Chapter 4 - THE DEPUTY AT THE COTTAGE
Ethan and Rachel were not allowed to return home alone.
Agent Vance assigned two federal officers to escort them to the cottage while a tactical team secured the sheriff's department. The rain had strengthened by the time their convoy left Main Street.
Rachel sat in the passenger seat with Ethan's jacket folded across her lap.
"You knew today might happen," she said.
"I knew Cole might escalate."
"You charged the satellite phone this morning."
Ethan looked through the windshield.
"Yes."
"And you didn't tell me."
"I didn't want you carrying it."
"I was already carrying it."
He glanced at her.
"The fear. The witnesses. The files hidden under our floorboards. I was carrying all of it, Ethan."
He had no defense.
Their cottage stood at the edge of town beside a line of cottonwoods. One federal SUV stopped near the mailbox while the second pulled behind Ethan's truck.
The front door was open.
Ethan's entire posture changed.
"Stay in the vehicle."
Rachel grabbed his sleeve.
"Don't leave me here without telling me what you see."
He looked toward the dark doorway.
"Door frame is split. No movement in the front room. Curtain in the kitchen is moving."
One agent approached from the left while another circled behind the house.
Ethan stepped from the SUV despite their order.
He heard the sound before they did.
A floorboard.
Then the back door slammed.
A man in a deputy's jacket ran toward the trees carrying a black backpack.
Ethan cut across the yard.
His damaged knee protested, but years of training took over. The deputy glanced back, stumbled in wet grass, and reached inside his jacket.
"Hands!" an agent shouted.
The deputy turned with a pistol.
Ethan struck his wrist before the weapon cleared the fabric. The gun fell. They hit the ground together.
The deputy clawed for Ethan's face.
Ethan trapped one arm, rolled him onto his stomach, and pinned him until agents reached them.
It was Deputy Nolan.
The same man who had illegally searched Ethan's truck.
Inside the backpack, agents found cash, a laptop, and the folder containing Rachel's witness statements.
The cottage had been searched carefully.
Not robbed.
Drawers remained closed. Jewelry was untouched. The steel case beneath the bed had been forced open, but the satellite phone was no longer inside.
Someone knew what mattered.
Rachel stood in the kitchen while Agent Vance photographed the damage.
Nolan sat handcuffed outside beneath the porch light.
"He came for the statements," Rachel said.
"And the phone," Vance replied.
"How did he know about the phone?"
Vance looked toward Ethan.
"Who knew you had it?"
"My federal liaison. Rachel. Two members of my former command."
"No one local?"
"No."
Rachel remembered Sheriff Cole's face in the diner.
Not confusion when Ethan produced the device.
Recognition.
Cole had asked what it was, but the confidence in his voice had cracked before Ethan said Falcon One.
"He knew," she whispered.
Ethan understood.
Vance did too.
They searched Nolan's laptop at the field office that night.
A folder contained photographs of Ethan and Rachel taken over several weeks. Their grocery trips. The clinic. The diner. Their cottage.
Another file contained a scanned federal memorandum marked restricted. It described Ethan's status as a protected witness and referenced the emergency communication device assigned to him.
The document had been accessed through a federal database.
This was no longer only local corruption.
Someone inside the government had given Cole classified information.
Vance closed the laptop.
"I need to contact Washington."
Ethan looked at the screen.
"Use a clean line."
Rachel stared at him.
"How bad is this?"
May you like
Ethan's answer was quiet.
"Bad enough that Cole may not be the person in charge."
