Page 66 of No Safe Place

“No,” I said. “All quiet on the Western Front. They’re still licking their wounds, I guess.”

“Why are there no fire trucks?” Scotty said. “People across the river heard this. The authorities would have been here by now. Why the hell has no one come?”

“Are you kidding me?” Mario said. “You still haven’t figured it out? Wake up! Your local cops are corrupt. They let your buddy Big Joe get killed and now, because we witnessed it, it’s time for us to get greased. They blew up your restaurant!”

“I can’t believe Chief Garner is involved in this,” Scotty said. “I’ve met him. He’s eaten at my place with his wife. How can he be out there? How?”

“No one can be this naive,” Mario said. “Dude, no one ever lied to you before? You’ve never heard of a corrupt cop? We’re fighting for our lives here, bro. This is the Alamo and you’re inside of it. Get a grip.”

“Mario, calm down,” Mathias said.

“Tell him to wake up,” Mario said. “I’m not taking a bullet in my head because this numbskull refuses to put two and two together.”

“Fine!” Scotty yelled as he jumped up. “Fine! Chief Garner is a psycho. I got it. Happy now? But so what? How are we going to get out of this, huh? What are we going to do?”

“We hold them off until the morning,” I said. “In the light of day when more regular people show up, they’re going to have to change their plans.”

“Mike’s right,” Mathias said. “That big bang has rattled some windows across the river. People have to be asking questions.”

“Exactly,” I said. “This bullshit story has an expiration date. Too many crazy things are happening for them to keep the cover-up going. We’re not some goofy religious group in a compound they can lie about. We’re a bunch of construction workers and Joe Six-Packs who were in a bar watching a hockey game. Justifying all of this in the light of day isn’t going to be difficult for them, it’s going to be impossible. We just have to hold these scumbags off until dawn.”

57

Shaw, out in front of the post office, waved in the arriving vehicles. There was a diesel engine roar as two more BearCats, another khaki one and a gleaming black one, pulled up to the loading dock. As Shaw watched, the back doors of both opened and about a dozen men in tactical gear piled out.

They were from the next two towns over. Chief Garner had finally proven quite useful after all. Once Shaw had told him what he needed, he had gotten on the horn and finagled some decent replacements.

Normally Shaw hated working with weekend warrior types, but at this point beggars couldn’t be choosers, could they? He was running out of time to get this done and get gone before sunrise, so he needed any and every Tom, Dick or Harry he could find.

“What do we got?” said the large tactical uniformed cop who had gotten out of the black truck. He was a big black-haired kid in his late twenties. He was already wearing his tactical goggles.

Shaw waited until the other SWAT chief from the khaki BearCat arrived a moment later. He was older, forty maybe, a thin almost prissy triathlete-type guy with blonde anchorman hair.

“Chief Garner said this is a national security thing?” the kiddie SWAT cop said.

Shaw assessed the young man. He was big all over, wasn’t he? Big hands, big bovine face and head. His dark eyes, which were a little too close together, had a determined look. Shaw had played football in high school in Ohio, and this boy reminded him of his teammates, big bull-like farm boys who were not too smart but plenty strong.

Perfect cannon fodder, Shaw thought. His favorite kind of soldier.

“What’s your name?” Shaw said as he put his arm around the wide back of the new arrival.

“Minton. Don Minton.”

“And you?” he said to the anchorman.

“Doug Needlemeyer.”

“I’m Special Agent Thompson,” Shaw said as he herded the men toward the loading dock steps. “Leave your men there. Let’s go inside, just the three of us. I need to talk to you both in private.”

58

There was a bathroom on the first floor by the stairs and I was coming out of it two minutes later when I almost bumped into someone there in the dark by the stairs.

It was Jodi.

“Mike, can I talk to you?” she said.

“Sure. What’s up?”

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