Chapter Three

Yeah. About that, Leah wrote. We need to make a detour.

Shannon grumbled as Fuller stepped out to give her some privacy, but she kept her questions in check while the nurse was removing her IV.

“Detour? What detour? Why?” Shannon asked as soon as the nurse left.

Leah wrote, He will explain it all, but we need to get going and showed her friend, then handed Shannon underwear, yoga pants, and a baggy t-shirt to put on.

“What aren’t you telling me?” she asked Leah, as they worked together to pull the t-shirt down gently across her wounded back.

Please don’t freak out, but our apartment was broken into tonight. Massive destruction, Leah scribbled then shared.

“What?” Shannon’s mouth formed a small ‘o’ in surprise.

Leah nodded, then wrote, Place was trashed.

“Does Fuller think it’s all connected?”

Leah wrote, He won’t say so, but yeah, I think that’s exactly what he thinks. He said he’d explain everything, but we need to get moving.

Shannon fell silent as she pulled her yoga pants up over her hips, then sat on the edge of the thin mattress. Leah bent to help her put on socks and tennis shoes, then grabbed Shannon’s purse for her and they stepped out into the hallway.

“Ladies,” Fuller said, sweeping his arm out in front of him to indicate the direction they needed to go.

Twenty-five minutes later they were sitting in Agent Fuller’s office visitor chairs.

“What you’re about to learn stays in this room,” he began, and paused so Leah could write out his words for Shannon.

She read, then nodded.

In turn, he handed Shannon a previously typed file summarizing the situation so she could read at her own pace while he verbally brought Leah up to speed.

“We’ve suspected for some time that Robert’s employer, Creach & Langford, is a front for a massive money laundering operation, but we’ve never been able to gather any solid evidence. About four weeks ago, Robert reached out to us, and I was assigned to interact with him. He had stumbled across some documents at work that piqued his curiosity, and he’d begun to dig. Once he realized what he was looking at, he called us. He and I met, and he agreed to help us build a case against them.”

Fuller paused for a moment to take a sip of water.

“The plan was, he would copy as many files as possible, then hand them over to me on a set day and time.”

“What happened?” Leah asked, as Shannon gasped to her right.

Leah and Fuller both turned to look at Shannon, who had already completed her reading and was staring at the agent with scared eyes.

“I think they figured out he was digging around, and had him killed,” Fuller stated with frustration. “Robert had mentioned all the files he thought we would need were probably on their most secure server. One of our IT guys walked him through the best way to make the copies and not get caught. Evidently, something didn’t go right.”

When she saw he’d stopped talking, Shannon blurted out, “Why did they break into our apartment? Robert and I weren’t serious, Agent Fuller. We only met two months ago. This was only our tenth date, and he’s never even been inside our apartment.”

Fuller shrugged.

“The only thing I can think of is that they started watching him as soon as they became suspicious. And I got confirmation earlier that Robert’s place was ransacked tonight, too,” he answered, and Leah wrote it down and showed her.

Visibly shaken, both Shannon and Leah were silent for a long moment.

“You have to hide her, don’t you?” Leah murmured. “She could be a target. Right?”

Fuller nodded.

“What did you say?” Shannon pleaded.

Leah wrote it down and showed her.

It’s not safe for you to stay here right now, Shannon. He thinks you’re a target, too.

“But I don’t know anything!” she exclaimed in frustration, plopping her face into her hands.

Leah tapped her shoulder, and when Shannon looked up, she saw Leah’s note.

Whatever happens, I’m coming with you. I insisted. You’re my best friend, and I am not gonna let you do this alone.

Shannon’s smile was shaky.

“How long will we have to hide?” she asked.

“To be honest, I’m not sure,” Fuller said, and Leah relayed his words with her notebook and pen.

Shannon’s eyes narrowed.

“What about our jobs? Our classes? I only have two months until I finish my degree! And what about our family? Our friends? Do you really expect us to just leave town without telling anyone where we’re going?”

Fuller snapped, “That’s exactly what I need and expect you to do. I’m much more concerned with keeping both of you alive.”

“You’re an ass, you know that, right?” Leah muttered to him, then sanitized his answer for Shannon’s perusal.

He said he’s so sorry, and he knows it sucks, but his number one priority is our safety, and part of that is that no one else can know what’s going on.

Shannon’s shoulders sagged and she hung her head in despair.

“When do we leave?” she managed.

Fuller checked his watch and leveled his gaze at both of them before saying to Leah, “Tell her we need to get going now, actually.”

“At four a.m.? Where are we going at four a.m.?” Leah responded.

“South.”

“South… um… you mind being a little more specific?”

“Texas.”

“Texas?”

“Yep, Texas. Now if you don’t mind, we have a plane to catch.”

***

U.S. Marshall Pete Jenkins arrived home from his pre-dawn run on schedule; it was a habit ingrained in him from his Army service. He whistled as he made his way into the bedroom to get ready for work.

He quickly showered and toweled off before shaving, then put on his jeans, button-up shirt, and boots. The last thing he added to the belt around his waist was his department-issue Glock 22. He was just about to make breakfast when his cell phone rang.

“Jenkins,” he answered, then listened.

“Yes, sir. He asked for me, specifically? Okay. What time? Okay. I’ll be there.”

He hung up the call, put the bacon and eggs back in the refrigerator, and grabbed his keys.

“Looks like drive-thru again,” he muttered as he locked his door and headed to his truck.

Twenty minutes later, with coffee and a breakfast sandwich secured, he steered his vehicle toward Meacham Airport on the north side of Fort Worth to rendezvous with Agent Fuller as instructed.

He pulled into the main lot and checked his watch.

Flight won’t land for another fifteen minutes or so, he noted. It’ll be good to see Larry again.

Not many people knew it, but Pete Jenkins and Larry Fuller had served together; they’d been in the same platoon in the Army.

His phone rang again, and it was his boss again, but this time reading him fully into the situation.

Pete’s eyebrows raised as he listened.

“Car bomb? Wow. Not the most subtle method, for sure. Do we know how long she’s going to… they? There’s two? Interesting. All right… No, I think Beta will work just fine for this. We’ll head straight there. Who else is in on this?”