Page 27 of Operation: Discovery

“All right. Just be careful. We both know what these guys are capable of, and that boy has not been found yet. After twenty-four hours without so much as a clue or note, the chances drop by the hour that we’re going to find him alive.”

Brendon’s stomach knotted. “I know. We’ll keep praying here. If I think of or hear anything, you’ll be the first to know.” He hung up with Officer Blake as someone knocked on his doorjamb.

A member of the bomb squad from the day before stood in the doorway, waiting for entrance. “Come on in.”

The man gave a nod, then sat in the chair Dee had vacated. He carried a large brown paper bag that he set on the floor beside him. “We’ve been looking over what is left of your car this morning now that the scene has fully cooled. Your insurance company also came this morning, took pictures, and left a car for you. They said they’d be calling you with a determination.” The man snorted at the absurdity. “I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t consider it a total loss. There was part of your car found forty yards away embedded in the front grille of a truck.”

Brendon sucked in a breath. “I hope it was just a work truck and not one of those owned by the other guys.”

The tech shrugged. “It was red. That’s all I can tell you.” He produced the paper bag and lifted out clear plastic bags from within. Each had blackened metal parts inside, a few broken wires, and screws that looked crushed but not burned.

“Are these from my car?” He looked at the bags without touching them.

“Yes, sort of.” He arranged the pieces into an order that made sense to him. “This stack is full of pieces of the device itself. We’re hoping these pieces will carry evidence of some kind. Fibers. Probably not prints, but maybe. Occasionally, people will use components that are only available through one place, making it easier to narrow down our leads. For now, we only have this. We hope to recover enough of the device to be able to compare it to other bombers. Bombers are notorious for finding a style they like and sticking to it. It becomes almost as good as a fingerprint.”

“Okay.” He wasn’t versed in the psychology of bombers but was glad there was some hope of finding the person based on that. “Teddy thought the bomb might have been set off by the bread delivery man. That would be someone to check out, if you haven’t yet.”

“That was a dead end, unfortunately. The bread truck was packed yesterday and was supposed to go to a church event down in Bigsby. It came to Wayside instead. No one saw who stole it and the truck was found on the highway outside of Piper’s Ridge, completely wiped clean.”

“This is never easy.” If only criminals could be a little more careless, they’d be easier to catch.

“It’s not, but thanks. Connor also gave us access to the security cameras, but the driver kept his head down when he was at the security gate. The only concrete thing we have to go on is his voice, saying into the device that he was with the bakery.”

“So, what are those other two piles?” Maybe that would lead to more.

“This one in the middle are parts that we know were from your car.” They were mostly plastic pieces, torn and broken from the interior or perhaps from the engine compartment.

“And that helps … how?” Brendon wasn’t sure why they would keep those.

“Because it gives us the evidence we need to prove these other parts, in stack three, don’t belong. We suspect that the original device was meant to be blown while you were driving. This stack, at least from our initial investigation of the scene, appears to be shrapnel. If you had been in your car when this had gone off, there was no chance of survival. It is incompatible with life.”

Brendon looked down at the metal fragments that looked like pieces of welding spatter, screws, sharply cut sheet metal, and even hex nuts. The gravity of the situation hit him with a fresh gut punch. “I can’t believe for a second that this was planned for me specifically.”

The bomb tech shook his head. “I highly doubt it. This was a case of opportunity. I suspect the bomb was their ‘get out of jail free’ card. If something happened and they were caught, they had the means to set off a bomb. They were probably sitting out in the parking lot near your car and planned to get far away before anyone could tell what had happened. There was enough material here to blow out the front windows of the building and maybe injure people, since you would’ve been parked right in front of it.”

“So, you think my car was sitting there and someone saw Dee and me leave. They knew we were the one that cost them … whatever they were after and they followed me, planting the bomb while I was at the coffee shop.”

He nodded. “About the time you were in the coffee shop, Officer Blake sent out a couple of cruisers to canvass the town with pictures of the missing boy. Whoever planted the bomb probably saw the cop cars driving around slowly and got scared. They’d probably planned to blow your car as soon as you came out of the shop, but you stayed inside and talked for a while.”

Praise God that he’d wanted a few minutes to wind down after they’d left the town hall. If they’d quickly gone in, gotten their coffee, and headed right for Moira’s, they would’ve died along with many others. Piper’s Ridge had been busy that morning with people walking around and enjoying the day. “I’m glad they weren’t around and I’m glad they didn’t see us at Moira’s, since it seems like that was a neighborhood they frequented.”

The bomb tech tilted his head to the side. “How do you know that?”

He’d shared the information about the house to Officer Blake, but it must not have made it down the chain of command yet. “I’m not sure how far into the investigation you’ll go, but I left a statement about Moira’s house and someone we’ve had contact with in the past who owns that house.”

“A connection. Maybe they did specifically target you.” He carefully put the pieces back into the paper evidence bag. “I won’t be acting as a detective on this case. I’m only looking at the pieces of the bomb and trying to prove what was part of your car and what was not. That’s all the deeper I’ll be going.” He stood and gave Brendon a nod. “I just wanted you to know just how lucky you are.”

Brendon shook his head. “Not lucky. I don’t believe in luck. This was a blessing plain and simple. I thank God that no one was close enough to my car to get hurt. The blast injured Max’s ears and he’s been shaky since. That’s bad enough. I don’t want these people anywhere near Wayside again.”

He headed for the door. “I think that’s a pretty tall order. I know from what Sam told us that you are pretty secure back here in the hills, but they obviously know how to get inside if they really want to. I hope we can stop them, but you need to be aware of your surroundings at all times and keep an eye on any strangers who cross that gate.”

Especially since they now had families living there and Rebecca who couldn’t get away as fast as those on foot. For her safety, he had to find a way to get her into a chair she could use more easily. For the safety of everyone, he had to convince Connor to bring in more help. Maybe the Guardians needed to return for a while.

ChapterTwelve

The following day, Rebecca rolled into Brendon’s office. He waited to see if Dee would follow behind her, but Rebecca closed the door, shutting out the world. She pushed her chair forward until she was even with the other chairs on the other side of his desk.

“Sorry I missed our appointment yesterday.” She threaded her fingers together in her lap.

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