“Yeah. To steal the car of the woman who testified against him for breaking into her hotel room. I was supposed to help kidnap some random kid off the street and dump the hostage at the woman’s house, then call the police to say the kid was tied up there and frame Sierra Redding. I wasn’t going to do it. Like I said, I’ve done my time. I don’t want to get involved in any of Dover’s revenge plots. But once you work for Dover, he thinks he owns you. For life. No one says no to doing a job for him.”

  “But you did.” Adam admired Kinney for finally trying to do what was right. He just wished he’d informed the police that Dover was planning to send his henchmen to do the job for him before it happened.

  “And look where that got me. Nearly dead.”

  “Do you know of any others who refused to work for him that he had killed?”

  Kinney ran his hands through his hair. “No. Look. He’s angry that the woman who did my witness sketch put him away. No one’s done that to him before. He blames her. He wants revenge. Until he can force her to recant what happened—say that she did have a dog, the one in the hotel room—so he can get his sentence reduced, maybe even commuted, he’ll continue to cause trouble for her.”

  “Will you testify to this? To Ollie trying to kill you under Dover’s orders?”

  “I don’t have any proof.”

  “All right, how about this. You work for us. You wear a wire. You tell Dover you’ll do what he wants as long as you have his word he doesn’t try to have you killed again.”

  “What about the others?”

  “His girlfriend and Burt Barnes are in jail. They’re not getting out anytime soon. Lonnie Hicks is in jail too.”

  “Okay, I’ll do it.”

  “Good.” Then they wouldn’t have to threaten Kinney with giving false information concerning the appearances of the carjacker and others who were involved in the carjacking.

  “It was Victor’s car, a red 1997 Ford Expedition,” Kinney said. “Listen, after Dover went to jail, the regular crew began doing jobs for him on the outside, but they were also doing their own thing.”

  “Such as?” Adam asked, glad Kinney was still talking.

  “Hell, Burt Barnes was bragging about a captain of a boat hitting his boat’s wake really hard, and the two men sitting on the transom fell off. From the distance, Burt and his crew, Victor Freemont, Phyllis Kenton, and Lonnie Hicks, couldn’t see the men in the water. All they could see was the captain driving back around to pick them up. Then the captain left the controls and dove in to get them. When Burt drove up to help, there was no sign of the men anywhere.”

  Adam’s heart rate sped up. “On the Willamette River?”

  “Yeah, the men must have drowned. And there was a boat just sitting there, ripe for the picking. Someone else would have taken it if they hadn’t. That’s what Burt said. Phyllis drove their old boat to the boat ramp, and Burt and the other guys drove the other boat there. They ran into the River Patrol Unit, though, and had to pretend they didn’t have any ID on them, just because they didn’t appear to have life jackets onboard. Burt had no idea if there were or weren’t. They cited him for not having a permit to pilot the boat. He has one, but he didn’t want the officers to know his real name. He said he and the other men were sweating bullets, afraid the officers knew who the boat really belonged to. Burt showed me pictures of the boat. I thought it would be some old clunker, but it was a beautiful boat.”

  “Like this?” Adam showed him a picture of the boat.

  Kinney frowned as he eyed the picture. “Uh, yeah, that’s it. You found it already?”

  “Do you think they were telling the truth about the men drowning accidentally?” Adam asked.

  “Yeah, they just got lucky.” Kinney shrugged. “It was a fluke. Easily lifted. I mean, I know they’d done it with a couple of other boats they found in slips and sold them, but nothing that grand.”

  “The three men who were on that boat were found dead in the Willamette. They didn’t report that the men had gone overboard, that they could have drowned. And you didn’t report it either,” Adam said.

