IMBERADO XIV

Travis immediately looked at Rick first standing next to Dave. “Did you get him?”

“Yeah, it was Bigelow. He’s dead.”

“Bigelow? How did Bigelow get that close without passing you or Dave?”

Deputy Sandy Milliken answered before Rick could respond. “I think I know Mr. Cody, I found his car parked on Chestnut Hill Road just North of the 340 and east of the Susquehanna. There was a map showing your property, he must have got in the county office, it was on the passenger’s seat. I guess he took the 9 all the way to the 340 and came across the bridge. That’s why no one saw him.”

“Damn, you’re probably right Sandy. We didn’t think about that road in that sliver of West Virginia, it’s so out of the way and steep.”

“Wait, am I hearing that Bigelow is dead?”

Sheriff Dexter quickly interrupted before Travis could answer. “Travis, this is Special Agent Thomas Nichols of the F.B.I., he’s the agent I told you about and the man with him is agent Richard Doyle, his partner.”

“Well then yes Special Agent Nichols, you just heard as I did, Bigelow is dead.”

“And how about Sargent Davis, is he dead also.”

“By now probably. Bigelow was hiding in the trees somewhere ahead of us. He shot Davis as Rick and I were carrying him to the house. I had shot him with a tranquilizer dart a few minutes before. Rick went to get the shooter after Davis was shot, and I carried him into my office. I heard a short fire fight and then it wasn’t long before I heard all of you pulling up the driveway.” Travis turned his attention to Sheriff Dexter.” Dexter can you get Jim Hardy out here quick?”

“Sure Tarvis, is Davis dead?”

“Not when we came out here, but maybe by now. I fixed up his wound as good as I could quickly, but he’d lost a lot of blood and could still be bleeding some, or internally. But we need to keep this between as few people as possible right now. Hardy is a doctor, as well as your Coroner. Can you call and try to get him here as soon as possible. Here’s my mobile.”

Dexter took the mobile phone and started dialing. “On it.”

Special Agent Nichols took on a rather sterner looks at the conversation. “You seem to take a lot of authority on yourself Mr. Cody, considering at least one government agent is dead and possibly a suspect in two murders.”

But before Travis could answer, Dexter spoke ignoring the FBI Special Agent. He looked first at Deputy Milliken. “Sandy, go get the crime scene tape out of my vehicle. There’s two rolls in there get them both and bring them here.” Sandy nodded and headed for the Sheriff’s car, as Dexter turned his sights on Rick Chesterton.” Are you Rick?”

“I am Sheriff.”

“Can you find where Bigelow’s body is, and the spot where Davis was shot by Bigelow?”

“Yes sir, I know right where both are.”

Sandy had returned with the two rolls of crime scene tape. “Good then you take your friend with you and tape off both areas wide enough to preserve both locations for searching. You, Sandy, go back to Bigelow’s car and stay there until the crime scene techs get there, and keep any looky-loos out of the area. I know it’s actually out of our jurisdiction but do it anyway.”

“Yes sir, Sheriff.”

“Do you want us to stay with Bigelow’s body Sheriff?”

“Only your friend, if he will? I need you to be back here so I know where you are, not that I don’t believe you, Travis vouches for you. But, for the sake of any questions later.”

“Sheriff, I want Agent Doyle and I to go with them. Doyle can stay there, too. Until crime scene techs get there. That should make any questions easily verified.”

“Good Idea.” That said Dexter turned back to Travis. “Travis, we better get inside and see if Davis is still alive or not.”

“Let’s go.”

Once Travis, Andy, Levi, Helen and Sheriff Dexter were downstairs in the office the first order of business was to check Davis for a pulse, it was very weak, but he wasn’t dead yet.

“Good, now if Hardy will just get here quick, maybe we can get lucky. Did he say anything before he passed out, Travis?”

“Yeah, he confessed to killing Jim Whiteside and Principal Wilson in San Antonio. He also added a new wrinkle, he said he was responsible for Susanna Whiteside’s death too. She didn’t commit suicide either.”

“What! Why, who was paying him? He didn’t do these things for free?”

“That’s the worst part yet, Dexter, he was being paid by the Medellin Cartel. That confirms why he was in Columbia.”

