Hot Velocity(14)

T-Rex nodded. “That’s the reason I’m here. I’m worried he’ll try something.”

The sheriff chuckled. “I heard from my guys that she got him good with a stun gun last night at the tavern. When he came out of it, he was madder than a wet hen.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” T-Rex said. “He might see it as a challenge to catch her when her guard is down.”

“You’re right. I’ll have a unit swing by the community center every hour during the day to make sure she’s okay.”

“Thanks.”

“You and your team getting any closer to figuring out who’s responsible for all the troubles around here lately?”

“We have bits and pieces, but not the full picture.”

“That’s about where we are. We think we know some of the players in the Free America group, but we don’t have enough evidence to get the county judge to issue search warrants. Besides, we doubt they’d keep their weapons and plans in their houses. There are enough caves and old mines in those mountains to keep us looking for a very long time.”

“Agreed.”

“Well, keep us informed.” Sheriff Scott clapped a hand to T-Rex’s back. “We’re here to help each other.”

“You bet.” T-Rex left the sheriff’s office. He made his way to the Blue Moose Tavern and climbed the stairs on the outside to the temporary office of the Safe Haven operations center.

Ghost, Caveman and Hawkeye were at the conference table, staring at a map.

Garner stood behind Hack at the array of computer monitors. “Good, now that we’re all here, we can get to work.”

“What’s the plan for the day?” T-Rex asked.

Their temporary boss pointed to two of the men. “Ghost and Caveman will continue to interview neighbors and friends of Don Sweeney to see if anyone saw other people coming and going from the man’s apartment. Hopefully someone will come up with the name of the man who hired Sweeney to kill Olivia Dawson’s father.”

Sweeney had admitted he’d been paid to murder the rancher who owned the land bordering the pipeline. They still didn’t know who’d paid him or if he had connections to Free America.

“I’d like to check Wayne Batson’s place,” Hawkeye said. “I feel like the sheriff might have missed something. The man trained people for combat, for heaven’s sake. He’s bound to have a bunker of weapons hidden somewhere on his ranch.”

“I can help with the search,” T-Rex offered.

Garner shook his head. “I have other plans for you. And I need to coordinate the search of Batson’s ranch with the sheriff. They have the authority to search the ranch. No use getting hit with trespassing charges.”

“After Caveman and Ms. Saunders were hunted like animals on Batson’s ranch—” Hawkeye frowned “—I’d say we have a right to be there.”

Garner nodded. “Still, we need to coordinate with the sheriff. If he has people out there, you don’t want to surprise them. With everything that’s happened lately, they might shoot first and ask questions later. Not to mention the folks Batson trained on his ranch. They could still be using his facilities without our knowledge.”

Unfortunately, Batson’s computer information concerning people who’d been through his training camp had been programmed to self-destruct when tampered with. As soon as Hack had made his first attempt, the system shut him out and initiated a program to delete data files. Hack had turned off the server as soon as he’d realized what had happened. At that point the server had been sent to the state crime lab in the hope they could recover the data.

In the meantime, a shipment of approximately thirty AR-15, military-grade rifles had been sent to someone in the area. And they had yet to discover their whereabouts. Thirty semiautomatic rifles would do a lot of damage in a takeover.

Garner turned to T-Rex. “I have a special assignment for you. Today, I want you to tail Leo Fratiani. Our searches online haven’t turned up much of anything. Find out if he’s really on the up and up.”

“Will do,” T-Rex said.

Garner continued, “Then, this afternoon, I have a friend from the Wyoming Army National Guard flying in with a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. I need you to be available when he gets here. He’ll take you up to scout the hills and valleys along and around the pipeline. Perhaps what we can’t see from the ground, you can see from the air.”

“I would think you’d want to be in that chopper,” T-Rex noted.

