Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
“Least there’s that,” Hutch murmured.
“Other than that, we’re still having trouble getting a lock on these folks,” Rus shared. “Can’t be super vocal, but what little we’ve learned, Enstrom homed in on Flannery, but he hasn’t had much to do with anyone else, except saying, ‘thank you, ma’am’ when someone buys his jam.”
“Flannery have money as well as land?” Hutch asked.
“A little,” Rus told him.
“Not enough to build that compound,” Harry said. He shrugged. “Rus told me you went up there, wasn’t sure the Google aerial shot was current, so he and I did the same. Took some pictures. It’s quite a setup.”
“Agreed,” Hutch replied.
“But we can’t find a bank account for anyone who has anything to do with that patch of land,” Harry said.
Hutch was surprised. “Anything they do, all cash?”
Harry nodded.
“What about the women?” Hutch asked.
“We don’t know who they are, but no female has any legal ties to that address,” Harry answered. “Not so far as we’ve found.”
“So, we got nothin’ except shit that makes this shadier,” Hutch noted.
“No, but we do have the names of all fifteen men who call that compound home,” Harry replied. “And they’re up next. We also got your report about possible lumber poaching, and we got ideas about that, considering that’s not something you can easily hide.” He paused, then reminded Hutch. “That said, CR 10 has sparse traffic.”
“So, if they’re illegally logging, they’re doing it local so they can use CR 10 for transport without anyone seeing, or if they do, it would only be one or two people who might not question someone hauling lumber, because a ton of folk haul lumber,” Hutch finished for him.
Harry nodded. “A lot of your neighbors have a lot of land. That could happen and it might take months, even years, for them to notice some downed trees. We gotta go careful in looking into that so we don’t tweak landowners, and if they find something, they don’t start getting ideas of who’s trespassing on their land and stealing its resources, then more ideas to do something about it.”
Christ, Rus was right.
These men had a lot to juggle, an impossible task when most of the time one hand was tied behind your back.
And Hutch hadn’t thought it was smart coming down here, but it was.
He should have known Harry and Rus would be doing everything they needed to do, and then some. They’d even gone up to the bluff to get a good look.
“Only thing I can say to that is, I’ll keep my eyes peeled. I’ll also walk my land to see if I got targeted,” Hutch said.
“My guess, you won’t find anything,” Harry told him. “So far, Enstrom has kept his shit tight. He’s not gonna do something so stupid as to risk getting caught by a vet with special forces training.”
This made sense.
Hutch was still going to look.
“We’re workin’ on it, Hutch,” Rus said quietly. “And with you over there, working with Mabel and her dog, whatever trigger was tripped, she’s still single, she has a man around regularly, but no incidents. Maybe someone acted off script, and Enstrom reeled them back in.”
“We can hope,” Hutch replied.
Since that was all they got, they shot the shit for ten minutes before Hutch left them to do their jobs.
He had one more chore that day regarding Mabel, and when he got home, he’d be seeing to it.
Part of him hoped the result would end his attraction to her.
The other part betrayed him, hoping it would not.
In the end, what he would get, he couldn’t even dream.
No.
It would be a nightmare.
TWELVE
Marker Paid
Hutch
The first one having been picked up that week, all three of his remaining dogs, save Hannibal, would be leaving soon, so he had to make sure they were ready.
Which meant, when he got home, he got to work.
It was later when he got himself an electrolyte water, folded into a chair in his kitchen, his dog settling beside him, and he called Lee.
Fortunately, PIs didn’t keep normal business hours.
Unfortunately, Lee answered with, “Pick another marker.”
Every muscle in Hutch’s body tensed.
“Say again?” he demanded.
“Unless you’re gonna tell me you’re about to put a ring on this woman’s finger and protect her until the end of your days, you’re gonna have to pick another marker.”
If he thought Rus’s start was bad, this was inarguably worse.
“She’s a friend,” Hutch semi-lied.
“Not good enough.”
“And a neighbor.”
“Again, not good enough.”
Fuck.
Fuck!
Mabel had something to hide.
Or someone to hide from.
“And she means something to me. I’ve had her,” Hutch admitted. “The thing is, she lives down the road, next to an outfit that calls themselves The Lion and The Lamb. She got on their radar. And, Lee, the women who go into that compound never come out. Mabel’s gorgeous. She’s young. A woman with zero past, according to the Internet, would be a perfect candidate for a setup like that to make her disappear so she can cook their dinners and give them babies, neither at her will.”