The deputies scattered at his order, and Lena once again felt the twitch in her idle hands. She curled her fingers into fists and lowered her voice. “They don’t care about warrants.”
“I can’t storm in there after what happened last night,” Jake said, though his tone wasn’t convincing. “Tensions are still high from the riots, and the last thing I need is a standoff between my deputies and a bunch of pissed-off oil workers. We’ve got a lot of eyes on us right now.”
“I don’t give a shit about who’s watching us!” Lena dropped the whisper, and a few heads in the front of the house turned from the outburst. Jake reached for her arm, but she yanked it out of his grip. “They have my daughter.” She lifted the note and then flung it to the ground. “Who else wants the bill dead more than they do? You and I both know they’ll do whatever they have to do in order to win.”
“Lena—”
But before he finished she stormed back into her room. She flung away clothes, checked under sheets, and sifted through open drawers until she found Mark’s spare car keys. She smacked her shoulder into a few of the techs in the hallway on her way out.
Jake’s footsteps followed her through the living room and out the door. The sedan’s lights flashed as Lena unlocked the car and ignored the awkward stares of the officers on the lawn. She climbed into the driver’s seat then locked the doors shut before Jake could open one.
“Get out of the car, Lena.” Jake pounded on the window then screamed something at his deputies, which she didn’t hear over the engine as she floored the gas pedal.
Tires kicked up and trailed dust down the dirt road. She tightened her grip on the steering wheel. Her idle hands needed something to do.
Chapter 2 – 35 Hours Left
Ken Lang leaned back in his chair, his dark-brown eyes glued to the speaker on his phone. The blue-checkered tie he wore drifted lazily to the right. He drummed the tips of his fingers together in the air, his elbows on the armrests of the chair, his shoulders tucked high next to his ears, offering the illusion that he had no neck.
“We hired you to do one thing, Lang, and you failed miserably.” Mr. Alwitz’s voice resonated in the room. The phone on the desk sat next to the morning newspaper, where the front headline read, “Hayes Passes Bill, Riots Ensue.”
Ken leaned forward, straightening out his back and running a hand over his slicked-back jet-black hair. “The win was by the smallest of margins. And we can spin the town riots in our favor. We’ll attack Hayes’s leadership. If we can convince enough representatives that they’ll have the same riots in their towns if it passes, we can kill it in the state assembly.” Ken shifted his eyes from the phone to Scott Ambers, who sat in the corner of the room, away from the conversation, on his own phone call.
“If we attack her, we run the risk of turning her into a martyr. It’ll only garner her more support.” Alwitz let out a grizzled breath. “Did we pull the article for today?”
“Yes, I cut it last night after she confessed to her old addiction.” Ken cast an uneasy eye back toward Scott. “Are you sure it’s best to talk about such things over an open line?” He paused, and Scott finally looked over. “I just want to make sure we only have people on these calls that absolutely need to be here.”
“We want Scott there, Ken. Think of him as a second pair of eyes. An applicable hand for our thoughts.”
They don’t trust me.
Ken’s resume told the story of a shark that could smell blood in the water sixty miles away. But the gap in employment over the past three years raised eyebrows. So did the torched bridges he left smoldering when he’d thought he’d left the “consultant” business for good. “Still, I think it’s best—”
“Where are we at with our”—Alwitz paused—“
alternative
course of action?”
Scott hung up his cell phone and rose from his chair in the corner and walked leisurely over to Ken’s desk. Unlike Ken, he wore jeans instead of dress pants, no tie, and his broad shoulders stretched his sports jacket. His hands were weathered and tan, and his face looked like a misshapen potato. “The wheels have been set in motion.”
Ten years working in the lobbyist and consulting arena for some of the world’s most powerful companies had provided Ken with some very thick skin. But when Scott Ambers spoke, a crawl went up his spine. He cleared his throat. “I’m still not sure this is best for our goal. There are a lot of working parts involved, and it’ll only be a matter of—”
“If you had just killed the bill in the first place like we hired you to do, then we wouldn’t be in this position at all!” The anger lingered through the pause that followed, and Alwtiz changed subjects quickly. “What are we going to do about Reese Coleman’s body?”
