Gold Flake Chocolate Murder (A Maple Hills Cozy Mystery Book 6) Page 7

  “Wait a minute,” Nikki blurted. “There's one last bit of info you need to know.”

  “Yes?”

  “The thieves are planning to hide the real gold in the cave near some old concrete plant close to here. It's there they plan to kill this Malloy Trally man, too. But I have a plan if you're interested.”

  “A plan?” Agent Ringston raised his eyebrows.

  “Bring the gold to the cave before the thieves can,” Nikki explained. “Lionel Perkins told me there was some kind of decoy bunker meant to house the gold under the City Hall and that the real bunker was under that old concrete plant I mentioned. Is that true, or was he lying?”

  Agent Ringston took a drag on his cigarette. “The information is factual.”

  “Good,” Nikki said. “I'm not sure how you can do it, but bring the real gold to the cave and store it near the entrance by tomorrow night.”

  “We're talking about tons and tons of precious metal,” Agent Ringston confided. “The gold is being hauled by rail. That's why the concrete plant was chosen as a hidden location. The railway runs past the concrete plant.”

  “The same tracks run next to the cave. I checked,” Nikki told Agent Ringston. “Listen, you better act fast because Lionel Perkins told me this Malloy Trally is going to switch out the real gold with the fake gold in five days.”

  “I see,” Agent Ringston said. “Why should I bring all that gold to a cave?” He rubbed his chin.

  “At the bottom of the cave, which is very, very deep, there is an underground river that runs north into Canada. That's how the thieves were going to transport the gold,” Nikki hoped her bluff was believable. “If you want to hide the gold, I suggest taking that route.”

  “Hide the gold?”

  “Perkins told me that Malloy Trally is going to frame you. He's going to have you arrested for stealing the gold, while my job is to prove that you orchestrated the prison break. If you want to protect yourself, hide the gold. I know Malloy Trally works for the CIA, Agent Ringston. I know the man is very crooked. I know you're not the most honest man alive, but you're the one I'm coming to for help. Now, I've placed all my cards on the table. Where do you stand?”

  Agent Ringston stared into Nikki's eyes and folded his hands. “Ms. Bates, you have offered me priceless information for which I'm very grateful. I will keep my word and protect you and your son. I will do this by ensuring that every escaped convict will return to prison.”

  “Malloy Trally orchestrated the prison break, didn't he?” Nikki asked in a low voice, pretending to believe her own lie.

  “I'm afraid so,” Agent Ringston answered in a steady tone. “Ms. Bates, you have my permission to do as Perkins ordered you. I will inform Warden Wayberry and Mayor Brown that you will be paying them a visit. In the meantime, I have much work to do. Please, excuse me.”

  “Agent Ringston?”

  “Yes?”

  “Be careful. My son and I are depending on you,” Nikki said.

  “Of course.”

  Nikki watched Agent Ringston exit the SUV. She felt like vomiting. “What a snake,” she said aloud. “But he bought my bluff... at least I think he did. Hawk?”

  Nikki's cell phone rang. “You did great,” Hawk congratulated Nikki. “You're brilliant, Nikki. Ringston bought your story hook, line, and sinker. I even believed it.”

  “Thanks. Now it's on to Mayor Brown. I'll tackle Warden Wayberry last.”

  “Be careful,” Hawk told Nikki.

  “I will,” Nikki promised. “Take me out for dinner when this is over, Hawk. Drive me to the diner and treat me to dinner—a hamburger steak with extra gravy.”

  “You got it.”

  “I need to go,” Nikki’s voice cracked.

  “I'm listening to your every word.”

  Nikki put her cell phone away and studied the City Hall. “Okay, Mayor Brown, let's play cards.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Grabbing her purse, Nikki climbed out of her SUV and walked up a stone walkway leading to the City Hall. With Agent Ringston occupied with new worries, she had the breathing room she needed to examine Mayor Brown without being watched with suspicion or attacked. Stopping in front of a set of wooden double doors, she drew in a few deep breaths and then went inside. Sure, she was a little wet from the rain, tired, hungry and scared, but so what? A bunch of the bad guys had to be brought down, and she was the woman to do the chore—or so she hoped. She walked into a small and cozy lobby lined with lush brown carpet and burgundy walls; the smell of strong potpourri was nearly suffocating.