“Holy Shit, why would they want to kill both Jim and Susanna?”

“It was them who kidnapped her, not some gang members like we thought for a ransom. There was probably a ransom to be paid, but I’m thinking it wasn’t money. Davis was hired the first time to clean up the mess those first two made. I’ve been thinking about it in the back of my mind since he told me, and I wonder if Felicity’s death was more than just a random drunk hit and run accident, too.”

“Whiteside never said there was a ransom to me, how about you when he hired you?”

“No, but he may have had a good reason not to. Remember, I only began to know Jim better after I found and brought Susanna back.”

“Yeah maybe, but he never said anything later? Not after you two became close?”

“Nope, that’s at least one secret he kept to himself.”

“Do you think the cartel killed the two thugs for messing it up when they got back to their bosses then?”

“No, Sheriff, if fact I know they didn’t. I….”

“You mean we, Travis.” Levi said before Travis could finish his statement. “I was with Travis that night Sheriff. We had talked about it and I went with him the night he found Susanna, we both agreed he might need a backup. When we found Susanna she was so out of it on the drugs they had injected her with, and so abused by everything they had done to her, her mind wasn’t even on this planet. Then before we could get her out of there the two who had her came back, attacked us as we were getting her into the back seat of Travis’s Land Rover. There was a firefight, and, well, we killed them both.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this, then? Hell, I remember how badly she looked when you got her back, I wondered myself what I would have done if it had been me who found her. I always thought Travis was lucky to have gotten her out of there before they caught him.”

“Couldn’t Sheriff, we weren’t in Virginia, remember. We had no legal reason to be there, just a moral one to get Susanna back. Besides we figured she was going to have enough to deal with, getting over her treatment while they had her, she didn’t need to have that heaped on her memory later. And truthfully we didn’t see any reason we needed to deal with that kind of problem either, those two deserved to die.”

“Okay, I can get that. But what happened to their bodies, no one ever found any trace of them or a struggle, much less a gunfight. That’s why Travis’s story held up to scrutiny all this time.”

“Susanna was so out of it, I knew she wouldn’t come to for hours. So with Levi’s help. We made sure their bodies would never be found, never. That should be enough of an answer. Now you know, and I’ll accept anything you want to do knowing the truth.” Travis answered before Levi could say any more.

“Do, Travis, I’m going to do nothing. Had it have been me, I would have done the same or worse. I may be a Sheriff and been in law enforcement for most of my life, but I am a father too. We never need to speak of this again.”

They were all still standing there when they heard Agent Nichols yell at the front door as he came in the house. Dexter leaned out the office door and yelled back to come down the stairs.

When Nichols stepped through the door of the office his eyes went directly to the prone body of Davis on the table. The blood soaked bandages and shallow movement of his chest did not give much hope for sustaining life. “Looks like he is barely alive. I saw Bigelow’s body and his pistol. Then where Davis was shot. Too dark yet to make much of that, but hopefully between the two spots, it will be apparent to anyone what happened. Especially with everything we know leading up to the night. Did Davis ever say anything before he passed out?”

“He confessed to Congressman Whiteside’s murder, the murder of his old high school principal in San Antonio and another murder here, we thought had been a suicide, the Congressman’s daughter a few years back. He also said he was paid by the Medellin Cartel.”

“Damn, so we can guess why Bigelow killed him. To keep the Agency from being tied to an ex-spook, killing people randomly in the US, when he was supposed to have died in combat years before. I hate those guys, can’t help it, I just do. What they do in other countries is not my business. But what they do getting some of our boys to join them and who they get into bed with just chaps my ass, always has, always will. It’ll take all of us tomorrow to process enough of this, but the next morning I am going to be in Quantico, sitting one particular CIA office waiting on the man whose office it is, and you can bet I’ll have the backing of my bosses in DC. I guarantee you all, Bigelow’s death will either be a tragic hunting accident or somebodies heads are going to roll.”

“Agent Nichols, I might want to join you, if you would agree?”

“Sure, any special reason?”

“I’ll tell you all about it by tomorrow, a plan is just starting to gel in the back of my mind.”