Ken leaned back into his chair and crossed his arms while Scott took the lead. “We’re cooperating with local officials. There’s video of someone dumping the body on our property. Shouldn’t be anything to worry about.”
“And we’re certain Coleman didn’t know anything?” The first hint of fear edged Mr. Alwitz’s voice. “Nothing that can be traced back to us?”
“No.” Scott knuckled the table, hunching over and rounding his large shoulders. “But I’ll need a replacement for him.”
“Take Lang.”
Ken quickly straightened out in the chair. “You didn’t hire me to run errands. I’m better off here handling the situation with the bill.”
“You’re better off where we tell you you’re better off. We hired you to do whatever it takes, Ken. And if that means getting out of the office and getting your hands dirty, then that’s what you’re going to do. Or do we need to cancel the check we sent you?”
Color drained from Ken’s face. The one reason he returned to the art of back-door deals, shady characters, and a broken moral compass summed up in one sentence. “No. That won’t be necessary.”
“Good. Scott will fill you in on the details after the press conference.” The call ended.
Ken glanced over to his new handler, unsure of what additional responsibilities he’d just inherited. But Scott simply said he’d return in an hour and that Ken needed to change. The door slammed shut, rattling the walls on his way out. Ken unbuttoned his top collar and removed his tie, tossing it on the desk. He reached for a picture of a woman and boy framed in silver. He traced their faces then set the picture down and removed his wedding ring. He didn’t want them to be a part of the road he was about to walk down.
The phone rang, and he answered. “Yes?”
“Mr. Lang, we have a problem outside.”
***
The engine’s roar hummed through Lena’s body. Her arms were straight and stiff against the steering wheel. The speedometer tipped ninety, and the tires chewed up the pavement quickly and spit it back at the squad cars that followed her. Their lights had flashed in her rearview since she left the house. In the very back of the convoy, a few of the news vans that were parked on the highway near the dirt-road entrance to her property followed as well.
Flames burst from the gas runoff on the horizon. It was a constant sight, polluting not just the air, but the scenery as well. A few more miles, and she saw the cluster of white portables that made up the sleeping barracks for the workers who pulled multi-day shifts and the handful of office workers the company kept on site. But amongst the dozens of workers there was only one man she wanted to find.
Lena turned off the paved road and slowed her speed over the loose gravel, dirt, and grass that comprised the makeshift roads of New Energy’s property. Dirty, oil-smeared faces stared at her under hardhats as she passed, the caravan that followed her grabbing the majority of the attention.
A cloud of dust engulfed the car as Lena slammed on the brakes, sliding forward a few feet before finally coming to a stop. She flung the seat belt aside and jumped out of the car as the police vehicles parked close behind.
The door to Ken’s portable flung open, and Lena watched his mouth slowly drop at the sight of the police and news crews.
“Where is she?” The vein along Lena’s neck pulsed, and the dirt that the vehicles kicked up clung to the sweat on her chest and face. She ignored the police’s commands behind her as well as the confused questions from the gathering crowd of oil workers. “What did you do with my daughter?”
Ken held out his hands. “Mrs. Hayes, I didn’t have anything to do with—”
Lena leapt the small staircase and socked him in the jaw, knocking him off-balance. The strike triggered the officers into action as they rushed to stop her. “I know you took her! I know it was you!” Her fist ached, but she managed to land two more strikes, one in his stomach and the other on his arm, before Ken snatched her by the wrists and flung her against the portable wall.
A light flash of color dripped from Ken’s lip against the smooth tan of his skin. “I didn’t touch your daughter!”
Three officers stormed up the small steps to the platform where Lena and Ken fought, and peeled them apart. But even in retreat she continued to fight, slamming her elbows into the chests of the officers as they carried her away. “I know it was you! I know it was you!” She felt her lips and tongue mouthing the words, but the shrill cries were from a voice she didn’t recognize. It wasn’t until Jake gripped her by the shoulders that she finally calmed.
“What the hell are you doing?” Jake turned around to the reporters and cameramen piling out of the news vans, rushing toward the scene. “Get them back!” He pulled Lena away from the chaos and shoved her behind the cover of his truck.
Lena’s heart beat wildly, and she took deep, heaving gasps of air. “I know he’s behind it, Jake. You saw the note. It has to be him.” She watched Ken rubbing his jaw by two deputies.
