The Harvest Club (31 page)

“Is she going to be okay?” Matt walked over to where they worked on her, holding his breath.

Neither of them looked up. “She’s stable,” one said tersely. “We’ll know in a little while if the reversal agent is working.” They lifted her on to the stretcher. Within minutes she was en route to the hospital.

Matt and Dylan went through the motions of processing the crime scene. Anderson had been his mentor. More importantly, he’d been a friend.

“Are you going to be okay, Matt?” Dylan walked up beside him.

“We could have lost her and still may for that matter.” Matt turned away. “The only way I could prevent it was to kill a friend. Sometimes I wonder if the job is worth it.”

“The team is here to take over. You need to get out of here, Matt. The town council has been notified, and they said you’re on paid leave of absence until the investigation is done.” Dylan put a hand on Matt’s shoulder. “It’s a formality. You know the routine. Joe and I both were witnesses to what happened.”

“I know how it goes.” He handed his gun and badge to Kip.

“Let’s go to the hospital and see how she’s doing.” Dylan jerked his chin at the door. “You won’t be good until you know, and neither will I.”

It was over.

There were no more shadows following her. She was running alone again, enjoying her life, but waiting. Waiting for what, she didn’t know. She put her gun inside a shoe box in her closet. She was glad she hadn’t had to use it. Jessie relished the idea of giving life to people through words more than the thought of having to take away someone’s life with a bullet. And still she waited for him to come by. She hadn’t seen him since she left the hospital.

Her phone beeped, and she answered. “This is Jessie.”

“I’m in the neighborhood. Do you mind if I stop by for a few minutes?” Matt’s voice came over the phone.

Finally. Her heart raced. “Sure, I’m not doing anything, and I have something I wanted to give you.”

“I’ll be there in a few.” Matt clicked off his phone.

He knocked on the door, and when she answered, she thought he looked really good, but a little tired. “It’s been a while. Come in.” She motioned him into the room.

“How are you? I’m sorry I haven’t been to see you sooner.” He fidgeted with his hands and paced, looking uncomfortable.

“It’s been three weeks since the last time I saw you, but who’s counting?” She grinned at him, hoping to put him at ease. “Would you like something cold to drink?”

“If you have a beer, that would be great. Otherwise I’ll have a glass of water.” He sat down in one of the chairs and stretched out his long legs with his arms folded behind his head. He closed his eyes and sighed.

She handed him a beer, and she sat down on the couch with a glass of iced tea. “How are you?” She tucked her legs under her. “The last several days must have been crazy.”

“They have been.” He took a long swallow of his beer. “Everyone is still in shock over the chief. I knew all along I was overlooking something important, but not until the end could I have imagined it would be him pulling the strings. Nor would I have ever believed he would hurt you.” He looked thoughtfully at the bottle in his hand. “I’m sorry, Jessie, God, I’m so sorry you came so close to dying. That’s hard for me to live with.” He folded his hands and unfolded them.

“Matt, there’s no way you could have known what he would do when he was cornered. I don’t blame you. I ignored my own warnings in my head because I couldn’t believe he was guilty.” She grabbed his hand. “I’m going to be okay. I have someone helping me through the fear I sometimes still have.”

“I’ve been seeing someone, too.”

“How is his wife?” Jessie changed the subject trying to put him at ease.

“His wife is in shock, and so is the family.”

“When did you first suspect him?”

“His reaction to you was one. How he stayed as far away as possible from the Harvest Club was another. He let me handle it when he should have been the one. I also found out that he had requested Zach personally as the FBI’s undercover man, which made me wonder if he had something on Zach and could control him.” He scratched his head. “Why I didn’t just go with my instinct right off, I will never know.”

“Anderson always seemed like such a nice guy to me.” She sipped her tea.

He took a swig of his beer and closed his eyes again. “Four people are dead, and twenty-eight behind bars in this area. Who knows what will happen in Philly and on the West Coast? This was big, Jessie, really big.”

