Burning Truth (Lost and Found Columbus #3)

Chapter 19

19

I t took everything in Severn to walk away from Addie and her tear-filled eyes. The way she looked at him, and the way she touched him, twisted him in knots.

And she said she’d loved him. What the fuck? He’d never had a woman tell him that. Internally, he shook his head. He needed to get his head in the game.

Detective Johnson would coordinate their activity from the station, and she promised she would keep an eye on Addie. Dan was going to stay there, too. They were on a timeline, though, and he had to move. They were banking on the storage space being Russell’s base of operations.

“Gabbie, are you still there?” he said as he ran down the stairs, too impatient to wait for the elevator he’d come up on.

“Yeah, boss.” Her voice was strong in the earpiece.

“In amongst everything else you’re doing, maybe you can keep a bit of an eye on Addie.”

“Will do, boss.”

Severn jogged to his truck and pulled into traffic, heading to the address Gabbie had found them.

Russell really was delusional, but he was also sane enough to be dangerous. It was hard to tell where he’d gained the training to build the explosive devices he’d been using. Could have been anywhere. It was a little scary what you could find on Youtube and other platforms.

When he arrived at the brightly colored ‘Secure Rental Center’, it was easy enough to find the bomb squad. Their big black trucks were lined down one aisle, and there was yellow emergency tape surrounding a distant row of buildings. There was also a row of police cars and even a forensic van. A young cop waved at him.

“Are you Mr. Moran? They’re waiting for you.”

Severn jogged down the aisle, stopping at the back of the first truck. Lieutenant George was there, a grizzled veteran of the PD that Severn had known for a couple of years. George was sitting in the swivel chair in the back of the van, operating a remote control device, and he and his three men were watching a small screen on the wall of the truck. The robot the device controlled was rolling into the storage room.

“Moran. Just in time. We just opened the overhead door.”

Severn stepped up onto the step, and watched. Inside the storage space, there were boxes crowded along one wall. Along the second wall there looked to be a worktable with a stool in front of it. And along the back wall, there was a map.

“Surely he didn’t map out all his IEDs and fires,” Severn laughed incredulously. “Did he seriously make it that easy?”

The robot pivoted and George zoomed in. “No, doesn’t look like all of them. There are a few we weren’t aware of, though.”

The robot continued to pivot, and they saw a table with four cell-phones on the surface. They were all plugged into a power strip.

“He’s very adamant that he get his cell phone within the next hour,” Severn said thoughtfully.

“That’s a very bad idea,” Lieutenant George growled, stepping down out of the truck. He handed the remote to one of his guys. “Of course he wants the phone, so he can trigger these.”

“I need to go in and look at them closer,” Severn said.

George nodded. “Yeah, we’re all going in. Sergeant, get him the spare suit.”

Severn recognized the sergeant from the van IED yesterday. He handed Severn an insulated, bomb proof suit. It wasn’t actually bomb proof, but bomb resistant. It was better than nothing. Severn pulled the heavy suit on and fastened the velcro straps, feeling like he was back in the Navy.

By the time the group arrived, the robot had placed two small boxes of explosive material into the containment vessel, a big, round, metal ball with 12 inch walls that would contain the explosion if something happened.

“More C4,” Severn asked, and George nodded.

They entered the space carefully. Theoretically, the robot should have triggered any booby-traps or other defenses, if there were any. Severn expected some kind of defense, but there was nothing. Severn walked to the map, looking at all the red-head pins stuck into the paper. Removing his gloves, he snapped a picture for Gabbie, then stored his phone.

“He’s been doing this a while.”

Severn looked at the phones next. They were all the same make and model of cell phone, not new, but a tried brand. He tapped the screen on one phone with one finger. A timer popped up at the bottom of the screen.

An hour and ten minutes, counting down. Severn looked at Lieutenant George. “I think he needs his cell phone to reset the timers. If he doesn’t, the signal triggers the IED, wherever it is.”

He tapped the screens on all four phones. They all had a different amount of time left on the timer. One phone only had forty-five minutes on it. Very carefully, Severn picked the phone up. On the back was a set of initials written with black marker on white masking tape. PA. Police Academy? The second phone had 19 on it, the third said CDS, and the fourth read Finale.

“CDS is probably the Charles D. Shipley building, where he works,” Lieutenant George said.

“Agreed,” Severn murmured, his mind racing.

He’d seen and dealt with many IEDs remotely triggered by cell phones. He’d never encountered a situation where those phones were on a timer.

“Gabbie, have you been following?”

“Yes, sir. Both the police academy and the Shipley building are being evacuated now. Johnson has put all police department substations on alert.”

“Okay. 19 and the Finale. How many substations does Columbus have?”

“Twenty,” Gabbie said. He heard clattering as her fingers flew over the keys. “And that station is probably the one that served the warrant and arrested him.”

Okay, so they knew three of the locations. Finale. Would that be his final IED?

What would be the most devastating place to attack?

Central Headquarters, definitely. The team bounced ideas around, but nothing else popped out at them. It had to be Central. Thoughts raced through his mind. If Russell gave them the login to his phone, Severn could probably figure out which numbers these were, but he had no idea how to reset the timers. And Russell was just as likely to set them off if they handed him his phone.

They needed to find the devices and dismantle them. That would negate the whole phone issue.

