Page 72 of Nightcrawler
“Okay,” Jarrett said, rubbing his side. “I only meant I’ll be able to see where they’re goin’ through the scope of my rifle…you know…if they somehow manage to leave the buildin’.”
“Hang on,” Raven said. “You keep saying they. Do you really think a hoard of bikers are somehow going to be here? Aren’t we just here to talk to Allcott about whether he knows the whereabouts of his old friend, Howell Junior?”
“That’s all we’re here for,” Cassidy reassured him. “Like I said, we’ll have Jarrett and Thayne take a rooftop position so they can see Allcott coming and going. Hopefully, he won’t be going back to the station handcuffed with us, but if he’s not cooperative and decides to run, there are multiple ways out of these pavilions. We want them covered by someone whose high up and can see the whole parking lot.”
Raven nodded. “That’s good.”
“I think you need to get up on top of one of the pavilions, Jarrett,” Mac said, pointing in the distance. “Thayne can join you on one, and I’ll climb up to the top of the other.”
Not for the first time, I noticed they were all dressed in sand-colored tactical pants, the same washed-out khaki colors as the two domed airplane hangars which doubled as the indoor pavilion spaces themselves. The tops of them were visible in the distance, some ways behind the main fairgrounds building.
“Each pavilion has double front doors and back doors, two on each side and they have side doors which face each other, leading out to an open courtyard where vendors can set up outside as well,” Mike said.
“That’s twelve doors total, six in each pavilion,” I said, frowning. “Obviously, if Allcott’s got a single vendor booth, that means he’ll only have six doors with which to escape if he decides he doesn’t want to talk to us. Do we know where he’s setting up?”
“No, I tried to get hold of the master list of vendor spaces after we talked, but no one at the fairgrounds would answer the phone. I kept getting a recorded message when I called, so it’s a crapshoot and we’ll have to watch all doors,” Cassidy said. “We’ll know soon enough where he’ll be once he arrives, provided he only has a single booth in one pavilion or the other. In some cases, these vendors have a booth in each pavilion, and if that’s the case, we’ll need to have both covered so he can’t slip out without one of us seeing him. That’s why I thought having an extra person here to help would be good.”
“Havin’ the FBI here don’t hurt neither,” Jarrett drawled.
I was beginning to get why I liked these guys so much. They were all former military with the exception of Thayne, Raven, and Mike. It was clear Mike and Thayne had been in situations like this before. As for myself, I’d been on more recon missions than I could count. It seemed Raven was the only one here who didn’t have the experience which was just another reason I knew I had to keep him by my side until this was all over with.
“So, if I understand the situation, Miguel and I will go into the pavilion and look around for this Allcott guy with Cassidy and Mike while the rest of you guys set up outside?” Raven asked.
“I think that’s best,” Cassidy replied. “At least until we spot him going in. If we miss him in a crowd, well, we’ll have to go inside for our little talk. If our luck holds, Allcott will be cooperative, and he’ll give up Howell’s location without a problem. If not, well, we’ll be prepared.”
“Prepared to do what, exactly?” Raven asked. “It’s not like we’re the Wild Bunch and we can just go in and kidnap him and torture him for information.” He laughed.
The rest of us simply exchanged glances. No one said a thing.
“Oh, my God!” Raven said. “You’re kidding.”
“Did I mention Mac Mac Mac is also CIA?” Jarrett said, grinning widely.
“All right, that’s enough,” Cassidy said. “No one is going to torture Allcott, Jarrett. Like Raven said, all we’re here for is a fishing expedition.”
“No one brings sniper rifles to fuckin’ fishin’ expeditions,” Jarrett muttered under his breath. I noticed how fast the white-haired man hopped away from Thayne, covering his ribs, so he couldn’t land another elbow.
“Is everyone armed?” I asked. I’d never gone into a situation armed with only pepper spray and a Taser and I had to admit, I felt really naked.
“We’re all armed,” Mike said as the others nodded. “We’re law enforcement, Miguel. We have to be.”
“Okay.” I’d been a civilian for a long time. I guess I didn’t have a lot of choice here. When I glanced over at Raven, his eyes were bright. He offered me a small smile and a tiny nod of reassurance that I’d be fine. He knew my very first instinct was going to be to protect him if anything went wrong here. I blew out a longbreath, trying to calm my racing heart. We were here to talk to a guy. That’s all this was.
We all turned when we saw a huge, white panel truck pull into the lot and park. The side of it said, “Cassie’s Classic Clowns.” It had pictures of clown faces all over it. I had no idea what clowns had to do with antiques, but I figured a lot of these shows had vendors selling stuff that had nothing to do with what people came there looking for.
“Okay,” Cassidy said, gesturing to Jarrett and Thayne, “you guys had better set up with McCallahan. It’s getting light and vendors are starting to arrive. You’re not going to get another chance to climb up on top of those pavilions without being seen. Oh, here, you’ll need these.” Cassidy reached into a deep pocket in his tac pants and pulled out a long box. Inside, multiple pairs of military-grade earwigs lay on foam. He handed a pair to each of us, and I watched Raven insert his, just to make sure he knew how. I smiled at him after he’d done it and got a brilliant smile in return. My heart did a flip-flop.
“Let’s go,” Jarrett said, putting an arm around his husband. The two of them walked off with Mac following close behind. It took them a minute to cross the parking lot and then unsurprisingly, they ignored the locked main fairgrounds entrance building. Instead, they walked up to a tall, slatted metal gate and slid Jarrett’s sniper rifle in its bag through it before scaling it and dropping down on the other side. Jarrett turned, grinned widely at us through the slats, saluted, and waved like an idiot before Thayne pulled him away.
I chuckled. I had to admit, I really liked the whole team Cassidy and Mike had assembled. The three men walked away, headed toward the hangars, out of sight of the parking lot. The whole thing took less than a minute.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Jarrett is a mascot for Cassie’s Clowns,” Cassidy said, laughing as he turned back to the rest of us.
“Where should we wait?” Raven asked. I could hear nervousness in his voice and had the overwhelming urge to take his hand and reassure him.
Mike pointed. “We can wait in there. We brought the cruiser and parked in the law enforcement section.”
I noticed the parked black and white at the front of the building. “I didn’t realize the fairgrounds have a section of the parking lot reserved for officers.”