Chapter 14

Wade left the Hospital security office angry, he made arrangements to put Hasil under protection. He would be moved into a corner room with its own bathroom in a less populated area.

Wade headed out to the courtyard to find Hasil and Sally Ann. One Planet Assholes! Nobody else is getting killed on his watch! They must be worried about being able to tie Haylie to the mountain, and Hasil was the only connection in town to Shay Mountain.

Butch and Frieda brought dinner up for Sally Ann, and joined them in the courtyard. Hasil was enjoying his first solid meal, chicken and rice soup. It was really rice soup with chicken broth, but he still didn't have much of an appetite so wasn't complaining.

Nobody was happy to see Wade coming.

Butch looked a Frieda, this was their signal to go! "We're out party people" he said standing and grabbing his back pack. He extended his fist toward Hasil "Take care dude, good to see you up and around"

"G'night Brother" Hasil said eyeing Houghton as he approached. "Thanks for the keeping Sally Ann fed Miss Frieda."

Frieda smiled "Don't want you to have to deal with a Hangry incident in your present condition"

"That happened one time!" Sally Ann protested to everyone's smiling faces

"That quite was enough" Frieda said, waving as Butch grabbed her hand and headed toward the exit. "I'll call you in the morning!"

Wade approached nervously "Hey, Um, how you doing?"

"I'll live" Hasil said "I know you could get in a lot of trouble for what you done for me, thank you"

Wade nodded, but didn't respond. There was no easy way to say this…..

"I came here to talk to you about Haylie Grimes. I think the people that killed her may be coming after you"

At Joyce's place, the ACLU team was getting to work. Dru was working on setting up a secure network with encryption and wireless cameras inside and outside the house while the team turned the dining room into a war room.

First order of business was to review the files on the drive Gordon sent, and there were a lot of them. Kat is a Paralegal, and specializes in Forensic Investigation – so that would be her job. Arlene was putting together a summary of what they had thus far and Ellison was interviewing Ledda and Joyce to ensure they had all the players identified.

When he was done, Dru sat down to make contact with the investigators in town. Claire Johnston was running point for the in town team. She was a former NCIS investigator and tough as nails. She and Dru had been friends for years, they'd met at NCIS Academy when he found himself second place behind her in everything.

"Hey Claire Bear" Dru said when she answered the phone

"Do not call me that" Claire said "Are you calling for a sit rep or to antagonize me?"

"Both. Antagonizing completed, ready for a situation report" Dru said with satisfaction

Claire sighed "Jackass. Checked into the hotel, Erica and Teddy are out scouting and establishing our journalist cover ID's. I ate at the bar and visited with the bartender. He said rumor is the Farrell's stole some dynamite from the mining company and blew up the dam, claims he heard that from a drunk ATF agent. Also said, his daddy used to work up there and One Planet did what they wanted, regulations be damned."

"Dynamite?" Dru whistled "Those Farrell's mean business. No way any evidence of that survived. Any other speculative gossip?"

"I prefer the term intel. He thinks Haylie Grimes was murdered. He said she spent a lot of time at the bar, and she was a lot of things – but not suicidal." Claire answered "Said they Sheriff has been back here too many times for the case to be closed."

"Nice work Claire" Dru praised "What's your next move?"

"Got the name of some local miner bars, we'll troll tonight looking for pro-coal stories and see what we can turn up. We'll try to ID any coal company plants or enforcers we come across. I'll call you for bed check by 2300."

"Sounds good. Stay on your toes, if even part of this stuff is true – these people have a lot to lose. They won't hesitate to eliminate any perceived threats." Dru warned

"I know, this is about as bad as I've seen it." Claire agreed "We're keeping our eyes open. Let me know if you get a hit on that picture the Sheriff gave you"

"Copy. Talk to you at bed check." Dru said

Phil'up sat on Big Fosters porch for a long time. He was worried. Worried for Big Foster, worried for his kin, worried about the future. He'd been fiercely loyal to Big Foster. He believed in him and thought he was the only one who could protect this clan.

