“What are you doing here, Fletch? Aren’t you busy wrapping things up in D.C.?”
“I am, but I volunteered to come out here and bring Loa Ledbetter to her daughter. She’s decided she wants to try for custody, after everything that’s happened. The people who adopted the girl, her name is Miranda but Carter called her Ruth, are coming out, as well. Apparently Carter kidnapped her last year. She’s been in the missing person’s database this whole time.”
“At least they get to have a happy ending.”
“That’s true. This whole case has been screwed up from the get-go. But the upside is Carter is dead, and they recovered all of his equipment from the camp, including the stores of abrin he’d managed to make. He had enough explosives to take out a small city. Who knows how many other places he was going to hit.”
“Are there more injuries from the blast in Boulder?”
“Seems not. Even though the bombs were laden with abrin, the explosion neutralized it. So instead of spreading it like he’d hoped, it was destroyed. And thank goodness, because if he’d managed to make it work, we’d have casualties on our hands.”
“Small blessings,” said Sam.
“Yeah. So good job to both of you for figuring out where he was. And since all that’s taken care of, I needed to talk to Xander for a moment. Sam, would you excuse us?”
Xander shifted with a grimace.
“Let her stay. Whatever you have to say you can say in front of Sam.”
Fletcher shrugged. “All right. Don’t shoot the messenger. Alexander Whitfield, you are under arrest for the manslaughter killing of Ryan Carter. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you—”
“What the hell are you doing, Fletch?” Sam felt her blood pressure spike sharply. “How dare you try to arrest him? He saved my life. He stopped a madman.”
“And killed a man in the process. He’s not a cop, Sam. He’s a civilian, and he’s got to answer for his crime. I didn’t want it to be like this, but trust me, it was going to be worse. I talked Bianco down off the ledge. She was going to send in the Denver police and have them cuff him to the bed. I talked her into letting me do this so we can handle it quietly. Don’t worry. I’m sure things will work out in court.”
“You have got to be kidding me,” Sam spit at him.
“Hon, ratchet it back for a minute,” Xander interrupted wearily. “He’s partially right. I did kill a man, and I do have that on my conscience. But, Fletcher, I was acting in a legal capacity when I hit Carter with that arrow.”
“How can that be?” Fletcher asked.
“Call Reed McReynolds. Police chief up in Dillon. He deputized me before we went up the mountain.”
Fletcher raised an eyebrow. “You’ve got to be kidding me. What is this, the Wild West?”
Sam watched Xander grin and couldn’t help smiling herself.
“Yes, it is. Especially when you’re dealing with this much terrain, and crazy people. We did it just to be safe. I was happy to take that oath. I meant it. Every word.”
“You did it to cover your ass. I told you I wanted him alive.”
“He was about to kill Sam, Fletch. What did you want me to do?”
Fletcher gritted his teeth and breathed deeply to try and calm down.
“Off the record, I applaud what you did. But Bianco has her sights set on getting somebody behind bars.”
“Well, I’m not willing to be her sacrificial lamb. But I can help you with something.”
“What’s that?”
“My friend Will Crawford. Sam saved his life up on the mountain. He now owes us one. And since you might be interested in the things he’s been doing over the past few years, I thought you could arrest him, instead.”
“What’s he been doing?”
“He’s a hacker,” Sam said. “Used to work for the government, then turned on them. He’s been buying and selling exceptionally sensitive information to the highest bidder. Ledbetter went into the Mountain Blue and Gray because she thought he was attached to them, and she was trying to track him down for the CIA. But it was Carter who was the link back to Crawford. He was the one she was after, though she didn’t know it.”
“That’s insane.”
“Insane, yes, but true,” Xander said. “He’s been hurt pretty badly, but right now, I think he saw God and maybe is having a change of heart. You arrest him quietly, instead of me, and I bet you can get him to turn on his entire organization.”
Fletcher scratched his eyebrow.
“All right. I’ll see if I can make something happen with it. But let me ask. Why would you be willing to sell him out?”
“I’m not selling him out. He did it to himself. If he’s spawning any more followers like this Ryan Carter character, he needs to be shut down. I didn’t say he was my friend because I agreed with him. It’s more that he’s someone I’ve known my whole life. And if he’s inciting this kind of hatred, he needs to be stopped.”
Fletcher nodded. “I agree.”