Chapter 5

The following day, we set out early. I was surprised when a couple of Blackhawk helicopters were circling the area. I figured the Search and Rescue people had finally got off the dime.

We got into Elk City around noon. After we took care of the horses, Suzy announced that she would take Kathy to the diner for lunch. I could see the obvious government land yacht in front of Paul’s office.

“You go ahead and get something. I’ll see what’s going on with Paul and the Feds.”

As I stepped into the sheriff’s office, I saw that Steve was nervous. “They’re waiting for you in the conference room, Mr. Reynolds.” and waved towards the back of the building.

I was surprised at the greeting, but did not say anything.

As I came around the corner, I was surprised to see two large and painfully stereotypical federal bully boys. Black suits, skinny ties, and sunglasses. One of them held up his hand and said, “Please stop right there, Sir. May I see some identification.”

I thought for a moment about just turning around and leaving, but my curiosity got the better of me, and I dug out my retired military ID. “There you go, Cap’n. I believe I’m expected in there.”

The suit looked closely at the ID and then whispered into his wrist. After a moment, he handed my ID back and opened the door.

Inside, I found Paul and two more fed suits. These two were more uptight than the guards, but I could tell they were not too happy.

Paul and the others stood as I walked up to the table. “Matt,” Paul said. “Good to see you.” He pointed to the suits and said, “This is Agents Johnson and Culpepper. They are from the Department of Justice.”

Johnson, the older of the two, held out his hand. “Mr. Reynolds, it’s a pleasure to meet you. When we were notified of this situation, I took the time to look at your record. Very impressive.”

“I don’t know about that. Most times, I was doing what needed to be done. I’m guessing you want to talk about the crash? I checked the pilot and co-pilot’s IDs, so I know they are DOJ agents.”

“That’s correct, Mr. Reynolds. Specifically, they were US Marshalls working in the witness protection department. On behalf of the department and the agent’s families, I want to thank you for your efforts to preserve the bodies.” Johnson said.

“It’s the very least I could do. I hope that if I were in a similar situation, somebody would do the same for me and mine.”

“Normally, I wouldn’t go into any details of the mission of those agents, but circumstances force me to explain the events that led up to the crash.”

“I don’t need to know all the details. I’m sure there are security considerations involved.”

“As far as I can explain, these are the details. The agents were escorting Ms. Garcia and her daughter into an interim safe house until more permanent arrangements could be made. A drug cartel employed Ms. Garcia’s husband as an accountant and money launderer. It seems that he became greedy and started siphoning funds, stealing, from that cartel.”

“I’ll bet that pissed some folks off.”

“It did indeed. Mr. Garcia was murdered in quite a gruesome manner. Ms. Garcia and their daughter witnessed the murder but were able to escape.”

“And they testified against these people?”