Under the Radar Read online

  Bert laughed at his own wit. “You just don’t mess with the FBI, guys. I was nice, I was polite, just the way the manual tells me to be. This is the result.”

  Bert reached down and hauled Nesbit to his feet. “Put your boss in his cruiser and drive down that road. Reeves, you drive the other cruiser.”

  Bert climbed into his car and followed the two cruisers until they reached the barn. The door opened, but no one came outside. Just for the hell of it, Bert pulled his gun, fired into the air, and yelled, “FBI! Everyone out with your hands in the air!”

  Kathryn ran out, her hands in the air for the barest of seconds before she hugged the director, then planted a liplock on him that made the others dizzy.

  Annie was next, her arms flailing the air. “This is our answer. This is how we get into the HOE! Police cruisers! Genius! Pure genius! This dear, sweet man just provided us with what we need. Oooh, oooh, that one looks like he’s hurt. Is he going to die? Well, there certainly is a lot of land here to bury him,” she rattled on as she peered into the two cruisers.

  Without being told, she removed all the weapons, even the shotguns. Annie’s fellow Sisters raced over to help her.

  “We now have firepower!” Annie chortled as she checked out one of the shotguns, racked it up, and pointed it at the two deputies. “Bang!” she said playfully. Both men turned as white as Annie’s hair.

  Bert, his breathing back to normal, looked around. “Someone get a towel and make a sling for this guy’s arm. Give him a couple of aspirin.”

  Yoko ran into the barn and returned with a fluffy yellow towel that looked as big as a blanket. She wasn’t gentle when she fixed the sling. She then danced her way over to Harry and reached for his hand. Harry looked so sappy at that moment, Jack wanted to kick him—until he felt Nikki’s hand in his own. He just knew he looked as sappy as old Harry.

  “Hook these guys up to the door handles and let’s go inside. We need to talk,” Bert said as he led the way, leaving Harry and Yoko to take care of the deputies.

  Ted took center stage and started to report Maggie’s findings. He ticked them off on his fingers. “She wants to know if Lizzie will represent Marion Jennings. And, she wants to know if we want her to send the young lady out here. She, Marion, is willing to make the trip. “She has stayed in touch with a few others who got away. She says they all need help. She’s willing to do whatever she can to help us. Maggie thinks the getaways should be compensated for their life in hell while residing with that sect. For whatever it’s worth, I agree. Plus, Marion wants her kids. I think Lizzie will take it on, but I was told to ask. The next thing is Maggie says we should infiltrate and get as many pictures as we can. As quick as we can. And, last, and most important, Joe Espinosa said the papers should be hitting Sienna and the HOE compound by dawn’s early light. He hacked into the rental car companies and got all their delicious renters’ arrival times. Then he screwed them up to give you guys extra time.

  “The boardinghouse in Sienna, where Lizzie and Nellie are, is booked solid. The owners are putting up cots, and some townspeople are agreeing to rent out spare rooms in their houses. Joe fooled around with the visitors’ charge cards, so even there you might get a few minutes’ reprieve. There is not a recreational vehicle between here and Provo or Park City to be had. That, people, means we have the inside track if we move our asses. I think waiting for darkness is a good idea. If we go with the cruisers and our own rental cars, we can be our own force. We take the sheriff’s cell phone and we’ll have his squawk box. Win-win, ladies and gentlemen!”

  “Huddle!” Bert said, dropping to his haunches.

  The others followed suit until they formed a tight circle in the middle of the floor.

  “Let’s hear it! I don’t care how stupid it sounds, just spit it out and we’ll deal with it.”

  Chapter 11

  “That was a little too close for comfort,” Lizzie Fox said as she slid behind the wheel of her rental SUV. She looked over her shoulder at Judge Nellie Easter Cummings, who was sitting in the backseat, kneading her arthritic hands. In the front passenger seat, Elias Cummings, retired director of the FBI—and Nellie’s new husband—simply nodded as he craned his neck to stare through the tinted windows at the hordes of newspaper people descending on the rooming house the three of them had just vacated.