  “Can I help you?” a sweet old lady wearing a lovely blue and yellow dress asked Nikki.

  “I'm here to see Mayor Brown, please,” Nikki said, approaching a welcome desk to the side of the front counter.

  The old woman put down a Sudoku puzzle she was struggling with and smiled up at Nikki. “You must be Nikki Bates.”

  “Yes. How did you know that?” Nikki asked.

  “Mayor Brown said you might be paying us a visit,” the old lady informed Nikki. Retaining her sweet smile, she pointed at the door across the small lobby. “Go through that door, dear. Mayor Brown's office is the last door on the right.”

  “Oh,” Nikki said looking across the lobby, “thank you.”

  Walking across the lobby, Nikki glanced back over her shoulder. The old woman smiled at her and resumed her battle with the Sudoku. Nikki smiled. At least some people seem honest, she thought and opened the door leading into a short hallway. The hallway smelled of cigar smoke, and she heard voices. Easing the door shut behind her, she crept down the hallway and stopped outside Mayor Brown’s office. “I don't care what you say, I don't want that woman talking with me,” she heard Mayor Brown snap at someone. “Don't you dare threaten me. I've been onboard with you from the beginning... Of course, I haven't been talking to anyone... Ringston, I'm telling you to stop yelling at me for the last time. Don't you dare threaten me… Fine, I'll talk with Bates if she pays me a visit, does that make you happy? Sure, yeah!”

  Nikki heard Mayor Brown slam down a phone. Grinning, she gently knocked on the office door. “Who is it?”

  “It's Nikki Bates. Agent Ringston said it would be okay if we talked,” she called out.

  Nikki waited. She heard mumbling and then heavy footsteps across a hardwood floor. “Ah, Ms. Bates,” Mayor Brown said, opening his office door. Flashing a fake smile, he looked at her the way a disease looks at penicillin. “I was under the assumption that you’d left my fair little town.”

  “I did, but I drove back. I only have a few questions about Fort Knox. I shouldn't take up much of your time,” Nikki said in a sweet and innocent voice.

  Mayor Brown’s face went flat and pale. “Did you say... I mean... how... uh...” Mayor Brown fumbled over his words. It was obvious the man did not think well on his feet. Not only that, Nikki noticed, he was a follower and not a leader—a coward and crook.

  “Lionel Perkins paid me a visit this morning, Mayor Brown. He told me many interesting things. One of those things he revealed was how cozy you and he are. Now, I don't think Agent Ringston would like to hear that, do you?”

  “Whatever that man said about me is a lie,” Mayor Brown said in a weak voice.

  Nikki smiled. She had thrown her bluff down onto the table, and Mayor Brown had folded his hand. “May I come in?”

  “Uh...yes, I suppose.” Mayor Brown moved away from the door.

  Nikki walked into a spacious office lined with hardwood floors and green walls. A fancy desk stood at the back wall, sitting on an expensive Persian rug. Antique furnishings sat here and there, mixed in with paintings that cost more than a small-town mayor accumulated in his bank account on paydays. “May I sit down?”

  “Sit.” Mayor Brown rushed to his desk and sat down before Nikki could reach her seat.

  Nikki sat down in a brown leather chair and pretended to relax. Deep down, she was very tense. “Mayor Brown, let me cut to the chase. Lionel Perkins stated that Agent Ringsto
n intends to kill you. How? He didn't say. All he said was that Agent Ringston was becoming suspicious of you and felt that you were becoming a threat to his plan to steal all that gold.”

  “You...know about the gold, do you?” Mayor Brown snatched up a cigar from a crystal ashtray and dared to look Nikki in the eyes. The woman sitting in front of him had information that could kill him... or maybe save his life? He wasn't certain what Nikki wanted or what she was up to. “What do you want?”

  “I want Agent Ringston in prison, along with Warden Wayberry. I don't care if you're helping the Twenty-Four Thieves steal the real gold. The life of my son was threatened, and I want the criminals who threatened my son behind bars for life. Will you help me? If you agree, then I will help you by telling you everything Lionel Perkins told me.”