  Sweat beaded up on Kinney’s forehead. “Hell, no. I mean, I wasn’t doing any more jobs for them. Burt called me up out of the blue and was bragging about it, like he was telling me what I was missing. But I’d never helped them to steal boats. Truthfully, Dover didn’t approve of it. Burt said they were making way more money selling stolen boats than we were when we were stealing from hotel rooms. By then, I was clean and staying that way. I wasn’t there. I only know what Burt told me. And he’s been known to exaggerate or lie.

  “If anyone would have had it in him to kill anyone though, it’s Victor Freemont. Or Dover’s girlfriend, Phyllis. She thinks she’s in charge most of the time, but so does Victor, now that Dover’s out of the picture.”

  “What makes you think Victor and Phyllis might be capable of murder?” Adam asked.

  Kinney scoffed. “The two of them are like Bonnie and Clyde when they get together, waving guns around, acting big, shooting off their mouths. Victor has got his grandmother’s farm way out where they go for shooting practice. I’ve been there once. I don’t know the address. I rode with Burt that time.”

  An investigative officer knocked on the door, and Adam paused the interrogation. “Yeah, Roland?”

  “You had me looking into Victor Freemont’s properties, and we found he had inherited this property from his grandmother.”

  Adam smiled. “Good going.”

  “No GPS directions out there though.”

  “Okay, thanks.” Adam returned to the room and said to Kinney, “We have the address to Victor’s place. Do you think you could give us directions?” Adam asked.

  “Uh, I could tell you where to start, but I would have to go with you to tell you where to turn off.”

  “I’ll take you,” Adam said, eager to get further on the case. What if they found shell casings and bullets on the property that were connected to any shootings they might be looking into, like when Adam and Sierra were running as wolves in Forest Park?

  “Do you know of any other robberies they’ve committed recently?” Adam asked.

  “No. Once I said I wasn’t going to work with them any longer—and to tell the truth, not only do I not want to mess up my parole or lose my family, I can’t stand Victor or Phyllis—none of them have had any contact with me. Until they tried to kill me. Except for Burt bragging to me about the boat on the phone the one day. I really don’t have anything else I can add. I need to be getting to work in a couple of hours.”

  “All right, thanks, Kinney, for all your help. The DA is dropping any charges against you. We’ll get with you on speaking to Dover so you can try to pin him down on the attempt to kill you. But we’ll take you out to Victor’s place in the meantime.” Then Adam called the judge to get a search warrant.

  “Thanks.” Kinney got up from the table and shook Adam’s hand, then Tori’s. He looked relieved he wasn’t involved with the others in criminal activities, particularly if they had resorted to murder.

  On the way out of the interrogation room, Adam said to Sierra, “We’ll be back in a little while.”

  “Okay, I’ll be here, unless I’m out on another job.”

  He thought she looked happy, like she was glad she would soon only be working part-time again. He was happy for her. Adam arranged for some of the officers to help collect evidence at Victor’s place. Then he, Tori, and Kinney went out to the parking area. Kinney wanted to drive himself so he could leave after they found the house.

  In his Hummer, Adam and Tori followed Kinney, while the other officers were behind them. Tori was on her cell phone, checking her emails.

  “Sierra seems really happy. I’m sure it has a lot to do with being with you, but I think going back to part-time work agrees with her.” Tori texted someone.

  “It does. I’m really glad she decided to go back to part-time. Especially since we will have to decide where we’ll be living. Not to mention the wedding business when we get around to it. So it’s going to be a lot of work and stressful. At least she can take some time off and chill. I think that has been bothering her.”

  “You mean because now you’re taking up all her spare time.”

  He laughed. “Yeah, kind of. It’s good, but I’m sure she needs some time to herself too.”

  They drove for what seemed like forever through the countryside, past farms, ranches, acreage lush and green from recent rains, took two false turns, and backtracked both times.

  “Do you think Kinney really remembers where it is?” Tori asked, sighing.

  “I sure hope he does.” Then they turned off on another road, and this time Kinney wasn’t driving as slowly and Adam thought he might finally know where he was going.

  About a quarter of a mile after that, Kinney slowed down and pulled onto a rutted private dirt drive.