  Lizzie yanked at the bill of the baseball cap that hid her wild mane of silvery hair. Oversized sunglasses and the high collar of her denim jacket shrieked tourist—perhaps a daughter vacationing with her retired parents. A family. She hoped.

  Lizzie knew she was news. Simply because she was once the attorney of record for the vigilantes. Things happened when she was around, that was the bottom line. Getting away now meant she had a window of time to do what she had to do without the media dogging her every step.

  Within five minutes she was out of Sienna and on the highway. Her destination was the airport in Provo, where she was to pick up Marion Jennings and Joe Espinosa. From that point on, depending on how things went, she’d make the decision if she should head for Salt Lake City or not.

  “Nellie, call Annie and see if everything is still on schedule. Be sure to ask if there is any news on Myra and Charles. Damn, will you look at this traffic! All those satellite trucks. Big doings back there in Sienna,” she said, laughing. “We got out just in time.” Lizzie looked over at Elias and laughed again. “C’mon, Elias, admit it, your adrenaline is pumping.”

  The big man in the passenger seat grinned. “Retirement for the most part is rather boring. A little action on the side does make for interesting conversation. I hope our cover story of looking for investment property works, if it comes down to that.”

  Lizzie heard the snap of the phone and knew Nellie had ended her call. “What’d they say?”

  “No real news on Myra and Charles. Myra did call Annie and said it was all very hush-hush, and that people, friends of other people, were helping Charles and Myra. The young man is in a medically induced coma, but they were to bring him out of it today. It’s touch-and-go. That’s it on that front. Annie says they’re waiting for darkness, then the plan is to head out to the HOE compound. They have two police cruisers, and the sheriff and his two deputies are handcuffed to an old snowplow in one of the working barns. The girls all landed safely, along with the supplies that someone named Avery Snowden sent along in the crop dusters. I think Mr. Snowden is Charles’s go-to guy.

  “Annie wants you to go to the biggest newspaper in Salt Lake City or Provo, she doesn’t care which, or have Ted do it, to arrange for an interview with Marion Jennings. That will speed things up when the locals, the ones who don’t read the Post, see what’s going on.

  “Maggie says you have to convince Jennings to call in to the FBI and file a complaint. Bert is already here, but he can’t do anything until a call goes through, at which point he can file for a federal warrant. He’s going to be going to Provo shortly. He’ll wait to make his appearance.”

  “What about the sheriff and his deputies? Didn’t they see Bert?” Lizzie asked as she maneuvered the SUV around two stalled pickup trucks. The moment she was in the clear her foot hit the gas pedal.

  “I believe Mr. Snowden and his people, Annie called them ‘the sweepers,’ will come in and…uh…tidy up. I take that to mean the men will simply disappear for a very long time.”

  “Do those men know the vigilantes were there? Did they put two and two together?”

  “I don’t know, Lizzie. Annie didn’t say. At this point, I don’t think it matters. Who are they going to tell? By this time tomorrow, they’ll be long gone.” I hope, she said to herself.

  After dropping off Nellie and Elias at the hotel, Lizzie made the rest of the ride to the Provo airport thinking about what the immediate future held for all of them.

  Two hours later, Lizzie was standing alongside the SUV in the broiling sun as she waited for Espinosa and Marion Jennings. With nothing else to do but wait, she called Annie to see if anything had changed
since Nellie’s last call.

  “Nothing other than that Bert is on his way to Provo. The boys,” Annie said, referring to Jack, Harry, and Ted, “are talking to the sheriff and his two deputies. I think it’s fair to say the boys are doing all the talking. The sheriff is pretty tight-lipped, at least for the moment. Harry was talking about inflicting a little pain without leaving any marks. I think that got the deputies’ attention, but the sheriff is a pretty tough nut. I could be wrong on this, Lizzie, but I think he thinks that the cavalry is rushing to his aid. I hope he doesn’t know something we don’t know.”

  “Me, too. What role, if any, do the state police play around there?”

