Red and white flashing lights greeted Andy on his return to the station. A large fire truck was parked out front, surrounded by a gathering of firemen and spectators, including Captain Harris. Harris, a brawny country boy in his late forties gestured idly at the building, coffee cup in hand, talking to Chief Mackey from the Ferndale Fire Department. Mackey had more of a city vibe, with a lean build and a clean-shaven head.

Andy waited for a few townspeople to move away from the parking spots as he backed into the one nearest the side entrance. He got out of the car and hurried to the front.

“Hey, Captain.” He approached Harris and Mackey. “What’s going on?”

Harris nodded at the building, his expression weary. “All kinds of craziness. The roof blew up, and something keeps tripping the fire sprinklers. Now you might think that’s because of the roof fire, but that happened after the sprinklers went wonky, even though there was no smoke inside the building. FD is searching for signs of bad wires but they haven’t found anything yet. They think the sprinklers might be because of some faulty pipes, though.”

Andy looked around anxiously, scanning the crowd. “What about the prisoner we brought in?”

“Your kidnapper? He’s still in there for now. But we might have to let him go seeing as your two witnesses ran off in the confusion. Townsend’s looking for them right now, along with Harvey.”

Andy’s mouth opened but no words came out. Ollie had been right about them. But that couldn’t be. He’d found evidence. Oliver Hauk was a bad guy, and he could prove it.

“Can I go in?” he asked Mackey.

The fireman nodded. “It’s perfectly safe now. Be forewarned, though, it looks like a typhoon hit that place. I hope you didn’t have any important papers sitting out. Or your dinner.”

Andy gave them both a wan smile, then jogged into the building. As Mackey predicted, the floor was soaked, as were papers and clothes sitting on desks or chairs. He wrinkled his nose at the smell of stale water. It would take a long time to clean this place up. Officer Johnston stood at the far side of the bullpen, a squeegee mop in hand as he tried to wipe away some of the puddles out a side door. He gave Andy a quick wave.

Andy moved down the main hallway, where he found Ollie sitting in one of the two holding cells at the back of the building. Ollie looked up at him, his hair and clothes damp, but no worse for wear. Andy stood next to the bars, a fierce scowl on his face.

“You have a lot to explain.”

Ollie raised an eyebrow but kept his mouth shut.

“I checked your car. Found something interesting in there.” A tick of concern crossed Ollie’s face, and Andy smiled in victory. “You know what it was?”

Ollie looked at the floor and sighed. “A foot-tall pygmy goblin with a bad attitude?”

Andy blinked. “What? No. I found a bag full of weapons sitting on the front seat. Guns, knives, chemicals. What’s gonna happen when I get all of that stuff tested?”

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Ollie relaxed and leaned back against the wall. “Isn’t that illegal search and seizure? You can’t use any of that against me.”

“I left the bag there. Once we get our court order, then we’ll go back and confiscate it. I wanted a sneak preview of what you were up to. And now I know.”

“Test all you want. None of it will match anything. Oh, and I’m not sure if you heard, but your witnesses seem to be missing, so it’s gonna be kinda hard to press charges.”

“You think I care about them?” Andy grabbed the bars. “Where’s Kimmie?”

Ollie leaned forward. “She wasn’t home?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Hauk. No one else is watching right now. I can come in there and administer a little blind justice if I need to. I can make it so the bruises don’t show up.”

Ollie stood up, his expression serious. “Settle down cowboy and answer the question. Was Kimmie home, or not?”

“She wasn’t home. Wendy and Albert haven’t seen her all day.” His eyes narrowed. “If that’s because of you…”

Ollie ran a hand through his damp hair. “Trust me, Allsome, there’s a lot of stuff I wish I could tell you about. Not that you’d believe any of it.”

“Try me.”

Ollie paced the interior of the cell before fixing his gaze on Andy. “Would you believe I’m a hunter?”

“Half the population of this town are hunters.”

Ollie shook his head. “Not a game hunter. A bounty hunter. I came here to find Mariah. She’s wanted for intrastate drug trafficking and possibly a couple murders. That’s why you can’t find her in your system. Mariah isn’t her real name. And that’s also why I’ve been hanging around with Kimmie. I needed to make sure I was on the right track without alerting my real target.”

Andy’s lips formed a thin line. “Seriously?”

“Why do you think she ran away? She’s here under a fake identity. She’s on the run. You had her here, in this building, and she escaped again.”

Andy shook his head. “I’m not buying it.”

Ollie stepped up next to the bars. “Take me back to my car. Back to where I found her. I’ll prove it. I left something behind. Something you didn’t know about when you found us.”

“I already searched your car.”

“Not in the car, in the woods.”

Andy gave him a dubious look. “Where?”

Ollie shook his head. “I can’t tell you. I can’t give you directions because I dropped it in a hurry. I’d have to be there, to retrace my steps.”

“You are insane if you think I’m letting you out of this cell.” He tapped the bars between them.

“Fine.” Ollie shrugged. “But I know how this works. Your witnesses are gone, and you can’t keep me here forever. I either walk out of here in the morning, free to do what I want, or you can take me back to my car right now and give me a chance to prove that I’m not the bad guy here.” Ollie stepped closer to the bars and lowered his voice. “You’ve already shown yourself willing to bend some laws to make sure criminals get their due. All we have to do is go look. That’s it.”

Andy fumed for a moment. Something wasn’t right about this, not any of it. His brain told him to walk away, and forget he’d ever spoken to Oliver Hauk, but his gut wanted to know more.

Johnston appeared at the end of the hallway, an excited glint in his eyes. “Andy! The utility shed behind Ginnie’s just blew up. The FD is headed there now, but Captain wants one of us to go with them.”

Andy slowly turned to the younger cop. “Blew up? Like, exploded?”

The rookie cop nodded vigorously. “Should I stay and watch him, or…?”

Andy turned back to Ollie, who raised an eyebrow. “You go. I’ll keep an eye on this guy.”

“Really?” Johnston beamed. “I can take this one?”

“Yeah. Go. I got this.”

Johnston ran off, his splashing footsteps slowly fading away. Ollie took a step back from the bars, leaving room for the cell door to open. “Looks like it’s you and me now.”

Andy squeezed his hands into fists. He shook his head and walked over to the desk at the far end of the hall. He pulled out the keys and then returned to the jail cell.

“If you’re lying to me…”

Ollie held up his hands. “I know, I know. I’ll get another ticket.”

Andy frowned. He tossed handcuffs on the floor in front of Ollie. “Put those on. Tight.” Ollie picked up the handcuffs and slapped them on his wrists. He stood up and the two men faced off.

“All right, Hauk,” Andy finally said as he opened the cell door. “Let’s go find this proof.”