Knowing they were running out of time, Severn left the storage building to make a call. Addie answered on the first ring. He told her what they’d found, and the initials on the backs of the phones.

“Did he give you the impression he was willing to die?”

There was a moment of silence on the line. “Not really. He seemed excited. He’s still in the interrogation room, but he’s very subtly watching the clock. He did say it didn’t matter what the charges were.”

“Hm. Lieutenant George has teams going to three locations. But this last phone says Finale. That’s why I was asking if he’d said something. I can see him going out in a blaze of glory, if you know what I mean. And I worry that he would want to take you with him.”

She hesitated for a long moment. “That was the first thought in my mind when you told me what it said. Would he know where they would take him if he got arrested? Any chance he got arrested on purpose?”

Severn pursed his lips. “Well, most of the detectives have their offices in one place. Central, where you are now.”

“Oh,” Addie breathed softly. “It would kind of make sense. I mean, he’s so anti-cop, and this is cop central, literally. How much time is on that phone?”

Severn glanced at it. “‘Finale’ has forty-five minutes.”

“I have a team there now,” Lieutenant George said. “They’ll find the device.”

“Did you hear that, Addie?”

“I did,” she said softly. “If I leave, he’ll know something is up. Not that he can do anything about it.”

“Hang out with Johnson for a little while. I’m on my way there.”

She took a quivering breath, and he knew she had to be terrified.

“Hey, you’re going to be okay,” he told her. He made a motion to George, who waved him off. Severn ran back to his truck, and navigated through the downtown streets. “Tell me what you want to do when this is all over, Addie. What are your dreams?”

She snorted a laugh. “Well, it was very nice pretending to be your significant other. Maybe when this is all over, we can not pretend. Maybe go to dinner or a movie. Normal people stuff. Without worrying about the city burning.”

“I’m totally on board with that, Addie,” he said, and he meant it. There was a fear in his heart right now that he wasn’t used to. The thought of Addie being in danger scared the hell out of him.

“Should I get Eric here to film? Johnson says it might make him showboat and give up some information.”

He hated the thought of her sitting across from that monster again, especially without him there as backup. But he hated the thought of her being dead even more. “If you think it will work,” he said finally. “But Addie?”

“Yes,” she said.

“If it gets down to the last ten minutes, I want you out of that building. Do you understand me? If you don’t hear anything from me by…” he glanced at the time on his phone. “Three thirty-five. If nothing happens by then, I want you out of there. Do you understand me?”

The thought of her dying in a fire made him physically ill, but he also knew he would walk into that fire to bring her out. The thought was startling, but he knew he loved her that much to do it.

He shook his head at the thought of love. Seriously? Yes, he was hooked on her. He thought about her constantly, and he wanted to touch her all the time, but did that equate to love?

“I hear the worry in your voice, Severn. And I will do that. I swear to you. But you listen to me, now. I love you. I don’t want you walking into danger just because you think you’re bulletproof.”

Severn turned onto East High and accelerated. “I hear you, Addie. I know I’m not bulletproof. I’ll really try not to get dead today.”

She snorted softly. “Right…”

It was hard to hang up, but he needed to concentrate. Lieutenant George was calling the Chief to get him approval to join the search. In his gut, he felt like the IED at Central would be the biggest, because Russell would want to do as much damage as he could to the people he hated the most. And if his timeline played out, he would do the broadcast for everyone to see. And Severn didn’t doubt that he would take responsibility for all of the arsons. Because he wanted that notoriety. He’d never gotten it anywhere else in life, but he would get it in death.

Severn pulled up street-side and managed to find a place to park, then he ran inside. The cop at the reception desk nodded as soon as he came in and handed him a visitor’s pass. Someone must have called them and described him, because he hadn’t even supplied his name.

“The bomb squad is in the basement, sir. Just take that elevator.”

The helpful officer nodded her chin toward the bank of elevators to the right, and he headed that way. Anxiety churned in his gut as he waited for the elevator to drop him to the basement. This could all be a wild goose chase. What if the finale was some other place that had offended Russell? They were just running on guesses right now.

He called Johnson. “Has anybody confirmed that he actually toured Central? Or do we have any footage of him in the building?”

“No and not yet, but I have a team on it. It may have been something more casual. The Chief of Police has been known to host people up in his office. It may have been something like that.”

“There should still be footage, though,” he argued. “We have to find something that confirms he was here.”

“I get it, Moran, but the chief wants to evacuate the building, just to be on the safe side.”

“If you can do it without Russell knowing what’s going on, I have no problem with it. I just don’t want to give him that satisfaction.”

“I get it. I’ll see what I can do. And just FYI, your woman is going in again.”

His heart stalled in his chest. “You’d better damn well watch her, Johnson.”

“I will,” she promised, and they hung up.

The elevator doors opened, and another officer he didn’t know waved him down a hallway. “I’m supposed to lead you to the group,” he said, and started walking.

Severn didn’t like being led, and he only tolerated it because he needed to know where they’d already searched. The building was a massive structure, and it would take them time. If Russell wanted to do the most damage, he would probably go to the structure supports to try to take the entire building down, which meant down low. Or he could go for the big wigs up top. Hell, he wasn’t even sure this was the target. It could be the courthouse where the warrant was processed, it could be the Hardees where cops had lunch. He had no insight into Russell’s psychotic brain, but he had to go on what the guy had done before.

He glanced at the time on his phone and broke into a jog to get the cop to move faster.