[MD3, 12:07PM, Richardson’s kitchen]
>Newt was lifted a short distance off the floor and struggled
>to speak. "I need .. you .. to .. cooperate, Sir."
>
>"Put him down, Mr. Richardson." Newt recognized the
>voice of his team leader and was relieved he wasn't alone
>now.
>
>"Please Sterling," his wife whimpered. "For Logon .."
>
>Newt felt the man relax and then felt his feet touch the
>ground. He straightened and brushed off his jacket,
>turning to look at Kate. She was staring down Sterling
>Richardson. "I think you'd better answer Agent Prescott's
>questions, Mr. Richardson. Or we my have to charge you
>with hindering an FBI investigation."
Richardson’s glare managed to take in both Kate and Newt, although they were on opposite sides of the room. There was something else behind the expression on his face, though - he was cornered, and he knew it, and also maybe just a bit confused.
Kate sighed dramatically. "We could add assaulting a federal agent. Possibly kidnapping when this thing blows open." She shrugged. "Hell, who knows how long the list of charges could get."
"Sterling?" Mrs. Richardson inched toward her husband, as if she didn’t know whether to run to him or to run away from him. Given his possible involvement in the disappearance of their son, it was an understandable dilemma.
"Get out of here, Jesse," Richardson mumbled.
"I think she might want to hear what you have to say, Mr. Richardson," Kate said. She nodded to Newt to proceed.
"Is it true," Mrs. Richardson said suddenly, practically lunging at Newt. "Did you really see Logan? Is he all right?"
With that distraction, Kate could see the idea of escape cross Richardson’s mind, but she was blocking the doorway. In the couple of seconds he took to size her up - and she had the feeling that he was about to make the very bad mistake of underestimating her - Newt was already well on the way to calming Mrs. Richardson down and guiding her to a seat at the kitchen table, and the opportunity was lost.
"We have every reason to believe that he’s just fine, Ma’am," Newt was saying.
"For the moment," Kate added. Of course, that did nothing to help calm the boy’s mother, but Kate had a feeling that a little good cop/bad cop act might work on Mr. Richardson. "But considering what was done to the dog we found… I wonder how a child’s body would react to that kind of experimentation." She looked Richardson in the eye. "What do you think?"
"Who was the man you picked up on Old River Road, Mr. Richardson," Newt asked before Richardson had had a chance to reply to Kate’s question.
"I have no idea," Richardson said. "I saw him out there, and thought he might have had car trouble or something. So I stopped."
"If that’s true, then you have nothing to hide," Newt said.
"That’s right."
"Then why did you assault Agent Prescott?"
"If you know something, tell them, Sterling," Mrs. Richardson pleaded. "For Logan’s sake." Something occurred to her and her eyes opened very wide. "Does this have anything to do…"
"Shut up, woman," Richardson said and took an ominous step toward his wife. Newt immediately stepped in front of Mrs. Richardson, but it looked to Kate like that wasn’t going to be enough to stop him.
"Mr. Richardson," Kate warned. Richardson turned to look at her with the expression of a cornered animal. When he started toward her, Kate met his approach with an uppercut to the jaw that sent Richardson sprawling on the kitchen floor.
Mrs. Richardson leapt out of her chair, but Newt held her back.
"He’ll be fine," Kate said to her. "He’s just unconscious."
"What were you saying, Mrs. Richardson," Newt asked. "Did you remember something?"
"Well, yes. I mean, I think so. A few months ago, Sterling had a meeting here. He sent Logan and I into town, but we came back early because Logan was sick. I don’t know what they were talking about, but Sterling was very upset that we’d come back."
"Did you recognize anyone who was at that meeting," Newt asked.
Mrs. Richardson nodded and glanced down at her husband. "They’re his business associates. I don’t know any of their names. He never tells me anything like that. Sheriff Kastenbach was there, too."
*****
[12:20PM, in the car]
Newt and Kate sat in the car at the end of the Richardson’s long driveway on the pretext of waiting for Richardson to make some kind of move. Actually, Kate was staring out the window that the trees, trying to figure out exactly what their next move should be and what the evidence they had so far added up to.
"I can’t believe Sheriff Bob is involved," Newt said. "Or that Richardson would cover up the kidnapping of his own son."
"Not a very pretty picture, is it," Kate said.
"No, it’s not. Maybe the lab’ll come up with something from the substance in the dog’s blood."
"Maybe. Dinah said she’d drop it off as soon as she got back to DC. If we’re lucky, we might get some preliminary results by tonight."
"Something tells me we’re not going to like whatever they come up with."
Kate laughed. "I can’t think of much to like about this case at all. At least the scenery’s…" As she was looking out the side of the car, she suddenly noticed a cloud of smoke over the treeline and slammed the car into drive, hitting the accelerator as she did.
*****
[12:27PM, Old River Road]
"911 isn’t answering," Newt said, staring at his cell phone in disbelief. "How can 911 not be answering? Unless the sheriff was expecting the fire."
"There’s their car," Kate said. She hit the brakes and brought the vehicle to a stop behind Flynn and Sharlyn’s car, just as Flynn and Sharlyn made their way out of the woods, a little bit wet but otherwise apparently unharmed. Kate jumped out of the car and ran to meet them with Newt close behind. Only once she was out of the car did she realize how thick the smoke was, even at this distance. "Everyone okay?"
Flynn grinned. "Alive and unharmed, no thanks to the mad fire-bomber. The fire’s a bad one. We made it through to a stream, but the flames are spreading fast."
Kate turned to Newt. "See if you can get through to the park service. Let’s get out of here before it spreads to the road. Head back to the cabins. They should be safe for a while."
*****
[12:40PM, World’s End State Park]
As soon as the two cars pulled to a stop in the gravel parking area, Newt leapt out and went to tell the others what he’d already told Kate. "Local park service isn’t answering."
"Neither’s 911," Sharlyn said.
Newt nodded. "I know. I did get through to the state park service headquarters. They said they’d find out what’s going on."
"They’d let the whole damned park burn just to cover this up," Kate muttered.
"They were willing to sacrifice a whole planeload of passengers to keep us from investigating in the first place," Sharlyn said. "What’s a park after that?"
Kate nodded. She had a point. Still, this felt somehow a bit more diabolical, perhaps just because there was nothing they could do about it except wait for Harrisburg either to get through to the locals or get their own people up here.
Flynn was pointing at the cabins. "Hey, Newt. Isn’t that your suitcase?"
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