“I do. Major Bailey and Lieutenant Strohm are on loan for the afternoon to get some flying time in. Unfortunately, I have an online meeting scheduled with my higher headquarters this afternoon that I can’t miss. My boss wants a status on what’s happening here in Grizzly Pass.” Garner’s lips thinned. “I’d like to tell him we’ve identified all of the members of Free America and found the person who funded the purchase of the AR-15s. As you all know, we’re not there.”

The men around the table were silent. If the others were like T-Rex, they took it personally that they hadn’t found the source of the problems.

“We don’t know if the troubles are directly related to the pipeline, or if someone is trying to throw us off.” Garner turned away from the team and paced the length of the room and back. “The heavily armed Free America faction could be the real issue here. We know about the AR-15s, but we don’t know what else they might have gotten their hands on. The sooner we locate the weapons cache and get a list of the people involved, the sooner we nail the ones responsible, and you can go back to your units.”

“We’re on it,” T-Rex said.

Ghost nodded. “We want this resolved as badly as you. I’m from this area. I hate seeing it threatened.”

“If Free America stages a takeover, anyone could be at risk. Look what happened to the local children. That was bad enough,” Caveman said. “A nice old man was murdered, and all of those children could have died in that abandoned mine.”

“Precisely why we can’t let this drag on any longer. And with the internet hopping with Free America activity and forewarnings, we need to make it happen soon.” Garner clapped his hands together. “Let’s get to it.”

Ghost, Caveman and Hawkeye left the office. Garner lagged behind. “Fratiani is staying at the Heartland Hotel. He likes to take his breakfast at the diner and eat lunch and dinner at the Blue Moose Tavern. What he does with the rest of his day, we don’t know. He drives out of town.”

“What’s he look like?” T-Rex asked.

Garner turned to the man in the corner. “Hack?”

The computer guru had been sitting quietly, tapping away at his keyboard. He tapped some more, and an image popped up on one of his monitors of a man with dark hair and dark eyes.

“This is from his driver’s license from the state of California.”

“He’s not even from Wyoming?” T-Rex stepped up behind Hack.

“No. He approached Olivia Dawson stating he was interested in purchasing her property, Stone Oak Ranch, for an investor. My inquiries indicate he works for a company called LF Enterprises. He’s listed as the owner.”

“Is he a broker?” T-Rex asked.

Hack nodded. “I looked up his license in the state of California. It’s current and relatively new. He’s also a licensed financial adviser. Also recent. Prior to those certifications, he worked for the pipeline industry.”

“Okay, he probably knows his stuff and might have an inside track on the pipeline dealings.” T-Rex faced Garner again. “Do you want me to interview him, or tail him and observe covertly?”

Garner had joined him behind Hack. “I’d rather he didn’t know you were on to him. If he’s up to something, you might have a better chance of discovering what it is, if he doesn’t know you’re following him.”

T-Rex nodded. “Will do.” As he left the office and descended the stairs, he checked his watch. It was still early. He might catch Fratiani at the diner.

T-Rex hopped into his truck and drove the few blocks to the diner, got out and went in. It didn’t take long to spot the man he was to follow that day.

Fratiani looked much like the picture on his driver’s license, with his dark hair and dark eyes. He sat alone at a table with a cup of coffee, an empty plate and his cell phone in his hand.

T-Rex ordered a cup of coffee to go and sat at the counter mixing a dash of sugar and cream in the cup, though he preferred it black. He sipped the steaming brew and glanced over the rim of the cup.

About that time, Fratiani threw a twenty on the table and got up.

T-Rex gave him enough time to exit the building before he capped his coffee and followed.

The broker climbed into a four-wheel-drive Jeep and backed out of his parking space, holding his cell phone to his ear. He headed south out of town.

T-Rex jumped into his truck, settled the coffee in a cup holder and followed, keeping his distance so as not to tip off Fratiani that he was being tailed.

Three miles out of Grizzly Pass, Fratiani turned onto a dirt road. T-Rex drove past the road and didn’t slow until he’d rounded a curve. As soon as he was reasonably out of sight, he turned around and headed the opposite direction, slowing as he rounded the curve.