Lethal Force (13 page)

Lori nodded. “A little queasy. Why?”

“You're not pregnant are you?” Tramil asked.

“God no,” she said vehemently. “You have to have sex for that to happen.”

“She's dehydrated and a little elevation sick,” Jake explained. “It can be serious. She needs to rest and get some water in her.” He checked his watch. Damn it.

“What's the matter, Jake?” she asked.

He calculated the time in his head and all that could go wrong, but he had no choice. “We have to stay the night.”

“Why?” She looked concerned.

“By the time you get hydrated properly and your body adjusts to the elevation, it will be after dark. I don't want to get halfway down the mountain and have to drag you the rest of the way to the SUV. Besides, you could probably use a restful night of sleep away from the big city.”

She sat up more straight. “Hey, I'm a Montanan. I don't get elevation sickness.”

Shaking his head, Jake said, “It happens. You've been living at nearly sea level in DC. And you're not getting any younger.”

Her jaw slackened and she let out a disgusted sigh. “So now you're not only questioning my Montana heritage, but you're calling me an old lady? That's just great. You really know how to ingratiate yourself to a woman.”

“I didn't know that's what I was trying to do,” Jake yelled at her.

“Hey, hey,” Tramil interjected. “You two need to get a room. There's obviously a lot of sexual tension between you.”

“Shut up,” Lori yelled and pointed simultaneously. She got up a bit shaky and then slowly lowered herself onto the sofa.

“See,” Jake said. “You'll feel better in the morning. Besides, we have to discuss strategy. A restful night will do us all some good.”

Reluctantly, Lori finally nodded agreement and settled back into the sofa.

Jake continued, “Besides, then I can show Tramil how to run this place better.” Truth be told, he already knew what he had to do once he left the mountain. He would expose himself again and force those who were looking for the professor and his work to chase him, until Jake could find out who was behind this plot.

The two men had been traveling all day, from Montana to Portland, Oregon, and then back again, trying their best to catch up with Jake Adams. He had fooled them by dropping the GPS tracking device on the unsuspecting train traveler. Good for him, Danko thought. Sounded like something he himself would have done. But his employer was not amused. And Milena could simply sit by in her hotel in DC and direct them with impunity. She was taking none of the risk, and none of the blame for failure, either. That Lobbyist had a long reach, and was more dangerous than he looked. Could have been the bastard child of that movie guy who played Opie.

Danko's man, Alex, drove the rental piece of shit Chevy down a quiet, snowy lane in Missoula's southern hills area. Just as they pulled up to the curb on the quiet street, Danko's cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He checked the screen and saw that it said The Smithsonian, Milena's fun moniker.

“Yes,” Danko said.

“I have you outside the house now,” Milena said with a knowing superiority.

The woman liked being in charge, and Danko wondered if the same was true with her love-making. He had heard rumors, but never had the pleasure of experiencing her first-hand.

“That is correct,” Danko said.

Alex put the parking brake on but kept the engine running to keep the falling snow from icing the windshield. “Is she sure this is the right place?” Alex asked.

“Yes,” Milena said, obviously hearing him. “And the subject is home. I have land-line confirmation through a bogus call routed through an Indian call center.”

Danko laughed. “What did you use this time?”

“Car insurance,” she said. “The one with that British lizard.”

“I think it's an Aussie gecko,” Danko corrected.

“Whatever. The subject is home.”

He could see that for himself. The place was lit up like Paris. “How does the boss want us to proceed? Good cop or bad cop?”

“Use your official identification,” she said. “We need information, not another corpse. In the meantime, I will keep working my contacts.” With that she hung up.

“Does that woman ever sleep?” Alex asked.

“I don't think so. She might be a vampire.”

“Let's go,” Danko said. “They want us to play it straight.”

“What's the fun in that?” Alex shut down the engine and then the two of them got out into the cold night air, the snow falling like a fake movie scene.