“Even if he did, what would this accomplish? Huh? Christ, Lena!” Jake kicked the tire of his truck and paced back and forth in quick circles. “You want to give them more fuel for the fire?”
Lena frowned. She’d known her brother longer than anyone, and it wasn’t like him to back down from a fight. “What is wrong with you?” She tried to hide the hint of disgust in her voice but did a poor job. “You know what these people have already done to our family. You know what they’re doing to our town. To
your
county. You’re just going to let it happen?”
Jake’s nostrils flared, his eyes wild but focused on her own. “Don’t put that on me. You know I’ve done everything I can to help. You don’t have any right to say that! None.”
Lena deflated, the adrenaline subsiding and the aches and pains of the altercation starting to set in. She leaned back against the warm metal of the truck. He was right. He’d proven his loyalty to her time and again. After her failed third attempt at getting clean, Jake was the only one left who picked up the phone. Whatever was holding him back now, she didn’t have the right to question. “I have to do something, Jake. I can’t just sit around and wait.”
“Then don’t,” Jake said, the anger in his voice gone but his tone still stern. “You can still help bring her home.”
The bill.
Lena had dumped over two years of her life into this fight. But even with all of the hours she’d sunk into that piece of legislation, all of the sweat and tears and blood that had been spilled to breathe life into it, there wasn’t any hesitation in her mind about what she needed to do.
***
The week’s excitement didn’t seem to have an ending. Jake stood with his hands on his hips, his head down, nodding, as one of his deputies gave him the rundown of the situation with New Energy.
“Mr. Lang said he didn’t want to press charges,” Deputy Longwood said.
Jake grunted. “Of course not. He wouldn’t want to make himself look like more of an ass than he already has.” He rubbed the coarse stubble on his chin. “Get the news crews out of here, and then head back to the station.” Jake looked around, checking to see if anyone was listening, then pulled Longwood over to his truck. “I need your help with something.”
“Of course, Sheriff. Whatever you need.”
“I want you to take lead on the Reese Coleman case. I’m not going to have time to look into it anymore with Kaley missing.”
“You can count on me, Sheriff.”
The genuine pride in the man’s voice was enough to know that Jake had picked the right person. “I know. But listen. There’s a good chance that the oil company had something to do with Kaley’s disappearance. With a dead body on their property, the bill passing in town last night, and the riots happening, they have to be feeling the heat. Before you do anything I want you to run it by me first.”
“Yes, sir.”
When Longwood left, Jake saw Ken Lang by his car, pressing a white handkerchief to the bloody lip that Lena had given him. Jake smiled and climbed behind the wheel of his truck and started the engine. The cabin was old but clean. The previous sheriff had kept the vehicle in good shape. The only addition Jake provided was an upgrade to the radio system and the gun rack on the window behind him, where his trusted lever action .223 Remington with a shining walnut finish stock was perched. On his way out he made sure to drive a little too fast and close to the reporters still lingering on the property. One of the cameramen looked as if he shit a brick.
But if Jake was hoping to escape the cameras when he returned to Barta, he was wrong. He saw a cluster of reporters outside his station a mile down the road. Before he got too close he stopped and let the engine idle for a minute. He eyed the rifle behind him and wondered if a few rounds near their feet would clear the area, but decided against it.
Jake parked the truck and lowered the brim of his hat to shield his eyes from the flashing cameras and lights from the swarming mob that circled the moment he stepped out of the vehicle. Twice a microphone smacked his cheek, and he swatted it away like a fly buzzing around his face.
“Sheriff, does the kidnapping have to do with the oil reform bill that was passed last night?”
“How are you handling the aftermath of the riots?”
“Is the Reese Coleman death tied to the disappearance of your niece?”
Jake picked his head up at the last one. But instead of addressing them individually he gave a blanket statement. “I’ve called the governor, and he’s sending more resources to help with repairing the damage done after the riots last night. The body of Reese Coleman is being examined by our medical team at the hospital, and they should be giving us an update on the autopsy soon. We’ve also issued an Amber Alert for Kaley Hayes, and I have every sheriff in every county across North Dakota looking for her. I would like to remind everyone watching that if you see anything at all, please contact the authorities. That’s all the time I have for questions.”