Angel Fire

Chapter Twenty-One

Cameron stole a pepperoni from the pizza as Andrea took it out of the box. The nearest café had loaded them up with burgers and fries to go, but Andrea had surprised her by getting a pizza too.

“Figured you were having withdrawals,” Andrea said.

“Yes. I could eat the whole thing myself,” she said. She looked at her watch. “They should have been here by now.”

“They’re at the mercy of the ranger, remember. It’s not like they have a car,” Andrea reminded her.

Cameron scooped up Lola as she was about to jump on the counter to inspect the pizza. “No, you don’t,” she said. “That’s mine.”

Andrea moved the plates aside, then bent down and kissed Lola on the head. “I missed her.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Andrea took Lola from her and let her slip to the ground, then moved closer, looping her arms across Cameron’s shoulders. “And I missed us,” Andrea said as she kissed her.

Cameron smiled against her lips. “I know. We haven’t had much alone time.” She kissed her again. “Earlier was kinda nice.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Since Angel is on the run, Murdock may bring in another team. We might be able to get out of here. Head back north to the mountains.”

Andrea pulled back. “Really? I thought he’d want us to finish it.”

“Our mission was to rescue Samantha Kennedy, not apprehend Angel,” she said. “Of course, we didn’t so much as rescue her as Angel left her behind.” She stepped away from Andrea with a shake of her head. “And like I told her, it’s not like him to leave loose ends. She’s damn lucky.”

“But?”

“But something doesn’t feel right,” she said. “Why did he take her in the first place? He could have disappeared into the mountains on his own.”

“Maybe he didn’t know that,” Andrea said. “Maybe he thought someone was right behind him, tracking him from the beginning.”

“Knowing Angel, he was probably just taking precautions. And if he did have a car stashed out there, then this was Plan B, or even C,” she said. “He’s not in the military anymore, but I’m sure he’s remembered his training. Every mission, you always have a backup plan that’s as detailed and as practiced as the original.”

“What about—” But a knock on the door interrupted her and she frowned. “No alarm?”

Cameron smiled as she went to open it. “I didn’t want to scare them. Or make them think that I’m paranoid,” she added with a quick laugh.

Tori and Sam stood outside, and Cameron motioned for them to enter.

“The ranger,” Tori said. “He wanted to know if he needed to pick us up later.”

“No, we’ll take you back to your cabin,” Cameron said. “Come on in.”

Tori waved the ranger off, then followed Sam inside. Sam was already looking around.

“Wow. This is so much bigger than the one we rented,” Sam said. “Nice.”

“Only this is not rented,” Tori said. “FBI owns it.”

“Really?” Sam looked at Cameron questioningly. “Sorry. I don’t know the history.”

“This is our home,” Andrea said. “And office.”

“Our assignments are mostly remote,” Cameron explained.

“Beats the hell out of an office in the city,” Sam said with a smile.

“Yes.” She turned to Tori. “So…everything okay? Downtime helped?” She was surprised by the subtle blush on Tori’s face.

“Yes, it was very nice.”

“Great.” She glanced at Andrea and smiled. “Our downtime was too.”

Sam laughed and linked arms with Tori. “I like this FBI team much more than the one you have in Dallas.”

“Figured you would,” Tori said with a quick glance at Cameron.

“I hope you’re hungry,” Andrea said. “We picked up burgers and a loaded pizza.”

“Oh, God, yes,” Sam said. “We’re starving. Let me help.”

Cameron looked at Tori. “You want to see my computers?”

“The ones you don’t know how to use?”

Cameron scowled. “I know how to use most of them.”

“I know you want to show off your toys,” Andrea said with a smile, “but can we eat first?”

“Of course,” she said. “That pizza’s been calling my name.”

“I know it has,” Andrea said as she opened the bag of burgers. “Sam, if you could get the fries out of the oven. I put them in there to keep warm.”

“What can I do?” Tori asked.

“Grab us a beer,” Cameron said as she bit into a piece of pizza before putting a burger on her plate.

The motorhome was a little crowded with all four of them, but they soon settled down to eat. Cameron sat in her recliner and Tori took the love seat. Andrea and Sam sat at the small dinette.

“Excellent burger,” Sam said. “I didn’t realize how much I missed real food.”

“I still can’t believe you ate a squirrel,” Tori said.

“Angel caught a trout too. That beat the hell out of the beef stew he served.”

“MREs?” Cameron asked.

“Yes. The powdered eggs for breakfast kinda grew on me though.”