“Well, Mr. Cody, from what I have seen in the last twenty-four hours a plan of yours can be worth hearing.”

Just as they were talking Sheriff Dexter heard Jim Hardy yelling from the front door upstairs and called him down. But Jim told him the crime scene techs had followed him out like the eriff had asked. So all of them in the office, went up to get things started. Right off Levi led Jim back down to the office to start looking at Davis. Then Dexter dispersed people to where they needed to be. Travis led guys to Bigelow’s body and the other crime scene. Sheriff Dexter told another crew where to find Bigelow’s car, and they took off quickly for Chestnut Hill Road, with quizzical looks on their faces. Then Dexter decided it was time to talk with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department.

Andy and Helen were standing on the front porch watching when Helen turned to Andy. “You okay with everything we just heard?”

“Can’t say a couple of those didn’t surprise me, but I knew who Travis was long ago. More than he thought I did. And I couldn’t love and respect him anymore than I did and do. You?”

“I would have been more surprised if Levi wasn’t in it up to his butt cheeks. God, I love that guy. But then I’m just as much a Jarhead as he is.”

“Hoorah!” as both of them started to chuckle to one another. “Let’s go get some coffee started. I think there are going to be a lot of people who could use some, right after we get ours first.” They both chuckled again and went towards the kitchen.

As Travis led the crime scene techs close to Bigelow’s body, the sun was finally beginning to push back the darkness to the pinks and oranges of dawn in the eastern sky over the tree line up slope. Once there the techs set to work, and he looked at Dave and Agent Doyle. “Agent Doyle, do you think I could borrow Dave from you?”

“Sure Mr. Cody, I’ll stay here with these guys.”

“Thank you.” As he and Dave started walking back in the direction of the house. “Dave, is that Cessna of yours ready for a flight, if I asked you to say, fly up to Manchester, New Hampshire and back today?”

“Sure, I’d need to file a flight plan and run a quick flight check. But if I left here with say an hour I could be there and back today no problem. When I’d get back would depend on what you needed me to do there.”

“When we get back to the house and I can talk with Levi and Dexter, I’m thinking of you and Levi flying up there, pick up Donna Gustafson and her daughter, like Davis asked me to do, and then bring them back here. Sheriff Dexter may need to call the police department in Manchester, to be copasetic and you could be there a couple of hours. Levi may even need to carry a warrant he had issued for Gustafson just for backup, if he needs it.”

“Cool Beans, I need to get in a little fly time anyway. I’ll call out to the airstrip and get things started when we get to the house.”

“Great, thanks.” Once they were back at the house and Dexter returned, Travis talked with him about his idea. Douglas could be very helpful if she thought Davis had wanted her to be there and safe. If they could turn her into a protected witness rather than a suspect accomplice. Dexter agreed and went to his car returning with a file he had brought with him from his car, he flipped a couple of pages and then started dialing the number for the Manchester Police Department.

Then Travis talked with Levi who had already come up from the office and was having coffee with Andy and Helen. Andy handed Travis a cup as he talked with Levi, when she did Travis paused talking long enough to thank her with a good morning kiss, even though none of them had been to sleep yet. With Dexter’s call made he handed Levi the bench warrant for Donna Gustafson. Levi went into the bedroom and changed into his deputy sheriff’s uniform. When he returned to the kitchen he kissed Helen goodbye, turned around and headed through the front door and out to Dave’s car with Dave. They backed the car around and headed down the drive, It would probably be late afternoon or evening before they got back. Levi took Andy’s mobile phone with him, just in case they needed to call Travis before they got back.

Travis and Dexter headed down the stairs to talk to Jim Hardy.

“What’s the prognosis, Jim?”

“Sheriff, I’m not sure this guy can be saved. I’ve got him as stable as I can here. You said there was another body, I need to go and do my job with that one. Can someone show me where it is?”

“Sure Doc, I’ll take you. Sheriff I’ll be back in a few minutes. I may have Special Agent Nichols with me.”

“Good, I’ll be upstairs with Andy and Helen, getting some coffee.”

“I’ll grab my bag, but you should think about getting an ambulance out here and have this man taken immediately to the hospital, if you want any chance for him to survive.” Hardy sounded as stern as Travis or Sheriff Dexter had ever heard him.

