Chapter One
When they got backto Maudie’s, Shay had King and Teige secure the prisoners in one of Maudie’s metal sheds and they made sure they couldn’t escape.
Everyone had gathered in the kitchen.
Shay sat down and stared at Mindy.“What do you know of Soleman’s son and this insane girlfriend he has?”
Mindy swallowed hard then looked at him and replied, “His son Salvador Porter spent the first ten years with his mother.If you thought he was loco she was even worse.Salvador might have thought his dad would save him but he didn’t.He began training him every day.I was five years old when he was brought to the home farm.I thought he was scared then I learned that he’d been brought there against his will.That Soleman didn’t know about him until recently.My grandfather was at our house talking to my dad about the leadership and Chester was mad as hell because he always thought Soleman would pass the leadership down to his council if anything ever happened to him.Chester was doing his best to get on that council but he never could.He said at the time that he might never get there now that Soleman had his own blood with him.And that’s very true, Chester would never get to Soleman’s inner circle.Salvador Porter grew up brainwashed by his father’s vision of greatness due to violence.His soul died under his father’s harsh training.He treated that boy terrible but no one could say anything about it.They didn’t dare.Then his father introduced Salvador to a woman just as bad if not worse than himself.Louise Matteo.She grew up wild and her father trained her in weaponry.Her father was a cousin to Soleman, second cousin maybe?”She frowned.“It's kind of messed up that Louise and Salvador are together, you know?I mean they are distant cousins somehow or another.”
Shay shook his head.“We have to find them and stop them.How the hell do we do that?We don’t even know what their agenda is?”
“Better question is who would Soleman discuss his plans with?”Teige put his two cents in.“His inner circle?”
Shay looked at Mindy again.“What do you think?Would he tell his inner circle his plans?”
Mindy paused, then she raised her head and shook it.“No, I don’t think he would even tell them.The only person he might have shared his plans with would be Salvador and that crazy man just blew up three buildings in three separate states.”
Tannin frowned.“Brother...”He looked at Teige.“When we brought Soleman’s body back, me and Colt went through his pockets.We put everything we found in one of those baggies in Maudie’s kitchen.There could be something in there about what his kid is up to, something that might tell us something, don’tcha think?”He shrugged.“Maybe he’ll even have a list of cities and what buildings he thinks he’s gonna bomb.
King rubbed his face in exhaustion as he felt stupid.He should have known the boys would do that.“Yeah Tannin, maybe we should have had a look at what Soleman had in his pockets.”
Tannin just shrugged then got up.He walked over to the counter where he picked up a baggie and walked back to the table throwing the baggie on the table.The baggie broke open spilling its contents all over the table.
King frowned then reached out and picked up a small notebook that landed almost right in front of him.He opened it and began thumbing through the carefully written pages.He paused at the end of the book then he turned it sideways and studied the last page.Then he looked up at Shay and asked, “Where did those bombs go off anyway?”
Shay then looked down at his phone.“Chicago, New York City and Kansas City.”
King turned the book to Shay and showed him a small map taped onto the last pages of the notebook.It was a small map of the United States with red dots all over the nation.
Shay glanced at the red dots and sucked in his breath.There were red dots in Chicago, New York City and Kansas City.“What the hell?”Shay grabbed the book from King and studied the map.All total there were two dozen red dots but now they knew where to start looking.Then he looked up at the others and asked, “I wonder who they got to build the bombs other than Dale Bailey?”
Mindy scoffed.“Anyone that ever knew Soleman Porter would know he always had a backup plan.They would also know that Soleman never paid what he said he would pay.He engaged Dale but he never expected him to build those bombs nor did he expect to have to pay him.He would accept anything Dale might have had ready for him but he knew the type of man Dale was.”She nodded at the book in his hand.“You might find another name in that book, but more importantly you might find his real reason behind the bombings.Soleman always had more on his agenda than he ever told anyone, even his own council.”
Shay studied her then commented, “He sounds like he never trusted anyone he considered a friend.”
Mindy stared at him.“Because he never did.I used to watch him and I could see him growing more paranoid every year.I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he didn’t even trust his own son.I think something happened about three years ago, something that shook him deeply.I mean he’s always been unstable but in the last three years that’s grown to a deep paranoia.”
Shay stared at her.“Any idea why that might be?”
Mindy shook her head.“Not really.Soleman never mentioned anything that happened behind his own walls.”Then she paused and a look of shock came over her face.She glanced at Jordy then back at Shay.“But I think that was about the same time Salvador found his girlfriend.”
Shay kept his gaze on her and asked, “What does the fact that Salvador having a girlfriend have to do with anything?”
She trembled a bit as she whispered, “Have you ever heard of Lester Diamond?”
Shay halted as he looked a bit spooked.“What does he have to do with this?”
King turned and asked him, “You know this name?”
“Oh yeah, I know that name,” Shay admitted.“I put him in prison fifteen years ago when he blew up a dam and flooded a valley in Montana.That flood killed twenty-three people and wiped an entire town out.And when we tracked him down and asked him why he did it, do you know what he told us?He said he loved the panic and said he laughed as the people scattered.He didn’t care that people died, he got off on the panic he caused.”Shay shook his head.Then he paused and glared at her.“How do you know that name anyway?”
Mindy swallowed hard and explained it, “Three years ago, Salvador brought a woman home with him and her name was Louise Matteo.They lived in Soleman’s house but she’s even more crazy than Soleman ever was.I thought I heard once that Matteos wasn’t her real last name and my grandfather talked about the name Lester Diamond.I heard him speaking to another member of Soleman’s council and he only said that name was whispered in the shadows.I mean even he seemed afraid of the man.If Lester really is Louise’s dad wouldn’t she know how to build a bomb too?”
Shay nodded at her.“I don’t doubt it but let’s check on our end first before we label her unnecessarily.”He reached for his phone and made a call.
King looked over at Mindy and asked, “What else do you know about this Louise person?”
Mindy shrugged.“I know that when she came, things changed.Salvador seemed more confident and Soleman became more rigid.He changed and began looking over his shoulder all the time.The longer she was there the more paranoid he got.It was almost like he was afraid of her but he would never say a bad word about her either.And Salvador?He began getting more confident and meaner.She wasn’t very nice but of course we couldn’t say anything bad about her.If we did, Soleman’s fist got tighter and he had a hard grip on them already.”
