Rogue Angel - Footprints Part 76

"In the cave they stashed us in this morning. She's dead, too."

"You killed her?"

Annja shook her head. "Not me. Jenny."

Joey grinned. "Nice one for her. Where is she?"

Annja pointed. "She's dead, Joey."

Joey looked back at Annja. "What? How?"

"She made a bad decision. And it cost her her life."

"You killed her?" killed her?"

Annja shook her head. "No. In a way, she killed herself."

Joey sighed. "So much death."

"Too much death, my friend. But I am glad to see you."

Joey smiled. "Likewise. I heard those shots and we came running-"

"We?"

From behind Joey, two men stepped into the clearing. One of them smiled and held up his hand. "h.e.l.lo, Annja."

"Agent Simpson?"

He shrugged. "Name's Davis, actually. But you can call me Simpson if you want."

Baker came out into the open, as well. "Nice to see you again, Annja. Shame it's under these circ.u.mstances," he said.

"You have a different name, too?" Annja moved Joey behind her, ready to unleash the sword. The way she was feeling, they'd be lucky if she left anything larger than a thimble with which to identify them.

"My name's Connor. But like Davis said, if you feel better calling me Baker, then so be it."

"Annja."

She shook her head. "Not now, Joey. Let me handle this."

Davis held his hands up. "I think you might want to listen to him. He's got plenty of things to tell you."

Annja frowned, but kept her eyes on the two men. "What do you want to tell me, Joey?"

"They're not here to trap the Sasquatch."

"What?"

"They're not. They're special agents with the Drug Enforcement Agency."

"DEA?".

Davis nodded. "We knew there was a heavy drug flow coming into this area but no one knew exactly where. Several towns border this forest, so we decided to set up shop and see what we could find out."

"That's why we had to run you and your friends out of the woods the other day. We didn't want anyone getting hurt in case we found the dealers."

"And the big foot thing-" she glanced at Joey "-sorry, the Sasquatch thing, was just a cover story?"

Both men nodded. "It's amazing what you can sell as a cover story given the hysteria that swept the country since 9/11. Paranoia's at an all-time high. We're not happy about that, but we're not beyond using it for our own purposes, either."

"Swell."

Davis pointed at Tom's body. "He was the ringleader?"

Annja shrugged. "I guess so. His sister Sheila's up in the cave down the trail there. And there's another body back at the hotel in town. David, the sheriff. Seems the partners had a little dispute and he lost out."

"He was in on it?"

Annja nodded. "Yep."

Connor sighed. "Good lawmen are tough to find these days."

"Whatever." Annja wasn't in the mood to discuss the moral ambiguities of law enforcement. She pointed to Jenny. "I was trying to figure out how to handle the body of my friend."

Connor frowned. "The cute one?"

"She would have liked hearing you say that," Annja said.

"I would have liked taking her out on a date." He sighed. "How did she die?"

"Not as happy as she would have been if she'd known you were interested in her," Annja said. "But I guess that's the way it goes."

Davis pursed his lips. "We need to clean things up here. Call in the state authorities. You have anything else to add to what we've seen so far? Any sign of where they stashed their drugs?"

Annja considered the packages in the back of the truck. She thought about how many people would suffer once those drugs. .h.i.t the streets. And she thought about how the criminals who peddled them would laugh all the way to the bank.

She shook her head. "No. Nothing else to add. I think you guys have got it all sewn up here."

"We have any questions," Davis said, "we'll call you. Make sure you leave your number with Ellen back in town before you go anywhere. Okay?"

Annja shrugged. "I'm easy enough to find, anyway. You just have to look me up online."

"Well, give us a number so we can call you."

Annja nodded. "Fine."

She glanced at Joey. "You must be ready to sleep for a week."