  Kinney turned his truck around and called out to them, “It’s down that road.”

  “Are you sure?” Adam asked.

  “Yeah. They have a gate up, but I don’t want to get that close to it. No security, but I don’t want to run into anyone if someone’s out here right now.”

  “Okay, thanks, Kinney. We’ll set you up for talking with Dover as soon as we can.” Adam really appreciated his helping them.

  “Thanks,” Kinney said and drove off. Now that he wasn’t trying to find the place, he headed out in a hurry.

  Adam drove up to the gate and saw the overgrown vegetation covering the farmhouse from years of neglect.

  “That’s what happens when nature takes its course,” Tori said.

  “Doesn’t it look like a great place to run as a wolf?” Adam asked.

  “I’ll say.”

  They cut the lock to the gate and drove onto the property.

  Adam was hopeful they would find enough evidence to put all of them away for a good long while.

  Once Adam and Tori were inside the farmhouse, he smelled Phyllis’s scent right away.

  “Yeah, I smell her too.”

  “And I smell the men who had been on the stolen boat that we picked up,” Adam said.

  “Which includes Burt Barnes, the other kidnapper in Melissa’s case.”

  “Kinney’s been here, but his scent isn’t recent.” Adam was glad for that. “The carjacker’s scent is here too.”

  A couple of policemen came in to check for the list of items they were looking for. “We found tons of spent casings and bullets out there,” one of them said. “They’ve been doing tons of target practice. And we’ve got some men searching an old barn now too.”

  “Okay, good,” Adam said, wearing gloves and peering into drawers in one of the bedrooms.

  Tori was checking out a closet. “Boy, they have lots of great vintage clothing in here.”

  Adam chuckled. “You would love Brooke’s antique shop. She has some vintage clothes. In fact, we’re doing a 1920s-themed celebration in the winter.”

  “Oh, wow, that would be fun.”

  “Where?” an officer asked, coming into the room.

  “Oh, just a few friends getting together.” Adam hadn’t meant for anyone else to hear.

  Tori smiled at Adam.

  “Sounds like fun.” The officer left the room in search of anything else related to the burglaries.

  “Look what I found.” Tori brought a red wig out of the closet.

  “Great. That’s just what we needed. As long as it’s the same one used in the kidnapping of Melissa.”

  “It has Phyllis’s scent on it. And there are hairs inside that might be from her own hair. Long, dark-brown strands.”

  “Good.” Adam got a text and pulled out his cell phone. Sierra had texted and he instantly worried about her. “Hey, honey, what’s up?”

  “My car tires were all punctured.”

  “When you were getting a witness sketch at a crime scene?”

  “No. At the police bureau. I had to have an officer take me to speak to the witness.”

  “Did you have someone check the security videos at the bureau?” Adam was furious someone would do that to her car. And at the bureau in broad daylight? He couldn’t believe it.

  “Yes. They said a teen did it.”

  “Your car only or others too?”

  “My car only. The police are out looking for him and two buddies of his. Hopefully, they’ll catch them. I’ve got a tire company serviceman taking care of the tires.”

  At least Sierra was safe and not in harm’s way. That was the only consolation Adam had.

  “How are you doing out there? I don’t have any sketches to do at the moment.”

  “Good. Take a break. We’re getting some evidence here. We just found some stuff that had been stolen from various hotels that tie Victor in with the thefts. They were in a locked closet. And in the bathroom were sample bottles of shampoos and conditioners from the various hotels they stole from.”

  “Oh, that’s great.”

  “And we found the wig Phyllis probably wore when she kidnapped Melisa. We’ll have to look for a DNA match, but—”

  “You smelled she had worn it.”

  “Yes. And we found a stash of passports and driver’s licenses that match the names of some of the victims we had reports on. Credit cards and debit cards too. We’re verifying the rest of them now based on victim reports.”

  “You really hit the jackpot.”

