Chapter 4 - The Man Behind the Badge
The garage footage changed everything.
Agent Reed watched the recording twice.
Deputy Miller had entered empty-handed.
Three minutes later, another deputy walked into frame carrying the black case.
He placed it inside my tool cabinet.
The deputy’s name was Frank Dorsey.
Cole’s longtime friend.
Reed paused the video.
“Sheriff?”
Cole crossed his arms.
“I don’t control every decision my deputies make.”
Dorsey stared at him.
“Travis?”
Cole ignored him.
That was mistake number one.
Dorsey realized immediately that Cole intended to sacrifice him.
Agent Reed noticed too.
“Deputy Dorsey,” she said, “perhaps you and I should talk privately.”
Cole stepped forward.
“He needs counsel.”
Reed smiled slightly.
“He can decide that himself.”
Within forty minutes, Dorsey was talking.
The detonators had been taken from evidence storage two months earlier.
Cole ordered him to plant them.
Why?
Because Cole believed I had discovered his financial operation.
But the missing county money was only part of it.
The fake construction companies were laundering money through contracts connected to stolen military equipment.
Rachel’s documents had accidentally exposed payments between those companies.
She had become a liability.
So had I.
That evening, Agent Reed sat across from us at the kitchen table.
“How much does Sheriff Cole know about the flash drive?”
Rachel answered.
“He knows I copied something.”
“Does he know what?”
“No.”
Reed looked at me.
“Where is it?”
I handed it over.
Rachel looked surprised.
“You had it the whole time?”
“Best hiding place was my pocket while everyone searched for somewhere clever.”
Reed almost smiled.
Then her expression became serious.
“We have another problem.”
“What?”
“Cole isn't the top of this operation.”
Rachel stared at her.
“Who is?”
“We don't know yet.”
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A distorted voice said, “You should have let the sheriff win.”
“Who is this?”
“Someone offering you one opportunity.”
“For what?”
“Leave Montana.”
“No.”
A pause.
“Then your wife pays for your pride.”
The call ended.
Rachel went pale.
Agent Reed stood.
“From this moment, neither of you goes anywhere alone.”
I looked toward the dark window.
Cole had risked his badge to protect someone.
The question was who.
My answer came the next morning.
Rachel disappeared.
Her coffee was still warm.
The front door was unlocked.
May you like
And on our porch lay her phone.
Beside it was a sheriff’s badge.
