Indelible Ink by Matt Betts Read Free Book Online Page B

Harper? Surely the sisters will be in contact.”
    “I dropped her off with Marsh. They have a bunch of his thugs guarding her. She isn’t going anywhere.”
    Morgan nodded. He’d figured Marsh would take his advice and make her the carrot that brought Deena in. He hadn’t, however, counted on being saddled with Wallace while he hunted the witch. “Well, at least that’s one of them off the street.”
    “We have people at the train stations and airport already watching for Deena. If they see anything, we’ll know. We’re watching whatever public cameras we can get access to. If she shows up, we’ll have someone on it.” Wallace was drinking a can of soda through a straw. The slurping sound annoyed Morgan.
    The clouds were thin outside the plane and Morgan looked out the window to watch them go by. He’d have to ditch Wallace one way or another once they got to Seattle. While he could be helpful to an extent, for the most part he’d just be a hindrance. He knew things and didn’t mind doing leg work, but Morgan worked alone. Mostly. Just him and his demons.
    “Look. I’ve done tons of field stuff for Marsh. We get after Deena, catch her, drag her home, and we both come out ahead,” Wallace said. “No big deal. We do what we do, and then we go back to our jobs. I’m not here to cramp your style or get in your way. I don’t want to be stuck looking after Harper for the rest of my life. Once she and her sister are out of the way, I can move on to bigger and better things.”
    “This is your captain speaking. If you look out over the left side of the plane, you’ll discover that Wallace is going to kill you.” It was Mr. Hector’s voice and it seemed to be coming from the plane’s speakers, though Wallace didn’t notice it. “Why is he here? He’s going to kill you, that’s why. First chance he gets. Why else would he be here? He shouldn’t be here.”
    Morgan pursed his lips tighter, struggling not to answer the voice, and struggling to keep more from showing up.
    “Beat him to death with a tray table and throw him out the cabin door.” The voice was scratchy through the speakers. “Problem solved.”
    “Avi had a room at a hotel near the airport. Hopefully, he stayed put, but he hasn’t been in contact with anyone since he reported Deena didn’t get off the plane. Who knows what he’s up to? I just want to get on with it.”
    “I hope he’s useful in some way.” Morgan tried not to panic at the words. He was looking for hidden meaning in everything.
    “Get on with it? What do you think he means by that?” Mr. Hector whispered ominously from the speakers. “It means he wants to kill you, I bet.”

10
    Special Agent Garrett Walters stood within the police-tape perimeter and took in the whole scene. It was easy to focus on the small bits and pieces and miss what the whole area was telling him. The debris field also had spread so far from the blast that it was hard not to step back just to see what exactly had happened.
    One of the young officers working the crowd stepped up to him. “Sir, you wanted to see me?”
    Garrett nodded. “You were first on the scene?”
    “Yes, sir. My partner and I were just around the corner at the light. Another second or two and we would have seen the explosion with our own eyes.” The patrolman pointed toward his cruiser, where another officer was interviewing a witness.
    “So as it is, you only heard it?” Garret asked.
    “Yep. And kind of saw the flash.”
    Garrett sighed. “But not the actual blast?” It would’ve been nice to have a cop’s eye view of the explosion. He lifted his arm and pointed to the crowd, following their faces down the line with his finger. “How ’bout them? How many of them saw it? And I mean saw it, not sort of saw it, not looking at the clock in the bank building and turned around when they heard it, not driving in front of the bus and looked in their rearview mirror when it happened. How many had eyes on that bus