The Devil You Know by Chris Hauty

Author:Chris Hauty [Hauty, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Thrillers, Espionage, Suspense, Political
ISBN: 9781982175887
Google: 8Xu7EAAAQBAJ
Amazon: B0BHTN4VZD
Published: 2023-05-22T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

ANITA FISCHER MUST DIE

She headed west on Kahekili Highway, pushing the rental car to its engineered limits. The twisting two- sometimes one-lane road, with a nearly continuous sheer drop-off on her right side, was unsafe at speeds above twenty miles per hour. Hayley drove much of the route at nearly double that rate. Her luck held up until she was a half mile from Fischer’s gate, when Hayley rounded a hairpin turn and nearly collided with the rear end of a cargo van picking its way through the vertigo-inducing course.

Fuck! Get out of the way!

The van’s driver, lacking telepathic powers, continued to putter along at fifteen miles per hour and ignored one turnout and then a second.

Hayley flashed her lights without achieving the desired result. Swinging the Kia into the incoming lane, she sped even with the van as both vehicles approached yet another sharp curve. Clearing the turn, Hayley saw a compact pickup coming in the opposite direction and swung the rental car back into the right lane, the Kia’s rear bumper kissing the cargo van’s front end. The two other drivers laid angrily on their horns as Hayley sped into the next inevitable hairpin turn, tires squealing.

The turnoff for Fischer’s estate and the USMS vehicle posted there came within sight, less than two hundred feet away. Again, she felt a familiar tremor. Pausing in the middle of the road, Hayley retrieved her phone. Andrew Wilde.

“I’m at the house,” said Hayley without preamble, the words coming in a rush.

“Everyone checked out. All family members accounted for.”

“It’s a very tight-knit community, sir. Every man on the protection detail has a close connection with one or more of the missing kids.”

“We’re still running checks on service staff, Chill,” Wilde said dismissively.

“Would you bet the house on a house cleaner pulling a trigger on your target, sir? The deputy marshals are armed and trained.”

“Point taken.”

“Yes, sir. I’ve got to get down there.”

“Do that. Hold down the fort until the FBI team arrives on the island. I’ll text you their ETA.”

“Real FBI, sir?”

Hayley heard Wilde guffaw before he disconnected the call.

Seconds later, she pulled next to the SUV and lowered her window.

“Who’s down there?” she asked Malcolm Esposito.

“Shaw.”

The DUSM’s demeanor bristled with hostility. Hayley wondered again if the conspirators had compromised more than one of the deputies.

“Open the gate, please.”

“Sorry. Can’t do that.”

Esposito frowned as he spoke, hating the position his chief had put him in.

Fucking Shaw.

Hayley gripped the Kia’s steering wheel instead of reaching through the window and putting her fingers around Esposito’s neck.

“DC cleared me for your detail, deputy. Open the goddamn gate.”

In her impatience with the DUSM, some West Virginia had crept back into Hayley’s speech pattern. Made no difference, however. Esposito’s lower lip bulged. He shook his head and said nothing more.

Hayley popped her door open and strode across the open ground to the gate, daring the deputy marshals to shoot her in the back.

Watching her clamber over the barrier from their SUV, the two DUSMs mulled their response.

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