  “We did. Phyllis has been in jail before, so we have her DNA on file. We should be able to match her with the wig. We found a stash of guns, including a couple of rifles, and the picture of your brother in his wolf form.”

  “Oh, wonderful on all those things. I’m so glad you got the photo of my brother back. I only had the one copy. Kinney told you all about this place?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Are you going to put him in witness protection?”

  “We may have to. If Victor learns Kinney ratted him out, he and his family could be in danger. I’ll check with Kinney and see what he wants to do. I’m not sure if he knew all this stuff was here, but now that we’ve found it, he could be in worse danger. I have to look for some more evidence, and we’ve issued a warrant for Victor’s arrest.”

  “Okay, good. Hopefully, he’s the last of the gang.”

  “We can only hope so.”

  “I’ll let you return to work. I’ll talk to you in a little bit.”

  “For a lunch date. Decide on where you want to go,” Adam said.

  “Ask Tori to come with us if she would like.”

  “I’ll do that.” Then he ended the call and Tori came out of the kitchen carrying some lockpicks and a master key card for one of the hotels. She was smiling, probably feeling like he was, elated they’d found so much evidence to put these guys away.

  “Do you want to have lunch with Sierra and me when we’re done here?” he asked Tori.

  “Yeah, sure, that would be fun.”

  Once they were done there, Adam called Sierra and told her they were on their way back to the bureau to pick her up.

  “What were you talking to Sierra about concerning seeing the bureau’s security videos?”

  “Some teen flattened all four of her tires.”

  Tori’s jaw dropped. “At the police bureau?”

  “Yeah, and Sierra’s car was the only one targeted.”

  “Do you think it had to do with Dover?”

  “Could be. Unless she did a sketch of someone and the person is paying her back by hiring a teen.”

  “Wow. I hope they catch the delinquent and learn what the deal was then.”

  When they reached the bureau, Sierra hurried to greet them. She gave Adam a hug and kiss. “All of you did great on that haul. I’m starving. Where do you want to go?”

  “A hamburger place?” Adam asked.

  “Yeah, sure, that would be great,” Sierra said.

  “Hmm, mushrooms and blue cheese on mine. And french fries… Sounds so good,” Tori said.

  “Too bad we don’t have time to stop by the ice cream shop too,” Sierra said.

  Adam laughed. “It’s becoming our standard after-meals treat.”

  “Good thing we like to run.” Tori climbed into the back seat of the Hummer, and Sierra sat up front while Adam drove to the hamburger shop.

  “When do I get my picture back?”

  “It’ll be used in evidence at a trial for the kidnapping charges so it will be a while.”

  They finally reached the restaurant and ordered their meals. Ethan walked in, and they all smiled at him and waved him to their table.

  Adam handed him a menu. “Imagine you coming here today.”

  Ethan chuckled. “I was going to the fast-food chicken place when I saw your Hummer here and thought I would join you.” He caught the waitress and placed an order. “So what’s going on with you all?”

  “Tori and Adam made a huge haul based on an informant’s statement.” Sierra sounded proud of them. “Maybe we’ll catch the rest of the people involved in the hotel robberies and boat theft.”

  Adam sipped from his water glass. “And those who are causing trouble for Sierra.”

  “Now that’s good news,” Ethan said.

  “Yeah, it is. What about you? Got any good cases?” Adam asked.

  “Sierra’s sketches of the men nailed them. We picked a couple of them up based on some good tips this morning.” Ethan smiled at her and raised his water glass in a salute.

  “Oh, great. That’s wonderful. I’ll be working part-time again, starting Wednesday, so I won’t always be there if you need me.”

  “Is that what you wanted?” Ethan was frowning like he planned to speak to the chief himself about it and make him change his mind.

  She smiled. “Oh, yes. That’s all I’ve wanted.”

  Ethan relaxed. “Okay, that’s great then.”

  “Oh, and we’re mated.”