On your first house restoration, you discover what you’re really made of. You’re going to run into trouble. Will you quit or learn from your mistakes?
—HAMMER GIRL BLOG
The ferry steamed by out on the incredible blue of the water. Ellie sat on the park hillside. Her thoughts were a chaotic mess, and she couldn’t even corral them enough to know how she felt. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes, and she took off her glasses, then wiped at her cheeks. She’d like to lie back on the green grass and stare at the clouds going by so she didn’t examine the screaming that was building inside her chest.
“I thought that was your car.”
She turned to see Grayson walking along the water’s edge. “How’d you know I was here?”
“I didn’t. I was driving by on my way to talk to Dylan, and I saw your vehicle. It’s hard to miss that blue pickup.”
“You had something to tell me?” She heard the distance in her voice, but she couldn’t change it. It felt like she was swimming in a mud flat right now.
“I thought I’d see if you wanted to have some lunch and come with me.” He dropped down beside her on the soft grass. “What’s wrong?” His long legs clad in khaki shorts stretched out, tanned and muscular, in front of him as he leaned back on his palms.
She quickly wiped her face and put her glasses back on. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not. You’re pale and shaking, plus you’ve been crying. Talk to me.”
“This has nothing to do with finding the cocaine.”
“Whoa, where’d that hostility come from? I consider you a friend, Ellie. I don’t want to force you to talk if you don’t want to, but I’m here if you do.” He got back up and started down the hillside.
Her hand shook as she passed it over her forehead. “Wait. I-I’m sorry. Hearing Doris talk about how upset my mother was after Alicia died brought it all back in such a real way.”
He turned back toward her, and she couldn’t help but notice the way the sun gleamed in his blond hair. He had shoulders big enough to carry the weight of the world. She watched him again lower his bulk to the grass beside her. Children squealed on the other side of the hillside in the fenced play area, but there was no one near them.
His large, warm hand settled on her upper back. “I’m sorry, Ellie. You were a kid yourself. You can’t carry that guilt forever.”
She dashed a tear away from her eye. “If I could only go back and do things differently.”
His hand continued to rub her back gently, and she had to fight an urge to turn and bury her face in his chest, which was so unlike her. She’d always stood on her own two feet, and she’d do it now.
She straightened and forced the melancholy from her voice. “There’s more about Mac too. She got interested in ham radio after hearing some Koreans talking the first night Monte was teaching her. And Monte’s wife overheard her talking to someone named Omar.” She told him what Doris had said.
Grayson’s hand stopped its movement and gripped her shoulder. “Omar was Nasser’s second in command.”
“Was?”
“He’s dead, killed in a raid my first day here.”
She struggled to take it all in. “So there’s a definite tie between Mac and Tarek Nasser.”
“Looks like it. I just got Mackenzie’s call records. Maybe we can see who else she talked to. If this really is a planned attack that’s happening soon, we have to find out the details.”
“What did you learn from your conference call?”
He removed his hand from her shoulder. “They’re still working on the photo decryption, but I was ordered to stand down.”
“Stand down? What’s that mean?”
“My superiors said they’d take it from here, and I was off the case.” He bit off the words as if they tasted bad. “I’ve still got vacation due me, though, and I’m taking it. I’m not letting this go.”
“They can’t do that! And why would they want to?”
“They’re turning the case over to the FBI, but that makes no sense either. I’ve worked with the FBI before. The different agencies all work together when we’re confronting a terrorist plot. I don’t get it.”
Listening to his calm, deep voice brought her head up and pushed away the panic beating against her chest. She turned to look at him, and the compassion in his face warmed her. “There’s someone else to talk to too.” She told him about Ralph Hodges.
He glanced at his watch. “It’s only one. We have plenty of time to drive out there and track him down.”
“Let’s take my pickup. We’re liable to run into bad roads, and my four-wheel drive can handle it.”
He grinned and stood, reaching out to help her up. “I bet that truck has a name.”
