie, sat back on his heels to study his brother, who’d gone quite serious.

“Because I figured the good government employee  hadn’t abandoned his car. I also figured he hadn’t given it to our hit man of his own free will, so after I got his name and address from the DMV, I drove over there.”

Matt didn’t like how this was sounding. “What’d you find?”

“Just what you’d expect. Hagen had been shot once in the back of the head. Point-blank, execution style. He lay sprawled on his kitchen floor like he was leading his assailant to the door.”

Katie inhaled, her fingers gripping the glass tight. Matt pried them loose then set the glass on the table. He lifted her, sat in the chair and cradled her in his lap.

He and his brother stared at each other over her head. This was getting deeper by the minute. The hit man was leaving no loose ends or live witnesses.

“Did you notify the police?”

“I hightailed it out of there.”

Matt glared at him. “You should’ve notified someone.”

“If I’d called the police, I would’ve been there for hours while they interrogated me. Then I would’ve been forced to tell them about you, your tail, and Katie, and then you’d have had more than just the Marshals and the hit man on your case.”

“He’s right.” Katie mumbled from the center of Matt’s arms. “He only would’ve made matters worse by reporting what he found.”

“Hagen deserves better than to be left lying dead on his floor.”

Luke threw up his hands. “Hey, I called it in. Once I was halfway here, that is. I just don’t have your obsessive need to follow the rules, Matt.”

Katie straightened on Matt’s lap and shot his brother an angry look. “It’s your brother’s obsession with rules that makes him a good cop and it’s what makes people trust him. Like me.”

So stunned by her defense of him, Matt didn’t fight her when she pushed on his arms and rose from his lap. He watched her grab her coat. “Where are you going?”

“Just out on the porch. I need some air.” She glared at his brother. “And for your information, your brother isn’t nearly as hung up on following the rules as you think.”

Luke watched her leave. “Wow, what did you do to her?”

Matt grabbed him by the collar and hauled him out of his chair. “I haven’t touched her and neither will anyone else while I’m around. Got it, bozo?”

“Whoa, Matt. I didn’t mean anything disrespectful.” He lifted his hands in an innocent gesture. “I only meant how did you get her to change so much in two days?”

Releasing his grip on Luke, Matt took a few deep breaths. He’d never once in his life wanted to punch one of his brothers so much as he did now.

“The lady’s been through a lot, Luke.” He pushed his hands through his hair. “All I know is she’s tough on the outside because she’s had to be. But inside…well, I’m just getting to know her is all and doing so with a great deal of patience.”

“Whatever you did, the lady seems willing to defend you.”

A slow smile tilted the corners of Matt’s lips. “She did, didn’t she?”

After a dinner of fajitas and some nachos, the trio once more sat at the table going through the Family’s pictures. Matt was sure that somewhere in them lay the clue to finding who Strict had sent as a hit man.

“So this is Billy Hagen and his brother Bobby,” Luke asked Katie, holding two wallet-sized pictures.

She nodded. “I didn’t really know Bobby much. Billy followed me everywhere.”

“Did he have a crush on you?”

“Maybe. At the time I thought so. But now that I think back on it, I think he just wanted me to teach him my special skills.”

Her words piqued Matt’s curiosity. “What skills, sweetheart?”

She shrugged, staring down at the table. “My daddy, my real father, was a blasting expert for a coal mine. He kept blasting caps in the back shed. When I was a very little girl I used to follow my father out to his work shed. Daddy liked to make homemade fireworks as a hobby. Apparently, I’d inherited his skill and dexterity. Mama used to get mad when he let me help him design the display he built every summer for the Fourth of July. When I was sixteen, Strict discovered this. He immediately had me start building him bombs. Small ones at first.

“This newfound status eased my stepfather’s demands on me in regards to training with the others. I became something special among all his people. No one else had the knowledge or ability that I did. He needed me.” She paused for a moment.