“Hear you loud and clear, Jim.” Dexter answered, without agreeing to make a call yet.

 As Travis and Jim Hardy were walking through the trees, now with fuller daylight to light their walk Travis started talking with the county’s coroner. “We’re not ignoring Davis’s condition Jim, it’s just that we have a situation here that needs tighter security than you are used to. Davis is a hired hit man for the Medellin Drug Cartel. They sent him to kill me, what they don’t realize yet is, Sheriff Dexter, Levi and I set them up to do just that so we could draw Davis out of hiding in Columbia. He not only killed Congressman Whiteside, but a high school principal in San Antonio, Texas and Susanna Whiteside, we now know for sure. Davis confessed to those, and being hired by the cartel before he passed out. Taking him to a hospital could jeopardize them finding out that he didn’t succeed, before we can prepare for it, or catch the man who paid him.”

“But if we don’t do more and fast, he is going to die, and not in days but probably hours.”

“I understand that, Jim. Is there anything I could get here to give him a better chance of surviving, without losing the secrecy we have so far?”

“Sure, but it wouldn’t be easy and it would still not be near as good as him being in a hospital.”

They were now at Bigelow’s body and Travis pointed to Rick. “Doc, this is Rick Chesterton, he’s working with me on this. If you can give him a list of everything you think we should have here for Davis, he will go get it.”

Once Hardy knelled down near Bigelow’s body, he first took out a notepad and started writing down a list of equipment and other items for Rick. Travis explained to Rick what the Coroner was doing and what he needed Rick to do. Rick just stoically nodded his head, and when Hardy handed him the list, started walking in the direction of the house.

Special Agent Nichols was just walking up from the crime scene where Davis had been when shot, when he saw Rick leaving. “Hey, where is he going?”

“He’s leaving to get some things for the Coroner, Agent Nichols. Don ‘t be alarmed, I assure you he will be back as soon as he can.”

“Okay, but I still need to talk more with him. I’ve been where Davis caught the bullet, and it looks like it happened just as you told me. But we can’t be sure until everything is collected and analyzed.”

“I understand that all too well. Mr. Hardy is the county Coroner. I need to go back to the house, want to join me?”

“Yeah, I would in fact. Agent Doyle can stay between here and the other area supervising so to speak. I’d like to talk to you alone anyway.”

“I’m all yours, Nichols. Let’s head back toward the house.”

As they walked, Nichols asked questions and Travis brought Nichols as completely up to speed as he could. He only left out those things that only he, Dexter and Levi knew about Susanna’s abductors.

“From what I have seen and what you and Sheriff Dexter have told me, Mr. Cody, I find it amazing you got this far without the Agency or the Cartel sniffing you out. There has to be more here to your team than I know about?”

“Not really Nichols, we all have contacts that we’re not talking about, sure. But none of them did anything, or made any decisions than those you know about. You might as well call me Travis though, everyone does.”

“Thanks for that, I will if you can call me Tom, when we are not somewhere that my first name would be inappropriate of course. Now why, exactly, would you want to join me when I go see the Agency tomorrow morning?”

“Actually, because I have an inkling you are going to stir the pot in Quantico. And if you are, I would like to stir it up some myself. The only way for me to finish this, is if I can get to the man who paid for it. The only way I can see doing that, is if I have another ace that I don’t have right now. If I can get what I think I can out of Donna Gustafson, I’ll need that ace. I can only do that from the CIA.”

“You think, you can get to someone connected with the Medellin, in Columbia, without at least a company of Rangers, and without an international incident. I would really like to hear this plan, no, I think I would be better off if I didn’t know that answer, and probably better for you too. But if you think that you can pry what you want out of the Agency, I’m all in on taking you with me, and watching you at work.”

“Thanks, I can tell you more if you want, after Donna Gustafson is here, has seen Davis and we talk seriously.”

They looked up and saw the front porch, walked up and in, walking straight to the kitchen where Andy, Helen and Dexter were sitting having coffee. Both men got a cup and sat down with the others. The five of them discussed the nights and mornings events. Talked about what had led everyone to this point. The discovering of different clues along the way and how they set up Davis to come out of hiding to come after Travis.

