“It won’t be necessary,” Ross told her. And in seconds he had a revolver pointed at Creed’s chest. “Agent O’Dell, you’ll need to give me your service weapon.”
69.
The hole in the ground reminded O’Dell of the entrance to a storm cellar. Deep, dark, and narrow, with a wooden ladder providing the only steps down. In the beam of her flashlight she could see fragments of what used to be an office or a laboratory. Shattered glass cupboards, light fixtures swinging from wires in the ceiling, walls partially caved in.
She couldn’t believe that she had let Ross’s uniform fool her. She had been convinced that Peter Logan was the problem. It never occurred to her to suspect the men who had worked beside her to recover the bodies in the mud.
Ben had called them a cleanup team that Colonel Hess had sent down to help. But now she understood why the colonel had used the term “cleanup.” She and Kunze were right. Hess and maybe others at the DoD didn’t want anyone to know about this mess, especially not while they were battling Congress to keep their other secrets under wraps.
“So your job was never recovery,” she said as she handed over her Glock. “You were here to cover up all this mess. Is there even a lockbox?”
“My men found it this morning. It’s already being transported down the mountain and into the trunk of my SUV. Before nightfall I’ll have it in a safe place.”
“I understand why you need to get rid of me,” O’Dell said. “I saw the results of the experiments that were going on here. Is that why you murdered Dr. Shaw and the others?”
Ross frowned at her. “I didn’t kill them. And I don’t know anything about experiments. I arrived after the landslide. Who knows what happened here? My team was hired to recover the bodies and lockbox.”
“And make sure no one knows about any of it.” She glanced back at Grace and Creed and a knot tightened in her stomach. “They didn’t even see the bodies. Let them go.”
“I didn’t suggest they come.”
The knot moved up into her throat and threatened to choke her. My God, he was right.
That’s when Maggie saw something else down in the hole. A flap of blond hair, bloodied by a gunshot wound at the temple. Peter Logan.
70.
When Ross pulled out the gun, Creed had seen something else almost tumble out of his pocket. It looked an awful lot like a detonator.
And suddenly Creed understood what Grace had been alerting to. There were explosives down below. Ross must have helped set them. He still had residue on his hands or clothes. Creed kept his hand inside Grace’s carrier, petting her, reassuring her as best he could.
“Why bring us all the way out here just to kill us?” Maggie asked.
She was trying to remain calm, but Creed had already caught a glimpse of panic in her eyes.
That Ross had the gun pointed at him instead of Maggie was good. It could give her a chance to fight even if it was only seconds after he fired at Creed.
“The place is ready to blow up,” Ross told her. “Accidents happen. There’s an awful lot of spilled fuel, ruptured propane lines. It’s a shame that you two were poking around up here when it happened.”
“So you started the fire last night.”
He shrugged.
“And you killed Dr. Gunther. That was no accident.”
“Collateral damage.”
He said it with no emotion, like a dozen other soldiers Creed knew. It was drilled into them. But this wasn’t war. And then something occurred to Creed.
“The floodwaters yesterday. That wasn’t an accident, either, was it?” he asked the man.
“Would have certainly made it a lot easier if you’d both died then.”
“By ‘both’ you mean me and Logan,” Maggie said.
The stoic look on Ross’s face told Creed that Logan was already part of the collateral damage.
“So who exactly do you work for?” Creed asked.
“More importantly,” Maggie added, “who do you kill for, Ross?”
When he said nothing, Maggie added, “It’s Colonel Abraham Hess, isn’t it?”
Creed knew if Ross couldn’t force them down into the hole he’d have no problem shooting them and dropping their bodies down. He’d probably even shoot Grace. And that made Creed angry.
“I’m letting Grace go,” he told Ross as he started to bend down, making sure to put his body between the dog and the gun.
“No, don’t move. Stop right now or I’ll wound you and make you watch me shoot the dog.”