“At least the club is shut down, for now.” She sighed. “With the kind of money they were making, you never know if someone else will come along and take up where they left off.”

“I talked to Grandma Sadie today.” He rubbed his temples and smiled at her expression.

“Why?” She frowned at him.

“I wanted to. I told her what great articles you had written and how you played the part to the end so well.”

“You do know Anderson saw Gina?”

“I think I knew that when I saw his terrified expression before I shot him. He was looking through me, not at me.”

“I know I’ll never see her again. She’s been a part of me for three months.”

“I still don’t get it.” He sat forward in the chair.

“I don’t either. It just was. I can’t explain, but I no longer doubt or fear it.”

“You’re something, you know it? You had a run in with a ghost who became a part of your life; you were chased, and nearly killed. Still, somehow, you manage to be nice. You blow all my theories on big city girls.”

“Someday we might have to have a little discussion about your stereotypes, and just how wrong they are.” She smiled. “So who is going to be the new chief?”

“You’re looking at him.” He grinned.

“I should have known.” She matched his grin. “Who else could they give it to after you took down the Harvest Club? Now I want to hear about everything that happened. I have a news article to write. So start at the beginning of the arrests.”

“After Brad and Gordon were murdered, we started arresting all of the club members. I really think they were in a state of shock. At first no one was talking, and they all had the club’s lawyers scrambling back and forth between them all.”

“That must have been a sight to see. Did any of them show any remorse for what they had done?” She took another sip of her tea.

“I think they were all a little sorry they got caught. They were making big bucks and justified what they were doing.”

“Why did they kill Gina? Without her death, they probably would still be a hidden group.” She stretched her legs out. They were going to sleep.

“I’ve asked that same question over and over again. Here’s what I’ve learned so far. The club has been active in this area for about five years. It started on the West Coast after Gordon left the transplant team he was interning on. Then he started a group in Philly and here of all places.” He paused as he went into the kitchen to get a glass of water. “He did all his recruiting by the web site. It sounded like some kind of civic organization, but once the guys realized what the group was actually about, they couldn’t get out. If they did, they were permanently silenced.

“Early on, Anderson found out about the club. He went to Gordon Stockton and threatened to turn him over to the FBI, but Gordon offered him a thirty-five percent cut of every penny the club made to turn his head and let them work. Gordon recruited him with the same line he had used to everyone else—the good they were doing, how many lives were saved by the transplants, and how many good people died waiting, because there were not enough donors. So everyone had to pay the chief thirty-five percent. He was the Grimm Reaper, and Gordon was the Harvest Master; both of them were very wealthy men.”

“Not anymore.” Her lips tightened.

“True. Anyway, Gina found out about the money. Like you said, she knew what they made and that they didn’t have the money they were throwing around, and she got suspicious. She found the bank statements on Brad’s computer and asked about them.

“They used scare tactics to begin with. Buddy followed her and pulled some things, like he did with you. Brad would never let her report it. He kept trying to keep her quiet, promising the club to keep her in line. I believe he probably loved her.”

“He certainly wasn’t the same after her death or at least for the months that I knew him.” Jessie sighed and shook her head. “Who called for her murder?”

“Gordon wanted her dead. Anderson didn’t want it. He thought they should let it go. When they heard she was leaving, Anderson was even more adamant about letting her leave. But Brad didn’t want her to go, and Gordon thought they could control the men even more if they realized they had to keep their families in line or else.

“It was then Anderson requested Zach Johnson specifically from the FBI. He knew Zach wasn’t opposed to looking the other way if money was in play. All he had to do was act the part of an undercover cop. So as the police started looking into the murder, Anderson, Gordon, and Zach could cover their bases and the other guys could take the fall.”

“Sounds simple enough, but what went wrong with their plan?”

“Simply put, you did.” He grinned at her. “Anderson was furious when Rick brought you here to work at the church. Zach did a search on you and knew your reputation as a reporter. They didn’t have a clue that you knew nothing about the murder. They thought you took the job to do the story. So enter Buddy again to try to scare you off. After the night Buddy chased you, they thought for sure you would quit. They didn’t count on you staying and writing the article about Gina.”

