Bill looked up to Granny B. “I’m not a policeman or from Medford. I’m a DEA agent. I was surveilling Carlos and his family, along with a group of agents. They followed Carlos to the chartered planes while I watched Samantha. I’m not the spy. I think your spy is her daughter Lucy.”
Granny B glared at Bill, wondering how much more BS they had to listen to out of Bill. “Has anyone called for Tom?”
Kate smiled. “Yes, he’s on his way down and has a surprise for us.”
“Does he know we captured the spy?”
“Yes, he does. He’ll be here in a few minutes. I just saw him entering the barn,” Kate said.
Betty lunged into the room with Tom closely behind her. No one noticed her hands were bound at first. Jackie saw the zip-ties. “What the heck is going on?”
Kate saw the blood on her husband’s arm and side. “Tom, are you okay? You’re bleeding.”
Tom hugged his wife. “I’m fine, but her partner in crime has a slight nick in his throat. He didn’t survive the nick, and Betty is our spy. Please untie Bill. Apparently, Carlos knew Bill was with the DEA and left Samantha and Lucy to save his butt from being arrested. Carlos had hired Betty to watch Samantha during the trip to make sure she didn’t bolt.”
Granny B asked, “How did you get her to talk? She doesn’t look beaten and abused?”
“Her contact squealed like a pig when I started cutting fingers off before I nicked his jugular vein. Then she sang like a canary. She’s been the spy all along. Carlos had her followed because Carlos doesn’t trust anyone. The man was injured during the crash and had a hard time keeping up with us. The dumbass followed Bill and her when they split from us at Emigrant Lake,” Tom told his team.
Kate listened and scratched her head. “Wait a cotton picking minute. How did Carlos’s men know where to meet Betty?”
Tom grinned and then waved his hands. “Ah-ha! That was a question that bugged the crap out of me ever since we knew there was a spy. I started guessing when I caught Betty and her contact walking toward the ranch. Betty contacted Carlos while she was at her home. The message only contained the place I told Bill and her to go to if they decided to join us in the future. Betty snuck out and brought the man here. No one else knows where we are. Well, her contact did, and he’s well, deader than a mackerel.”
Jackie said, “Hold the phone. If Betty was walking back with the scumbag, Bill couldn’t have been following Betty out of the barn.”
Tom asked, “Bill, did you see Betty’s face?”
“No! I assumed it was her since we’d been meeting in the barn. Hell, it could have been anyone. Since we kinda know the spy isn’t me … could we cut these zip-ties?”
Rick cut Bill’s bindings while apologizing for restraining him.
Jackie asked, “How did you get Betty to fess up?”
“I simply told Betty that I’d take her to Granny, and Granny would get her to talk. I might have mentioned the rats in the bucket over her head.”
Granny B laughed until a frown came over her face. “Crap, they know where we’re located.”
“Only partially true. Remember, when Betty dropped the note, she didn’t know where we were located. She walked the three miles to where I told her we’d look for her and Bill once a week, then brought the asshat here. They know we’re up in the hills but have a lot of land to search before finding us.” Tom looked at Betty. “Isn’t that what you told me?”
Betty was silent. Tom pushed Betty to Granny B. Granny B said, “Rick be a dear and fetch the rats and a bucket. Kate, please spread an old sheet on the floor to make cleaning up the mess a bunch easier.”
Betty screamed, “Yes! Manuel told you the same thing, didn’t he?”
Tom smirked. “Why, yes, he did. Your stories matched, but who knew if that meant they were true. Jack, please help Rick tie her up and place her in the spare room.”
They took Betty to the room and returned. Kate made the timeout sign just as Greta walked into the room. Kate said, “We still don’t know who Bill followed out of the barn or how Betty snuck out without being caught on our cameras or sensors.”
Greta stood away from the others and backed up when Tom joined her. “Hmmm, Greta, you smell like cigarette smoke. Spill the beans, or Granny gets the rats after you?”
Greta grimaced, “What rats? Okay, I snuck out to take a smoke. I’ve been doing it since I got here. When you set up the cameras, it was easy to watch the cameras and find a blind spot. Only one of the blind spots was also blind to the sensors.”
Granny B spun around to Greta. “Girl, did it ever dawn on you that if you could get out, someone could get in the bunker. When did you tell Betty?”
Tears flowed down Greta’s face as she spoke. “Betty caught me leaving the barn one day and followed me. She borrowed a cigarette and smoked with me. It never dawned on me that this could lead to something bad.”
Lucy spoke up. “Please don’t shoot Greta or place rats on her head.”
Greta’s eyes bulged out, and she collapsed. Granny B said, “The girl won’t do something so stupid again.”
“We can’t kill her in cold blood,” pleaded June.
“What do you think Carlos and his thugs would do to you and the other women after killing us men?” Rick asked.
Kate jumped into the debate. “The woman sold
