Page 15 of One Cry Too Loud (Coastal Crime Unit #9)

“ I don’t know why you’re just standing there.

You need to move. All of you!” Tag said for what felt like the fifteenth time in the last twenty minutes.

It had been only twice that long since Michelle disappeared into the woods after killing her archer boyfriend and very nearly killing me.

We sat in the destruction the archer had made in Miller’s Coffee and Whiskey Sling and waited for the police to arrive. “Why is no one listening to me?”

“Is that not something you’re used to?” Holly asked, swishing a bit of whiskey in a glass and looking down at the dark liquid. “I can’t imagine anyone anywhere, New Orleans or otherwise, would profit too much from listening to you.”

I had known Holly for a while now. Still, I’m not sure I had seen her drink more than once or twice, and never in the daytime.

Still, I understood it. This was a difficult situation for all of us, but it was especially difficult for her.

Her daughter was missing, a person she once loved seemed responsible, and the darkest moments of her life were laid bare and on display for the people she respected the most to inspect.

It would have made anyone feel uncomfortable, and that was before she had arrows flying at her head.

For his part, Miller came around and filled the glass back up.

You would have thought the old man would have been upset with us.

After all, we’d come in and caused untold amounts of damage to his place of business.

We’d put his life in danger and almost certainly forced him to close what was very likely his only source of income for an extended period of time.

He wasn’t upset though. He practically danced around us as he filled his drinks and waited for the police to show up.

“What in the British hell is that supposed to mean?” Tag asked, glaring at Holly with arms folded over his chest. He might have been old enough to drink now, but he wasn’t. Instead, he was tapping his foot loudly against the wooden floor as a coffee sat untouched beside him.

“It means your carelessness almost killed us all,” Holly said.

Like the previous statements, she didn’t sound upset.

That would have taken too much vigor. Instead, her tone was low, almost defeated.

Her phrase came out nearly absentminded, as though the fact that Tag should feel bad and responsible was something of an afterthought.

For Tag, that was not the case.

“I didn’t do that,” he shot back in a decidedly more vigorous tone. “The phone isn’t the reason they found us.”

“Then what is?” Holly scoffed, still low, still quiet.

“I don’t know, but it’s not that,” Tag replied.

“I don’t know much about computers or even phones for that matter,” Miller said as he moved around the table, checking to make sure we had everything we needed.

“Heck, the only phone I’ve got still plugs up into the wall.

I do know one thing. I know that it’s quite a bit harder to grow from our mistakes if we don’t admit we made them. ”

“I didn’t make a mistake, Grandpa,” Tag groaned. “This isn’t my fault. So, since you already admitted to not understanding what we’re talking about, why don’t you stay out of it?”

“You will not speak to him like that,” I said without missing a beat.

“This man saved my life. He saved your lives too. Beyond that, he opened his door to us and continues to allow that door to be open after we’ve cost him what appears to be a lot in damages.

You owe him, and even if you didn’t, he’s a war vet and someone who is decades your senior.

You will show him the respect he’s earned. ”

Tag didn’t answer. He just glared at me in silence.

“That’s not going to be enough,” I warned. “Apologize.”

“I don’t work for you,” Tag said.

“Decency isn’t a job. Apologize,” I repeated.

A moment of silence passed. Then, with his eyes sliding over to MIller, Tag muttered, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that.”

“It’s alright,” Miller said, shaking his head and waving it off. “I’ve got a couple of grandkids who would make what you said look like a Christmas card.” He looked over at me. “And don’t worry about the damage. Your boss has more than made up for it.”

“I can be generous when I want to be,” Nate said, walking out of the restroom and into earshot. “And after what you did, Mr. Miller, you deserve that generosity."

“I don’t know about deserving it, but I certainly do appreciate it,” the old man said.

“Now I can fix this place up and make it what it ought to be, what my grandfather wanted it to be when he put it up.” He chuckled.

“Or I could just say to heck with it, retire, buy an rv and take my wife anywhere she wants to go.”

“Those are good choices to have, sir,” I said, nodding at the man as he turned and walked into the back room.

