Jake didn't get lunch that day after all. He and Eric had been on their way out of city hall to head home to eat when they were stopped. Jimmy was in the foyer outside the sheriff's office talking with Lt. Williams.
"Hey, Jake, we're about to head out to the Hawkins house to search it. Thought you might like to come along." Jimmy informed him, looking at him questioningly.
He knew what Jimmy was hinting at, because Jake knew Hawkins, probably better than most. He and Jimmy had had an agreement to try and not tell too much about Hawkins. So far, Jimmy had help up to the deal, even in his interview. Plus, Jake had tried to attend many of the searches as he could, especially since they were visiting houses now.
"I'll just head home to see Mom. Want me to bring you back some lunch?" Eric told Jake.
"Yeah, thanks," he answered his brother, but found himself nervous all of a sudden and his appetite gone.
Eric left after giving him a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
"You said this Robert Hawkins showed up with his family right before the bombs went off?" Lt. Williams asked, looking at piece of paper he held in his hands. Jake was surprised he was asking the same question, seeing as the lieutenant had been already been told that several times. Maybe he was just making conversation or was testing them for their response.
"Yeah, said he was a cop from St. Louis and was just getting away from it all," Jimmy answered.
Lt. Williams looked at both of them and cleared his throat. "All right, let's head over."
The lieutenant led them outside and let them climb in the Humvees with the rest of their search crew. Jake wasn't surprised that the officer was with them this time, especially after his recent peaked interest in anything about Hawkins. Lt. Williams hadn't attended many of the searches of houses thus far, at least the ones Jake had gone to. He usually left that up to a lower ranked officer. They hadn't seen much of Colonel Hoffman either, but Jake had heard that he was handling most of the patrols outside of town and left the town activities up to the lieutenant. They had only searched a few houses so far. Most of the other searches had been old warehouses and other business buildings around town, especially unused ones. They had claimed that they might have been used for meeting or hiding spots, but Jake was pretty sure they were looking for the bomb instead. The houses searched thus far were ones that the refugees were staying in and a few houses of ex-military residents of Jericho. They had started asking people about Sarah Mason recently too, especially in the interviews. Jake had no idea what to expect at Hawkins' house, as he hadn't been there since the day he warned Robert Hawkins about the military.
When they entered the old Thompson house, it looked like no one had been in it for some time. It was cold inside and the power had been turned off in the house. Some of the furniture still remained, but it was obvious that whoever had been here had moved out. The kitchen looked bare, even the plants that had been in the window were gone. Some decorations remained on the walls. The soldiers fanned out and began searching the house top to bottom while Lt. Williams waited in the living room with Jimmy and Jake, along with his ever-diligent note-taking scribe following behind him.
After a minute, a soldier came into the dining room area by the living room, turning on the lights. "All the circuit breakers were off," the solider informed Lt. Williams. The soldier disappeared, appearing to head downstairs.
Jake tried to cover his nervousness by acting as if he was cold, glancing around and rubbing his hands together. Though it was an early spring day, this morning had dawned cold, dark and overcast, just like his mood today. He tried to distract himself with thoughts about the town charter idea he had just talked to Eric about. He would have to stop by the library when he had time to see if they had any books that could help him. He would have to ask his mom as well, as he knew his father and grandfather used to collect history books.
"You said Mr. Hawkins and his family left for St. Louis?" The lieutenant asked, breaking into Jake's thoughts.
Jimmy answered. "Yeah, he said now that the roads appeared to be safer, he wanted to get back to his wife's family and make sure they were okay."
"He told me once that his wife's family had a farm in Illinois." Jake added.
The lieutenant looked doubtful. "Why didn't you tell us earlier that he left town?"
Jimmy clutched his deputy's cap a little tighter and looked contrite. "Uh, he left me a note on my door. I just didn't get it until recently. Guess my wife forgot about it. I told you yesterday about it."
Jimmy covered that pretty well, Jake tried not to smile. Good tactic, blame it on the wife, Jimmy. When Lt. Williams looked expectantly at him, Jake just swept his arm at and nodded at Jimmy, acting as if he got his information from the deputy.
Lt. Williams inquired. "How did he get by our road blocks and your border patrol?"
Jimmy looked at Jake and Jake just shrugged. Jake had checked with the border patrol the day after Hawkins had supposedly left and they hadn't seen any sign of Hawkins leaving town. He knew that the military had their own roadblocks just beyond the border patrol ones. "I have no idea, your guys didn't see anything?"
Lt. Williams just shook his head, then grabbed the clipboard from the soldier taking notes to check something then handed it back. "We were told he was last seen a few days after we arrived, but no one has seen him since. How well did you know Mr. Hawkins? People have said that he seemed anti-social."
