The Agent and the Deputy

By James Lewis

Gold discovered that was taken from an 1880s train robbery in Montana may be the catalyst of three "double murders" in the west. Five years later, three bodies were discovered in each of two different lakes located in the same area. An FBI agent and a sheriff's deputy believe the murders are related.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 5, 2024
• ISBN: 9798889824688

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.

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Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Prologue

Acknowledgements

Prelude

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Chapter 60

Chapter 61

Chapter 62

Chapter 63

Chapter 64

Chapter 65

Chapter 66

Chapter 67

Chapter 68

Chapter 69

Chapter 70

Chapter 71

Chapter 72

Chapter 73

Chapter 74

Chapter 75

Chapter 76

Chapter 77

Chapter 78

Chapter 79

Chapter 80

Chapter 81

Chapter 82

Chapter 83

Chapter 84

Chapter 85

Chapter 86

Chapter 87

Chapter 88

Chapter 89

Chapter 90

Chapter 91

Chapter 92

Chapter 93

About the Author

About the Artist

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The Agent and the Deputy

James Lewis

Copyright © 2023 James Lewis

All rights reserved

First Edition

Fulton Books

Meadville, PA

Published by Fulton Books 2023

Also, by James Lewis:

Triple Double

Double Triple

ISBN 979-8-88982-467-1 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88982-468-8 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Prologue

In the 1890s, a train was robbed of gold and precious gold coins that led to three double murders in the twenty-first century.

In the 1970s, the bodies of a disc jockey and five ladies of the night were discovered. Three bodies in Liberty Lake. Three in Lake Couer d'Alene.

With all those cases solved, millions of dollars in gold and rare gold coins was still unaccounted for. The one person thought to have the greatest knowledge of the missing fortune was Dillon Robinson.

Dillon, the cold-blooded murderer, is now on the loose after escaping from his prison transfer vehicle between Orofino and Pelican Bay federal penitentiary.

Robinson is determined to avenge the people responsible for his scarred face and lifetime sentence. Finding and killing the FBI agent and the Spokane deputy are his only reasons for living.

To my mom, who turned one hundred on December 6, 2023.

To my wife, Donna, and our six kids.

To my long-time friend Ron Lansing, taken by COVID

Acknowledgements

Jessie Mendivil, the painter of all six front and back covers in this series.

Prelude

Coast-to-Coast

Created in 1957, Interstate 90 became the shortest and fastest roadway from Seattle in the west to Boston and New York state in the east. Interstate commerce thrived along the road as it grew in speed and safety through many of the toughest cold spots in the country.

The United States provides the richest source of currency in the world for the still-blossoming illegal drug trade.

I-90 plays a big part of the spread.

The mountainous terrains of Washington, Idaho, and Montana create a blockade for travel unless following the interstate. Magnificent sightseeing and ease of driving in the spring, summer, and fall give way to winter snow, sleet and ice storms, from Thanksgiving through the month of May.

Seattle's oceanic waterways are a bridge of transport for drug runners, corporate and gang style.

I-5 from Mexico to Seattle and Highway 395, further inland, figure heavily in the south to north routes that syphon drugs into the I-90 mainstream headed east.

The amount of illegal drug money involved in the transport and selling of opioid drugs has established a small army throughout America. The workers involved are a significant force in our economy.

State and national lotteries pale in comparison to the bounty gained in drug running. These monies create illicit pathways to prostitution, money laundering, child pornography, sex enslavement and bribery at some of the highest levels.

Crystal meth and date-rape drugs have brought new growth to the industry in the past two decades. A new king of drugs is on the verge of topping that list: fentanyl.

With it's deadly qualities in tow presents a different, more powerful high to the user. Combined in trace amounts to existing opioids, fentanyl is surging while leaving a path of death, disaster, and sorrow in every quarter of our United States.

Chapter 1

A Long Road

Bitter cold riding the edges of sweeping winds, encasing the trail, killing most warm bodies that would dare challenge it head-on.

Suffering the intense pain these same conditions created a decade earlier while hunting with his dad. This time around, his eyes were hidden from the piercing sheets of snow that had caused suffering and temporary blindness as a teenager.

To get this far undetected gave insight to his cunning mind and stealth.

Knowing the territory and the odds of someone catching a glimpse of his outline as winter raged was the only help he could count on.

The subzero weather would force bodies and eyes to weather the storm under shelter.

Five more miles lay between Dillon and his destination.

Those same threatening winds and the blowing snow, combined to cover his tracks within minutes of his passing.

Hiding in place for days at a time, using the cover of night to travel, he had foraged off the land for the past ten weeks—knowing any contact with people or leaving any trace of his presence could lead to his death. Dillon Robinson wouldn't be taken alive. His challenge to have one more try at life began much differently than planned. Blood was shed, unanticipated, not what he had paid for.

