Wilson and Rogers slipped into the pool room and flattened their backs against the wall beside the door, out of sight.
Burke and Tessman waited, listening. From their vantage point, they could catch glimpses within the house, enough to see the four men still stood in the front room. And then all four men were gone from the room.
“Targets no longer in sight,” Burke transmitted. “Moving to the door.”
The two men ran in a crouched position up the few stairs to the raised front porch while keeping their eyes on the bay window. Through their comms, they heard nothing. Wherever in the house the four men went, it wasn’t to intercept Taco and Powder. They were still undetected.
Burke tried the doorknob. It was unlocked. “Breaching through the front into the vacant front room,” he transmitted before he pushed the door open.
It was eerily quiet inside the house. Burke stepped in, followed by Tessman. Right in front of the door and tiled entryway were stairs that led up. The open space to the right of the staircase was a hallway that ran deep into the house, dead-ending in an unknown room. They could see that the front room curved around to the left. Burke assumed that space had once been a formal dining room. There was probably an open space or a door into the kitchen from that room.
Loud male laughter echoed up from below. Movement caught Burke’s attention deep in the house at the end of the hallway. Wilson.
“Targets are in the basement. Stairs are back here,” Wilson whispered through comms. “Moe and Handsome, clear the second floor. We’ll wait to engage if possible.”
“Roger,” Burke whispered.
He and Tessman mounted the steps, quietly creeping up each carpeted stair. As they neared the top, they crouched low andlistened. They heard movement. Someone was up there. Burke crawled up the last few stairs, peering over the top step and into the hallway. There were four doors. They were all open. No movement was seen in any of the rooms. The room at the far end of the hallway was a bathroom. The door was half-closed, and the light was off.
The door on the left was the only door on that wall. The two other doors were across the hall. Burke guessed that the solo door was the door into the master bedroom, probably with a bathroom at the far end, closest to the other bathroom.
Given that this was Greenwalt’s house, Burke presumed the master bedroom would be his. He focused his gaze on the two doors that were side by side and listened intently for sounds of movement. Then he heard the unmistakable sound of a zipper coming from one of those two doorways.
He motioned to Tessman to go to the solo door. And Burke inched to the first doorway. He froze where he was for a moment after Tessman had entered the room through the solo door. Then he thrust himself into the room, his Glock held at the ready.
It was a bedroom. No one was within.
Burke slunk to the doorway into the other bedroom and paused as he glanced at the solo door. Tessman was still within. He heard a quiet, an almost whispered conversation coming from the room beside him. He couldn’t make out any words.
Once he saw Tessman in the doorway to the room across the hall, he motioned to the door beside him to alert him that their targets were inside. Tessman crossed the hall and took up a position, ready. The two men thrust themselves into the door where two young women sat on the bed. Seeing the two men suddenly appear in the doorway, both Elly Forsander and Zoe Reopelle screamed very loudly.
“Shh!” Burke warned as the two men moved farther into the room so their backs would not be to the door. “Federal agents. We’re not going to hurt you.”
Elly Forsander fumbled with her phone. Tessman ripped it from her hands. Both girls still screamed, Elly for her brothers and Zoe for Frisco and David.
On the first floor, Wilson and Rogers heard the men coming up the stairs from the basement due to their heavy footfalls on the wooden stairs as well as their voices. They remained where they were, hidden in the pool room. Just as the men passed their location, they heard the female screams from upstairs.
Both men propelled themselves into the hallway, weapons trained on the backs of the four men who ran towards the front of the house. “Freeze! Hands up! Federal agents!” Wilson and Rogers yelled, the words overlapping.
One of the men was at the turn into the hallway that ran to the front of the house. He ran out of sight. The three other men spun, facing Wilson and Rogers. Two of them reached for weapons. The third, after seeing the two armed men, dove towards the hallway to follow the fourth man.
“Drop them!” Wilson warned, staring down David Greenwalt and Edgar Forsander as they un-holstered their weapons.
“You have incoming!” Rogers yelled.
Tessman and Burke each grabbed hold of one of the girls and held them tightly as they made them stand, facing the door. Each man used one of the girls as a shield, his weapon held at the ready.
Francisco Oliveira ran into the room first. He was unarmed. He stopped two steps in and raised his hands. “Let them go! Don’t hurt them!”
“Frisco!” Zoe yelled.
“Federal agents!” Burke yelled. “On the ground, facedown.” When Oliveira hadn’t moved, he yelled, “Now! On the ground!”
As Oliveira dropped from behind him, they saw Roderick Forsander run up behind him. He stopped outside of the room and backed away and out of sight.
“Be smart, Forsander!” Tessman yelled. “Come in here and assume the position!”
On the first floor, Wilson disarmed Greenwalt, who was closest to him, knocking his weapon from his hand as he brought it into firing position. Then Wilson brought Greenwalt to the ground. He straddled him and pressed the barrel of his weapon into the immobilized man’s neck. “Freeze.”
