Forced to Kill

We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t.”

“The key to finding him is in here.” Nathan lifted his hand off the collective for a split second and pointed at his flight helmet. “We just have to dig it out.”

“That could be dangerous.”

“Tell me about it.”

“You aren’t seriously considering Holly’s hypnosis idea, are you?”

“Actually, I am. If the question’s whether it’s worth the risk, then I’d have to say yes. I really hate the idea of the woman and her little girls in Montez’s possession.”

“Yeah, me too. Who else is at risk? Montez will keep torturing and killing for decades if we don’t stop him. Apparently he loves his work too much to quit.”

“Whatever he’s up to, the stakes are high. He wouldn’t involve himself in a trivial operation. I’ll bet he’s being paid a bundle.”

A telephone tone interrupted them. Harv patched it through the NavCom. He pressed the transmit trigger on his cyclic control. “Hello.”

“Harvey? It’s Holly.”

“Hi, Holly. Nathan and I are on our way out to Lake Powell.”

“Just wanted to let you know that through my counterpart in Salt Lake, I’ve arranged for your transportation and lodging at Bullfrog Bay.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” Nathan said.

“It’s no trouble at all. A special agent from our Monticello resident office will meet you at the airstrip. Can you write his cell number down?”

Harv noted the phone number on the aeronautical chart.

“Give him a call about an hour and fifteen minutes before you land. That will give him plenty of time to get there. I also have some basic info from the Kane County Sheriff’s Department. They handled the initial nine-one-one call and then called the federal park service to arrange the divers who recovered Kramer’s body. It was held at the marina until transported to Kanab. From there, it went to Salt Lake’s ME. The autopsy should be complete any time now.”

“What has local law enforcement been doing to investigate around the lake?” Nathan asked.

“About what you’d expect. They’re looking for eyewitnesses and trying to figure out what boat the killers used. Apparently no boats were reported stolen or missing over the last week or so. Boat rentals are all checking out as legit so far. There was one odd report, though. A local claimed someone stole his houseboat on the night in question, then returned it. Since no evidence of theft could be found, the sheriff’s department didn’t pursue it. Apparently, the boat owner is known in the area as being somewhat of a troublemaker. The deputy sheriff told our local agent that this kind of thing happens all the time. It’s the equivalent of houseboat joyriding. Most of the time it’s drunk high school or college kids.”

“The timing sounds about right.”

“I have the owner’s contact info if you want to talk to him. I’m looking at the report. The deputy referred to him as a quote, ‘cantankerous old cuss.’”

“My kind of guy.”

“Apparently he lives on his boat. Moves it around a lot.”

“We definitely want to talk to him. Will our local FBI agent play along with my special way of communicating if this cantankerous old cuss isn’t nice to us?”

“Nothing rough, okay?”

“I promise, nothing rough. Do you think Director Lansing will catch wind of what we’re doing?”

“Probably. He’ll at least be briefed on the Kramer case.”

“Why’s that?”

“We have Legats all over the world.”

“Legats?”

“Legal attache offices. The FBI has them in every major embassy, including Budapest. I can’t imagine he wouldn’t have official word on Kramer’s murder by now.”

He looked at Harv. “If Lansing finds out we’re involved, I doubt he’ll be real happy about it.”

“He definitely won’t.”

“Will you be okay? We can handle things from here on.”

“I’ll be okay. You’ve got Grangeland on your ops team when you need her.”

Special Agent Mary Grangeland was a pro’s pro, and she’d helped them in the Bridgestone case. She’d also nearly paid the ultimate price.

“Are you sure about this?”

“Yes, absolutely.”

“All right, then. Thanks. And thank Grangeland for us too.”

“Will do. When will you be arriving in Bullfrog?”

“Around nineteen-hundred.”

A call-waiting tone interrupted them. “Holly,” Harv said. “We’ve got another call coming in. We’d better take it. It could be General Hawthorne.”

“No problem. Have a safe flight.”

“Will do, thanks again.”

Harv brought the call in.

It was Thorny. “You boys on your way?”

“Yes. You?”

“We’re still a few minutes away from our takeoff roll.”

“We just heard from Holly,” Nathan said and brought Thorny up to speed.

“I made the call to the secretary of the navy. I’m waiting for a return call.”

“Thanks, General. Let’s see where that leads us.”

“Make sure Holly coordinates her efforts with Major Halliday. We don’t want to duplicate work.”

“Sounds good. Harv and I will look around at Bullfrog and report back to you by tomorrow evening at the latest. Hopefully, you’ll have something by then.”

“If I hear anything sooner, I’ll call you right away.”

“Have a safe flight, General.”

“You too.”

Harv ended the call.

“This Hungarian clean coal business is still our only real lead so far,” Nathan said. “I’m trying like hell to see how it makes sense. I guess the stakes are high enough, at least in financial terms. Once we know what Kramer’s role was, things may start to add up.” He looked down at the sleepy community of Julian a few miles to the south. “It just doesn’t seem like Montez’s cup of tea, getting involved with Hungarian business interests. Wrong hemisphere, for one thing. And the coal industry?”

“Like you said, the money’s big.”

The images of Nichole Dalton and her daughters returned. He shook his head. “Montez told me many times he’d interrogated children. I hate thinking about it. He’ll use them like pawns to his advantage. If their mother knows anything, she’ll talk.”

“We’re gonna nail him to a wall. Don’t lose sight of that. Also, it’s still possible that Nichole Dalton’s kidnapping isn’t connected to Kramer.”

He didn’t respond.

“Yeah, I think Montez did it too,” Harv said.

“He’s many things, but stupid isn’t one of them. Dumping a body in Lake Powell seems like a pooch screw. It’s out of character. Why risk it? There’s thousands of square miles of empty real estate in every direction out there.”

“I think it’s fair to assume he didn’t think he would be seen. It was the dead of night. The lake’s in total darkness. It was just dumb luck there happened to be campers in the area. More than that. They happened to be awake at the time, heard the boat, had a clear line of sight, and had