Page 11 of The Last To Know (Hallowed Halls Series #2)

“N o—don’t. It’s a setup.” Cooper grabbed Jack’s hand then turned to Milam. “Call them off.”

Milam quickly gave the order. “Fall back. Could be a setup.”

“You think there are explosives inside?” Jack asked once the team had moved away from the house.

“I don’t know. Call it gut instinct, but something’s not right.”

Jack didn’t question his answer. He turned to Milam. “We need a bomb squad here now.”

“We don’t have one on the island. I’ll call in the one from Rochester. Could be a while.” Milam stepped away to make the call.

“Back door was open,” Zeke told them once his team joined them near the front of the house. “Something’s off.”

Milam returned to the group. “They’re an hour out.”

“Let’s fall back to the road. Get these vehicles back in case the place blows,” Jack gave the order.

Once the vehicles were out of danger, Cooper pulled out binoculars, switching them to night vision. Nothing moved around the house as far as he could tell. Was it all his imagination? Certainly, having the worst time in his life come back to haunt him had him on edge.

Someone touched his shoulder. He turned to find Hannah beside him. “He’s watching us.” His shocked eyes held hers. She pointed to the trees. “There are cameras there. Probably everywhere around the house. Inside. He was expecting us.”

“You’re right. I can’t believe I didn’t notice them.” He told Jack what Hannah had discovered. “He knew we’d come here.”

“Unbelievable.” Jack whipped around to Zeke. “Any chance you can get us into that feed. Find out where Salcedo is hiding?”

Zeke was one of the best tech people they had on the team. “I’ll try.” His normal cocky assurance wasn’t there, confirming the challenges.

After more than an hour of waiting, Sierra spotted the bomb squad as their headlights approached through the snowy evening. The emergency response vehicle stopped beside them, a virtual toolbox on wheels.

The window rolled down. “I’m Captain Morrison. Who’s in charge?”

Jack stepped forward and identified himself. “We believe the man we’re chasing rigged the house to explode when we entered.”

“I have video inside.” Zeke came over with his laptop.

Captain Morrison got out. “Let’s take a look.” He motioned to his team.

Members of the unit gathered around watching the video feed from inside the house. “I see at least three explosive devices.” Morrison pointed to the front entrance. “You’re right. It would have detonated the second you entered the home. If he’s watching, he’ll try to destroy any evidence inside. Suit up, Langston, Owens. This is going to be a multi-pronged mission. We need to take out those bombs at the entrances first.”

The two men prepared to put on their explosive ordnance disposal, or blast suits.

Morrison clearly had misgivings. “If he’s watching as it would appear, there’s a good chance he’ll set off the explosives once we’re close.”

Jack frowned. “You think he’s got the explosives tied to a cell phone he’s using to monitor our movements?”

“That’d be my guess. ”

“What if we use a signal jammer to shut off the cameras and hopefully render him unable to explode the devices,” Cooper suggested.

“It’s worth a shot,” Captain Morrison told them. “It will take out our ability to communicate and monitor my people’s progress visually as well.”

“I don’t think we have a choice if we want to keep your people safe. I’m calling Megan to let her know what we’re doing before we lose service. I’ll have her try and call back in a few minutes.” Jack called his wife and explained what was happening.

Zeke waited until Jack gave the okay before initiating the signal jammer.

“Nothing here.” Cooper stared at his phone. Others confirmed the same results.

Minutes went by. No calls came in.

“Looks like we’re a go,” Morrison told his people. “We’ll have limited visual on you from here and no communication.”

The two men in suits moved toward the house. Using the signal jammer had blocked all communication. The men would be on their own.

They didn’t dare get any closer in case Salcedo was still able to somehow detonate the bombs.

Half an hour passed before the two entrances were free of explosives. Clearing the rest of the house took excruciatingly longer.

The two bomb squad members returned to confirm the house had been swept for further bombs and was free of danger.

“There’s some strange stuff going on inside the place, though. You’re going to have to see it to believe it,” Langston told the group.

With the go-ahead, the vehicles were moved closer to the house. The signal jammer remained in place.

Cooper entered the house with the rest of the team.

“It’s in the basement.” Langston directed them downstairs.

As soon as he reached the bottom step, Cooper saw what Langston had spoken of. A man stood in front of what appeared to be a counter. Cooper drew his weapon even knowing it wouldn’t be needed.

With his people backing him up, Cooper reached the propped-up man who stared straight ahead.

Cooper lowered his weapon. “That’s Salcedo.” The basement had been set up to resemble a pharmacy. There were shelves holding medicine containers. A measuring scale to weigh out the dosage allotted by the prescribing doctor.

“Look at his eyes.” Hannah pointed to the eyes that weren’t eyes at all. “Those are glass.” Her gaze shot to Cooper. “Is he embalmed?”

“We’ll need the medical examiner to confirm. But I’m guessing yes. My father kept his victims’ eyes closed.” Cooper recalled seeing photos of the embalmed victims. “This isn’t sticking with my father’s MO. This is something different.”

“We need the medical examiner here.” Jack looked to Zeke. “You’ll need to turn off the signal jammer.”

As soon as the jammer was turned off, service returned. Detective Jordan called the medical examiner.

“ME’s on his way.” Jordan shook his head. “This is stranger than anything I’ve seen before.”

Cooper couldn’t agree more.

“So Salcedo was working with the killer?” Sierra tried to make sense of it. “Did your father work with someone?”

“No, never.”

“Let’s search the place.” Jack gave the order. “We need to identify whoever killed Salcedo and Witherspoon. He probably has Beckham. Hopefully, she’s still alive.”

With Hannah’s help, Cooper took the basement. The rest of the team returned upstairs. Bomb squad would remain onsite in case there were any unforeseen problems.

Hannah opened one of the pill containers. “There are pills in here. They look real.”

Cooper came over and peered over her shoulder. “You’re right.” He opened several other containers with the same results. “ What was Salcedo doing with this kind of medication?”

“Maybe selling it?” Hannah searched through some paperwork lying on the counter beside him. “Names. This is going to be more involved than we thought. We need ERT here now.”

“You’re right. Let’s try not to disturb anything further. I’ll call ERT.”

Returning upstairs, Cooper called Bob Foster, the lead technician for the FBI’s Evidence Recovery Team.

Bob greeted him as a friend. Working cases together had created a bond Cooper was grateful for. Bob was about the same age as his father would have been yet nothing like the monster hidden beneath Oliver Ellison’s polished exterior.

“Let me guess, you need my team there now?”

Cooper chuckled at Bob’s uncanny ability to read the truth from a few simple words. “We do.” He explained what they’d found. “This is way beyond anything we’ve encountered before.”

“I’ll call my people. We can be there in an hour.”

“Thanks, Bob.” Cooper ended the call.

Hannah had already told Jack what they’d discovered in the basement.

“We need to dig into Salcedo. If he has that much medication at his house, I want to know how he got away with stealing it without anyone knowing.”

“I’ll see what I can find.” Cooper went outside to retrieve his laptop.

When the medical examiner and his team arrived, Cooper explained what they believed had been done to Salcedo.

“I remember the original Embalmer case,” Doctor Tinner told him. Cooper braced for what would come. Most of the time, he went unrecognized whenever someone spoke about his father’s case . . . but not always.

“Once we get the body to the lab, we’ll be able to tell more about the technique used to embalm our victim.”

A thorough search of the house didn’t divulge any hint at who Salcedo might’ve been working with. The aspect of selling drugs was probably something Salcedo did on his own, but they couldn’t afford to dismiss that whoever killed him might have been part of it.