Cameron decided now was as good a time as any to question Sam. She thought it would be less of an interrogation this way. She decided to start at the beginning.

“Did Angel say anything to you when he first…well, when he abducted you?”

Sam nodded. “Yes. When I asked him what he wanted, he said a hostage. He said in exchange, he wouldn’t cut Leslie’s throat,” she said with a quick glance at Tori.

“Did he say why he needed a hostage?”

“He said it was to prevent you from coming after him with guns blazing. I think those are the words he used,” Sam said. “I told him it would be a lot quicker for him to disappear without me slowing him down, but he didn’t go for that,” she added with a smile.

Cameron was surprised by her composure. She wasn’t certain what she’d been expecting, but Sam didn’t appear to be any worse for wear after her ordeal.

“Did you try to escape?” Andrea asked.

Sam shook her head. “No. Well, I mean I thought about it several times. But what would I do? He could outrun me. He had a gun. He had a knife. My hands were bound at the wrists for the first two days. I was tied to him with a rope.” She paused. “Well, at first. I guess after the mountain lion scare he thought it was a pretty safe bet I wouldn’t make a run for it.”

“What mountain lion?” Tori asked. “You didn’t say—”

“No, I mean he said if I ran off a mountain lion would have me for dinner.” Sam smiled again. “Every noise I heard, I imagined it was a mountain lion stalking us.” She looked directly at Cameron. “I must sound pretty pathetic for a cop. I mean, I didn’t even try to disarm him.”

Cameron shook her head. “Angel Figueroa is an expert in martial arts. He knows every trick in the book on how to kill someone. You could not have disarmed him, Sam.”

Sam’s gaze never wavered from hers. “How do you know him?”

“We served in the military together. We were on the same team for a while.”

Sam nodded. “You were a sniper too?”

Cameron was surprised she knew that. Apparently the look on her face said as much.

“We talked,” Sam said. “He told me what he did in the military.”

Sam took another bite of her burger, and Cameron wondered if it was to allow her time to collect her thoughts. After a moment, Sam took a swallow of beer, then let out a rather heavy sigh.

“At first, he wouldn’t tell me his name. He just kept reiterating that when he had no more use for me, he would kill me.” Sam looked quickly at Tori. “And I believed him. And I knew that I needed to become more than only a nameless hostage to him. So I talked. I told him my name, I told him about Tori. I told him that I was a cop.” She shrugged. “He finally told me his name. I asked him a ton of questions, most of which he ignored. At first.” Sam looked at Cameron again. “When we didn’t hear helicopters searching, he assumed you thought we were on the highway and that you had roadblocks set up. When we finally heard the helicopters, he thought it was because the roadblocks hadn’t panned out.”

Cameron glanced over at Tori with raised eyebrows, and Tori laughed.

“Okay, fine. You were right.”

Cameron grinned. “Of course I was. You should never doubt me.”

“Right about what?” Sam asked.

“They had a little argument over whether or not they should send helicopters out right away,” Andrea explained. “Cameron wanted to wait, hoping it would confuse Angel.”

“And Tori wanted to send out the National Guard to look for me, no doubt,” Sam said with smile.

“That I did,” Tori agreed.

Cameron got up and grabbed another slice of pizza. “So did he tell you what he’d done? I mean, did you know why he was running?”

“He eventually told me, yes. I mean, I knew he’d killed that girl. He told me he’d killed her family. He said he needed a distraction,” Sam said.

“You know about the money?”

She nodded. “The money wasn’t a part of the hit. One of the guards was his target. He said the money was for his retirement.”

“I don’t suppose he said where he stashed it?” Andrea asked.

“No.”

“He killed his team,” Tori said. “There were three guys with him.”

“Actually, there were four others,” Sam said. “Three guys went in with him. He had another guy waiting at the car where they transferred the money.” She looked over at Cameron. “Two of the guys were ex-military. He said they tried to take the money for themselves so he killed them.”

“Their bodies were found south of Taos,” Cameron said. “We only knew about three men. Are you saying there’s another guy out there?”

Sam shook her head. “No. He said he killed them all. He said they were behind schedule and there were cops everywhere. He said he needed a distraction, but I got the impression that he intended on eliminating his team all along. He didn’t go into details though. I assumed the distraction was the family.”

Cameron shook her head. “There was a multicar accident on the highway. Some of the drivers had been shot. One was recognized as the fourth member of his team. He killed the family when the sheriff’s department was all out investigating the accident.”

“Which is why Tori and Casey were called to that scene,” Sam said.