Daylight, bright enough to show his person, was now expanding from the east.

The storm abating the noise gave him an extra hour of cover. Enough time, he calculated, to finally reach the location struggled for.

Moving up a wooded mountain game trail, heavier snow the night before had been shaded by the branches overlapping the path. Snow shoes kept his depression on the trail to a minimum as he trekked on.

Through searching of news clippings and stories heard while questioning fellow inmates, Dillon had absorbed every hint of information Professor Laskowski had given him and Dewey concerning the location of Laskowski's brother-in-law, another professor of northwest history, Bob Wood. The Montana compound Wood owned had not changed hands since both distant partners were incarcerated or killed.

A deep rift over the two professors total wealth had, over time, crumbled their loyalty to each other—disintegrating relationships with all partners involved with the crimes committed three years earlier.

Sensing his destination was within reach, Dillon began to push himself mentally and physically toward the level on the Alaskan bench that held wealth and safety but, most of all, another opportunity to continue his quest to revenge his defeat by two men. An FBI agent and a Spokane deputy sheriff.

He knew where they lived. Caged Sleep was filled with wild scenarios of finding the two in order to right the disinformation law enforcement held against him. The last months of incarceration were a form of torture that saw death by his own doing a possibility—unbearable sleepless time, penned up in his small cell, completely foreign to his nature as an outdoorsman. In the beginning, a law-abiding man that spent his teen and young adult life making a good living in the woods of the northwest.

Chapter 2

Weekend Outing

The Kelseys were enjoying breakfast with the Rowes, Hollanders, and Domenicos. The couples planned a three-day, two-night trip north on I-95 to Kootenay Lake in British Columbia.

Reservations in Nelson, British Columbia, had been booked two weeks earlier after the wives collaborated during bunco night.

Deputy Hollander could barely control his enthusiasm while dining. They are running big time. With the price of salmon these days, our trip will cost nothing.

Greta interrupted her husband, This is supposed to be a romantic getaway without the kids. Your talking fishing?

Terry couldn't help himself, But it's Kokanee salmon, the two to five pound landlocked version of sockeye. At least let us off the hook to fish a few hours each morning. Greta, I promise you more romance than you can handle, both nights.

The kibitzing started from the other men present. Then the ladies joined. Wolf calls, whistles and ooh la las were heard throughout the little café. Joan was waiting the table, the Kelseys favorite waitress. Did Magnum finally marry her? she asked.

The entire table and café full of visitors knew exactly what she was talking about.

Sal Domenico tossed a comment for everyone to hear. They've put the show on hiatus until they finish their six-month honeymoon.

Lack of energy, quipped Ron Rowe.

After breakfast, the couples headed north, up I-95, into the Kaniksu National forest, passing Bonners Ferry and crossing the border into British Columbia. The caravan would cross Kootenay Lake on the Kootenay Bay Ferry and sign in their motel rooms in Nelson.

Meeting for dinner later that evening, the mood was festive. The little dinner house had come highly recommended. The history of the old main street diner unveiled a tale before the 1970s, when men and women were not allowed to sit and drink together in a bar. Now totally renovated the wall, with a few added porticos, remained intact between the two rooms, the signs still present to remind visitors what had come before. On the men's side, several small round tables dressed in red table clothes also left in each room as a reminder of the décor from the earlier half of the nineteenth century.

A sign above the bar was encased for preservation: 1 beer, 99 dollars. 2 beers, 50 cents.

The main fair: fresh kokanee or steak.

At the end of a meal that left all satisfied and obviously inebriated, Greta was chosen to deliver a message from the wives. This trip will cost each of you gents an extra two hundred dollars. The guys began to groan. We ladies are going to trail for a shopping spree in the morning while you go kokanee fishing. The guys began to cheer.

Isabel boldly stood up announcing to the entire room, Any husband that donates an extra one hundred shopping dollars to their wife, and we wives have all agreed, will taste an exclusive all-nighter of frolic and fun, alone with their wife.

Good night, said Abron immediately as he was pulling out his wallet, followed by the other three deputies.

The kokanee will still be biting tomorrow afternoon were the last words spoken by Terry Hollander.

Chapter 3

Update Spokane

Captain Shawn Saunders, head of the Spokane sheriff department, was conducting his morning meeting with deputies. This was a Monday meeting, the one day the captain had made mandatory. Even CSI investigator, Joi Bradley, and forensics head, Kelly McCallum, joined the deputies. After assigning new cases, the talk turned to Dillon Robinson. From his crime spree to Dillon's incarceration and escape, the facts covered the better part of an hour.