“It was a simple human interest story. There was no threat in it.”

“True, but it brought Gina to the minds of people. It reminded Anderson how angry he was at Gordon for having her killed. She was kidnapped, given a drug that caused paralysis, her kidneys were removed and her eyes, and then Zach shot her and dumped her at the church.”

“It was brutal. I can’t believe what they did to her.” Jessie shivered. “What’s worse was putting her in front of the church to be found by people who cared about her.”

“Anderson told Gordon he was stupid and sloppy. It was an ongoing war. He was determined not to be taken down by Gordon’s stupidity. He wanted you left alone, too. He didn’t believe you had knowledge of the Harvest Club. So Gordon took it into his hands and shot you, but you didn’t die. You did the article about the black market, and we went to see Jason. That’s when Anderson and Zach decided to get rid of Brad and Gordon at the same time. Brad was killed by Zach, and Gordon’s fingerprints were planted, and Gordon was injected with the drug he gave to Gina by Anderson.” He stood up stretched and sat back down.

“I guess I’ll never understand the whys of it, but at least Gina can rest in peace. She got to confront her murderer.” She leaned forward and rested her head on her hands.

“You were the one thing they hadn’t accounted for. Everyone liked you, you had a stellar reputation as a writer, they couldn’t control you, they couldn’t scare you, and they couldn’t kill you. Plus, you had Gina on your side. We owe you a lot for a job well done.”

Jessie got up and walked into the bedroom, and brought out the gift she had picked up over the Fourth. She handed it to him to open. “This is a little something to say thank you for keeping me alive. Your instincts saved me more than once.”

Matt opened the box to find a handcrafted pewter knight sitting on his charger with lance drawn. Attached was a note.
To Blue Cove’s own knight in shining armor, who rescued the damsel in distress and saved the town from evil. She humbly thanks you.

He laughed a loud and hearty laugh. “I never saw any damsel in distress, only you who fought me every step of the way.”

“I surrender. No more wars for now.” She held her hands up. “So what’s next for you?” she asked.

In one quick move, he took her hand and pulled her into his lap. “Thank you.” He kissed her on the cheek. He looked into her eyes, draping his arm around her shoulder.

“My first official act as the new chief is to ask you to work with me, as a part of my team, on any cases in the future. I know we haven’t always gotten along, but somewhere along the line I’ve come to respect your professionalism, the way you handle people, and I want you on my team. What do you think?”

She pursed her lips and tilted her head. “I could live a peaceful, quiet life as a church secretary, with my beautiful view. Or I can see ghosts, carry a gun, be a target for murder. Hmmm, let me think about this.” She paused, trying to keep a straight face. “I choose the second.” She jumped up quickly. The rakish look in his eyes made her nervous.

He stood, shook her hand, and headed for the door with her following him.

“You still need to work at the church and write your stories. It won’t pay much and maybe there will be no action. There wasn’t much before you come to town, but on the other hand you do have a nose for a good story.”

“I love my job at the church, and I like writing for the paper, so I guess we’re good to go.”

“Okay, then.” He opened the door and stepped out. He put his foot back in before she closed it. Leaning in he kissed her, one long, hot kiss that seemed to go on forever. “Damn, but I’ve wanted to do that since I first saw you. Since I’m not on the clock today, it seemed like a good time to me.”

Jessie’s jaw dropped open, and she stared at him. On impulse, she reached up pulling his head down and kissed him back. “See you around.” She couldn’t catch her breath.

He traced her cheek down to her full lips and kissed her again. He picked her up in his arms, carried her inside, and kicked the door closed. “Let’s give Blue Cove something good to talk about, Jess.” He laughed. She smiled.

Iona lives in Colorado with her husband of many years. As speaker, teacher, and a secretary, she has shared and heard many wonderful stories. Her love for family and the colorful people she has met have fed her passion for writing.