Page 34

CHAPTER 34

L uke had received my message and had grabbed another body bag from Melissa’s basement. I filled him in as we drove out to Betty’s, where Tanke was standing in the front yard with an assault rifle looking like a toy in his hands, the two llamas grazing close together in the yard. Fernanda had a buddy now, which I was hoping would make her less hostile, at least to me. Tanke had brought Junior’s body out front and tossed it over the fence, which was nice of him, but I think it was mostly so we wouldn’t upset the llamas coming in after it. As we—make that Luke—picked it up to put it in the back of the Pathfinder, Tanke came forward and pointed at me.

I waited as he came out of the gate. Then he pointed to the left, at the Pathfinder, and then left again.

“Vehicle?” I asked as he watched my lips, and he nodded.

He led the way into the thicker woods to the side of Betty’s property. I recognized the vehicle hidden in the trees. It was either the same one in which Junior and his mother, Serena, had shown up in town several weeks ago, or its twin. Mercedes G63. It had ballistic protection, heavy suspension for the armor, a souped-up engine, and run-flat tires.

But that wasn’t what Tanke wanted me to see. He went to the rear and swung open the gate. A plastic bin was in the cargo bay. Inside of it was some C-4, wire, crimpers, and a box which held fuses and assorted other bomb-making material. The wrapper around the block of C-4 had been torn open and some was missing. There were clippings of wire on the floor of the cargo bay. Which led to three quick realizations:

Someone had made a bomb.

The bomb was not in the cargo bay.

Junior had not tried to kill Betty with a bomb.

Then I noticed something else. A box with a red label: “Poisonous Snake! Do Not Open!” The return label was Snakes-R-Us. Really. The box was, of course, open and empty. There was also a long pole with a loop on the end. Who the hell shipped a poisonous snake? The internet was just full of nuts. At least we knew who was behind the attempt on Rose in her kitchen. Fucking Junior was an idiot, although I’d been thinking about it, and a snake in the oven definitely targeted Rose, and once the oven was opened and the snake out, might look like an accident. Not likely, but Junior wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.

But looking at this, Junior had also made a bomb and it wasn’t here.

Tanke tapped me on the shoulder and held up a key fob. Then he pointed to the driver’s compartment. It took me a second, then I nodded. We walked around and he got in the driver’s seat after shoving it back as far as it would go and I took the passenger. Tanke cranked the engine. The souped-up engine rumbled smoothly. But my focus was on the display on the console. It showed “Route Ended” right at Betty’s cottage. I tapped on it and searched for the location prior to that.

“Oh shit.” I gestured and Tanke put the SUV into gear and drove us back to Luke, who’d stashed Junior in the Pathfinder. I yelled to him. “Follow us to Pike’s cabin!”

He got into the Pathfinder to follow. I pointed at the GPS. Tanke nodded.

We turned on the forest road, away from Rocky Start. Tanke was driving fast. The forest road was plowed, courtesy of the blade Pike mounted on his old rusting pickup truck. I noted a couple of sets of fresh tire tracks in the snow, one of which was from this SUV. Junior had been here.

As we pulled into the clearing in front of the cabin, I saw Pike and Marley come out of the house and head for his truck, so I leaned across in front of Tanke and pressed down hard on the horn.

Startled, Pike drew his pistol, but then he recognized Luke in the Pathfinder behind us. I got out and hurried over.

“There’s a bomb around here,” I said.

Luke and Tanke had come to flank me.

“I haven’t seen anybody,” Pike said, casting a look at Tanke, who was new to him and understandably a reason for concern.

Marley frowned. “What makes you think?—”

I opened the back of the Mercedes. “This.”

Marley looked at the pile of crap. “Car bomb. This is pretty basic stuff. Probably wired to the ignition.”

We all looked at Pike’s old rust bucket pickup truck.

“Damn it,” Pike muttered.

“I think we leave it be,” I suggested. “Or blow it in place.”

“I love that truck,” Pike said.

While we’d been talking, Marley had gone over to the truck, dropped to the ground, and slid underneath. Pike yelled at him, but the kid’s voice echoed out to us. “Yep. Bomb. Wired to the ignition. Also the hood if you open it. Pretty basic setup.”

“ Get out from under there! ” Pike yelled.

“Hold on,” Marley said. “Is it the red wire or the blue wire?”

“GET OUT OF THERE, MARLEY!” Pike shouted, his face red. “YOU GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE RIGHT NOW OR?—”

He stopped as Marley slid out from underneath, holding a block of C-4 with wires dangling from it. “I was kidding,” he said, grinning at Pike. “I know my wires.”

I closed my eyes in relief. The act had been instinctive and stupid on Marley’s part. The first part was good, the second part needed some leavening with experience, preferably without him blowing himself up.

And definitely some mentoring.

I sighed, and said, “Marley, any decent chemist would have wired the damn thing to go off if it was tampered with. Thank God Junior was inept. We will talk before you go after any more bombs.”

Marley nodded, not looking chastened— hey, the bomb is off Pike’s truck, right? I could hear him thinking—and I looked at a future of trying to keep him and Poppy alive.

Which is what Pike and Rose had been doing for twenty years.

Pike was cursing Marley up one side and down the other, but he stopped when Tanke walked up, gently took the bomb from Marley’s hands, pulled the primary and backup fuses out of the C-4, and then smiled at Marley and nodded, giving him a thumbs up.

Great. Tanke approved.

Pike shifted to me. “How the hell did you know?”

“You were on the GPS of the guy who just tried to kill Betty. The guy, by the way, was Junior, who is now dead.”

Pike still looked shaken. “ What? ”

I quickly filled him in on the failed attempt, the bomb-making material we found in the back of the G63, and the body in the back of the pickup. And the Snakes-R-Us box.

“I gotta see his body,” Pike said.

We trooped to the back of the Pathfinder. Luke had stuffed Junior’s body into a bag and then put it in the back. He pulled it out slightly, then unzipped the top. The balaclava with three neat holes in it was back over his face.

I pulled the mask up.

Pike nodded in approval. “Tight group. Betty still has it. Now we know who was behind all this.”

“And the best part,” I told him, “is that all our attackers were from the Cauldron. Serena must have left the family business to Junior. It’s possible that it’s over now.”

Pike looked at me. “It’s never over, you dumbass. We made that mistake before.” He looked down at Junior. “But this might give us a break.”

He went back to his truck, shaking his head. Marley said, “Let me talk to him and then I’ll come back to Ecstasy with him, meet you at Oddities.”

I nodded and Luke said, “If you’re thinking about putting Junior in the freezer at Melissa’s, we’re full up. She only had four cold units. We’ve got Melissa, Sid, Geoffrey, and the woman who tried to take out Coral in there. At least Bea had Harvey cremated.” He looked at Junior. “We can keep him if we cremate somebody.”

“Sid,” I said.

“Hermione wanted a funeral,” Luke said.

“Hermione wanted a reason to stay in town,” I said. “Get Jackie to give you permission to smoke her Uncle Sid, and we’re done.”

Optimism: another good thing Rose had given me.

I’m sure the entity that controlled me was having a good chuckle over that.