Coil knocked on the door of the Alamo Suite and waited for someone to answer the door. Hank could feel eyes on them on the other side of the peephole. The door opened a crack, but the deadbolt was on. Gayle stood on the other side. Of all his sisters, she was the most ornery.
“What do y’all want?” she asked.
“I need to ask you all some more questions, and I need to collect Hazel’s gun. I should have done it earlier, but things got hectic.”
“You hear that, Hazel,” she called back over her shoulder. “They’re here to take your gun.”
“Over my dead body,” Hazel called back from the other room.
“You heard her,” Gayle said, shrugging, and she tried to shut the door, but Coil’s foot kept it from closing.
“I wasn’t making a request,” Coil said. “I will speak with each of you and I will take that gun. We can do it the easy way or the hard way. It’s up to you. I suggest you let me in, and we can do this in the comfort of your own room.”
Gayle narrowed her eyes at Coil, and then she turned her glare on Hank. “This is your doing, isn’t it? You think to get back at us, so you have your cop buddies roust us?”
Hank was grinding his teeth so hard he was surprised they hadn’t turned to dust, but he stayed quiet and let Coil take the lead.
“Come on in, I guess,” Gayle said. “We’ve already told you everything we know.”
“You never know,” Coil said, following her into a ridiculously large room where the five sisters had been watching a marathon of The Bachelor.
Hank took a seat in a hard wooden dining chair out of the way, and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He put it on the table and then sat back to observe.
“Do you want something to drink?” Betty asked, coming up to him and whispering like she might get in trouble if the others found out she was being hospitable.
“Water if you have it,” Hank said. “Thanks, Betty.”
She smiled dreamily and went to get a couple of waters from the stocked refrigerator in the kitchen.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard,” Hank said, “but there was an explosion at the morgue earlier today. Right after we parted company at the funeral home, as a matter of fact.”
“You blaming us for something?” Patsy asked. “’Cause I’ll call our lawyer if we need to.”
“I’m not blaming you,” he said. “I’m trying to tell you how lucky you are to be alive. The bomb was inside the body you rolled over and then transported into Rusty Gun. It could’ve gone off at any time.”
Five identical looks of shock came over their faces, and then they all started talking at once. Hank took his water and stood. He was too restless to sit still.
Betty came up beside him again. “Is that true?” she asked.
He nodded, and she burst into tears before throwing her arms around him. It took him by surprise. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d hugged one of his sisters.
“We’ve got three dead for sure,” Coil said, “including one of my officers.”
“Oh, no,” Patsy said, placing her hand over her heart. “End of watch. Rest in peace, brother.”
“I need details,” Coil said. “Do any of you remember a partial license plate? Were they all carrying the same kind of gun? Had you noticed them on the road before? Maybe at a gas station or a stop light. Did any of them look familiar? How old do you think they were?”
“Okay, okay,” Hazel said. “We get the point.”
They asked questions and tried to jog their memories for almost two hours, but they got very little new information. All they knew for certain was they were white males between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five, which also fit in with the profile of them being ex-military.
Coil blew out a breath and he and Hank shared a look. “Okay, ladies,” Coil said. “We appreciate your help.” Then he looked at Hazel. “I still need the gun so we can run ballistics in case a body turns up. Is it registered?”
“Of course it’s registered,” she said. “My husband gave me that gun for our twentieth anniversary. It wasn’t so heavy back then.”
Hank heard a phone buzzing and looked around to see where it was coming from. He’d completely forgotten he’d left his phone on the table, and the call was coming for him. He picked it up and saw Springer’s name on the screen, as well as several missed calls from Agatha. He furrowed his brow and answered the phone.
“Springer,” Hank said. “What’s going on?”
“I got a hit on the financials,” he said. “It looks like the bank had started foreclosure proceedings against the funeral home about three years ago. That’s when Brad took over after his father died.”
“Was it failing before?”
“Nope. It was flush with cash, but once Brad got his hands on it, the place fell apart. He had plenty of business, but he has a spending problem. Then about a year ago he started getting an influx of extra income.”
“Can you tell where it’s coming from?”
“I did some digging, and the ACH deposits led me to a children’s non-profit. Of course, after doing a little digging it turns out it’s not real. I’m still digging, but the deeper I go the more walls I hit. I’m going to need search warrants, but they’re going to fight us on them. Big companies don’t like people poking into their business.”
“You’re right. Big companies don’t give up client data without a fight. Especially corrupt ones,” Hank said.
“Y’all coming back to the office?”
“Probably so. Coil is wrapping things up now, and it’ll be dark soon,” Hank replied. “Is Agatha nearby? I saw she tried to call.”
“Oh, I thought she might be with you. She took a break about an hour ago and never came back. She’s made good progress on the board. She just needed to clear her head. But I really thought she’d be back by now. Reports are piling up on her laptop.”
“She’s not here with us,” Hank said, the urge to call Agatha overwhelming. “Good work, Springer.” And then he disconnected and called Agatha back. It went straight to voicemail.
“Agatha called,” Coil said, holding up his phone.
“Yeah, I know,” Hank said.
Coil looked at Hank worriedly. “You think something is wrong?”
“Springer said she left for a break an hour ago and hasn’t come back. I’m sure she had to do something for the wedding. But her phone is going directly to voicemail.”
“She tried calling me several times,” Coil said. “I had it turned down so I could get through with your sisters. I didn’t realize we’d been going for so long.”
“Me either,” Hank said, scrolling back through his texts. Sure enough, Agatha had left him a message.
Hearse. 1001 Bison Road.
“Oh, no,” Hank said.
“What’s wrong?”
“What’s at 1001 Bison Road?”
Coil typed it into his GPS. “Looks like the old meatpacking plant. Why?”
“Looks like Agatha found a hearse.”
“Surely she wouldn’t go there by herself,” Coil said.