Her hand closed around his, and he pulled her up as if she weighed nothing. “I call him Jaws. He can chew through any road you give him.”
He kept her hand in his as they went down the hillside. “Okay, but I get to drive that behemoth.”
Wang tossed the last of his crab roll to the squawking gulls and brushed the crumbs from his slacks. The rocky beach was deserted as usual. The perfect place for a private meeting. The bay was gray today from the overcast skies, though there was no rain yet. But he could smell it. He glanced at his watch. He’d give Nasser five more minutes, though he loathed tardiness.
Nasser’s big, black SUV pulled into the grass along the side of the road, and Wang crossed his arms over his chest as he waited. Nasser wore a worried frown as he hurried down the path to the beach. Good. He should be worried.
“Well?” Wang demanded as soon as Nasser came within hailing distance. “Did you find it?”
Nasser stopped five feet away and shook his head. “We haven’t found it. Bradshaw stayed there last night, but we checked every place in the house as soon as they both left this morning. It’s not there.”
He had just over a week to get that picture scanned and decrypted. “We’ll have to grab her and make her tell us where it is.”
“I’d have had the Blackmore woman already if you hadn’t stopped me. I think it’s time to eliminate her.”
Wang considered Nasser’s request. “I have to have the tiles.” The North Koreans would blame him if he let those tiles get to the FBI.
“Maybe she has already given the tiles to Bradshaw. She’s working with him to find out what happened to her sister. They might have stumbled onto the picture in the tiles. Bradshaw would probably know what it was the minute he saw it.”
“Most people have no idea messages can be hidden in pictures.”
Nasser’s face twisted in a snarl. “Bradshaw isn’t just anyone. He’s got a grudge to settle with me, so he’s especially tenacious.”
“Maybe he’s the one who should be eliminated. Get him out of the way first, then we can grab her and make her give us that box of tiles.”
Nasser’s grin held menace. “I’d be okay with that.”
“Get rid of him then. If you still don’t have the box by Monday, she’s next.”
“You got it, boss.”
The old blue truck held its own on the deep ruts and narrow back roads up into the mountain’s forests. Grayson whipped the wheel to the right to go around a tight curve, then straightened out the vehicle as the green metal roof on a log home peeked through the trees ahead.
“That has to be it,” Ellie said.
Grayson parked by the small porch and opened his door to the whine of a chainsaw bouncing off the treetops. He caught a glimpse of a gray-haired man in a plaid shirt cutting down a tall spruce tree. The wind carried the pine scent to them.
Grayson reached out and caught Ellie by the arm as she headed that direction. “Wait here. That tree is about to fall.” He pulled her back against him. She fit nicely, her head just reaching the middle of his chest. Her hair smelled of vanilla or something sweet.
A crackle rent the air, then the tree collapsed onto some shrubs and the whine of the saw cut off. The man shaded his eyes with his hand as he saw them, then he set down the chainsaw and came toward them. His gray hair curled at the nape of his neck and fell shaggily over his ears. His gray beard was just as unkempt and in need of a trim. There was mud on his knees, and he wore sneakers that used to be white.
He stopped a few feet away and looked them over. “Do I know you?”
Ellie took a step toward him with her hand outstretched. “Ralph Hodges?”
“That’s me.” He eyed her hand, then shook his head. “No offense, miss, but I just shoveled manure out of the goat pen, and I don’t think you’d take kindly to a smear of that mess.” He reeked a bit of manure.
She pulled her hand back and smiled. “I’m Ellie Blackmore, and this is Officer Grayson Bradshaw, an investigator with the Coast Guard. We have a few questions for you.”
“Coast Guard, eh? I haven’t even seen the ocean in six months, kids. I doubt there’s anything I can shed light on. Most days I can barely remember my name.” He wiped his filthy hands on his jeans and jerked his head toward his house. “Let me wash up, and I’ll share my lemonade with you. Have a seat on the porch, and I’ll be right back.”
Ellie glanced at Grayson and shrugged as the old man went into the house. “What’s your take?”
