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“Roger,” Roth answered. He heard the distinct sound of snow crunching beneath footsteps at the far corner of the wall his aim was on. He slid his phone into his pants pocket and brought his left palm to overlap his right hand on the butt of his weapon for better stability. He waited. A head peeked around the corner for a split second before it was pulled back. Roth had the advantage. He was in the shadows. That far side of the house was in moonlight. Whoever it was, probably hadn’t seen them. “Stay perfectly still and quiet,” he whispered to Briana.
Roth then reached into his pocket and terminated the phone call. He also muted his phone. They were in a good position to remain undetected. They only had to hold out until Jackson arrived, which would be in less than fifteen minutes, Roth guessed.
In Augusta, when Jackson got the call from BT, he immediately pointed the car towards Winthrop. He exceeded the speed limit on his drive there, even though it had just begun to snow. He called the Sheriff’s office in Augusta where he’d just left. He identified himself and asked to be connected to the Sheriff. He was told by the man who answered that the Sheriff was not there.
“How long since he left the office?” Jackson asked. There was no way he could have left while he watched the office.
“Right after you and the other agent left earlier,” the Deputy reported.
“Did he say where he was going?” Jackson pressed.
“No, but he and Kemp took the minivan we use for stakeouts,” the deputy reported.
Jackson hadn’t seen a minivan in the parking lot during the entire stakeout, but he did recall seeing one in the front lot. He’d parked beside it. He disconnected the call with the deputy and switched back over to BT. “Damnit, the Sheriff is no longer at his office. He must have booked as we drove around the block to take up our surveillance position.”
“What’s your ETA to Crash’s position?” BT asked.
“Under ten minutes,” Jackson replied.
“Crash just disconnected the call. He isn’t on comms yet.”
“What’s his position?” Jackson asked.
“He’s stationary at the Weston residence. One of you will have to let me know when the scene is secure so I can dispatch fire and ambulance.”
“He probably needs to remain silent to stay hidden at his location.” Jackson knew that would be the reason he’d close an open phone line. He also hoped Roth could get on comms ASAP.
“Affirmative,” BT replied. That was what he figured as well. He also tapped out a message to Shepherd, per protocol, to advise him of the situation. “And Big Bear has been notified.”
Jackson expected Shepherd would get on the line shortly as well. “I know you’re watching Crash’s tracker. Let me know if he’s on the move. I’m going on comms now.” He disconnected the call and inserted his comms in his ear, having just dug the case out of his pocket. “Jax on,” he stated.
“Gotcha, Jax,” BT said.
Hugging the ice-cold aluminum-sided wall at the rear of Penny Weston’s house, Roth controlled his breathing, which also calmed his heart rate. All his senses were at their peak. The question was, was the assailant still around the corner or had he backtracked and was circling towards the other side? And was he alone? Was someone else inching closer, through the darkness inside the tree line? He assumed Briana was still watching the other side. He counted on her MP training so that she could handle herself and cover his back.
Before either of them had time to react, a sudden blast knocked them off their feet. A rolling cloud of fire and debris ripped open the house. The aluminum siding sliced outward, cutting through the night, and impaling everything in its path. Thankfully, the fact that Roth and Briana were face down in several feet of snow, they were protected somewhat from the searing heat as it only roasted their backs as it melted the top layer of the snow. The majority of the exploded remains of the house landed several feet away from its foundation as the energy released in the explosion displaced the charred remnants of what had been Penny Weston’s life.
Roth scrambled to his feet, pushing debris off himself. The bright glow from the blazing house illuminated everything. Briana lay face down in front of him, a burning board partially on top of her. He kicked it from her and grabbed her arm. “Can you get up? We need to move!” He didn’t know if their assailant or assailants were dead or alive, but he wasn’t going to stick around to check.
Briana felt the searing heat all around her, as well as the sting of the ice-cold snow on her face. She felt her arm being pulled on and heard Sebastian’s voice, a mere echo through a haze. She pressed up onto all fours and then, as she pulled herself to her feet, she took an unsteady step.
They’d only taken a half-dozen steps towards her van when gunshots hit the windshield of it. As he came around the front of the burning structure, they both saw Sheriff Elsworth, a pistol in his hand, which he was unloading on her van. Behind him was a deputy wielding a shotgun.
The pair ran behind the burning house and into the woods.
Yankee
“Crash is on the move, headed north by northwest, away from the house. It looks like he’s in the woods bordering one of the lakes,” BT reported to Jackson.
“Has he re-established communication?” Jackson asked.
“Negative. I’m sure he needs to get to a defendable position first.”
Anticipating his movements, Jackson veered onto the road that led to the Elsworth property. Roth was heading in that general direction. If it was him out there, he’d go to Elsworth’s house and barricade himself inside, waiting for backup. He reported his location to BT and that the snow was now coming down more heavily.
Glancing behind them, Roth saw the two flashlight beams flicker like strobe lights behind the many tree trunks, branches, and snow-covered underbrush. “We’re leaving an easily tracked path in the snow,” he whispered to her as he pulled her along at a clipped pace. She still seemed a bit woozy, and he wondered if she’d been struck in the head by something when the house exploded. He needed to get them to relative safety so he could re-establish communications with HQ and check her over. He altered his course slightly to bring them closer to the edge of the lake.
“Let’s just hunker down out of their sight and shoot them when they get close enough,” she said, noticing that large flakes of snow now fell.
