The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.) (119 page)

He studied her for a full two minutes before saying, ‘and what if I decide not to go along with you? What if I tell them you’ve been here for more than 24 hours?’

She was not perturbed as she
said, ‘I’ll deny it.’

‘And what if we meet the cops on the way to town, how will you explain that? Say, oh we were just on our way to see you, detective.’

She ignored his sarcasm, ‘I’ll say you found me in the woods and brought me to the sheriff’s office that’s all. If you persist in your side of the story I’ll just keep denying it, they think you’re crazy anyway and they can’t prove anything without evidence.’

He gave a half smile which was more of smirk as he reached over opened the coffee table drawer and pulled out the piece of hair she had cut off. She looked at it in dismay.

‘And how will you explain this?’ He asked smugly.

She stared at him stricken then stood up and leaned over him saying angrily, ‘why? Why would you persist on getting yourself into trouble? Is it some kind of guilt trip, I am to be your way of atoning for your past crimes. If so there are easier ways of punishing yourself, why don’t you just buy a hair shirt or beat yourself with whips, or sleep on cold hard floors. Do what you like, but don’t involve
me
in your self- confragulation.’ 

He shot to his feet his fists clenched. She knew she had not only angered but hurt him too she could see it in his eyes, she would rather the anger. But she did not take back what she had said nor apologise. She had to make him mad enough to tell her to leave, or to throw her out and tell her she was on her own. There was no way she would let him sacrifice his freedom for her, what about the animals, who would care for them if he went to jail? No, she would rather he be hurt and angry than lose his freedom again.

He closed the space between them until they were mere inches apart; his eyes no longer showed any hurt only fury. His expression could only be described as lethal, and despite her resolve not to back down her throat constricted and she shuddered. In that moment she could see how someone seeing him now might believe him capable of killing.

He took another step closing the already short gap between them.

Just when she thought he might put his hands around her throat and choke the life out of her, Dante, who had moved away when Lando had stood up so furiously, growled low in his throat. Lando and Adela both turned to look at him as the sound of a vehicle approaching could be heard on the gravel followed by the slamming of car doors. Holding their breaths and looking at the door. They waited then once again hammering came to them from the other side of the door.

CHAPTER 39.

      
Lando reacted instantaneously, he grabbed Adela’s arm and roughly dragged her to the other side of the room. He flipped a rug covering part of the floor with his foot then bent down and still holding onto her he pulled a ring which was embedded in the floor revealing a small space. He pulled her to him and whispered, ‘get down there and stay there until I come for you. I’ll knock three quick times before I open the door, and
don’t
open it for anyone else. If anyone else tries to get in there’s a small door to the left, run into the woods and don’t stop until you reach town then go to the sheriff’s office and tell them to come out here. But don’t risk it unless you’re cornered and have no choice.’

He pushed her down towards the opening in the floor but she resisted and turned to him her face ashen, ‘but what about you, why can’t we both go.

‘Because it might only be the cops again and how would it look if I didn’t answer? They might search the place then all that “I’ll tell them I was never here,” will be moot. And if it’s Glissando’s men I have the animals to think of.’

Just then another even louder knock came to them almost knocking the door from its hinges and someone shouted, ‘Jonas Lando, FBI open up.’ Adela froze but Lando pushed her forcefully down the hole, luckily it was only a feet few to the ground so all she received was a bruised knee. He said, ‘there’s a torch on the bottom step.’ Then the trap door was dropped firmly but quietly in place and she was in darkness. She felt around until she found the torch but didn’t dare switch it on.

She knelt on the floor of the crawlspace, not daring to move or even breathe, not even feeling the pain in her knee from her abrupt landing.

In the living room Lando opened the draw of the coffee table and took out the Smith and Wesson and shoved it in the waistband of his jeans. Then he hid the hair he had shown to Adela in the coal bucket. He knew that if they did a thorough search they would find it, but if they had a warrant to search his premises he was in trouble anyway.

There was more banging on the door and the same voice yelled, ‘Jonas Lando, we know you’re in there, open up.’

Dante ran and hid in the bedroom as Lando propped his rifle against the wall next to the door. Then taking a deep breath he opened the door.

Two men stood there, there they were almost exactly the same height and both were dark and both had fed written all over them.

The same man who had yelled said, ‘Jonas Lando? I’m Agent Tully and this is Agent Benson, we need to ask you some questions.’ Then proceeded to barge his way into the cabin.

Lando blocked his path and said simply, ‘I.D.’

The man laughed and Lando thought, twice in less than two days I’ve had to ask law enforcement officials for their I.D. He took the badges from their hands and the two feds looked at one another. Lando looked closely at the badges, they certainly seemed genuine. The first man snatched his back saying, ‘satisfied?’

Lando handed back the silent guy’s badge, ‘what you want?’

The first man said, ‘I told you, we need to ask you some questions.’

‘About what?’

Neither man replied but tried again to barge past him and into the house and once again Lando stood in his way. ‘I said, ‘about what? Not come in and make yourself at home.’

The talkative man curled his lip derisively, ‘this may be your idea of home, pal but it ain’t mine.’

Lando said, ‘I thought you said you were here to ask me questions not hurt my feelings.’

Any other time Adela would have laughed at Lando’s sarcasm but at this moment she was too consumed with fear not only for herself but for Lando.

She held her breath as the man said, ‘we have reason to believe you’re harbouring a fugitive from justice, Lando. We need to search your place, barn, outbuildings and all.’

‘Sure, as soon as you show me your search warrant.’

The man again gave a scornful laugh, ‘we’re federal agents, Lando, we can do what the hell we like.’ He tried to side step Lando but again he was thwarted.

Lando said, ‘y’all may be federal agents but that don’t give ya
carte
blanche
to search without a warrant, nor to step on folks’ rights.’