Her eyes took on a faraway look. “When Mama married Strict, I was different. I didn’t fit in. He treated me like a piece of dirt for so long. But then one day I found some powder and caps, like Daddy had. I took it to the woods and made a little rocket like he and I used to build. When it went off, the colors were so pretty.”

“The Devil found out about it. I knew he’d be mad at me. I thought for sure he’d punish me. But he didn’t. He asked me if I could do it again. I said sure and before I knew it, I had a little shack all to myself where I could sit and build my little bombs.”

She paused, blinking several times. “Then one day Billy came into the shack. He begged me to teach him. I was proud someone asked something nice of me. When Strict found out, well, he seemed pleased, too.”

She stared into the flames in the fireplace for a few moments.

“What happened to Billy, Katie?” Luke prodded.

“I found out the bomb was going to be used on a bus. Strict wanted to show the government he had the power to destroy things. I begged him not to use it. But he wouldn’t listen. He made Billy get the bomb from the shed.”

She looked at Matt, her eyes full of pain. “I watched Billy explode right there in the compound’s center. Watching him die I realized that what I was doing wasn’t special. My skill would kill people. Strict wanted me to build another one, but I said no. I wouldn’t build him any more.”

“What did Strict do?”

“He whipped me. Every day for a week, he whipped me.”

“And you still refused.”

She nodded, tears streaming down her face.

“Then he turned the dogs on you.”

She nodded more.

Luke cursed.

“Is that when you gave in?” Matt asked.

She shook her head.

Matt agreed. God, he didn’t want to hear this. But he read in her face and her eyes the need to tell it. “When did you give in to his demands?”

“He grabbed one of the younger girls. She was all of ten years old. He said she’d take my punishment if I didn’t do what he wanted.”

“I told him I wouldn’t build the bombs, but I’d teach the others how to do it. Only he had to let the girl, and her mother, leave the camp first.”

“Did he keep his word?”

She nodded and lifted the picture of a young girl with dark bangs and pigtails. “The day after they left I started teaching the men how to build bombs. Then they used two of them to bomb the Federal Building in Philadelphia.”

Matt took her hand in his and squeezed it tight.

Katie stared at the table.

Silence filled the cabin.

Luke let out a deep breath. “So Bobby Hagen helped whoever this hit man is and now he’s dead, too.”

“Looks that way.” Matt continued to hold Katie’s hand, his thumb rubbing her knuckles. “So we’re no closer to finding this guy than we were yesterday.”

“Except we know he’s cleaning his trail behind him.” Luke leaned his elbows on the table.

“True.”

Katie lifted her eyes and studied them both. “So, now what do we do?”

“Now we go to plan B.” Matt pulled out his cell phone.

“What’s plan B?” she asked.

“We kidnap a Marshal.”

“What?” Both Katie and Luke stared at him.

Matt shrugged. “Someone sold you out. We can’t find the hit man, but we can find this Marshal…what was his name?”

“Castello,” Katie replied. “Frank Castello. But you can’t do that, Matt. You’ll get into all kinds of trouble.”

Luke nodded enthusiastically. “Kidnapping is a federal offense, especially kidnapping a U.S. Marshal, Matt.”

“If it helps us find this killer and keeps Katie safe, then I don’t see that we have any choice. We get him to meet with me early tomorrow morning. Somewhere public.”

“This is crazy. You can’t be serious.” Luke stood and started to pace the cabin.

“We bring him back here and find out if he’s the one who gave information to Strict or his man.” Matt leaned back in his chair. “If he is, we turn him in. If he didn’t, then we have one more person to help us find the guy.”

“And if he presses charges?” Luke stopped and stared at him. “Then what?”

Matt shook his head. “He won’t press charges. Either way we win. We catch the leak at the Marshals or we help him find out who it is.”

“When do we do this?” Luke smiled, warming to the idea.

Matt looked at Katie “You call him and have him meet us in the morning. Then instead of you, Luke and I’ll show up.”

“I’ll be the driver, you be the hard-ass. I like it.” Luke gave him a high five.

