Double Triple

By James Lewis

Millions in found treasure. A killer loose after a daring escape. Agent Jake Monroe and Deputy Abron Kelsey in charge of putting a stop to future homicides while ensuring the safety of their families. Enter hitmen from the Chicago crime syndicate into the mix of a smoldering northwest. Dozens are in the line of fire. Only one man can see a way out. "His way".

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781637103579

James Lewis

JAMES W. LEWIS is a novelist and freelance writer published in several books that include Zane’s Caramel Flava, Chicken Soup for the Soul (two series), Gumbo for the Soul, Truth Be Told: Tales of Life, Love and Drama and Don’t Forget your Pepper Spray. Magazine credits include 3AM Magazine, Eyeshot, Dare Magazine, Naptural Roots Magazine, Lucrezia Magazine, Circle Magazine, Rundu Bedtime Stories and an upcoming article in the fitness magazine AFAA. His debut novel SELLOUT will launch in July 2010. After spending twenty years in the Navy, James retired from active duty and now moonlights as a personal trainer while completing his studies in Kinesiology. In addition to writing, he loves to DJ and has a collection of over 300 vinyl records. He also does extensive volunteer work at a local veterans assistance center. James hopes to resume his role as a Big Brother in the Big Brothers & Big Sisters program soon.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Liberty Lake, Washington

Quiet and pristine, Liberty is surrounded by pine-covered mountains, with the exception of a wide, flat swath outlet into the Spokane Valley to the north. Without this overgrown meadow, Liberty would look like it sat in the cauldron of a volcano. Fishing for trout, crappie, bass, perch, and catfish abound. Spring, summer, and fall boating and canoeing added to the playlist for children and adults.

In the 1920s an electric train was railed into the liberty park area located on the northwest side of the lake. The rail line opened up the area to thousands of people living in the larger cities of Spokane and Couer d’Alene. Our Big Band era was in full swing nationwide.

At Liberty Park, a pavilion dance hall was built on log legs protruding from below. The pier stretched out over the waters of the lake. In the 1940s Sig’s Resort opened to the west of the dance hall. Along with Sandy Beach, across the lake they formed two of the more-popular recreational resorts. Within a couple of decades, golf courses were added while a small housing boom was taking place.

The southwest area of the lake was home to a picture-perfect fen. Cattails, tall reeds, lily pads, sunken logs, and protruding stumps were home to turtles, water snakes, even an occasional muskrat or beaver.

It was early fall at the lake. Two siblings were fishing out of a canoe, drifting a few feet away from the cold-water swamp. On this day, the sister and brother, by chance, would unlock a tale of dark times.

Chapter 2

The Lakes

Liberty Lake has a much-larger sister lake just over the border in Idaho. Lake Couer d’Alene spans an enormous twenty-seven miles to the south, when you include Chatcolet. From the magnificent beauty of Couer d’Alene City to St. Maries, Idaho, fishing and boating captured the attention of the populace. Of the two popular lakes, it was Liberty that first stole the recent headlines.

The young canoeists were crappie-fishing. Drifting near a slightly open area of tall reeds, the sister spotted color in the lily pads. At first, she didn’t pay much attention as she was reeling in a crappie. Floating objects within the lake would tend to drift to that area due to prevailing winds. The siblings had found hats, fishing tackle, even an ice chest floating in the slew earlier that summer. With fish onboard, her attention went back to the curious color.

Focusing in, she shook her brother to the bone with a curdling shout, It’s a leg with a red tennis shoe.

The teens immediately headed for the closest house along the shoreline and called their father. Within two hours the area was alive with Spokane sheriffs, deputies, and CSI personnel. A dive team had brought to shore several body parts, including the leg, torso, and arm of one of the two corpses. The kids that discovered the body parts were taken away from the crime scene after very little but effective questioning. It would be a while before they ventured near the fen again.

Chapter 3

Downtown Spokane

It was a night of horror surrounding the explosion. Over two dozen people were rushed to local hospitals. As the sun rose on the crime scene, law enforcement and first responders were shaking their heads, talking in disbelief of the lack of deceased for a heinous crime scene that large. The truck was carrying extra fuel containers and dynamite sticks that had been lit thirty yards away from the crash site. Outside cameras filmed the launching of the vehicle by two men staged across the street. The attack and explosion were obviously planned. Fortunately for the partygoers, the execution failed badly.

The truck hit the wall that was farthest from the invitees. The bartender was killed instantly; the cocktail waitress was in critical condition. For the rest of the persons involved inside the restaurant: shock and disbelief, cuts and bruises, smoke inhalation, many taken by ambulance. The concussion stunned everyone momentarily. Within seconds of the unleashed concussion, Abron and Isabel were up and leading the search for injured partygoers. A couple of Tammy’s cousins were aware enough to take Abron’s orders and began clearing injured out to the arriving sirens. Dust and smoke made it difficult for the first few minutes to find movement. Deputy Kelsey, shouting orders, began shouting names. The first few answered. Greta did not, then came a yell from Deputy Hollander, Got her. She’s okay. Tammy and Sal were lifting debris off Tammy’s mom and dad.

They were alive. Breathing was difficult. Many victims were coughing loudly, in a way helping rescuers locate them. The persons responsible for the explosion were long gone. Deputy Ron Rowe was a detective with a short fuse. The rage was beginning to show itself. These are my best friends and the lady dearest to my heart, he thought.

Out loud Ron shouted, I’ll kill whoever did this.

After the first hour at the site, responders gave Captain Saunders, Kelsey, and Rowe their first report, The bartender never knew what happened. The barmaid was, unfortunately, awake in transport—deep wounds, blood loss, and burns. She was suffering badly for those minutes before your deputies could attend to her. When she saw our EMTs, her mind slipped into a coma. Twelve others have been transported with open wounds and broken bones. All twelve not critical.