Now he felt alone. Tice, Enoch, Trevor, Barnabis, Levon, Hasil…all gone. For what? They were worse off now than ever.

Should he have followed G'Win? She let the Kinnah in! But without the guns Big Foster bought among them, them Kinnah would'a never been able to do what they'd done and at least two others might be alive. G'win had scared off the low landers who invaded and it was her idea to do the run and bring up the coal lady. He wasn't sure if they were better off cause of those things, but he was sure they weren't no worse off. And nobody died.

Phil'up felt his hands start to shake and his chest got tight. He looked down at his hands expecting to see blood on them. Closing his eyes, he balled his hands into fists to steady the shaking. When he finally opened his eyes, he stood and looked over his shoulder to see Big Foster still passed out where he left him.

"I'm sorry Big" As he walked off to find G'Win and Lil Foster.

Wilkes sat in the warehouse office waiting for Myers to show up. He still hadn't located the Sheriff, but he had narrowed down Gordon/Tim's ACLU contacts. Looks like there were 3 different attorney's who had connections to cases he had been involved in. Someone was running down the whereabouts of all three.

While looking for the Sheriff at the hospital, he decided to do a little digging on the Farrell kid. He'd found out the Sheriff hadn't been there today and the ATF was coming back tomorrow. That kid was probably the only person accessible to law enforcement who could connect Grimes to the mountain. Nobody else in town could have taken her up there. He knew Myers was worried about that. Wilkes cursed himself again for letting Myers anywhere near that operation. All they needed to do was get the jars from her, that's it. He could have handled that. But Myers insisted on showing up, he said to reason with her. Wilkes knew he just wanted to gloat. Haylie wasn't taking shit from Myers, and spit in his face. He heard Myers slap her and came out of the bathroom to see him lift her by her hair and slam her head into the table.

Wilkes helped him stage the suicide because that was his job, but he wasn't going to let Myers put him in that kind of position again. It was sloppy work that left them vulnerable. If they went after the Farrell kid he would make sure it was done right and looked like it was tied to his hospitalization. He had no doubt that Myers would protect himself at all costs, and Wilkes had been doing this too long to end up some desk jockeys collateral damage. If things went south and it came down to Wilkes or Myers, Wilkes would make damn sure he was last man standing.

Hasil and Sally Ann were settled in his new room with a plain clothes deputy stationed outside the door. Wade explained what happened after Haylie came down off the mountain. Hasil felt sick that she was murdered for trying to help his kin. Wade didn't ask to many questions, but he told them about seeing her at the station. He did let them know about her email and that she said she was on the mountain but not how she got up there or who took her. Hasil told Wade he didn't take her up the mountain himself, but was with them until the edge of town.

"She saw my face, said my name. But she didn't say nothin when he saw her or in the note she left. Why?" Hasil said, confused by her kindness

Sitting next to Hasil on the double bed, Sally Ann raised his hand to her lips "Seems like once she knew what was really happening, she wanted to help. It wasn't right to take her up there against her will, but I think she appreciated knowing the truth."

Hasil shook his head and leaned back. "We had no business…no right…and now she's dead"

Sally Ann placed her hand on Hasil's chest "Look at me - when this is all said and done, people will say she got herself killed, people will say the Farrell's got her killed; but the people who killed Haylie are responsible for her death, nobody else. Okay?"

Hasil nodded "I know you're right, but….."

"You're a caring person, it's going to bother you that someone was murdered. You want to do something about it. You'll be able to help the Sheriff when the time comes. Just remember, its not your fault."

Hasil nodded and looked at Sally Ann, knowing she wasn't going to like what he had to say next.

"I want you to leave with your brother tomorrow" He said quietly

Stunned, Sally Ann just looked at him. "Wait, what?! Why?!"

"It's to dangerous to stay here. If the coal folks are killing there own, they'll go after anybody. If they want me, they might try to get to you." He said softly, touching her face "I don't want you and the baby in harms way"

"No" Sally Ann said emphatically "I'm not leaving you"

"Sally Ann" Hasil protested "You're carrying a child"

"And you just got shot" She countered "So its not like you'll be doing anything I can't keep up with. I'm moving faster than you these days!"

