Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (this book - Book 4)
VIOLENCE WARNING: The two stories in the Savage Gang saga, and especially the second story, involve a gang practicing extreme violence toward everyone — women, the elderly, the protagonist, etc. The stories contain mature sexual content and violence as well. I am placing this warning on all chapters, including those without such violence, so you can choose whether to continue.
CHAPTER 36
Beth swept into the lobby of the Harrisburg Hilton just after ten in the morning, with her dark clothing matching her dark mood. She wore black leggings, partially covered by a black sweater. Her blond hair hung straight off her shoulders, brushing against the strap of the large bag slung over her shoulder.
Her defeat at the hands of the Savage Gang lingered in her mind, as did memories of her last interaction with Conner. Beth's conversation with Stanley a few minutes earlier hadn’t helped brighten her mood, either, as he told her the surveillance device had yet to pick up any worthwhile information from the jail. The one bright spot was that the pain in her body had subsided to a dull ache.
She paused in the lobby, scanning her surroundings. The room was open and airy, with easy chairs arranged against the walls. Lockheed sat in one of them, facing the doorway with her arms crossed across her chest and a frown on her face. Beth was late, which wouldn’t please a control freak like Lockheed.
“Sorry,” Beth said with a forced smile as she approached the sculpted woman. “I got tied up on the way in.”
“Tied up?” Lockheed remarked as she rose, and a slight smirk turned up the corners of her mouth. “Suitable punishment.”
As Beth's jaw dropped, Lockheed turned away. “Follow me,” she said.
The FBI woman headed toward the winding staircase on the far side of the room, climbing until she reached the second floor of the hotel. Beth scurried after her as Lockheed proceeded across another open lobby, to a hallway leading to an exit concourse.
Memories came back to Beth as she stepped onto the textured rubber of the concourse. The far end of the walkway led into Strawberry Square, an indoor shopping area in the city. The concourse was also where she had first looked down upon the loading dock of the Thompson Center and witnessed the debut of the Savage Gang in the city.
As they walked, Lockheed didn’t say a word, and Beth marched behind her, suppressing a yawn. Lockheed was taller, and her long, rapid gait required Beth to follow at almost a trot in order to keep up. Perhaps this was Lockheed's way of reasserting her dominance after Beth’s tardy appearance.
Their path took them onto the elevators and up three floors. Lockheed's BMW, which Beth recognized from Sapphire Angel's surprise visit the night before, sat in its same spot and chirped as they approached. Lockheed slid into the driver’s seat as Beth opened the passenger door and climbed in.
“Nice car,” Beth remarked, but Lockheed said nothing.
Moments later, the vehicle lurched out of its spot and Lockheed accelerated down through the garage, causing Beth to grip the seat beneath her. Yet again, this was probably Lockheed taking control of the situation by making Beth realize who was in charge.
They didn’t speak until they had exited the garage, traveled through the city, and merged onto the interstate highway, which would take them to York. Lockheed continued her aggressive driving, weaving in and out of the slower moving traffic.
“What happened to the agent working with you?” Beth asked as they sped along the interstate.
“Michaels?” Lockheed answered. “I don’t need him for this. I thought we’d have better luck with just the two of us.”
Beth nodded, not sure she could trust Lockheed’s reasons. They rode in silence for a few more miles.
“So tell me about who we’ll meet at the shop,” Lockheed finally asked her.
Beth nodded. “An older guy, T.L. Grim, owns the place along with his wife, Dot. I stopped by a few times when writing my story, to follow up on information I got from other sources. They’re the ones I’ve dealt with, but he’s the one who runs the place. He also goes by Tip. Friendly to me, although I hear he’s not that way with everyone. As I mentioned at the meeting the other day, he trusted me for some reason, when I interviewed him for my story.”
Lockheed snorted and laughed.
“What?” Beth asked, annoyed.
“Trusted you ‘for some reason’?” Lockheed said, shaking her head. “You don’t get it, do you, Harper?”
“Get what?”
“How some men go for the whole innocence schtick that girls like you have. Innocence and looks. That’s why you had Grim eating out of the palm of your hand.”
