“You think?” Levy’s tone dripped with sarcasm. “You’re all nuts to believe I could be involved in this.”
“We’re operating out of an abundance of caution,” Raine said as she, Justin, Kendra, and Griff came inside. Smoky and Stone chased each other around the living room until Justin and Kendra called to their respective dogs.
Both K9s obediently returned to the kitchen and crawled under the table.
Levy stood off to the side, his arms crossed over his chest, his expression unamused. “I demand you return my weapon. Immediately.”
“Let’s talk first,” Dom suggested. “Give me one good reason why we should trust you?”
“I’m a US Marshal!” Levy shouted the words. “We protect witnesses, we don’t shoot at them.”
“My former boss wasn’t exactly an upstanding example of a US Marshal,” Raine drawled. “Anyone can be sucked in by easy money.”
“Not me.” Levy scowled. “I don’t do this for the money. I do it because I care about putting bad guys behind bars. Which is much easier to do if you can convince citizens to testify against them in exchange for a new identity.”
Dom glanced at Raine and Griff. Their expressions didn’t give much away. Yet he was starting to wonder if they’d gotten this wrong.
That Andrew Levy wasn’t their shooter.
“Let’s all have a seat,” Griff suggested. “We’ll return your weapon as soon as we clear up a few things.”
“Starting with how long have you been in Cody?” Dom asked. “And how did you know that’s where we were?”
Levy stood for a moment, then sank into one of the kitchen chairs. There were only four seats, so Justin and Griff remained standing. “I’ve been in touch with the Cody police department. I learned there were several shooting attempts here in town. The sergeant said he didn’t know if you were around, but I figured the shooting had to be related to you, so I headed here.”
“How exactly?” Dom pressed. “You drove? You flew? Where was your starting point?”
“I drove from Denver. Took me a solid nine hours because of the snow.” Levy narrowed his gaze. “Do you understand how rare it is for us to lose a witness? Those who are part of the program rarely end up getting found and killed. And those who are found typically have broken the rules in some way.”
“You’re saying my father broke the rules?” Dom shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Levy leaned forward. “Your father learned to fly small planes prior to his being placed into WITSEC and being relocated to Montana. When your dad arrived in Billings, he worked for the power company for the first few years. Then he met the owner of the charter company. When the old man died, he passed the plane on to your father.”
Dom stared at the marshal, his thoughts whirling. He had vague memories of being with a babysitter while his dad worked. He’d just assumed his father had always been a charter pilot. But if Levy was right, then his dad had given up his job to take over the charter business.
“Hard to believe Gunther’s men figured out that Gary Lakeland was an alias for whatever his real name was,” Kendra protested. “They knew him as an accountant, not a pilot. How would they know?”
Levy waved a hand. “Gary Lakeland’s real name was Gregory Lamb. And Gregory Lamb had a pilot’s license. He was also a Certified Public Accountant. Both licenses are easily found online. And when Gary Lakeland obtained a new pilot’s license under his fake name, I assume someone put two and two together to come up with four.”
“How?” Dom demanded.
“We often use the same initials when relocating witnesses so it’s easier to become accustomed to their new name,” Levy explained patiently. “Your father was a very smart man. Like brilliant. However, thinking he could go back to being a charter pilot despite being told he needed to cut ties with everything he’d done before was a massive mistake that ended up getting him killed.”
Dom wanted to rant, rave, or curse. Instead, he bit his tongue. Maybe Levy was right in that his father’s taking on the role of being a charter pilot after having a pilot’s license in the past had gotten him killed. There was nothing he could do about that now.
The present was a much bigger concern. Obviously, he wanted to know who paid Stuart Ramsey to kill his father. But more than that, he wanted to know who was shooting at them now. And it made sense that it must go back to the same man who had hired Stuart Ramsey to sabotage his father’s plane.
“Tell me more about these shooting attempts,” Levy said. “Why on earth would you assume I’m involved?”
“Because we kept getting found, despite my efforts to hide our internet connections.” Dom eyed Levy. “You have the resources to track our disposable phones.”
“I do, yes. But I didn’t do that.” Levy sighed. “I haven’t taken any shots at you. I have no reason to want you dead. Any protectee death is taken very seriously by our program. Losing your father is a stain on our record.”
Dom glanced at Raine and Griff. Their expressions didn’t reveal their thoughts, and he couldn’t help being frustrated.
“What do you think? Can we trust him?” Dom asked.
“His weapon doesn’t smell like it’s been fired recently.” Kendra pushed the gun toward Griff. “We can search his car, see if that reveals any new information.”
