CHAPTER 41
Baltimore, MD
Henry stood staring out his office window. The sun was just beginning to peek out over the hills. He normally loved this time of day. Watching the sunrise gave him a sense of calm and peace.
Today, though, the red streaks of the sunrise seemed more like an angry warning than a peaceful omen. And after the attack on Laney and Jake last night, he had a feeling that things were going to start getting a lot more dangerous for all of them.
But at least they seemed to finally be making some headway in this case. After Patrick had relayed the information that Jake and Laney had gathered from the University of Saint Paul, Danny had run a search for connections between Montana, AFP, and Priddle. And they’d hit pay dirt. Unsurprisingly, AFP was a strong supporter of Montana Senator Robert Kensington.
What was surprising, however, was that Kensington had purchased, through a number of shell companies, a 300-acre ranch a few miles outside of Havre, Montana about a year ago, just before all the men began to go missing. Henry had contacted an operative on the West Coast last night to check it out and to meet up with Jake and Laney when they arrived in Montana later this morning.
He pulled his gaze from the sky when the door to his office opened. Patrick walked in with a handful of printouts and a plate of donuts. Haggard lines circled the priest’s eyes. His walk seemed slower, as if his body had somehow aged overnight.
The day before, Patrick had made Henry promise that he would be told if there was any threat to Laney, no matter the time, day or night. After Henry had received Jake’s call last night and spoken with the Saint Paul P.D., he’d kept his word. Waking Patrick, he’d watched the anguish cut across the priest's face at the news. And he’d known there was nothing he could do to ease the man’s suffering, or his own.
So the two men had headed to the main building to continue working on the case. Patrick was looking for more information on the Belial Stone and Henry was reviewing all the information on AFP and their Montana connections.
Danny had joined them about an hour ago. They were making some progress tying AFP and Kensington more strongly to the missing men, although there still wasn’t enough to bring the information to the authorities. And you didn’t go up against a United States Senator without an iron-clad case.
Henry watched Patrick take a seat at the conference table next to Danny and place a donut in front of him. Danny grinned his thanks. Henry smiled at the unlikely friendship that seemed to be building between the two.
A dark shape in the sky drew his attention back to the window. He frowned. The Chandler helicopter was back at Essex Skypark for repairs and there were no scheduled flights for this morning.
He crossed to his desk and retrieved the binoculars he kept in the bottom drawer. Returning to the window, he noticed that the helicopter had drawn nearer and seemed to be heading in the direction of the helipad on the east lawn.
He tried to make out the call signs on the helicopter. A chill went through him. The numbers had been covered up.
He pulled out his phone and dialed his head of Security, Kevin Chung. “Kevin, are you seeing this?”
“We’ve been monitoring the flight. The helo was heading around the estate and then made a beeline towards us. There are no identifying marks on the bird. We’ve tried to hail them. No joy. I have a security detail heading over to it as we speak and I’m heading over to you.”
“Okay. And make sure any staff on Sharecroppers Lane is moved to a secure location. I hope this is nothing. If it isn’t, I need them safe.”
“Already have a team working on it, sir. See you in five.” Kevin hung up.
Henry turned to Patrick, who’d come to stand next to him at the window.
“Problem?” Patrick asked.
He handed him the binoculars. “I’m not sure. I’m probably just being paranoid, but we have no scheduled incomings. Hopefully, somebody’s just lost.”
The helicopter was only about four hundred yards away. “It doesn’t have any call signs,” Patrick said. “And it’s landing.”
Henry and Patrick watched the Jeep Cherokee with the security detail drive across the lawn, a hundred yards from the helicopter.
The side of the helicopter slid open. A man aimed a surface-to-air missile at the Cherokee and fired. The impact flipped the Jeep into the air. It crashed back to earth, a flaming ball of metal.