Tul
ly laughed out loud now, ‘you hear that, Benson? The guy knows French.’

The silent man, Benson, spoke for the time, ‘he sure does, Tully, know his rights too. Maybe
'cos he’s a cop, oops sorry,
was
a cop.’

Lando rolled his eyes
, ‘I don’t have to be a cop, ex or otherwise, to know my rights.’

Tully said, ‘there must be a reason you don’t want us to search your place, Lando,   maybe you hiding something. Maybe a fugitive.'

He’s been talking to Sullivan, Lando thought. He knew government agents could be arrogant pricks, expecting everyone to be so impressed and overwhelmed by them that they caved in to their demands, but even for a fed it was unusual to expect to be able search someone’s home without a warrant. His suspicions grew with every passing second.

He said, ‘tell you what, I want to cooperate with the FBI, so you come back with a warrant and you can search until Christmas, 'til then I’m asking you to leave, don’t make me have to
tell
you.’

Tully’s face grew dark as he stepped forward followed by the other guy, crowding Lando from both sides. Benson said, ‘I’ll tell
you
what tough guy, why don’t we take you to headquarters and ask our questions there.’ That wasn’t a question but a threat.

Adela closed her eyes tightly and silently prayed; please don’t let them take him.

Lando said, ‘you can’t take me anywhere without just cause.’

‘Oh we have just cause, Mr. Lando, you’re non -cooperation, you
r aggressive attitude, your smart ass remarks, take your pick.’

Lando curled his lip, ‘yeah, that’ll look good on the charge sheet, make you look like a real badass fed.’

Both men approached menacingly cutting of any escape  route. Lando reached behind his back getting ready to draw his weapon. He didn’t want to do this but his gut told him that once he was in there vehicle he wouldn’t be going to any headquarters.

Just as he gripped the handle of the Smith and Wesson in his hand Dante began to bark ferociously. Both agents turned to the bedroom door as another sound came to them, this time from the barn, Josie neighing and whinnying. All three men looked at each other for a second then Tully drew his weapon followed very quickly by Benson. But neither was as quick as Lando. He dodged the bullet from Tully’s gun at the same time pulling his own weapon from his waistband. He aimed and fired at the nearest man. which happened to be Tully; he went down a bullet shaped hole in his forehead.

If Lando had had time he would have congratulated himself on his speed and accuracy, it had been almost eight years since he had fired this weapon, he was sure he would be out of practise, but it didn’t seem so judging by the fact that Tully was dead and he wasn’t. But he didn’t have time to crow, there was still Benson to deal with. Fortunately…for Lando that is…Tully’s body had knocked against his partner as he had fallen sending the bullet Benson had fired a good few yards to Lando’s left.

Lando fired again and hit Benson in the arm causing him to drop his weapon. Lando said, ‘get down on the floor, Benson, unless you want to wind up like your partner.’

Benson hesitated then seeing the lethal look in Lando’s eyes he lay down saying, ‘you’re in very serious trouble now, Lando, you just killed a federal agent.’

Lando knelt beside the man and began searching him, ‘I’m getting used to trouble, Benson, it’s second nature to me now. So now, how many in the barn?’

Benson didn’t answer so Lando pressed his knee into his injured arm, the man cried out and Lando repeated, ‘how many in the barn?’

The man found it hard to speak with the pain but managed to grunt out, ‘one.’

Lando pressed his knee into the wound again the man moaned and said louder this time, ‘one, I swear.’

Lando believed him. He found Benson’s handcuffs and pulling the man’s arms behind him cuffed his wrists together causing the man to moan in pain. Lando looked down at him for a moment then said, ‘you in pain?’

The man nodded and Lando said, ‘this should help.’ He raised the gun he held and hit the man on the back of the head with the grip, the man lost consciousness immediately and Lando said, ‘told ya.’

He stood up and looked behind him making sure the woman wasn’t trying to leave the crawl space, she wasn’t. He couldn’t hear Josie neighing now but knew the third man was somewhere about; he had probably heard the shots and was waiting on the outcome before he showed himself. He knew there was no chance of anyone else hearing the shots, even if anyone was passing by, which was doubtful, they wouldn’t think twice about gunfire since they knew he hunted, or at least they thought he did. Anyway, they wouldn’t think anything out of the ordinary was happening, he was very happy with that arrangement and today even more so.

Lando opened the door slowly and cautiously then looked back at Dante who was peeping around the bedroom door looking terrified, but he wasn’t growling so the third man was not close to the house.

Lando pulled the door all the way open and stepped outside then made his way along the side of the house to the barn. He could hear the excited and panicked sounds of the various animals in the hospital side of the barn so knew the man was still in there. There was a side door into the barn hidden by some old sheets of wood he used for repairs; he made his way towards it. When he got there he listened for any sound from within the barn but could hear only the animals. He very carefully and quietly began to remove the strips of wood from the door then unlocked it with his key grateful he kept the lock well oiled.

Being as quiet as he could he opened the door, the first thing he saw was Josie and her foal who was hidden underneath her mothers belly, he let out a sigh of relief that they were safe. Josie made a blowing sound with her lips as he approached and he put his fingers to his own lips and patted her reassuringly she seemed to understand because she made no further sound.

Some of the less injured animals had escaped the hospital and were milling around the barn and some of the birds were flying around the ceiling. He crept quietly towards the door but stopped dead when he heard a noise that he knew was no animal just inside the open door. A man breathing heavily. Lando made his way around from the opposite side, climbed on top of a box and heaved himself upwards into the roof space. He knew the sound of the animals in distress and the birds flying around would cover any sound he might make as he walked carefully across the boards. When he got to where he thought the man was hiding he squatted and looked through the gap in the ceiling and saw the man his gun out and pointed towards the door.