“I’m not wrong, though. You need to leave,” Tag said. His arms were still folded and his face was still sour. “The woman who shot at you, Michelle, she could be in those woods. She could come back at any moment.”

“If she’s in those woods, she’s got a big problem,” Kat said. “Charlie showed up fifteen minutes ago. I’ve got him patrolling the woods and looking for her.”

“Charlie is here?” Holly asked. Her face went paler and a shade of pain tinted her eyes. I remembered the way Charlie ran off after hearing what Holly had to say. It was obvious she was still hurt by that.

“Who the hell is Charlie?” Tag asked.

“He’s one of us,” I said. “Former Navy.”

“Former Navy and special forces,” Kat added, revealing a part of the man’s past that I hadn’t been aware of. “I’ve seen him work his way out of situations that would have flummoxed the world’s best. He can handle a woman in the woods.”

“She’s not the only issue, though,” Tag said. “Michelle and the archer aren’t the only people who saw Nefarious’s offer. More people will come for you. They’re probably coming right now, and if you just called in a police report-”

“Miller called that in. I made sure of it,” I interjected.

“That’s good, but it’s not enough,” Tag said.

“You want to blame me for what happened here? That’s fine.

It’s not true, but let’s pretend that it is for a second.

This is one phone and it’s got the kind of security on it that would make the Pentagon green with envy.

What do you think Nefarious can gleam from a police report spitting distance from your hometown? ”

“You make a good point. I won’t lie about that, but someone is dead and there are things that have to be done. I can't ignore that.”

“Then let me do them?” Tag said. “You’re talking about giving a statement, right? I’ll give the damn statement. I wasn’t on Nefarious’s hitlist. He doesn’t want me dead. As far as I know, he doesn’t even know I’m alive.”

“You can’t give a statement about what happened. You weren’t there,” I said.

“You’re being ridiculous. I’ll say I was there. You told me what happened. I can parrot it,” he answered.

“We’re not going to be doing that,” I said.

“We’re not lying to the police, and we’re certainly not impeding a murder investigation by giving a false statement.

I’ll tell them what I saw and they can investigate as they see fit.

That’s the way it’s supposed to go, and even though that archer tried to kill me, he deserves a true and honest investigation into his death. ”

Tag looked at Holly incredulously. “How do you deal with these people?”

“He wants to do the right thing. It’s respectable,” Holly said.

“Okay. We’ll put that on his tombstone. We’ll put it on all three of their tombstones,” Tag said. “Honestly, I’m trying to help you, and you people insist on staying here and turning yourselves into a handful of sitting ducks. It’s so agr-” His eyes went wide. “A handful.”

“What?” Holly asked.

“What if they didn’t have to be a handful?” Tag asked, a smile breaking across his lips.

“A handful?” Holly asked. Instantly, her eyes went wide too. “A handful! That’s genius!”

“What the hell is going on?” Nate asked, looking around the table.

“I'm not sure we’re meant to understand,” Kat replied.

“How do we do that, though?” Kat asked. “We don’t have any equipment.”

“I do, actually,” Tag said. He reached into his bag and pulled out a laptop.

“You brought a computer here?” I balked.

“It’s got the same security as the phone, and honestly what would it matter now?” Tag asked. He popped it open. “I’ll hook up to my hotspot. I have it bolstered, and we’ll get this done.”

Holly got up and moved around the table excitedly.

“Okay.I’m paying for all of this. Somebody tell me what’s happening,” Nate said.

“We’ve been trying to hide,” Holly said. “We’ve been trying to scrub ourselves off the grid completely, which is an almost impossible task in this day and age if you’re up against someone who can access things the way Nefarious can.”

“But what if we did the opposite?” Tag asked.

“What if we flooded the grid with your intel? What if we made dozens and dozens of fake Jacks, of fake Kats and fake Nates? What if we made it look like there were so many of you that even Nefarious, let alone the people vying for his bounty, didn’t know which one was real? ”

“You can do that?” Kat asked.

“Of course,” Tag and Holly said in tandem, as though it had been rehearsed. “And when we do, it’ll free you up to do what you do best,” Holly continued. “It’ll allow you to find my daughter and solve this case.”