“He’s a lot sharper than he wants you to believe.” He took her elbow and steered her to the steps.
By the time they were seated on the porch swing, the old man was back with a tray of three glasses of lemonade and a plate of Girl Scout peanut butter cookies. He set it on the table in front of the swing, then settled into the rocker close to them.
He took a big swig of lemonade, then smacked his lips. “That hits the spot. So, Miss Ellie Blackmore, what can I do for you? Is this about your sister’s death?”
Grayson suppressed a smile. He’d been right. The old guy was sharper than his chainsaw.
Ellie sipped her lemonade, then ran her finger around the sweating rim of the glass. “I spoke with Monte Bennet this morning. He told me how to find you and that Mac had been talking to you about building ham radios.”
“I thought old Monte would drop dead in the traces. How’s he enjoying retirement? He should come see me, and I could show him the best fishing he’s ever experienced.”
“I’m sure he’d love that. Why would Mac be interested in building a radio? Couldn’t she just buy one?”
He blinked, then reached for a cookie. After popping it into his mouth, he chewed slowly, his gaze looking off into the dark shadows of the trees. “Well, sure. But when you build one, you can make it special. And it’s cheaper.”
Ellie leaned forward. “Did she ever mention an interest in North Korea?”
His muddy brown eyes went wary. “The FBI already talked to me. I suggest you have a chat with them. I’m not supposed to talk about it.”
“The FBI told us to back off, but she’s my sister. I have to help her.”
Hodges stared at her. “Okay, yeah, she talked about Kim Jong-un. I got the impression he scared her, and she was trying to convince herself the danger from him that the news is always blathering on about wasn’t real.”
Grayson opened his mouth, then shut it again. Ellie had a bit of a rapport with the old guy, probably because of Mac. He’d let her run with it.
“You’ve heard the rumor about her stealing cocaine, right?” Ellie asked.
The old man nodded. “Can’t say I was surprised. That girl was running scared from something, but she wouldn’t talk about it.”
“Did the FBI tell you anything that might help us?”
“You want me to end up in jail, girl? I shouldn’t have even told you they came to see me.”
Ellie took a sip of her drink. “Did she ever mention anyone’s name to you? Someone else we could talk to?”
“She often talked to someone she called Wang, which was a nickname meaning he was the boss or king of the operation. It’s Korean, she said.”
“Not a real king?”
“I don’t think so.”
He squinted toward the woods, and in the next second Grayson heard a bullet whiz past his head and saw it hit the old man, who slumped in his chair. “Get down!” He yanked Ellie from her chair and onto the porch floor, then pulled his gun out. “Stay here.”
He saw a glint in the woods, which was probably what had alerted Hodges. In a crouched position, he started down the steps to the yard, but he heard the distant sound of a vehicle roaring away. He reversed his steps and went back to check on Hodges.
Ellie was kneeling by his side, and tears streaked her cheeks when he joined her. “He’s dead, shot through the head.”
“I’ll call the sheriff.”
He probably should call the FBI too, but they’d know he was still investigating. If they threw him in jail, he wouldn’t be able to protect Ellie.
It was hours later by the time they’d briefed law enforcement and were on their way back. Had Hodges been the target or had the shooter been aiming for Ellie? She was so clueless of truly evil people.
He glanced over at her and found her staring out her window at the fall color in the trees. “Looks like your sofa and I are going to be best friends.”
“I can’t stay home.” She turned her head to stare at him, and myriad emotions streamed through her eyes: curiosity, fear, resolve. “Someone doesn’t want us investigating. We were followed today.” She sat up straighter. “I know—I’ll camp out at the Saltwater Point house. I’ve got tons to do there anyway. I’ll stay in the apartment over the garage. I can let the sheriff know, and he can post a deputy.”
At least she wouldn’t be at her remote house. “I’ll let the sheriff know myself.”
And Grayson could camp out in his vehicle as well. She had no idea how determined these people were.