  “I’m not sure. Ted seems to think it’s pretty much hands off unless the locals request their help, which, according to Ted, never happens. Sienna and the compound are off-limits. In other words, let sleeping dogs lie unless those sleeping dogs rear up and growl. That’s why we have to get away from here and inside that compound before that can happen. If we can take charge, then we can control what goes on.”

  Lizzie digested Annie’s summary, but she wasn’t so sure it was going to be as easy as Annie thought it was going to be. “What happens when that federal warrant comes through? Bert will have to act and go into the compound. What’s your window of time, Annie?”

  When there was no immediate response to her question, Lizzie knew Annie was worried. She prodded her.

  “It depends on how long it takes to get the warrant,” Annie said. “So, if the Jennings girl is going to call in the complaint, check with me first. There won’t be any locals showing up, and by locals I mean the sheriff and his two deputies. It’s going to be a circus, that’s a given.”

  Lizzie wished she knew more about the inner workings of polygamy and what she could expect to go down. She perked up a second later. Why was she so worried? Marion Jennings had lived the life and would be able to tell her everything she needed to know. “Is there anything else I need to know, Annie?”

  “Not right now. I’ll call if something crops up.”

  The phone call ended just as Espinosa and a tall young woman, who could have passed for a model, approached Lizzie’s parked SUV. Introductions were made, then Lizzie drew Espinosa aside and said, “You’re to go back to the Ellis farm, where everyone is waiting for you. I reserved a rental car for you. All you have to do is pick it up. This,” she said, handing over a slip of paper, “has the directions to the farm. Whatever you do, do not start down that driveway. Call Jack or Ted and make sure the grid is turned off, or your tires will get shredded. Tell me now if there’s anything else I should know.”

  “Well, if there is, Marion can fill you in. There is one other thing. The minute I got off the plane I called the Provo Daily Herald and the Deseret News in Salt Lake City. Both reporters are going to be calling you for a one-on-one with Jennings. But only do one interview, so whoever calls you first is the one you go with. That’s straight from Maggie. Okay, I guess I’ll see you when I see you. She’s got a hell of a story for you, Lizzie. I hope you can help her and her friends.”

  Even though she was wearing wraparound sunglasses, Lizzie held up her hand to shield her eyes, that was how bright the sun was. She watched as Espinosa loped over to the line of rental cars waiting to be picked up. When she saw him hand over his paperwork and slide behind the wheel, she climbed into her own SUV and headed to the nearest Holiday Inn Express, where she was setting up shop.

  It was five thirty, two hours till twilight, when Ted Robinson’s cell phone rang. All he heard was, “Turn that damn thing off. I’m at the road. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Ted raced over to the switch and turned it to the off position.

  “What? What? Espinosa is coming here!” the Sisters shrieked.

  “Whose brilliant idea was that?” Alexis demanded.

  “Maggie’s idea,” Ted shot back. “What, you’re all idiots all of a sudden? You think he doesn’t know who you are and what’s going on? Get real. Maggie wouldn’t have sent him if it wasn’t okay. The guy has worked with me for years and never once gave you up. That has to say something, don’t you think?”

  The Sisters huddled, to Ted’s dismay. He wished Jack and Harry were there, but they had gone out to the old barn to check on their prisoners. “Hold on here, ladies. Before you make any hasty decisions let me tell you something about Joe Espinosa. He’s one of eight kids, the only son. His father died early on, leaving his mother to take care of all of them. He’s the youngest. They managed to scratch out a living somehow, and as the girls got older and went to work, they found a way through sacrifice to send Joe to college. He’s the only one in that very large family to get a college education. Joe is a United States citizen. He sends every cent of money he can back to his people in Tijuana. Go visit anytime. Their shop is the third one on the street on the right side after you cross the border. It’s not much, but it works for them. Joe has lived in a one-room dump for as long as I’ve known him because he can’t afford anything else. There are thirty-seven members in his immediate family. Thirty-seven!

  “Joe’s mother is the vigilantes’ staunchest supporter. Along with her daughters, she opened a shop right across the border and sells all kinds of stuff with your names on it. She’s eking out a living of sorts. Everyone in Tijuana knows who you girls are. She has posters everywhere. You even think about tossing him out, and I’m going with him.”

