Chapter 6 - The Paper Trail
The voice that came back through the radio fifteen minutes later was older, rougher, and carrying the distinct nasal drawl of a man who spent his winters in eastern Washington.
"Caleb?" Colonel Raymond Vance said, the signal clear despite the mountain fog. "Jesus, son. I haven't heard your voice since we signed your medical retirement papers at Fort Lewis. What's going on out there in the valley?"
"Colonel, I've got a Title 10 procurement violation on a active defense contractor," Caleb said, his fingers tracing the edge of the black folder on the counter. "Vale Logistics. They're using uncertified modification kits on their executive transport fleet. The same fleet that currently moves the naval engineering command between Bremerton and the Bangor sub base."
There was a long silence on the line. Caleb could hear the sound of a pen scratching against paper.
"Vale," the Colonel muttered. "Preston Vale? That arrogant prick has been bidding on our transport contracts for three years. His brother sits on the state transportation committee. What do you have on them, Caleb?"
"I have the full safety audit from their primary service bay," Caleb said. "The one I wrote before he fired me two weeks ago. But it's worse than procurement fraud, Colonel. Tonight, one of those modified vehicles caught fire at the Winslow Hospital gala. The rear emergency release cable had been manually zip-tied to the frame from the inside. His wife was trapped in the back seat. She’s seven months pregnant."
"My God," Vance breathed. "Was she hurt?"
"I pulled her out," Caleb said. "But her husband tried to buy my silence for ten grand before I left the hospital. He’s currently trying to move her to a private clinic to keep her away from federal investigators. She wants to talk, Colonel. She knows about the fraud, and she knows he locked the doors from his phone."
"Listen to me carefully, Caleb," the Colonel said, his voice turning into the steel-plated instrument of a military prosecutor. "If that cable was modified on a vehicle covered under a federal defense contract, that’s not a state matter. That’s a federal sabotage inquiry under the jurisdiction of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS). I'm calling the regional director in Seattle right now. But you need to stay put. If Vale knows you have that folder, he isn't going to wait for a subpoena."
"He's already here, Colonel," Caleb said quietly, looking out the kitchen window into the dark driveway.
Two sets of headlights had just appeared at the gate of his property. They were moving slowly, without their running lights, their high beams cutting through the fog like the eyes of two large predators.
"Caleb!" the Colonel shouted through the radio. "Do not engage! The federal marshals are two hours away!"
May you like
"Two hours is about one hour and fifty minutes too late, sir," Caleb said.
He clicked off the radio, slid the Sig Sauer into the waistband of his jeans, picked up the black folder, and walked toward the basement door.