  Mayor Brown listened to the rain falling outside his office window. Ringston was on his case, and it seemed the man was becoming more and more hostile toward him. “What do you want me to do?” he asked in a pathetic voice. “Ringston is a powerful man, and so is Wayberry. I was forced into their scheme, and that's the truth of it. I became Mayor of Fall Cliff because I care about my community and—”

  “Stop with the lies,” Nikki sighed. “Mayor Brown, let's play it straight. I know all about you. Lionel Perkins spilled the beans, okay? All I want you to do is have your sheriff arrest Agent Ringston and Warden Wayberry near the Darkridge Cave.”

  “Darkridge Cave?” Mayor Brown squished his eyebrows together. “I don't understand.”

  “Ringston is bringing the gold to the cave tomorrow night. If you can catch him there with the gold, then you can arrest him,” Nikki waited for a response. She needed more information and hoped her statements would force Mayor Brown to reveal what she needed.

  “Ms. Bates...Ringston is hauling the gold by railway. His band of thieves will be guarding the shipment. Some of those no-goods are walking around my town dressed like FBI Agents. Ringston is also working with another man, a very dangerous man. Oh, it's all so confusing to me. This whole prison break was just so stupid, but someone has to take the fall for stealing all the gold, right?”

  “Of course,” Nikki said. “Ringston broke out the Twenty-Four Thieves to delay the gold shipment to your town because he and CIA Agent Trally have their own men in place to snatch the gold. The thief will be blamed for the escaped thieves. But the thieves, along with the help of Warden Wayberry, have their own plan to steal the gold, and you're on their side.”

  Mayor Brown sighed miserably. “Switch out the real gold with fake gold...Agent Trally's men are in on the scheme, too. Everyone is double-crossing everyone. I guess that's the way of things.”

  “How are Trally's men helping the thieves?” Nikki frowned.

  “Are you kidding me?” Mayor Brown nearly laughed. “Do you think those men are stupid, Ms. Bates? They know Agent Trally will have them all killed after the gold is in a safe location. There's eight of them, all specially trained in weapons, forgery, foreign language, explosives, the whole works. These guys are trained killers, too. Right now, the gold is sitting in a shipyard in Boston on a train under heavy guard...we're talking about trillions of dollars’ worth of gold here, but I'm sure you know that.”

  “Yes,” Nikki agreed. “Mayor Brown, are some of the thieves already in place?”

  “Agent Trally's men have already infiltrated the security detail guarding the gold. Once the train leaves the shipyard, it's going to be riding solo. No helicopters or tanks or marching bands.”

  “I understand. The train will need to draw as little attention to its cargo as possible.”

  “Yep,” Mayor Brown agreed. “Because the truth is, not even the Federal Reserve knows where the real gold is going to be delivered to. The Federal Reserve is under the notion the real gold is going back to Fort Knox.”

  “I see,” Nikki said with a slight moan.

  “There are dummy trains leaving from Los Angeles, Seattle, Savannah, Baltimore and Bangor,” Mayor Brown continued. “Oh, it's all so stupid. America steals gold from Libya, then that gold is stolen from America by bankers, then the bankers have their gold stolen by rogue agents, and those rogue agents have their gold stolen by thieves... All the while everyone is pretending to be jolly good friends while stabbing each other in the bank. Why, do you know, Ms. Bates, the world bankers are so furious that their gold went missing that they’re willing to start a global war?”

  “Kinda like saying whoever stole the gold won't get a chance to spend it, huh?” Nikki asked.

  “In a sense,” Mayor Brown sighed. “I really didn't want to become involved. But what could I do? The government chose to build those silly bunkers in my town because of the location. Beneath Fall Cliff are endless caves, Ms. Bates. The main cave is an opening into all the rest. Why a man could go down into those caves and never come back out.”

  Nikki tossed some bread into the water. “So, the bunker beneath the concrete plant must lead into the caves?”

  Mayor Brown nodded. “And those caves, if you know your way around, lead straight into Canada. If a person was smart enough, he could take that gold into the caves and go straight to Canada with it. Ringston and Trally aren't that smart, though, are they? No. They insist bringing the gold straight to the fake bunker sitting right here beneath this courthouse. But they had to delay the train, of course.”

  “Why the delay if Trally's men have infiltrated the security detail?” Nikki asked.