“It won’t work.” Katie’s quiet voice stopped their self-congratulations.

Matt rubbed her hand with his. “Sure it will.”

“He’ll be looking for me.”

“Well, too bad. You won’t be there.” Suddenly, he didn’t like where she was going with this.

“If I’m not there, he’ll know something’s wrong.”

“No. No way are you going near this guy until we’re sure he didn’t set you up.” Matt pushed himself from the table, his turn to pace.

“I have to go.”

“No! I won’t let you get hurt again.”

“She’s right, Matt. If she isn’t there, he’ll bolt.”

Matt slammed his fist into the wall’s exposed wood beam. “I promised to protect you, Katie!”

“And you will.” She stepped between him and the wall, cupping his face in her small hands. “You and Luke will be right there with me. If you mean to do this, then we have to do it right. That means I have to meet with Castello. With you there, nothing is going to happen to me.”

Castello lay on the couch in his office grabbing what little rest he could. Sleep was completely out of the question. Until he had Katie in protective custody he doubted he’d sleep again. Then there was the small matter of finding the department’s mole.

After he’d interviewed the two police detectives that morning, he’d met with their captain. Once they were informed that their case involved a Witness Protection program member, all the police files had been turned over to Frank’s task force.

From there, the case just got murkier.

The information told him only that Katie had been injured and taken to the hospital. After that, she and her patrolman disappeared without a trace.

Hell, even Edgars’ captain had stonewalled him.

Castello thrust himself off the couch. He paced his office like a caged tiger. He wanted to put his fist through something. Since Strict’s face wasn’t an option, he might just have to redecorate a wall or two with holes.

“Frank?”

He stopped mid-stride to turn to the office door. “What is it, Crestview?”

“Well, sir, something strange has occurred with our investigation in the Strict file.”

“What?”

“Do you know of any current case involving Strict that the FBI might be running?”

The muscles in Frank’s jaw tensed. “Not that I’m aware of Bob, why? What have you walked into?”

Bob shrugged slightly. “Turns out a local FBI agent requested the visitor log for Strict.”

“When?”

“Christmas day, sir.” He handed Frank a faxed copy of the request. “He also obtained the picture file that our witness smuggled out of Strict’s camp.”

Castello studied the paper. “This request was signed?”

“Only by the division commander who was covering for Christmas. He’s out of the country until after New Year’s, so I haven’t been able to ascertain who the agent was that filed the original papers.”

Damn. Another dead end.

“Well, add it to our files. If we haven’t found our killer or our missing witness by New Year’s Day, we’ll contact him when he returns.”

A soft knock sounded on his door. Leslie stood there with his cell phone in her hand. He’d given it to her to monitor his calls while he uselessly tried to get some sleep. “Who is it, Leslie?”

She hurried the phone over to him. “It’s her.”

He grabbed the phone. “Katie?” He mouthed the words
trace this line
to Crestview.

“Yes, it’s me, Marshal. I’m safe.”

“Where are you? I need to bring you in.” He listened carefully, trying to hear any background noises that would pinpoint her whereabouts.

“I want to talk with you tomorrow. Alone. Can you meet me?”

“I can do it tonight, just tell me where.”

She hesitated a moment. “No. Strict has someone in your department working for him. I don’t want to come in just yet.”

So she’d figured out there was a leak. Smart girl.

“Okay. Tell me where and when you want to meet. I’ll be there.” He grabbed a pen and paper.

“Tomorrow, on the corner of Third and State Streets, near the Capitol building. About nine in the morning.” He heard her whispering something to someone, but couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying. “You walk up State Street to Third, and then I’ll find you. And Marshal?”

“Yes, Katie?”

“If you bring anyone, and I mean anyone, with you, I’ll leave. You’ll never hear from me again. Do you understand?”

The phone went dead before he could reply. He looked out his door at Crestview. Dave shook his head. She didn’t stay on the line long enough to be traced.