  Annie stepped forward. “Joe supports thirty-seven people? On his salary? How can that possibly be?”

  “It works because it has to work. He moonlights sometimes for extra money. Some of his family work if there’s work to be found. They aren’t lazy, Annie. It’s the economy down there. His money helps, but it isn’t nearly enough.”

  “Well then, we’ll have to do something about that, now, won’t we?” Annie turned to the others, and said, “You all know my motto. Money talks and bullshit walks. Let’s see if that’s true. Girls, welcome Mr. Espinosa to our small but growing organization while I…uh…take care of a few things.”

  “Guess that says it all,” Kathryn announced as she followed Annie to the back door. She watched as Annie opened it to get better reception. Kathryn stayed inside and listened unashamedly. She wished she could hear the person on the other end of the phone, but Annie’s end of the conversation told her enough to make her grin from ear to ear.

  “Conrad, I need you to do something for me, and I need you to do it quickly, and I don’t want to argue with you. Now listen to me. I want you to bring some people across the border and…and what I want you to do is…find a way…to…make them legal. No, no. No green cards. I want citizenship. What difference does it make how many? A number is a number. Don’t go getting pissy on me, Conrad, I pay you handsomely. Think what it would be like if you were on the unemployment line. Think of the humiliation. Your wife wouldn’t be able to get pedicures, your grandchildren would have to go to public school, and you’d have to mow your own lawn.

  “All right, all right, thirty-seven people total. Stop screaming, Conrad. I’m talking push mower, not the kind you ride around on. Send someone to get all the details, exact names, that sort of thing. No trail left behind. Of course, I know it’s illegal. I do illegal things, that’s my life now. Why would you think housing for thirty-seven people is a problem in this horrible economy? Conrad, why with all the money I pay you, do I have to think for you, too? Send them all to my plantation and let them take it over. Give everyone a job. Hire tutors for the children, then we’ll send them to private school when they catch up on English. This way they won’t be a drain on the economy.

  “Well, Conrad, this is how I see it. When I…uh…retired from private life to go on to other…things, you took it upon yourself and laid off all the people at the plantation. I seem to recall the number eighty-four somewhere along the way. Thirty-seven isn’t even half of eighty-four, now, is it? There are vehicles there. Have someone teach the adults how to drive if they don’t know already. Make sure there is a tutor for the
adults as well as the children so they can learn English, too. Be sure there’s plenty of food for everyone. Clothing, too. Are you taking notes, Conrad? I bet you don’t even know how a weed whacker works.

  “Now, these people are going to need Social Security numbers, credit cards, and, eventually, driver’s licenses, then passports. Yes, you can make it happen. Later on we’ll make sure we do it all legally, but for now it has to be this way. I’m going to give you a phone number and you will call this person and then you will report back to me. Are we clear on this, Conrad? You’re sputtering. How do you expect me to understand what you’re saying? Oh, your wife’s acrylic nails will have to go, too, along with those two-hundred-dollar hair salon appointments, as well as that country club membership. Will you please stop babbling? Oh, one more thing. I know people who can make you disappear, Conrad. Like in disappear. Poof. You’re gone. Now, does that finish us up, you darling man?”

  Kathryn choked on her own laughter as she scurried back to report to the other Sisters. She was just in time to see Joe Espinosa walk into the barn. She wanted to run up to him and throw her arms around him and tell him what Annie had just done for his family, but she just smiled, and asked, “Hey, Espinosa, what’s up?”

  While Ted pulled aside his colleague to clue him in on the current situation, Kathryn quickly recounted Annie’s conversation that she’d listened in on. Her Sisters grinned from ear to ear and high-fived one another. Good old Annie had saved the day for one Joe Espinosa, and he didn’t even know it.

  No one missed the dreamy-eyed looks Alexis and Joe Espinosa gave each other.

  Annie returned to the room, shook hands with Espinosa, and welcomed him to their little group. “Ted, take Joseph down to the old barn so he can see what’s going on. It’s going to be dark soon.”