“Let me talk,” Danko said as they got to the front door and rang the bell.

Alex shrugged.

The homeowner's eye appeared in the peep hole and Danko put his identification up for review.

“What's this about?” came a muffled voice from behind the door.

“Your daughter, ma'am,” Danko said with reverence. They knew that the woman's husband had left her years ago, and this woman now lived alone. “Are you Jane Franks?”

The deadbolt flipped open and then the door swung in a few inches, revealing a woman in her mid-60s wearing blue jeans, a sweat shirt, and holding a Colt .45 revolver in her right hand, pointed right at the two of them. Jesus, this woman was crazy.

“Ma'am, please put the gun down. You are pointing that forty-five at federal agents.”

“I'll be the judge of that,” she said and then blew her half-gray bangs from her eyes. “Hand it over.”

Danko shook his head and passed her his FBI identification. She took it and examined it carefully, but never taking her eyes off the two men for more than a second at a time. Satisfied, she handed it back to the men and put her gun at the side of her right leg.

“May we come in ma'am?” Danko asked softly. His best version of deference.

“What's this about?”

“As I said, your daughter. You are Jane Franks, correct? Mother of Congresswoman Lori Freeman.”

“What about her?”

Danko considered his words carefully. Then he let out a breath of cold air and said, “She's missing.”

With that the woman opened her door all the way to the two men, but made sure they didn't go past the tile entry. This was a hard woman, Danko thought. She kept no less than six feet distance from them, her gun ready to pull up and fire at any moment.

“I'm sorry,” she said. “I thought you might have been reporters. My daughter has been in the news a lot lately. You understand.”

“Yes, ma'am. She's been very active on Capitol Hill. Do you have any idea where she is?”

She shook her head no. “The House is out of session. I understand she has some time off. She usually comes back to Montana.”

Danko glanced at his partner and then back at the woman. “Her staff has no idea where she went.”

“She's got a right to some privacy.”

“Yes, ma'am. But Homeland Security has a few questions for her.”

“What about?”

Hesitating a moment to form his words and make sure his accent didn't come through, Danko finally said, “Do you know a man named Jake Adams?”

Mrs. Franks smiled. “You mean that nice man from the internet that schooled the California dipshit? Don't know him, but I'd sure like to meet that man.”

“That's the guy,” Danko said. “But we have reason to believe that this man has taken your daughter against her will.”

The woman laughed and nearly dropped her gun. “That's hard to believe. This Jake Adams fellow might be the only honorable man to ever testify before congress. I'm hoping like hell my daughter is shacking up with the guy. If she doesn't I might take a shot at him.”

“He's a dangerous man,” Danko informed her.

“No shit. Tell me something I don't know.”

Now it was time to bring this home, Danko thought. “We have reason to believe your daughter was with this man, Jake Adams, when he killed a man up north in Whitefish yesterday.”

Mrs. Franks shook her head and said, “You mean that sheriff's deputy? The picture on the TV from the sheriff's office video looked nothing like Jake Adams.”

“No, ma'am. It looks like Adams killed the shooter.”

“Damn right,” she said. “Good for him. You should give Jake Adams a medal for that. Why is the FBI interested in this? Sounds like a local law enforcement issue.”

Okay, this woman wasn't some crazy old woman, Danko thought. She wouldn't be an easy push-over. If he didn't have orders to do this the easy way, he'd pull his gun and pop her in that smug face of hers.

“Ma'am, your daughter could be in danger,” Danko said. “She has traveled to Montana, and we believe she is with this man, Jake Adams. We are concerned for her safety.”

The woman considered this. “You're sure she's in Montana?”

“Yes, ma'am.”

“Now that just pisses me off. Why didn't she call and tell me she was coming home?”

“That's my point, Mrs. Franks. She normally calls, right?”

She thought, obviously struggling with her words. “Usually. But she's a grown woman. And the only congresswoman from this great state. So if she wants some time by herself, or with this man, then more power to her.”