"This town isn't exactly friendly to outsiders right at first, if you haven't noticed.'" Jake said, which was true. He knew that many Jericho residents were skeptical of the Hawkins family even after being here for several months.
"He and his wife were having some marital problems," Jimmy added. "Mrs. Hawkins and the kids stayed with my family for a while when they worked things out."
They watched as several soldiers began dusting for fingerprints in the living room, dining room and kitchen. They must have found something as the soldier in the living room took out equipment and began lifting finger prints from the fireplace mantel and glass covering. Jake wondered if they had access to the FBI database to check for fingerprints, for criminals or government employees. They would likely be able to look up Robert Hawkins if so.
"Did his family ever say much about Mr. Hawkins' job or where they used to live before moving here?" The lieutenant continued his questions, his voice not giving anything away.
Jimmy answered. "Yeah, they talked about St. Louis a lot. And Darcy, well, Mrs. Hawkins was always complaining that her husband worked too much, which was partially why they were having problems."
Lt. Williams paced around the living room then headed to the kitchen, the soldier taking notes followed him. Jake and Jimmy trailed behind them. The lieutenant looked around the kitchen, glancing at a child's drawing on the refrigerator. It had a name on it and Jimmy said it was Samuel Hawkins' school back in St. Louis. Jake had a feeling Hawkins had left that on purpose.
"You did know that Hawkins was an FBI agent, right?" Lt. Williams asked out of the blue as he turned around to face them. Jake saw him watching both him and Jimmy. That was a loaded question asked to gauge their reaction.
"Yes, we did," Jake answered before Jimmy could. Jimmy's reaction was giving it away already.
Lt. Williams eyed them suspiciously. "Why didn't you mention this sooner? Or in your interviews?"
"Well, he had said he was undercover and then retiring after everything that happened. Mrs. Hawkins said that was part of the problem with their relationship. They wanted to keep it quiet and we didn't think it was relevant." Jimmy answered, repeating the phrase that Jake had told him.
"How did you find out he was FBI?" Jake asked. If they had access to the Defense Department network, they would know that Hawkins wasn't really FBI. That was a guess, however. Jake really wasn't totally sure how the CIA handled fake identities, but Rob had hinted that they would be able to tell. But Jake hoped the lieutenant might give something away.
Lt. Williams gave him a long look as if debating how to answer. "Gray Anderson told me yesterday. He was a bit suspicious when he heard that Mr. Hawkins had disappeared."
Jake groaned inwardly. Gray was giving away too much. He decided to keep with the naive tactic. "You really think he was FBI? He really was pretty good with a gun and knew a lot about nuclear attacks."
"Possibly. Did he ever say why he was here?" The lieutenant asked.
"He told me and Gray that he was investigating phone calls made from a pay phone here in town, possibly involving terrorists. His wife said he was working on retiring as his job was really hard on his family." Jimmy answered.
"And you didn't find that any bit odd?"
Jimmy rushed on, "Well, with everything going on, we didn't think it was important any more. I mean, the federal government was gone right? He didn't have anyone to report to anymore. And he volunteered to help out as a deputy and was doing a great job. I guess we never put two and two together about him tracking terrorists."
Sometimes Jimmy could come in handy, Jake realized, as he didn't have to work real hard at acting ingenuous. His good nature worked in his favor.
"And you didn't think there was anything odd about him?" The lieutenant asked Jake. "Mayor Anderson said you worked with him a bit, Jake, and you said in your interview that he helped you out in New Bern."
"I did work with him. He was a good guy and helped us in New Bern and here with the battle. Sorry, I don't know much more about him." Jake was getting uncomfortable with all this attention. None of their other searches had involved this much questioning. "We were desperate for whatever help we could get, we didn't exactly do background checks on people helping out."
"Can you tell me then how you and he came up with nearly one hundred rifles to help arm the town for the fight with New Bern?" The lieutenant had the look of someone setting him up for the fall.
God, these guys were good. Even Jimmy looked at Jake in surprise.
"Hawkins had them," Jake answered, trying to remain calm and think quickly. Hawkins had only told him that the CIA had weapon caches in many safe houses around the country. He remembered the stash of weapons Bill had found belonging to one of the Vietnam vets in town and decided to gamble on his answer. "We've often had a few local gun collectors and ex-military with enough firepower to arm a small army. We needed the guns, I didn't have the time to ask him more about where he got them."
Lt. Williams seemed to relax a bit at his answer, and Jake silently sighed with relief, but continued to stare at the lieutenant, looking away would hint that he was lying. "Do you think he got them from Jonah Prowse?" the lieutenant asked.
Jake knew that the lieutenant had been asking more questions about Jonah lately, at least that was what Bill had told him.