  “Trally and Ringston wanted America focused on the prison break,” Mayor Brown explained. “They have a dummy train with false gold on it. That's the train those two goons are sending the convicts after. Trally's men are going to meet up with them, switch out the gold, and send the fake gold down the tracks while the real gold is smuggled out through the caves.”

  Nikki sat amazed at the reality of how much the caves played into stealing the gold. “Where does Warden Wayberry play into this?”

  “Wayberry despises Ringston. He's the one who maneuvered his little puppet thieves into place. He's the one who talked Trally's men into joining his team. However, Wayberry was against the prison break. You see, he was the one who broached the idea of using the arrested thieves to Ringston. It was only later that Ringston designed the idea of the prison break. He wanted Wayberry to betray the thieves. Ringston kept insisting the thieves were the perfect escape door.”

  “I'm starting to understand everyone's angle,” Nikki told Mayor Brown. “Agent Ringston needed a few scapegoats who would also cause a distraction for him long enough to slip the gold into Fall Cliff. Warden Wayberry decided to play his own game and join up with the thieves and kill Ringston. But when that plan failed, I was summoned to distract Ringston long enough to allow the fake gold to be swapped out with the real gold, which means...”

  “Which means,” a harsh voice said as a man stepped into the office and slammed the door shut, “the game is coming to an end, Ms. Bates.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Nikki swung her head around. She wasn't shocked to see Warden Wayberry aiming a gun at her. “Brown, you and your stupid mouth. I don't pay you to blab to nosy reporters.”

  Nikki watched Mayor Brown nervously stand up and hold his hands out into the air. “Lionel talked with her. She knows all about the gold.”

  “I know,” Nikki told Warden Wayberry, “that you're not who you say you are, either. The license plate on your car gave you away. You're not the real Warden Wayberry. That man is dead. You work for the bankers.”

  “Smart lady,” Warden Wayberry told Nikki.

  “There's no way anyone can smuggle trillions of dollars’ worth of gold into Canada, or anywhere else for that matter. And the Caves Mayor Brown mentioned are man-made caves. The only natural cave is the one without a bottom.”

  “What is she talking about?” Mayor Brown squished up his eyebrows.

  Warden Wayberry rolled his eyes. “Shut up and sit down.”

  “Fort Knox...Agent Ringston never paid attention to the lice
nse plate on the sedan, did he? But the thieves, they knew.”

  “The faithful ones, yes,” Warden Wayberry agreed. “There are a few traitors in my ranks, but they will be taken care of, isn't that right, Perkins?”

  Lionel Perkins stepped into Mayor Brown's office with a large bandage over his hand. In his other hand, he was holding a gun pointed at Tori's head. “Lovely to see you again, Ms. Bates,” he grinned.

  “Nikki,” Tori whimpered.

  “It's okay,” Nikki assured Tori, “remain calm.”

  “What did you tell Ringston?” Warden Wayberry shouted.

  “Not a word is coming from me until that coward puts away his gun,” Nikki nodded towards Lionel as she cautiously stood up. “I mean it.”

  Warden Wayberry nodded at Lionel. Lionel growled and then shoved Tori toward Nikki. “Now talk,” he ordered.

  “Why?” Nikki asked pulling Tori into her arms. “Your gold is on its way here by now, right? I'm sure you have a second train waiting somewhere? You won. I sent Agent Ringston off on a wild goose chase.”

  “Where is Ringston?” Warden Wayberry squinted his eyes. “He's not answering his phone. What did you tell him?”

  Nikki realized Warden Wayberry was in a state of panic. Everyone's carefully orchestrated betrayal was coming unglued. A war for the gold was about to begin. “I sent him to get the gold,” Nikki confessed. “I told him to bring the gold to the caves. I also told him Lionel was a big fan of Malloy Trally, who was planning to kill you,” Nikki finished, hoping to play Warden Wayberry and Perkins against one another.

  “You what?” Warden Wayberry yelled.

  Lionel Perkins backed up toward the office door. “Hey, mate, that's not good. I'm out of here.”

  “Why are you leaving, Mr. Perkins? Unless, you aren't the real Lionel Perkins, that is? No, I think you're an undercover CIA Agent. Yes, that's what I think. I think the CIA wants the gold because it will give them complete power over the Federal Reserve and World Banks.”