"That ain't the point" Hasil said "You'll be safe in Cleveland. I'll send for you when it's over"

"This is it." Sally Ann said, echoing his promise to her "You and me. I'm not leaving. Okay?"

They locked eyes and Hasil finally nodded. "Okay." He pulled her close, and kissed her softly.

"But listen, if something happens - ain't a lot of time for talking, you gotta listen and do what I ask. Alright?" Hasil said, that nervous edge back in his voice. "Promise me."

"I promise" Sally Ann assured him. Her hope was he wouldn't be as reckless with her close, cause she would kill him herself if he got shot again!

Claire called Dru at 2230 for bed check. The team protocol was to debrief on this call , then no team movement until the AM check in.

"How was the bar hopping?" Dru asked

Claire had the team on speaker and gestured for Erica to answer "Hey Hefe…..your standard drunken disillusionment hit you in the face at every bar. There is a fair amount of anger and vitriol being directed at Matt Myers. It seems to be common knowledge his mission was to get the mountain cleared off and the mine open."

Teddy added "There hasn't been much effort to hide that little fact, and apparently there was a story leaked that Don Fushee agreed to make a huge campaign contribution if the Governors office put Myers in play. The story somehow got squashed, so we will run that down. We did ID 4 potential plants bought in as muscle. We'll get the photos over to you."

"Good leads for your first day of boots on the ground." Dru said

"Anything on Myers sidekick?" Claire asked

Dru grabbed the file " Just basic info. Name is Arnold Wilkes. Used to be a cop in Chicago, fired 16 years ago. Freelancing with coal companies since then." Dru continued "Sheriff is coming by tonight to brief us on he what he is working on. Kat has the files from the Zip drive organized into two categories – Government misconduct and Corporate misconduct. Arlene and Ellis are starting to review them now to break them further down into Civil and Criminal."

Claire exhaled "Okay – We'll dig deeper on Wilkes and Myers, and see what we can find out about the news story that was squashed. I already have a buddy at ATF working on getting me some details of why they were here and where they're at with that investigation. Teddy just sent the photos of the plants, let us know when you get names"

"0800 check in?" Dru asked

"Lets make it 0900" Claire said "I'd like to get at least one hour sleep"

"Copy. Hansen OUT!" Dru exclaimed

"Jackass" Claire said and hung up.

G'win sat up nursing Ray and watching Lil Foster sleep. They'd both been surprised by the visit from cousin Phil'up. He'd been Big Fosters shadow from the beginning of this mess. But he seemed like a broken little boy when he came to them. He told them how he found Big talking to a tree and was afraid he was gonna try to harm Lil.

"Everybody is gone. All the boys I came up with, dead. He brought all this down on us and I…" He'd been too upset to say anymore.

G'win knew Big Foster was haunted, by both ghosts and demons. She just didn't know which had his ear right now. But if it was the demons, he was capable of anything.

Lil Foster asked Phil'up to keep an eye on Big Foster, he didn't want him hurting himself. G'win was glad Phil'up agreed, because she didn't want him hurting anybody else.

Deputy Fults couldn't believe he was protecting the guy that broke his nose. Wade was taking this to far, but orders are orders. They'd had met with the hospital team, and unless there was an alarm at the nurses station nobody was to come near this room. It was quiet until about 0130, when a male nurse approached with a cart. He wasn't on the team that Fults met.

"I think you have the wrong room, nobody is supposed to be back here" Fults said

The nurse kept coming and said "Doc left an order for blood work, got misplaced. Won't take a minute."

Fults had met Dr. Keith, he didn't mention anything about blood work. He placed his hand on his sidearm "Stop right there. You send nurse Dana down here, she is assigned to him" Fults said

"Dana went home sick" He said, stopping and keeping his eye on Fults hands

Fults drew his sidearm and pointed it "There is no nurse Dana. Hands up!"