Beth frowned and said nothing.
“I’ll have to work that innocence out of you some day,” Lockheed said, giving Beth a sideways glance and causing the petite woman to squirm in her seat. “Anyway, please go on.”
Beth, flustered, took a moment to collect her thoughts. “Beyond those two, Grim said he has three different employees, but I've never seen them.”
“Are there any likely suspects, assuming someone from the shop is selling weapons to the gang?”
Beth shrugged. “Hard to say. Grim seemed like he’s pretty hands on, so I imagine he’d know about any big sales if it was one of the employees. If I had to guess, I’d say he’s in the loop, or looking the other way.”
“Is he always there?” Lockheed asked, not taking her eyes from the road. They had passed the junction of two major highways outside of Harrisburg, before turning south toward York. It would be a quick drive from here.
“Every time I’ve been there, Tip or Dot has been in the shop. Usually Tip.”
Lockheed nodded and appeared to be pondering this information. Beth looked over, waited a moment, and spoke.
“So why didn’t you share the information about the gun trace with the other law enforcement officials at the meeting?”
Lockheed gave Beth a sideways look and smirked.
“Let me guess,” Lockheed began. “You think it’s because I have control issues? You think I want to control the flow of info, and that it was just too juicy of a tidbit to fling around?”
“The thought entered my mind,” Beth replied.
“I won’t deny that I enjoy being in control,” Lockheed said, before turning and gazing at Beth for a few seconds with a sly smile.
Beth turned away and focused on the highway. This woman was becoming more forward with every meeting. Beth might be innocent, but she recognized the look. Usually it came from men.
The buildings along the interstate had thinned out as they got further from Harrisburg, and rolling hills and bare trees dominated the view. In just a few minutes, manmade structures would increase as they got closer to York.
“Believe it or not,” Lockheed continued, “my actions at the meeting had nothing to do with control.”
Beth didn’t turn back to Lockheed. The FBI woman seemed to be sizing her up like she was some sort or prize, and Beth didn’t want to encourage it.
“You don’t believe me, do you?” Lockheed asked after Beth remained silent.
Beth shrugged. “Why, then? Why keep this to yourself, when someone in that room might have possessed helpful information?”
“Because I believe someone in that room might be a traitor,” Lockheed said.
Beth’s head swung toward the other woman.
“Traitor?” Beth asked, raising an eyebrow.
Lockheed nodded. “We believe there may be a leak somewhere — either a high level leak pervading the entire Savage Gang investigation, or, more likely, the gang finds someone on the inside whenever they move into a city, and turns him or her to work for them. That might even be a factor in how they choose cities.”
“And why is that more likely than a high level leak?”
“You don’t know the FBI very well, do you?”
Beth shook her head. “I guess not, no.”
“You don’t get to a high level in the FBI without your life being stripped bare. It’s more than just background checks. They comb through every ounce of your life. And it continues while you’re there. There’s no way a mole got through all of that.”
Beth nodded. Even though Lockheed’s explanation made sense, it wasn’t definitive. Plenty of high-ranking government officials had been bribed in the past, including at the FBI.
“I couldn’t take the chance the traitor might be someone in that room,” Lockheed continued. “I wanted to make sure I checked this place out first, without someone tipping off Grim and evidence going missing. And that’s part of the reason you’re here, too. Nobody would have any reason to bribe you.”
Beth nodded. That part made sense, although Beth’s knack for falling into matters like this was the more likely reason.
“What are you hoping to find today, Olivia? It’s not like his books are going to show sales to the gang.”
“Of course not,” Lockheed replied. “In fact, I’d be shocked if I find anything directly pointing to the gang at all. I’ll be looking for unusual patterns or information, such as large numbers of assault weapons sold to multiple purchasers. I can then follow up to check whether those sales ever occurred. Or you can use your charms to get him to explain any unusual patterns.”
“I see,” Beth murmured. "Do you have a warrant?"
Lockheed frowned. "That is… tied up. The judge is hesitant. But he'll come around."
"So we have to hope Grim cooperates?"