Shawn turned to Isabel, Tammy, Theodore, and Shiela and said, We will all talk in twenty-four hours. Let’s get you home.

Kelsey wondered out loud, Where’s Deputy Domenico?

I had him take both of my kids away from here. He and they are at home, Tammy stated with a don’t-question-my-authority tone.

At that same moment between Tammy and Abron, just fourteen miles from the explosion, a phone call was made.

I would be surprised if your targets come out of there alive.

On the other end of the call, a hard-sounding voice said, You’ve done well. The other half of your payment will be waiting where you designated tomorrow evening. If you killed Kelsey, Saunders, Hollander, or Rowe, there will be another payment in a week. The phone went dead.

The two felons began their celebration.

Chapter 4

Time-Out

Mount Spokane

Three days after the bombing, Captain Saunders called for a meeting involving several of his long-time investigators.

Over the previous twenty-four months, Deputies Kelsey, Rowe, Hollander, and Domenico had earned their stripes many times over. The deputies, along with an FBI agent named Jake Monroe, had captured and incarcerated persons involved with the largest crime spree in Spokane history. Several deputies from Spokane and Couer d’Alene were killed. Bombings of a factory, condos, and a farm were solved. The public was at ease, until the restaurant explosion reignited their fears.

It looks and feels like it is beginning anew, said Saunders. All of us in this room worked tirelessly to bring the area back under our safety net. Deputies, I’ll need all of you at your best when you return in four days. Rest, relax, get reacquainted with friends and family. Round two looks like it has begun. Do not talk law enforcement over these days off. Enjoy your loved ones. Please, no questions. You’re all dismissed.

Chapter 5

Couples

After filling their buckets, all three couples left for home in their individual SUVs. As Sal and Tammy departed, Terry started his Toyota and began to follow Sal. Lagging behind, waiting until the other two autos were five minutes gone, Isabel then sprang from the bronco with a blanket in hand running toward the woods. Abron had made sure the others wouldn’t suddenly reappear by making two quick phone calls to his male picking partners, letting them know that he and Isabel needed to get some hiking exercise in the woods.

Abron and Isabel had been together for almost two years. Their combined sexual appetite was off the charts. Neither of the two had any serious carnal experience with the opposite sex until they met.

When Abron caught up to Isabel, she admitted to Abron, You, the forest, and the danger of being caught are more than I can stand, as she turned, wearing nothing but a blanket.

Abron was six feet, three inches, 215 pounds; Isabel five feet, one inch, 95 pounds. He quickly picked her up as the blanket fell away, laying her gently on top of the quilt his mom had made for him while he was away in the military. Izzy on this day was the main dish.

Neither would give up trying to please the other until a new rustling of the huckleberry bushes nearby sent both running nude to their SUV, clothes in hand. Breathing heavily, she climbed over and sat facing him on the driver’s seat. Her moans in the enclosed space were an unbearable aphrodisiac for Abron. Soon after they drove down the mountain in the dark of night and headed for their condo to get some rest.

Chapter 6

Two Bodies

The morning after his deputies were given R & R, Captain Saunders received a grim report from his CSI unit, reporting two different bodies involved at Liberty Lake. One male, one female. Within days, DNA samples had been sent to databases across the country. Husband and wife, lovers, business associates? The report stated that a body part from each had been connected with barbed wire. On the shore of the lake, deputies were asking CSI about a preliminary idea of how long the victims were in the water before the discovery.

The body parts are recent kills, stated Deputy Bradley.

Forensics civilian employee, Kelly McCallum, agreed, saying, Very little degradation, caused by fish or other natural occurrences, has deteriorated the body parts. All of the parts have clothes attached that look like they were just put on within the last week.

Spokane Forensics and CSI teams were made up of civilian and sheriff personnel. Kelly was hired after graduating from the University of Idaho, located in Moscow, south of Couer d’Alene. Now a three-year veteran of the lab, her experience and knowledge were highly valued. Kelly’s reputation for getting it right was slowly being sought after by different agencies within the tristate area.

Deputy Joi Bradley was found through a search of the West Coast when Captain Shawn Saunders lost his top CSI lieutenant, Christian Caine. Christian had been ambushed at a crime scene. Shawn’s second in command of the CSI unit was Deputy Abron Kelsey. Kelsey was promoted out of CSI when Abron was critically injured in the line of duty.

While recovering, Abron used his thought processes to help solve several cold cases while his physical being was restricted to a hospital bed.

Joi Bradley was a single mom that wanted to leave her home and begin a fresh start in a city far away from where her cheating husband and his new young live-in girlfriend were playing house. Joi had recently turned forty years of age while supporting two teenagers soon to graduate from high school. Moving from a predominantly Afro-American area of a major city, she worried the move across the state, to what she thought was a Caucasian-dominated city, would be too hard on her kids.

It was Captain Saunders that made sure Joi was given a tour of Gonzaga University while interviewing for the job. A forward thinker, Shawn knew of Bradley’s concerns. Looking into her kids’ GPAs, Saunders was convinced that Gonzaga was right for her family. Captain Saunders’s department needed Bradley’s abilities. He had to get her on board ASAP after losing Caine. With the coming of age in DNA analysis, law enforcement was given a new game-changing tool. Long-time jailed inmates were being cleared and released. DNA found at crime scenes decades ago were now righting wrongs while turning cold cases into convictions.

Chapter 7

Osburn, Idaho

1972

Cab Callaway’s Minnie the Moocher was blaring from