Shawn then called on FBI Agent Jake Monroe to speak. Jake was assigned by the FBI to that area of Washington State.

Shawn began, Agent Monroe has a special announcement for us this morning.

The room went silent. All eyes on Jake Monroe.

It gives me great pleasure, he began, to be given the honor of presenting a new lieutenant to our ranks. Before he could say more, most of the deputies in the meeting began to clap and holler in excitement as Deputy Mike Gwen walked toward the podium.

Thank you, Gwen responded to the welcome.

Before he could say any more, the catcalls began from his former deputy friends. Back from your Disney vacation?

Couldn't take the heat.

Wifey make you regain your senses?

Captain Saunders stepped up and stopped the words of kindness to which Lieutenant Gwen started the boos anew when he quickly jibbed, I'm being paid to come here and clean up your messes.

Lieutenant Mike Gwen was a deputy sergeant in Spokane three years earlier. He and his wife, Debbie, made a decision concerning their son's medical condition. Kevin was only eight years old when he was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. A children's hospital near San Diego was one of the leaders in the treatment of the lifelong fight. The Gwens transferred to the San Bernardino County Sheriff department located near the children's hospital.

When the disease was stabilized and the outlook bright for their son's health, the Gwens headed back to their home in Spokane.

Lieutenant Mike Gwen's leadership and skills would be greatly needed over the next year within the sheriff's department.

His captain felt that Gwen, more than anyone, best understood Detective Abron Kelsey.

The captain, along with Monroe and Gwen, recognized Abron's mental abilities for spot-on deductions when given evidence. The three agreed Kelsey was superior to anyone the three had ever worked with. They also were aware of Abron's unsettling tactics.

Tactics used to gain evidence during interrogations of persons of interest. Kelsey was also known for his death-wish refusal to stay out of the line of fire when threatened.

Shawn Saunder's department had a great weapon at their disposal, if they could keep him alive and out of jail.

Deputy Kelsey learned his brutal tactics through hands on interrogations of prisoners while serving as a marine in Afghanistan. Many times, the interrogations took place while under attack. The answers Abron needed would save lives, immediately, if they could be pried out of captured enemies thoughts. Abron Kelsey learned his methods well on the battlefield.

Those same brutal methods posed a threat for him in his current civilian position with the sheriff's department.

Captain Saunders had given specific orders to Lieutenant Gwen when he rehired his former sergeant.

You, Mike, know him better than anyone other than Isabel. Don't let him stray too far, or we could all be in trouble.

Chapter 4

Fentanyl

When Abron Kelsey had finished his marine corps enlistment and his studies at the University of Washington, he took a rookie position with the Spokane sheriff department to further his education in civilian law enforcement.

Sergeant Mike Gwen and his wife took the single and only child under their wing.

Abron and Mike became fast friends. Both shared an obsession with bodybuilding, strength, and endurance. The deputies each admired something in the other that they themselves did not possess.

Kelsey was big and strong but couldn't hold a candle to Gwen's lifting abilities. Gwen carried extreme strength but caught a glimpse through the months they were together of Kelsey's brilliance at visualizing answers that solved crimes committed. Now teamed together with FBI Agent Jake Monroe, Captain Shawn Saunders confidence was growing concerning recent escapee and murderer, Dillon Robinson.

A call came in shortly after the Monday update with Saunders.

Captain June Croop is on the line.

Captain Croop was Shawn's contemporary over the state line in North Idaho.

Shawn Saunders.

You know me, Shawn, straight to the point. We have a drug problem. Laced methamphetamines are being manufactured and distributed in our backyard. The hospital here in Coeur d'Alene has just sent word of a third death through overdose. This new version of crack cocaine contains fentanyl.

After a slight pause on the phone, Shawn responded, Our backyard?

The Spokane valley opens eastward, across the state line into Idaho and the city of Couer d'Alene. Over the years, the distance between the two cities lessened by way of a housing boom. Both cities pushing into each other at the state line.

Shawn, we traced the loaded crack back to a Spokane house in Northtown. I have a team watching as we speak. It's occupied.

Saunders responded, How much time? How can we help? You know you already have my permission to do what is necessary.

Captain, we would like to use SWAT under your direction. Our deputies said all was quiet at the intrusion point when they gave me the heads up, she responded.

Where do we meet? were his last words to her before signing off.

Captains Saunders and Croop had shared a three-year history of death and violence, just recently weathered.

Each captain had lost deputies through a deep deception in their own departments. Several deputies were killed or put away in the state penitentiary for crimes committed, including murder and espionage; all deputies involved were tempted with large sums of money from several different sources. The captains had learned from these experiences.

Working with the FBI through