Chapter 18

Shorty spoke up and ended my thought process.

"Harry, this stuff is so far beyond us I hate to think about it. I know a lot of the names on this list, and let me tell you, they will do anything to keep this from coming out for public consumption. I think we need to get that smart ass FBI agent back here with his team and turn it all over to him."

"I am going to call my friend in Homeland Security and see if he can't get that ATF team in here tonight. Let me get on the phone with him right now."

I called him and gave him a general outline of what we had and he put me on hold for a few minutes, then came back on with the director on the other line. I laid it out in a general way again and he told me I would have a team of agents there within the hour along with a federal prosecutor. I informed him I had a bomb disposal squad from Nellis coming in at seven he said that he could see no problem with it. I reminded him that since I had so much trouble with Agent Hadley that I wasn't going to take any shit from anyone whether they were a prosecutor or not. He said that he would make it plain to all personnel that I would be in charge and if I had a problem to call him personally. He reminded me that he was very familiar with my record and how many federal investigations I had run in the past.

He gave me his personal cell number and said to use it if I needed anything. I hung up the phone and all my guys had a shocked look on their faces. I told them to shut their mouths or we wouldn't have a live fly in the building. That broke the tension and they were all laughing.

"Shorty, did Jim and Jerry bring in those pistols from the motor pool?"

"They shore did and they all matched what you had receipts for. I spot checked twenty of them and the numbers matched. We now have all new pistols for our guys as soon as we can get them qualified with them. I know a retired man that is a state licensed instructor and will qualify all of us for a single fee. He travels around to all the small departments and does this for a living. He is cheap and honest."

"Sounds good to me, give him a call Monday and see when he is available."

I heard the chopper fly over the station and sent Shorty out to show them in to my office. I had a feeling this was going to be a very long afternoon. I was right about it being a long afternoon, but I didn't know we would still be going strong till three on Sunday afternoon. I sent Kit and his son home after sending them to the steakhouse for dinner on me. I sent Shorty, Jim, Jerry, and Beau to the gun shop with the ATF team and they were out of my hair. The federal prosecutor set up his table with his fax and the computer from Trent's and went to work on what it contained. I never let on I had a complete set of everything that was on it. I heard the second chopper about fifteen minutes after seven and knew my bomb guys were here to go through the house with me. I wasn't telling anyone about it until I saw what was hidden inside of it.

I waited for the voice on the phone to come in knowing he was going to give me hell for not keeping in touch over the years.

He came walking in and saw the federal prosecutor and went over to him asking if he was the sheriff and what the hell he wanted with a bomb disposal unit here in bumfuck Nevada. The prosecutor looked up in surprise until I spoke up from the side of the room.

"He didn't call for you, asshole, I did. You got a problem with that, Preacher?"

"Harry, my god, I thought you were dead. Last I heard you got shot in the head and they didn't know if you were going to live. Damn, it's good to see you again. What you got for me that you had to ask for a Viet Nam era vet?"

"Bring your team and come with me. This one is not for little ears."

I pointed at the prosecutor and grabbed my walkie telling him I would be out for awhile. I called the radio room and told them I could be reached on channel 4 and would be out and about. I got them all loaded in two cars with one of his men driving one and me driving the lead car. I filled him in on what I had seen and what I thought was the setup and he just shook his head before saying anything.

"Damn Harry, your gut feelings are still saving your life like they used to do for all of us in Nam. If what you think is true, then we are in for a long night trying to figure out what kind of booby traps are set like that. For some reason they don't sound like pressure release to me. I ran up against something like this five years ago and it cost me two men before we got it figured out. The guy that used to set these up is dead but he never kept a list of how many he did for private individuals. I know he did several hundred before he died. He was a disposal expert for Aberdeen Proving Ground for twenty years. He was one of the best and I don't think he has ever been beaten for his ingenuity over the years. I hope for all our sakes this isn't one of his setups.

We pulled up at the house and Bob met us as we got out of the cars. I told him to stay put and not to let anyone in unless he cleared it with me first. We went on in and I took them to the basement where they laid eyes on the pot plants.

"Hey sheriff, if we disarm this, can we have some of these buds for our fee? Man, that is some huge home grown. Look at those buds, they are dripping with resin. Betcha they would make you float above the floor after a joint or two."

"Yeah, or make you stupid enough to think you were Peter Pan and could fly, you idiot."

I had heard this type of banter before from close knit teams and didn't pay any attention to it. I opened the door and had Preacher lie down and look at the tiles and how they zig zagged and were depressed just a hair from the others. He got back up on his feet and said it was a Harness set up for sure. He wanted to roll a bowling ball down the hallway and just set them off but I put the kibosh to that idea. I flat told him that wasn't an acceptable option as I wanted to search the house at the end of the hallway.

I asked if he had a can of black spray paint I could use?

"What the hell you got in mind, Stinger?"

"It's Harry now, Preacher."

"I don't care what your men call you but to me you will always be Stinger. Now, what you got on your mind?"

"I am going to mark the safe tiles as I go down the hallway. I can memorize their pattern and mark around the pressure tiles as I go. I want a look in that house before we take a chance and blow it up using your bowling ball method. I will take the chance I can negotiate through them without stepping on one of the triggers. I suggest you move your men back until I see if I can make it through."

"Stinger, you're nuts, you know that? Shit, if your going to do this, at least take one of my portable sniffers with you."

"I think I will stick with the can of paint and my gut Preacher. Keep your men back in the basement away from the door."

I lay down on my stomach and looked at the tiles that were depressed and then counted the tiles and then recounted the depressed ones. I closed my eyes and memorized the pattern of the depressed ones and how many there were and how they criss-crossed between each other. I spent almost a half hour doing this before I stood up. I heard Preacher pull his men back and then the almost silent good luck Stinger.

I stepped on the first solid one I had memorized and then leaned down and felt for the depressed one and marked it with an X with the paint. It took me almost an hour to go halfway down the hallway. I ran into two of the depressed tiles side by side and felt in front of the two and there were two more on the right side of the two center ones. I marked all of them with an X and stepped over to the single solid one in the group. I stood on it and felt ahead and ran into the same pattern again, but the forward two were on the left this time. I marked them and moved up to the only solid one again and felt the floor and there was one directly in the center. I marked it and then I didn't find any for about four feet and then there were two together side by side. I marked them both and then didn't find any more until I got to the door at the end of the hallway and there was one right directly where you would step to turn the door knob to open the door. This was the last one in the hallway and I made sure to mark it with the X so it would be noticed. I checked the door for any booby traps but didn't find anything, so I twisted the knob and it turned easily.

I opened the door and the smell immediately made me almost gag. I had smelled this before and knew what it was. Rotting human corpses and from the smell, many of them in various stages of decomposition. I closed the door and went back down the hallway to the basement where I found the team sitting around waiting to see what would happen if I screwed up.

"Preacher, I marked all the trigger tiles with an X. Can you and your men disarm them?"

"I don't know, Stinger. All we can do is try."

"I have I don't know how many rotting corpses in that house that are going to have to be identified and removed. I need those things disarmed so I can have a cadaver team in full hazmat suits go in and get them out. Preacher you know the drill and what has to be done. Try to disarm them, will you?"

"Ok Stinger, I will try but it scares the hell out of me to even have to touch those tiles."

"Tell you what Preacher, I will do the first one and see how it's set up and then we can decide if we want to go any further."