This was going nowhere. The mother had no clue where her daughter was. “Is there any place she might go?”

Mrs. Franks shook her head. “She only has her condo in DC. When she comes to Montana she either stays with me or in a hotel as she travels around the state for events. She uses this house as her home address.”

Danko knew this from Milena's research. Which is why they were here in the first place. But he was a good judge of character and those telling the truth or not. This woman, although he was sure quite capable of lying if needed to protect her daughter, was telling the truth. She had no idea where her daughter was right now. That didn't mean the congresswoman wouldn't eventually show up here, though.

“Mrs. Franks, if your daughter shows up please have her call this number.” He handed her his card with his name, title and number, which would route through Milena's computer and directly to his cell phone.

She reached out and took the card, but kept her wary eyes on the two of them. Then she let them out and locked the door behind them.

Alex, who looked about as FBI as the singer Yanni, had a smile on his face as the two of them got to their car.

“You find something funny?” Danko asked.

“Kind of. I like that woman.”

“You like any woman with a gun.”

They got in the car and Danko watched the snow fall onto the windshield. He hated being told what to do. If he had his way, they would have sat that woman down and got something out of her. Even if there wasn't anything worth getting.

“Now what?” Alex asked.

“Find a hotel for the night and wait for Milena to get us some better intel.”

●

Back inside her house, Mrs. Franks got onto her cell phone and found a contact number her daughter had given her in case of emergency. The number was for Lori's chief of staff, Emma Baum. Something about those two men didn't sit well with her. The bald man could have been FBI, but the man with the ponytail looked like a 70s used car salesman. As she waited for Emma to pick up, she peered out around her living room curtain just as the car pulled away from the curb out front. Yeah, something wasn't right.

Emma's phone went to voice mail so she left a quick message for her to please give her a call. Checking her watch, she realized it was nearly midnight on the east coast. The woman was probably sleeping by now.

Now her resolve turned to concern. It wasn't like Lori to not call her and tell her she was coming home to Montana. Maybe she was with this Jake Adams. Something about him seemed familiar, other than his recent appearance before her daughter's intelligence committee, but she couldn't quite remember what that could be. It would come to her, though.

A thought came to her. A few months ago a friend from work had set up a camera that monitored her front door, based on motion sensors, and recorded to her computer. For her this was still like magic. She could barely check her own e-mail up until a couple years ago. Now she was constantly checking on her daughter in Washington through various online media sources and social media.

She got to her computer in her office and watched the security feed. There they were, the two men, standing like a couple of dorks on her front stoop, snow falling down onto them. Then they went inside. Next she just caught them as they departed her house. She made sure to save a copy to her desktop.

●

For some reason Lori couldn't sleep. Snuggled into a sleeping bag, she was warm enough. But the wind outside was blowing through the pines and seemed to shake the cabin with each gust. That wasn't the problem, though. Having grown up in the mountain west, she was used to the wind. It comforted her. No, her insomnia came from her knowledge of world intelligence she regularly received on her House committee. Even worse was the information she had gotten from her personal sources. The Oregon State professor, James Tramil, didn't even seem to worry too much about what he had discovered. Tramil was just naïve enough to think that he could control his own destiny. But too many people now knew about his research.

Lori gazed at the door to the main great room, the flickering reflection of the fire dancing shadows across her door. Jake had reminded her to keep the bedroom door open so the heat could reach her. She was staying in the main bedroom and the professor was in the smaller room in the corner of the cabin. Jake made a bed for himself on the sofa in front of the fire.

Now she was too hot. She threw the sleeping bag open and almost immediately heard another log go on the fire.

She got up from the bed wearing only a pair of shorts and a shirt that almost reached the bottom of those. At the door she glanced around the corner and saw Jake stooped down poking at the fire with a metal bar. He was only wearing a pair of boxer briefs. Wow. She had no idea the man was still that ripped.