“They get along to a degree. Tristan is dominant and uses Chico,” she said, looking at the photos. “Tristan is older, so I didn’t go to school with him and don’t know that much about him.”
“Good enough,” he said. “Do you need to stay here?”
She sighed. “Most likely.” She looked up at him. “Are you leaving?”
“We found some stuff we want to sort through,” he said quietly.
She nodded. “Go on back to the bed-and-breakfast. I’ll come down in a little bit.”
With that, the two men turned, slipped through a side gate in the stone wall, and walked back to the bed-and-breakfast. Cain knew the cops would probably come after them pretty quick, looking for statements if nothing else, and he and Eton would be happy to provide them. The bottom line was that it was a pretty shitty time frame right now for added complications. Their first focus was on finding Bullard.
Cain and Eton walked through the front door to the bed-and-breakfast and headed straight to their rooms. They saw no sign of the older couple, which was a good thing, although Petra’s father still sat outside on the front porch. Upstairs in their rooms, they quickly opened up the envelopes and took photos of everything, sending it to their team. Then they sat down to diagnose what the hell they had found.
“This looks like a hit list,” Eton said of the piece of paper in his hand. “And Bullard’s name is on it.”
Immediately Cain rose, took one look, and whistled. “Well, this is the best connection we’ve found yet. So it appears Chico was essentially working for this Tristan guy? Acting at his bidding anyway. And what is Tristan’s deal? Is he the one who’s been hired out to take down Bullard’s team, or is he the one doing the hiring?” Remembering the little black book he’d stashed in his pocket, he pulled it out, skimming over its contents fast. Cain said, “I’m not sure if these are contacts, but there are names, dates, and places.”
“We’ll have to analyze all the content,” Eton said, holding out his hand.
Cain passed it over. “Money is listed too. So I’m worried that the list is a kill sheet.”
“In which case, it’s a good thing that Chico asshole is dead,” Eton muttered. He went through some of the names on the list, reading out a couple of them.
Cain didn’t recognize any of the names. He was busy working on the piece of paper in his hand that had Bullard’s name on it. He sent that off to his team, knowing that everybody would be working on it, including Ryland. As soon as Cain sent it, his phone buzzed with replies and answers from the rest of the team. But Cain wanted to make sure they all had copies of everything.
He sat down and placed one particular envelope on the bed and carefully went through it. It was a machinery list. Weapons that Chico had; weapons that he liked; weapons he would buy again. It was almost like a shopping list of what to get. Then Cain noted the tiny little marks on the side of some guns listed here, and he remembered seeing a couple of those in the closet.
“Looks like this is a list of his weapons cache,” Cain said, laying down the sheet of paper. “Most of this was not easily obtainable.”
“Somebody’s got contacts,” Eton replied. “Tristan maybe.”
“Apparently. I’m still frustrated as hell though.” He looked at the list that had Bullard’s name on it. The thing was, Bullard’s name was in the middle. “I wonder if this is a wishful-thinking dead list,” he muttered out loud. “And did you notice that nothing is checked off?”
“Right. So it’s almost like a possible assassination list,” Eton said.
“Regardless we’re not on it,” Cain said. “That’s weird.”
“No, but see that little mark beside Bullard’s name? I think it’s a plus sign, maybe signifying the team.”
“That could be,” Cain agreed. “What we need to do is figure out if everybody on this list above Bullard’s name has been taken out already.”
“And we’ve got to focus on finding this Tristan guy. He’s the connection we have to work with now.”
“Hopefully the team can take that old photo and find out what he looks like currently. We really need a new photo,” he said.
“And we need it, like, now,” Eton agreed.
“Might be a little easier said than done.” He looked at Eton. “I wonder if our hosts here know anything about Tristan.”
“Go ask,” Eton said. “Everything that we’ve got here basically connects all of them, and, with Bullard’s name right there in black-and-white, we know it’s related to him. But it’s a matter of who Tristan is connected to that would hire him for something like this. Unless he’s the one doing the hiring, but then the question would be why.” Both of their phones buzzed just then. Cain looked at the message and said, “The name on the top of the list is dead, taken out eighteen months ago.”
“So it is a kill list,” Eton said.
“They’ll work their way down,” he said. “And there are three names after Bullard. Just because our guy Chico died, that doesn’t mean Tristan or one of his thugs isn’t still after them. And us too for that matter.”
“Who do you want to contact?”
The two men looked at each other. At the same moment, they said, “Ice.”
“I’ll go talk to Petra’s aunt and uncle downstairs,” Cain said, heading to the door, with the photo of Chico and Tristan. “Check to make sure Ice has all this and bring her up to speed.”
“Will do.”
When Cain walked downstairs to the kitchen, he found the old couple sitting at the kitchen table, talking over a cup of tea. As soon as he walked in, silence fell. They hopped to their feet. “Do you need something?”
He shrugged and said, “Sit down for a moment. Do you know these men?” he asked, as he held out the photo.
Immediately Migi’s face twisted with distaste. “This one we spoke of earlier,” she said, pointing to the dead gunman Chico. “But this one is definitely trouble.”
“Who is he?” Cain kept his tone neutral, as he leaned back against the counter.
She shook her head. “We don’t talk about such things.”
“Which only adds to the mystery,” he countered.
The uncle looked at his wife, then back at Cain. “Tristan is Chico’s older brother. When they were young, Tristan was the local ruffian, breaking into all the houses. He would slash tires and kill cats,” he said, shaking his head. “When he disappeared, we all breathed a sigh of relief. But then he came back as a man. He carried guns and knives and was bad news.”
Migi shrugged and said, “This one, he picked up the local boys and turned them bad too.”
“More than just the one? Chico?”
“Tristan turned the local thugs and troublemakers into true criminals.”
“And how would we find Tristan?”
“You don’t,” she snapped, getting quite cranky about the whole thing. She wrapped her arms around her chest and said, “Stay away from him. He’s bad news.” And, at that, she turned her back, effectively ending the conversation.