Read Online Lethal Force by Trevor Scott - Free Book Online

O’Reilly.”
    She admitted this with a shrug.
    He explained what had happened to him since they had last met, including his kidnapping but leaving out some of the brutal details, and ending with his visit to Bill O’Reilly. “I won’t apologize for what I said there,” he said. “I needed to put them on notice.”
    She leaned across the table closer to him. “Do you really think I’m in danger?”
    â€œIt’s possible. You might have been flagged with some of the inquiries you’ve made.”
    She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
    â€œRegardless, you and I have been linked. So someone is making the assumption that I’m working for you. That’s not a good thing for either of us. We need to get out of town. What’s on the agenda next week?”
    â€œWe’re on a break until the State of the Union,” she said. “I have a trip to South Korea with a bi-partisan committee to attend six-party talks with the North.”
    Jake thought about his next move. “So, you were planning on going back to Montana anyway?”
    â€œYes, but I’m not sure what you have in mind.”
    â€œWe’ll travel together alone.” He smiled at her and continued, “Let’s go Lori. We have a plane to catch and a professor to meet.”
    Her sigh said everything as they got up and left the coffee shop.

9
    Whitefish, Montana
    The Whitefish Police Department consisted of ten patrol officers, a few sergeants and lieutenants, the assistant chief and the chief of police, Buddy Grimes, a gruff old guy with a beard who had spent most of his time in Army military police and as a Montana State Trooper before ‘retiring’ to sleepy Whitefish, where nothing much happened.
    During the past dozen or so hours, Professor James Tramil had heard nearly every story the police chief could summon from his many years in law enforcement. Tramil thought the guy had a special place in his heart for his time in the Army. It took Tramil a couple of hours to convince Chief Grimes that he wasn’t a dirtbag. That he wasn’t trying to have sex with another man in the Amtrak bathroom. That the man had held a knife to his throat and had actually drawn a little blood. And that this same man had killed his friend and colleague back in Corvallis, Oregon. Once the chief confirmed his story, sort of, with the Oregon State University campus police and the Corvallis police, the man had calmed down some and started in with the story telling.
    Part of Tramil wished he was still inside the small holding cell like the first few hours in custody. Somehow he’d felt safer in there. Also, the chief wouldn’t be recycling some of the same stories.
    Now, ten p.m. quickly approaching, Tramil sat at a small table in the main area of the small police department building.
    The police chief was on the phone again with Amtrak authorities. They had searched the train many times for the mysterious man, first as it sat at the Whitefish terminal, and then a few more times as it traveled east toward Minnesota.
    Chief Grimes set the phone back down and said, “Still haven’t found the man. He’s like a ghost. One of the passengers admitted to taking a picture of the man. We should get that by e-mail in a short while. You mentioned he looked like a 50s throwback, with a buzz cut and horned rimmed glasses. You want some more coffee? I could make a fresh pot.”
    â€œNo, thanks,” Tramil said. “I’ll be up all night as it is.” In fact, he wasn’t even sure where he would stay this night.
    The chief of police shrugged. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re free to go. Your story checks out. We’ve got no reason to hold you.”
    Tramil didn’t think he was really being held. He was there more for his own protection from the killer. “Where do I go from here?”
    â€œI don’t know. Back to