Sandy Milliken showed up, let Dexter know that the Jefferson County Sheriff had come by, took pictures and notes and agreed to call a tow truck to pick up the car and take it back to Leesburg for the techs to work on there. He agreed, this was part of Dexter’s case. He just asked to be informed of the results at a later date. The tow truck and techs had already left for the Sheriff’s Department. Dexter asked Sandy to go down to the two other crime scenes and see if he could help out there. Sandy left gratefully.

A short time after that Rick returned from his appropriation errand. He had obtained everything on Jim Hardy’s list. The four men unloaded all of it and took it down to the basement office. Afterwards Rick went to get the Coroner as soon as he was done with Bigelow’s body. Rick even helped with moving the body up to Hardy’s County Meat Wagon, as most people called it.

Jim Hardy had gone now with Bigelow’s body, after setting up the equipment and hooking Davis to some of the machines. He also gave Travis, Andy and Helen instructions on what to watch and do if particular lights and noises occurred, and told them to call if anything changed dramatically. He promised to come back just before night and look in on the unconscious man.

By four-thirty all the crime scene techs had left, going back to Leesburg. Nichols had made his arrangements for Quantico with his supervisors and set up a rendezvous point and time for himself and Travis the next morning. Then he and Agent Doyle left for D.C. Now it was back to only Dexter, Travis, Andy and Helen. Coincidentally, the Agents hadn’t been gone twenty minutes when Dave and Levi returned with Donna Gustafson and her daughter Maria.

Travis greeted Donna at the door using a sweeping motion of his hand ushering her inside. A sleepy Maria holding her mother’s hand, with the look of bewilderment spread across her face, her eyes as large as saucers and moisture just beyond pooling at the corners of them. Dave and Levi walking in right behind them.

“Ms. Gustafson, thank you for coming. I hope this has not been too uncomfortable a circumstance with no warning. My name is Travis Cody, this is Sheriff Dexter, Andy Dexter and Helen Grey.”

“Uncomfortable, doesn’t begin to express my emotions Mr. Cody, or should I call you Imberado?”

“Travis will do, that’s what everyone calls me. Would you like to see Tony, first?”

“Yes, is he okay?”

“He is alive, okay is not a word I would use.”

“May I leave Maria with one of you ladies? She doesn’t need to go with me.”

Andy stepped forward and bent down to the small girl. “Would you like to come with me to the kitchen? Maybe we could get you something to eat?”

Maria looked up at her mother, leaned in close and waited for her mother to say something.

“It’s okay sweetheart, I’ll be right back. Maybe Miss Andy has some peanut butter and grape jelly for a sandwich?”

“We do, would you like a PB and J?” Maria shook her head up and down and then let go of her mother taking Andy’s hand. “Come on, you can help me if you want. Then we can get it just like you like it.” Andy, Helen and Maria walked into the kitchen.

Travis went to the stairway and started down as Donna followed him. Dexter, Dave and Levi walked a couple of paces behind Donna. When they all had entered the office, Donna’s eye opened to a combination of fear and anger at seeing Davis lying on the twin bed that had replaced the table, hooked up to several machines with readouts for pulse and vitals. His eyes closed and Rick sitting in a chair close by.

“Did you do this to him?”

“No, I did shoot him with a tranquilizer dart to subdue him. But a CIA agent shot him, the agent is dead.”

“Good, may he rot in hell, for all the eternities. Will he live?”

“We don’t know the answer to that either way, yet. But we are keeping him here, just in case the Medellin find out he was caught, instead of killing me. He asked me to get you and Maria to safety, that’s one reason you are here.”

“What else did he tell you?”

“We talked shortly before he was unconscious. He admitted to killing both Congressman James Whiteside and his daughter Susanna for the Medellin. He also admitted to killing Principal Wilson in San Antonio to cover his tracks. He also warned me about the Medellin. What he didn’t tell me, was the name of the man who contracted him to kill the Whitesides. Nor why, after few years lapsed in between.”

“If you can keep him alive, I will show and tell you anything I know. If he dies, you can go pound sand!”