Karma: A Blayne Mitchell Novel

13

Chapter 13

It was late in the afternoon when I arrived back in Marysville. I was pretty sure that they knew that I knew who did it. That meant they would be prepared for me to return. I had a Glock, but that wasn't much in terms of arms, primarily compared to the fact that they had an estimated nine people with the same weaponry. Maybe seven, depending on if the perps joined the fray. So I calculated the odds. There was no doubt I was a better shot than any of them, but their sheer numbers meant I would probably get through only three before I was dead. Four, if I was lucky. But that statistic was based on if they were all grouped together and that I would be alone. I was also pretty sure that they would be holding down the Police Department, so that would help to spread them out better. I also had a potential ally.

I recalculated the odds. Two against nine, to be safe. One great shot and one mediocre shot. The enemy spread throughout a building. That raised our chances to six dead before we were shot. And that didn't mean dead, just shot. If the perps weren't involved and I decided to risk that two person fewer margin, then there was a decent chance at least one of us would survive. Actually quite favorable odds for this situation.

I made a last minute decision to turn left before reaching Marysville. If I was going to try, I was at least going to get properly armed. When driving to Seattle, I had seen a shabby looking gun shop. I stopped there. The place was closed, or so the sign read. I saw an employee inside. He looked up and pointed at the sign on the door. I shook my head and held up a thick wad of bills I had found inside the Porsche. The employee perked up and hurried to the door.

"What can I do for you sir?" He asked. I pointed to a matte black Ruger .308 Winchester with standard bolt-action and a matching black composite stock, that was resting on a shelf.

"However much that is, I'll give you two-thousand for that and two packs of nonlethal ammo for another five-hundred, and I was never here." I said.

"Three-thousand," the guy shot back. I nodded and handed him the wad of bills. He counted them with undisguised glee, nodded his head with a satisfied look, and took the Ruger off the shelf.

He handed it to me and smiled wickedly, and grabbed some non-lethal rounds out of the back storage room, "Pleasure doing business, sir."

"Pleasure's all mine," I smiled slyly back and left the gun shop with a nice bolt-action Winchester rifle and 32 non-lethal rounds. I loaded the gun with some of the non-lethals and tossed the equipment in the back seat.

It was a short drive before I passed the graffitied Welcome to Marysville sign again. I had to find my potential ally. If he was at least a little bit shrewd, than he would find a place I would know to look for. So that was where I started.

I drove a wide circle around the police station, just to be safe. There was a good chance sentries were watching for me to pass into town. I drove farther north, recalling the address that Dunphy had given me. 8228 49th Avenue, Angel's house. It took a lot of help from the tourist map and a lot of guess and check before I finally pulled into the driveway. Another cruiser was in the driveway, like I had hoped for. Dunphy's.

Andrew and Garrett had kicked him out of the station, and he hadn't the faintest idea why. And then the sequence of events struck him, and he suddenly knew exactly what I knew.

Andrew and Garrett were our perps.

Now, I will admit that I suspected Dunphy from the start, because of his rash arrogance, but when I was able to manipulate him so easily, I knew he wasn't involved.

Andrew was easy. The pieces had been there from the start. I knew exactly how the whole situation worked. Garrett had been more surprising.

Two years ago Andrew had been involved with the mortgage scam. He had hired a Private Investigator and had worked with Vance to convict the supposed scammers. Vance and Andrew had seemingly grown close during the investigation, hence the mentioning of a friend named Mr. McGrath who had worked with him on a job, the job being the mortgage scam. But the investigation was a whitewash, and Andrew grew bitter. His family died and he wanted revenge.