Free Days of Reckoning by Chris Stout Page A

own.”
    “Well, we’ll be lucky to get any admissible evidence from here. There’s no way to tell what the killer touched and what was their doing, especially if the killer was one of them.”
    “I doubt very much the killer was one of them.”
    Sam nodded. “Me too. Sorry about that, Chief.”
    “No problem. You were already beat when you got here, so I don’t blame you. Look, a forensics team is on their way in. Why don’t you and I go get statements from those jokers, then head back to the office to write up a report on what you found? I doubt there’s much good we can do here now.”
    #
    While Sam interviewed the men who’d found Beaumont’s body, Chief Wainwright stepped away to make several phone calls. The first was to Damon’s cell phone. “What the hell’ve you done now, son?” Wainwright grumbled. When Damon didn’t answer, Wainwright hit the “end” key and tapped the phone against his jaw. Something must have happened to cause this scene, but he couldn’t imagine what. Damon was a bit of a hothead, but he was no fool. He knew what the consequences would be if he exposed Wainwright and the rest of the militia to any threat of capture.
    The Chief wondered if Damon had retrieved the weapons from Beaumont yet. With the store owner dead, it wouldn’t be long before the Sheriff’s department went out to his house to look for clues to his murder. Wainwright dialed in Sheriff Horn’s personal number. The Chief needed to make sure that his own men got to Beaumont’s house first.
     
    Chapter 8
     
    Miranda took stock of the arsenal she’d recovered from Damon. The weaponry she’d acquired would be enough to start a small war. Amazingly enough, she’d been able to pack most of it into her car. Sometimes it paid to drive a four-door. Her personal favorites were the Glock and PPK pistols fitted with threaded barrels to take silencers, but the real prize of the bunch was a Squad Automatic Weapon: the M249 light machine-gun favored by the military as a light support weapon. She had no idea where Beaumont had acquired it, but she knew the potential devastation it could wreak was enormous. She was online looking for information on how to field-strip it when the cell phone she’d recovered from Damon rang.
    Miranda looked at the Caller ID display and recognized the incoming number as Chief Wainwright’s. “Wonder what he wants?” she muttered. Her question was answered by the ringing of her own phone. This call came from Hector Gutierrez, one of the uniformed officers that frequently worked with Sam.
    “What’s up Heck?”
    “Sorry to bother you while you’re on leave,” the officer said. “I thought you’d want to know that Henry Beaumont was found dead this morning.”
    “Jesus. What happened?”
    “Not sure. Looks like he was shot during a break-in last night, but something don’t seem quite right. No alarms went off, nothing was triggered. Scene’s a mess. Sam was the first one here. He’s pretty hot right now. I thought maybe you could run over for some moral support.”
    “I’ll be there in ten minutes.” Miranda hung up and hurried to pack away the weapons.
    #
    Hector Gutierrez nodded to Sam. “I called Miranda to let her know what’s going on.”
    “Why?”
    “I figured she’d want to know.”
    “She’s on leave, man. She’s never gonna get over her brother’s death if she doesn’t have a break from this shit.”
    “Sorry Sam. Want me to call her off?”
    “Forget it. Just don’t let her near the body. I don’t want her having a breakdown or anything.” Sam kept an eye on the road while he performed his other tasks. His stomach felt like lead when he saw a familiar sedan pull up in front of the store ten minutes later. “That was fast. Stay close to her, Heck.”
    Just behind Miranda’s car came a small hatchback. “Who the hell is that?” Gutierrez asked.
    Sam studied the middle-aged woman who exited the hatchback. Her graying hair flew about her