“You’re not leaving here with her. Then she’s dead for sure.”
“She’s dead now,” called out the other man.
“The cops will be here any second,” said Gibson.
“And we got two guns and you got one,” said Beckett. “So this is not ending well for you.”
“Just like it won’t for you,” Gibson snapped, the rain streaming down her face.
A massive bolt of lightning hit nearby, and struck a tree. That explosion, combined with an unholy crack of thunder, made them all look at the now-flaming tree about a hundred yards away.
The man holding Francine grunted as someone hit him, knocking him down.
Gibson saw this and called out, “Run, Francine.”
Francine sprinted away as the man rose and fired several shots in her direction before he was pounced on again by his assailant. This person pounded the man’s face until he fell limp.
Beckett, seeing what was happening, tried to run over to help his partner, but Gibson shot the man in the leg and dropped him in the dirt, where he lay screaming and holding his wounded limb.
Gibson ran forward and scooped up his gun where it had fallen. She held up a finger. “You move one inch, I finish the job.”
Right as Gibson turned to run over to the other man, Beckett slipped a second gun from a side holster. He was about to fire when a muzzle was placed against his head.
FBI Special Agent Cary Pinker took the gun and said simply, “You’re under arrest.”
Gibson turned, saw what had just happened, and said, “Thanks for having my back.”
“No, thank you. I’ve been after this SOB for a long time.”
Gibson hustled over to the other side of the truck to find Doug Langhorne hovering over the unconscious man. Gibson shone her light on the man’s battered face.
“Who is he?” she asked.
His chest heaving and his clothes soaked through by the rain, Doug said, “Rochelle’s father, Darren Enders.”
When they heard the scream, they both turned and ran toward it.
They stopped near the tree line, where they saw Francine standing over something on the ground.
“Rochelle!” cried out Doug. He pushed past his sister and knelt next to Rochelle, who had a bloody bullet wound dead center of her chest. Right as Doug gripped her hand, she opened her eyes, saw him, mumbled something, and died.
Gibson looked in disbelief at Francine and then back where Darren Enders lay unconscious. “When he fired at you—”
“—he hit Rochelle,” said Francine, swaying on her feet.
Gibson managed to catch the woman right as she fainted.
Chapter 82
The dead had been collected. The crime scene was still being processed. Witness statements had been gathered. The wounded Sullivan was at the hospital undergoing emergency surgery, as was Earl Beckett. The battered Darren Enders was also in the hospital and under arrest.
Gibson, Francine, and Doug were sitting in the federal building in Norfolk in a small conference room, with warm blankets around them, sipping hot, strong coffee.
Agent Pinker walked in and closed the door. He carried a file with him. He drew out a chair and sat down. “How are you all doing?”
Doug just stared at the table. Francine’s gaze was on her coffee cup.
Gibson answered, “As well as can be expected. Is Sullivan going to be okay?”
“I talked to the doctors. He’s going to be fine.”
“Do you know his real name?” said Gibson.
“Mark Gosling, yes.”
“When you arrived on the scene, I thought you were there to investigate Langhorne’s murder.”
“In a way, I was. But I was really after Beckett.”
“So you knew what he had done?”
“We strongly suspected. We had heard stories. A few people had come forward over the years. There were enough irregularities to get our suspicions up. I don’t like dirty cops. And what Beckett did was far worse than just getting paid off to look the other way.”
He glanced over at Francine and Doug. “I know some of what happened to you. I know it probably means very little, but I’m sorry. It should never have happened.”
Francine acknowledged this with a nod. Doug didn’t show that he’d even heard.
“How did you come to be out at Stormfield?” asked Gibson.
“We were tailing Beckett. We followed him to your house and then to Stormfield. We saw the other man drive up and enter the house after the two of you did. We were outside when all hell broke loose and people started running out of the place and shots were fired. I’m glad I was there in time to prevent him from shooting you.”
“Me too. Did you know that he had teamed up with Darren Enders?”
“We knew he was working with someone, but we didn’t know it was Enders. Apparently, Langhorne had promised both of them some of the mob money.”
“That’s what Beckett said, too. He’s been hunting Langhorne all this time. And he confessed to killing him. Sullivan and the other officer heard him, too.”
“Oh, we have him dead to rights. He will never breathe another day of freedom. He or Enders.” He tapped his file. “So, you set him up with the treasure?”
“What he thought was the treasure. Sullivan found out from the former owners that there was another secret room in the wine cellar. So Francine and I had the idea of conning Beckett. We knew he wanted the money. So we got the trunks and Sullivan and his people filled them with cut-out paper, but hundred-dollar bills topping each stack. The former owners told us where the old key was to open the other door inside the secret room. We blobbed some paint on the keyhole to make it look like it was hidden. You didn’t even need a key to open the trunks. I just used it so Beckett wouldn’t get suspicious.” She paused. “I also just found out that he was the one who called ProEye and got me fired.”
“Why would he do that?” asked Pinker.
“Probably because he wanted me to be desperate to find the treasure, so he could take the whole thing.”
“And you had to know that he would try to kill you when you found it.”
“That’s why I had Sullivan and two of his men hidden in the wine cellar. I didn’t figure that Beckett had brought his partner along for backup. It cost a cop his life.” She shook her head and looked miserable.
Pinker glanced over at Doug. “And I’m very sorry about your friend, Mr. Langhorne.” This time Doug nodded but didn’t look up. “It was very fortunate that you were there to help subdue these men.”
Doug looked at his sister, not Pinker. “We took turns watching the place. Rochelle was there last night. When she saw the cars coming in, she called me and I came right over. I saw Enders and Beckett. I knew who they were right away. When I saw you run and he was going to shoot you...”
Francine put a hand on her brother’s arm. “You saved my life, Dougie. You were always there for me. And Rochelle.”
His eyes filled with tears. “’Cept last night.” He bent low and started to sob.
Francine wrapped her arms around him and held him, whispering soothing words into his ear, while Gibson and Pinker looked away.
Chapter 83
“Well, we got everything on our bucket list except the treasure,” noted Francine.
She and Gibson were seated in the latter’s home office. Tommy and Darby were with Gibson’s parents.
“Yeah, but that’s a big one. How is your mom, by the way?”
“I got her into a facility near here, at least temporarily. Dougie is with her right now. He’s decided to cremate Rochelle’s remains and sprinkle them at a lake where they lived for a while and were happy.”
“So they came here looking for Beckett and your father, too?”
“They wanted revenge, but they also wanted the money, like I did.” She looked at Gibson’s twin computer screens. “NFTs. It just doesn’t strike me as something that Harry would dump money into. And it was only five million bucks.”