“Yes, which is where your charm and my persuasiveness could come in handy," Lockheed replied. "And speaking of your charms, I have a question for you."
Beth glanced at the other woman, afraid of what she would ask, but said nothing.
“You were on the fast track with your career,” Lockheed continued. “You already had one big story under your belt, with the whole gun lobby thing, and could have had another, with everything that happened with StarPrime. You were the one person on the planet who had a closeup view of the plot to assassinate the president. You could have written your ticket anywhere. And yet now you work for the same webzine, writing fluff. Fashion and entertainment, right? A little decorating advice? Why? Why settle for that?”
It was a fair question. Beth could have had her pick of many writing jobs, had she parlayed her inside knowledge of the StarPrime incident into a big story. But the incident, as crazy as it was, made her realize she needed some sanity in her life. Her life as Sapphire Angel was crazy enough, without her also immersing herself in major news stories. There was also a small part of her that felt being an investigative journalist, while living a dual life as a superheroine, was a bit too cliché. It reminded her of a few of her late boyfriend’s comic books.
“I… I think the whole StarPrime thing made me realize I’m not cut out for that.”
“And yet here you sit,” Lockheed said, turning toward Beth with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes, here I sit. It’s one thing to help when it hits close to home. It’s another thing to live that life all the time. I’m a bit boring, and need to live a boring life.”
Lockheed smirked. “Boring? I could purge any semblance of boring from you, Harper.”
Beth fidgeted with her hands, but said nothing. They drove in silence for a few more minutes before Lockheed said, “So, our little costumed friend is at it again?”
“Costumed friend?” Beth replied. “You mean Sapphire Angel? What now?”
Beth could see Lockheed's jaw set, and her grip on the steering wheel tighten.
“She questioned the prisoners last night,” Lockheed replied, ice in her voice. "Somehow she got in the police lockup."
“Interesting. Did she find out anything?”
“She’s the only one who can answer that,” Lockheed growled. “She doesn’t share that information with us.”
Beth nodded. “That’s too bad. It’s a shame she didn’t offer to work together with you, or anything like that.”
Lockheed tensed, and Beth knew she had hit a nerve. The FBI woman scowled at the road in front of them, and didn’t reply. They made the last five minutes of the trip in silence.
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (this book - Book 4)
If it didn’t hurt, I would be tearing my hair out at how close we are to an actually-healthy partnership but just not GETTING it. Lockheed’s all dominance and stuff like that, but at the same time Beth’s not going to be pushed around, either.
I’d totally get Beth wanting a relatively-calm “regular job” to go with being Harrisburg’s superheroine; I’d imagine that her superhero career is already as exhilarating and overwhelming as is. But oh......oh.....ohhhh......she’s had WAY more than her fair share of epic adventures and Lockheed is none the wiser. At least at the moment. She’s an FBI agent (albeit a rather flustered and complicated one); I thought she’d be one of the first people to deduce Sapphire Angel’s secret identity, but maybe her temperament is getting in the way of that (and it doesn’t seem to be the only matter that it’s complicating).
The whole tangent with the FBI and the constant, regular background checks hit different. I get that a lot of high-profile jobs insist on keeping tabs on you and everything about you both before and during the time that you’re there, but like......how much is ultimately TOO much? At what point is it then considered “stalking”?
Maybe they can deduce that Howard Vincent is the traitor first, then get to the Savage Gang from there.....? He (Vincent) is the Gang’s inside man, trying to swerve the investigators away from the incidents......but I have a feeling that Lockheed---and Sapphire---are going to be tough for him to deal with if either of them ever find out.
I like how Beth snarks about Sapphire not offering to help Lockheed even though Sapphire did at least have that one surprise meeting with Lockheed to try and convince her. But now that Lockheed’s hate for Sapphire has apparently been re-lit, I don’t know how well that would go.
Hearing of Grim having a wife (I mistyped that as “weight” and I don’t know why) just made it a lot less likely that he dies in the gun shop attack (again, almost called it a bomb shop for some reason). Or both him AND his wife could die, if you really wanted to bring the heartbreak.
Let’s get to it!