“Yeah.”

“Well, he didn’t—”

But Cameron’s phone interrupted and she held her hand up to Sam. It was Murdock. She stood quickly. “Excuse me. It’s the boss.” She walked into the bedroom, giving herself some privacy. She’d talked at length with him earlier and was surprised he’d called back. “Ross. What’s up?” she asked as Lola squeezed through the door before she could close it.

“How’s the debriefing going?”

“It’s going,” she said. “Samantha seems very forthcoming with information, but we’re just getting started.”

“Well, I guess you can stop. They picked up Angel about a half hour ago.”

“Are you kidding me? They found him? Where?”

“They’re holding him in Taos. He drove right into a checkpoint, if you can believe that. At Angel Fire Resort. Kinda ironic, don’t you think?”

Cameron shook her head. “He’s smarter than that, Murdock. He could recognize a checkpoint.”

“You’d think, right? Reports are they roughed him up pretty good though.”

“Can’t blame them. He’s left bodies all over the county.”

“Yes, I know.” Murdock paused. “He offered up a proposition.”

“Is he in a position to do that?”

“He’s got three million dollars hidden somewhere. He’s offered to give up the location.”

“For?”

“He wants to see Kennedy.”

“What the hell, Murdock? I’m sure Sam doesn’t want any part of that deal.”

“He’ll be locked in a cell. She’ll be safe. He wants a brief chat with her, that’s all. Then they’ll transport him back to Santa Fe.”

“They know how dangerous he is, right? How are they handling the transport?”

“Federal marshals. They’ve thanked us for our assistance, but it’s their deal now. From Santa Fe to Taos and nearly all the way to Eagle Nest, Angel’s left carnage behind. I fear that if he even looks at one of them wrong they’ll put a bullet in his head,” Murdock said bluntly. “They’re going to send in a couple of our agents from the Albuquerque office to deal with the three million,” he said. “Talk with Kennedy. They want to do it first thing in the morning.”

“Okay, I’ll tell her. But if it was me, I’d tell him to go fuck himself.”

Murdock laughed. “I’m sure you would. But three million is three million. Recovering that is a priority.”

“So she talks to him, they take him to Santa Fe, then our job here is done? We can head out?”

“Your job is done. And I’m sure Agent Hunter and Kennedy are more than ready to head back to Dallas.”

“Sounds like a plan,” she said. “Andrea and I will head back to Colorado then. Unless you’ve got something else lined up?” She sat on the edge of the bed and let Lola climb into her lap.

“No. You guys did a great job on this. You deserve a break. I’ll hold off on an assignment for at least a couple of weeks.”

“Thanks, Murdock. I don’t mind saying, I’m getting too damn old for chasing lunatics through the mountains on foot.”

“Well, if you wanted to chat with that lunatic tomorrow too, feel free. Angel might as well know who it was chasing him.”

Cameron smiled. “That I might do.”

He disconnected without another word, and she slipped her phone back into her pocket. Lola was curled in her lap, her loud purring vibrating against her leg. Cameron took a few seconds to rub her chin, then nudged her off. She didn’t know what Sam’s feelings would be about the proposition, but Cameron was ready to get it over with. As soon as Angel was on his way to Santa Fe, she planned to hit the road back to Colorado.

She went out into the living room and found them chatting about Patrick Doe, of all things. She arched an eyebrow and Andrea smiled.

“I was telling them how we caught Patrick,” she explained.

“I especially liked the part where you jumped off a cliff and nearly landed on a cactus,” Tori said with a laugh.

“Very funny,” Cameron said. “I damn near broke my ankle.” She sat back down in her recliner and took a swallow of her now warm beer. “Got some news,” she said. “They found Angel.”

Sam leaned forward. “They caught him?”

“Yeah. At a checkpoint near Angel Fire Resort. They’re going to take him back to Santa Fe in the morning. But before he’ll give up the location of the money, he wanted to…to see you,” she said to Sam.

“See me?”

“Murdock said Angel’s proposition was that in exchange for the money, he wanted a chat with you.”

“No way,” Tori said. “She’s been through enough, Cameron. There’s no reason she—”

“There’s a three million dollar reason,” Cameron said bluntly.

“What…what does he want?” Sam asked.

Cameron shrugged. “Don’t know. They’re holding him in Taos. He’ll be in a cell. It’s not like you’d talk to him in an interrogation room or anything.”

“I don’t like it,” Tori said.

Sam glanced at her and nodded. “I know you don’t.” She turned to Cameron. “But I’ll do it.”