"Possibly." Jake replied, willing to help throw them off track. He knew how Jonah bargained, though. "Must have come at a hell of a price then."
There were footsteps from the back hallway and two soldiers walked in, disturbed looks on their faces. They both saluted the lieutenant.
"Sir, you need to see this." One of the soldiers addressed Lt. Williams. "Out back in the shed."
A wave of panic hit Jake. Had they found something that remained from the package? Could they tell that something had been hidden underneath the shed? What if there was residual radiation?
The lieutenant, Jimmy and Jake followed the soldiers outside to the backyard. Jake remembered the day Hawkins had brought him here and showed him the bomb sitting quietly underneath his shed. The day would stand out in his memory for the rest of his life. When they had moved the package last week, Hawkins had already removed it from his shed and had it loaded on the truck when he picked him up.
"You know, Mr. Hawkins was often out here working in his shed." Jimmy said on their way out of the house. "Must have been a real outdoors kinda guy."
Out in the backyard, Jake groaned inwardly when he saw that the dirt had been dug up inside the shed and was piled just inside the door. The floor boards had been tossed outside the shed. Hawkins had said he was going to do his best to make things look normal again after they moved the package, but obviously the military had found something.
Inside the shed, they discovered two soldiers in hazmat suits had been digging up what looked to be one of the gun lockers from Hawkins storage unit. Jake let out a long sigh of relief and tried to cover it by looking alarmed at the men in hazmat suits.
"Stand back!" The solider that had retrieved them from the house suggested and waved them back. They watched as one of the men in a hazmat suit picked up a nearby Geiger counter and held it near top of the gun locker where it had been uncovered. The counter clicked softly. There was radiation inside. Everyone backed up a few steps and cleared the area.
It took several minutes for the two men in the suits to dig the locker out the rest of the way and lift it out. It was heavy and difficult with only two men doing the work, but he heard one of the soldiers say that they only had two hazmat suits with them right now.
Jake noticed a metal detector on the ground outside the shed. They had probably detected the metal of the locker under the shed and gotten curious. He wasn't sure if he should be impressed or scared that Hawkins had thought ahead enough to leave a gun locker buried as a false trail. But he wondered where the radiation was coming from. Would the package have left some behind?
He looked at Jimmy, then Lt. Williams. The lieutenant looked pleased that they had found something. Jimmy just looked nervous as he clenched his hat tightly with both hands.
As they lifted the locker out of the ground, Jake saw that it was one of the lockers that had doors on it, which were now closed. The men in the suits opened the gun locker just outside the shed after warning everyone to stay back. Inside, they saw broken rifles and empty ammunition boxes from loading the guns they had used in the fight with New Bern. A number of spent shells began dropping out of the locker and scattered across the ground. Everyone jumped back. Then several pieces of silver dishes fell to the ground mixed in with the shells. They looked like a serving tray and tea set. The Geiger counter went nuts with clicking.
"Nickel or silver alloy radiation," one of the men in a suit told the lieutenant, picking up each of the silver pieces and holding them up to the Geiger counter. His voice was muffled through the visor of the suit. Each of the pieces of silver tested positive for radiation.
Jake wondered where in hell Hawkins had gotten a hold of the radioactive silver. Hawkins had wisely used it to cover any radiation that may have remained from bomb being in the ground. Now the military wouldn't be able to tell if the radiation was from the metal alloy dishes or from something else. Jake coughed and covered his mouth, trying to cover his smile of amusement. He was amazed by Hawkins's brilliance.
"Why would someone have something like this buried in his back yard?" Lt. Williams asked Jimmy and Jake.
Jimmy shrugged. "He was always a bit strange."
Jake answered. "Probably didn't want any kids to come across it accidentally. It's not like you can just toss something like that in the trash." They did still have trash pickup in Jericho, including recycling, though most of it was done using old metal dumpsters pulled by a horse teams.
There were more questions later, like how Hawkins had had a room in the basement with a broken lock and a small formerly-walled in area in the basement that had been destroyed and showed traces of radiation as well, but the men guessed that the silver may have come from several boxes they found there. The lieutenant asked them how and why Hawkins still had a working generator half-full of gas when the rest of the town had very little fuel. The soldiers had a number of fingerprints and several boxes of materials they took with them. But overall, Jake was pretty sure they didn't find anything significant other than the gun locker, which the military also took along with the radioactive silver.
He did notice that Lt. Williams seemed disappointed and frustrated. Jake only hoped that he and Jimmy had been convincing enough. The lieutenant asked Jimmy and Jake to walk back to town hall as the search teams headed back to the military outpost. Jake wore an amused smile the entire way. The smile faded when he walked into City Hall and realized it was time for Heather's interview.
(To be continued...)
