End Game (Will Robie #5)(99)

Bender put his hand on his sidearm.

Robie moved so quickly Bender had no time to react. His left hand had gripped Bender’s and his right hand held a knife an inch from Bender’s throat.

“Don’t be stupid, Bender, you’re out of your league.”

Reel stepped between them and pushed them away from each other.

“Don’t be idiots,” she barked. She looked at Robie. “Put the knife away and just shut up for a minute.”

She turned to Bender, who looked shaken by Robie’s actions. She said, “We need to go over to the station and we need to tell you something about Dolph.”

“Reel!” began Robie.

She shot him a scathing look. “What part of ‘shut up’ don’t you get? Now let’s go!”

She marched out.

Bender and Robie glared at each other and then followed her out.

*

At the sheriff’s station Reel faced off with both of them.

“Holly Malloy and her boyfriend, Luke, are dead. Dolph had Luke killed and he shot Holly in front of us.” She glanced at Robie. “And Valerie knew.”

Bender grabbed the side of the desk to steady himself. “Wh-what?”

“They’re dead. Murdered.”

“But you said you were there. With Dolph!”

“He kidnapped us. He was going to kill us. But we escaped. But before we did, he murdered Holly.”

Bender’s face flushed crimson. “Then why the hell didn’t you go back there and arrest his ass! You’re fucking Feds.”

“It’s more complicated than that,” said Reel. “Besides we had no proof other than our word. And we’re here on assignment. We can’t get mixed up in that.”

Now Bender turned his fury on her. “Mixed up? People were murdered!”

Reel said, “And they’re going to pay for what they did, Bender. I promise you that.”

“How? How the hell can I believe you?”

“We’re not walking away from this. He tried to kill us, too. If you knew what we really are, you’d understand that nobody does that to us and gets away with it.”

“Wait a minute, you said, what we are. What does that mean?”

“It means we go into a situation and we make it right. And if bad guys get in the way, it never ends well for them. We’ve already taken out a slew of Dolph’s guys. I mean taken out in a way that means they are no longer breathing. And I’m not just talking about the guys last night.”

Bender looked over at Robie, who nodded and said, “That was the reason he came after us. We were helping Holly and Luke to get out of here, and we killed a bunch of his men.”

Reel added, “So we’re going to finish the job, Bender. I promise. But what we told you about Holly and Luke you can’t tell anyone else.”

“I’m a cop! You just told me about two murders.”

“And if you tell anyone else it could very well mean that Dolph and his people will never be punished for what they did.”

Bender sat back on the desk and slowly took all this in. “There has to be another way. All my cop instincts are telling me to go get this asshole right now.”

“So are mine, but sometimes your instincts are wrong,” said Robie. “We’ve thought this through every way you can. And this is the only way, Bender. Otherwise, Dolph wins.”

Bender gave a resigned sigh. “Okay, okay,” he finally said. “So what do we do right now?”

Robie said, “I have to think that Valerie was taken by Dolph and others who are working with him. One of Dolph’s guys said that he was at the bunker. We think maybe these prisoners might be there too. And Parry, Lamarre, and Walton.”

“But why at the bunker?” asked Bender. “What does that have to do with prisoners and missing people?”

“I don’t know. But if you were going to stash people somewhere, that would be a good place to do it.”

“But didn’t Roark Lambert take you on a tour of the place?”

Reel said, “He just showed us a slice. That place is so big, there could be a lot of people in there and we’d never know it.”

“But I know some of the guards out there. They’re good guys. They’d never be party to shit like that. And they’d have to know, wouldn’t they?”

“Not necessarily, at least not all of them,” replied Robie.

“But why?” asked Bender. “It’s a survival bunker for rich people. Why would they take people prisoner? I remember Lambert telling me at my mom’s dinner that there was barely enough room and food in there for the people who pay millions for the space.”

Reel said, “That may be true, but it might be that these prisoners won’t be there when doomsday comes. But they might be there now for a completely different reason.”

“Like what?” asked Bender.

“Right now I have no idea,” admitted Reel. “But if we don’t figure it out fast, we might never see any of the missing people again.” She stared at Robie. “Including Roger Walton.” She looked at Bender. “And Valerie Malloy.”





CHAPTER





59


“I’m not used to this, Robie.”