'We'll need to call out another SWAT unit. Hope they don't think we're running on empty again,' said Lucas to Stan.
'I'm on top of it, Lucas.'
As Jana North and Stan Kelton rushed for the nearby telephones, Lucas stepped away from Mrs. Robeson and Cahill, allowing them to confer. Meredyth followed Lucas. He'd gone back to the large wall map, and now he jabbed a pin into each location on the city and county map where Dr. Arthur Belkvin might be at this moment, including the old farmhouse. Lucas quietly said, 'We've got multiple people now all claiming our sketch is of a man they encountered, one a John Croombs, the other a Dr. Arthur Belkvin.'
'He's using her mother's name now?' asked Jana.
'Mere, I think you ought to hang back here…let the rest of us handle this out at Kenyon's.'
'No way, Lucas. I've earned a right to be there. I want an end to this as much or more than anyone.'
'It could be another dead end, you realize? For all we know, they've left the state, gone to Baja or Mexico City.'
'No, not her. Him maybe, but not her.'
'Okay, you can come along, but you're to hang back. I don't want to give this nutcase a shot at you,' he told her.
'Me, what about you? She knows that I love you, and she knows that killing or maiming you would destroy me. You need to hang back as much as I do.'
'You love me? That's something I thought I'd never hear after you let it slip that once.' Their eyes met and they shared a smile. 'All right, agreed. We let the SWAT team storm the place and take them down before we enter. We have Jana directing a separate team from relative safety against the barn, and Stan's earned a right to lead storm troopers against any additional outbuildings.'
'We ought to bring Lincoln in on the raid too, Lucas.'
'Yeah, Captain Lincoln's definitely going to want to be in on the capture. Election's coming up!' he quipped. 'He's also going to want to know about Frank's blunderbuss attempt to make off with our witness and our case.'
'I hear Gordon may be running for commissioner if Clarkson keeps his promise to the voters and bows out,' Meredyth replied. 'A collar like this could get Gordo elected.'
'Call him at home,' Lucas suggested.
Meredyth got on her cell phone and made the call, explaining to Lincoln the new developments. 'Everything's on a snowball's course downhill now, Captain. We've got the bastards in our sights. We're seeing bear tracks.'
'Bear tracks?'
'Lucas's word for good signs, good omen, sir.'
'He teaching you Cherokee? Never mind. I just hope you two have better results from this information than you did with Belkvin's office and home.'
'You've heard all about it then, I take it.' She wondered how he had gotten the news, and from whom, and in what way it had been shaded. She also wondered if he had knowledge of Frank's bid to take over the interrogation of a witness with FBI in the room.
An awkward silence telegraphed his real message: I hope you and Lucas know what you 're doing this time.
'We've got them, I tell you,' she insisted.
'I certainly hope so. I don't care to continue to look the fool, Doctor. You might want to convey this to Lieutenant Stonecoat. So where is ground zero?'
She easily read the frustration in his voice. She gave him the coordinates from the map, saying they were getting warrants and involving Waller County authorities.
'I've got my radio car. Keep me informed at all times. And Doctor, tell that damned Injun detective of mine I'll meet him at the Interstate along County Line Road out there in Waller County.'
He hung up, giving her no chance to respond.
CHAPTER 17
A long parade of police vehicles of every size and type rode the Interstate for the Canyon Park Road exit north of Houston. They had long since left the lights of the city for the deepening rural darkness of back-country roads, sagebrush, jack pine, and Texas juniper when the order was given to cut the strobe lights, and next the headlights. Running silent, the motorcade looked like a nighttime funeral procession, but for the reflective glow in the dark HPD logos, the SWAT logos, and the Waller County Sheriff's logos. Bringing up the rear, a pair of Houston ambulance and rescue vehicles followed Chang's CSI van. News crews followed at a respectful distance like camp followers, having gotten word of the raid, their satellite vans like so many pachyderms shouldering their way forward as in an elephant walk. At least this is how it all appeared from overhead in the HPD chopper where Meredyth and Lucas had set up their communication and command post. A second police helicopter impatiently held off as well. While Lincoln insisted on leading the main force through the front door of the farmstead, he had also insisted that Lucas and Meredyth remain at a safe distance and altitude until the suspect house and outbuildings were deemed all secure by the captain of the SWAT team, Elliot Andrews. 'I mean to insure the successful conclusion of this horror personally,' Lincoln had said, 'and if that means locking you two up, Stonecoat, I'll do it. It's for your own safety and the safety of every officer going in. Detective North has told me how this madwoman has targeted you for death. Well, we're not going to bait her using you as a target, nor have you rush in there and set off some sort of deadly booby trap either. Understood?'
Lucas suggested they command the operation from the safety of the helicopter, and Lincoln thought it a perfect solution. Now hovering overhead and awaiting the SWAT team deployment, the police helicopter impatiently hung back, prepared to bathe the entire farmstead in light on Elliot Andrews's cue. For now, the two choppers hovered well out of sight, watching as Waller County units split off from the motorcade, going for key roadblock positions. The property was surrounded, locked down. The SWAT unit with Andrews and Lincoln at the helm had turned onto the tree-lined dirt road leading up to the farmhouse. A single light from inside the house seemed to wink up at them through the trees in a mocking manner.
Andrews's voice came over the headphones Lucas wore, using the code names they'd agreed upon. 'Flying Wolf, this is Badger One. My men are deployed, and we are a go! Give us five minutes and light up the night.'
Lucas replied, 'That's affirmative, Badger One, Flying Wolf out.' He communicated with the second chopper. They had clearly gotten Andrews's thumbs-up.
Just behind Lucas, watching from the bubble of the chopper, Meredyth saw what looked like toy soldiers come alive, having leaped from the two SWAT vans and run into the tree cover, now on their stomachs, some crouching, some moving left, others right as they encircled the farmhouse, the shed, and the bam. She watched them inch ever closer to the clearing around the home. In the dark, their forms looked like animated green brush, their camouflage making them living shadows. They were minutes away from an all-out assault on the farmhouse when one of the news vans shone a spotlight that revealed them and placed the men in danger.
'Damn those idiots!' cursed Lucas even as the light was doused. The element of surprise was compromised as the spotlight had flooded-for the half second it was on- directly into the living room window. Lucas ordered a move in, shouting to Andrews, 'Go, Badger One! Now!' The two choppers flooded the entire area in huge circles of blinding light, and Elliot Andrews had not waited for Lucas's order, having already given the go order to his units at the moment of compromise. Andrews, along with Captain Lincoln, stormed in on the heels of the SWAT men who'd overwhelmed the place with forty-six AK-47 assault rifles pointed, men having spilled through every rammed door and shattered window. The shed and bam were simultaneously secured, Lucas and Meredyth hoping nothing untoward would happen to people on the ground, including the captain, Jana North, Andrews, and Stan Kelton.
No shots had rung out. Only the roar of the dueling rotor blades filled the air. Lucas and Meredyth saw some of Andrews's men already exiting the house, guns limp in their grasp, one or two on his knees as if in prayer, others bent over the porch rails, dejection on the heels of elation and adrenaline-pumping expectations now dashed. Others, their assault rifles shouldered, walked off in obvious defeat. The second chopper whirred low and over the scene.
