Page 15 of Operation: Discovery

“About ten minutes ago, so we’ve got to wait. Max’s handler had to notify his team, get his gear, and even though this is a dangerous situation, travel still takes time.”

Rebecca drew forward and locked her brake alongside Brendon. He immediately noted that her chair was larger, wider, and not built for her. It was the type of chair that could be found at a big box store. At least they’d gotten her something, but this chair would hurt her in the long run. Sitting without any padding would cause bed sores and other ailments. She had to reach her arms out wide to roll herself forward, meaning she had to use more energy to move. He wished he had the resources to get a chair for her that would make life easier, but he didn’t and didn’t want to assume that she wanted his help.

“I don’t know anything about bombs, but I know cars. I was a mechanic before I was taken.” She clenched her fists against the armrests of her chair. “If the bomb didn’t go off when you started the car, there’s probably a timer on it or it’s wired to go off when someone tries to remove it. Otherwise, it would make no sense to just randomly put a bomb in someone’s car.”

“Not all crime makes sense,” Dee offered.

She had always been so positive, always trying to see good in people and situations. Had he grown so jaded over the years that he couldn’t anymore? Could he only see through the warped lens of what he heard day in and day out for years?

“True, but why Brendon’s car?” Rebecca asked. “Oh, and there is one last possibility, remote detonation. But they’d have to be close enough to set it off.”

“It’s possible we were followed and whoever it is, is just waiting for a time like this when we’re all gathered by the car, gawking, to set it off,” Sam muttered.

Connor glanced all around the yard. Brendon followed the direction of his glance but the rolling hills around Wayside prevented him from seeing much. He trusted the gate. Connor had it repaired a week before any clients had returned a few weeks earlier. After it had been broken, Brendon now knew what it took to break through it and there was no way to do it quietly. They’d improved security all around Wayside. The trouble was, they couldn’t stay on the grounds all the time.

“If this happened at the blood drive, then I need to call Officer Blake. This would be part of his case.” Brendon let his thoughts be known.

“If someone tried to kill you with a bomb, I suspect the ATF will take over the case, at least in part,” Sam countered.

Brendon cleared his throat, knowing that would draw everyone’s attention. “Having the ATF involved is probably a good idea. We’re also going to need to go to Cheyenne soon.”

Connor stiffened. “Why is that?”

“This case just got a lot more interesting. Moira mentioned that she’d told her landlord about an issue with the front door, but no one had done anything to fix the issue. I didn’t think much about that because derelict landlords are common in that area of Piper’s Ridge. Later, Adam mentioned that Moira thought the landlord was going into their house when they weren’t home. So, I looked up who owns the house. Now I know why nothing was done about the broken door. The owner is currently in prison.”

Moira gasped. “Frank is in prison?”

Frank? Evie had to have hired someone to be her representative, her face to the world, as a lazy property owner. “Frank is probably the man you see. Was his full name Frank Hoskins?”

Moira nodded. “That’s him.”

“He’s one of Viceroy’s men, and Evie Carvel was the owner. She is currently in prison under maximum security. She’s refused to talk so far, but if she does, she could be the key to finding Viceroy. She’s the only one who probably knows his real name,” Brendon said.

Connor whistled. “I’d wondered why there was a lull, but they probably had to replace Evie and Frank. He was shot and was transported to jail when he was recovered enough.”

Dee’s brow furrowed. “If this Frank was shot here and Evie was arrested …. Was that arrest because of someone at Wayside?”

“Yes,” Connor answered without hesitation.

“Well, then it’s possible someone at the fake clinic this morning recognized Brendon. Everyone there was in surgical masks and gowns, even covering their hair. We couldn’t have recognized anyone, but they could see us.”

Brendon wondered if that was true. He often found people didn’t remember his face, only that he was in a chair because it was different from other people. The only time anyone from the Viceroy gang, if that’s what they could be called, had been on the Wayside property, they’d been shooting at people. He’d been there and helped, but he doubted they’d remember his face. Though he was the only wheelchair bound person he knew of in Piper’s Ridge, making him an easy mark.

“I don’t go to town often. I doubt this was bait for Wayside specifically. Why would they just have car bombs sitting around?”

Connor leaned on one hip and took a deep breath. “Well, you might have been a secondary option. They may have had devices with them in case the police came. Let’s face it, if they had the whole place taken over, they knew it would take the police a while to go through that building. They’d have time and opportunity to place that device on a cruiser.”

Instead, the police hadn’t broken up their attempt because they hadn’t known about it. Brendon and Dee had been the ones to call the police and break behind closed doors, meaning both of them were now targets, whether he liked it or not.

* * *

Dee glancedaround the small group and felt completely out of place. She hadn’t experienced anything like what they were talking about. She suspected all sorts of devastating thoughts were wandering through Moira’s head and probably Adam’s too. She noticed Rebecca, who, despite the slight pink of too much sun, looked pale.

“Rebecca, Moira, and Adam, why don’t we go back inside and let the men handle this?” Not to mention it seemed senseless for them all to be there, staring at a potentially dangerous car. If the bomb did go off, it could hurt all of them, just as Sam had suggested.

Rebecca nodded and Dee used the push bar on the back of her chair to gently bring her back up to the house. Moira and her son followed. Once inside, the lodge felt cool after being out in the sun. There was still an eerie feeling like they were waiting for an explosion, but at least they weren’t just staring at it like a terrifying jack in the box.

She headed for the kitchen, remembering that it had been just lunchtime when Connor had come in for Brendon. A tall, dark-haired woman stood behind the lunch counter with her hands on her hips.

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