“Right, and they don’t have sufficient medical services located in Idaho?”
“I made an executive decision on that. But I’m happy to answer whatever questions you have now. And if you had talked to me before you went to the crime scene, our conversation wouldn’t be nearly as helpful to you. By giving you the time to see everything we can be a lot more productive.”
“I was warned by several people at the Bureau that you could spin things with the best of them.”
“Just trying to be helpful.”
“It looks like a war zone out here,” McAllister said, his tone turning serious.
“Well, from my point of view, it was. I’ve been through some crazy stuff in my career, but that one ranks right up there.”
“I’ve discharged my weapon twice in twenty-four years’ service with the Bureau. It looks like you beat my number in about four seconds.”
“It was out of necessity.”
“I could see that. I also saw the cage in the old barn. What was that for?”
“They kept us in there.”
“But there was a jail.”
“They kept us in there, too,” replied Pine.
“You and your sister and Carol Blum?”
“Not Carol, she wasn’t in the cage, just in the jail cell.”
“We ran tests. We found some of her blood in the barn outside the cage. And we found traces of your blood in the cage.”
“Well, they didn’t treat us nice.”
“Why did they bring Carol into the barn?”
Pine decided to simply tell the truth. She explained that Buckley had forced her to fight her sister in the cage and used Blum as the carrot.
“Jesus, what a maniac,” said McAllister.
“Spot-on with that one.”
“But how exactly did you get away?” asked McAllister.
“We managed to break out and get some weapons. We stole a vehicle, rammed the gates, and the chase was on. They shot out our gas tank. So we had to hole up in that box canyon. That’s where the battle really took place.”
“We found the remains of a drone and a slew of freaking NATO rifle rounds.”
“There was a bunch of weapons in the SUV, along with the drone. We used everything we could to stay alive. And we needed it all.”
“And the SUV? It was destroyed.”
“Yeah, my sister had the great idea of using the gas vapors in the tank as a bomb to take out a bunch of Buckley’s guys.”
McAllister said dryly, “Well, it worked. I don’t remember seeing quite so many body parts in one place. I’ll be seeing those in my head for the next ten years at least.”
“Well, the bad guys lost,” Pine added brightly.
“Right,” said McAllister. “So you’re saying that you and your sister took out all of those heavily armed men without help? I mean, I know you’re good, but really . . .”
“Well, we had Carol, too—don’t forget her. And my sister could kick the crap out of just about every FBI agent you’ve ever worked with.”
“I’ve heard the same about you.”
“And Buckley had an FBI agent murdered. So he got what he deserved. So I’m just a little confused as to why you’re giving me the third degree on how I managed to live through all of it.”
“No, no, you’re absolutely right,” said McAllister, his tone quickly changing. He cleared his throat and continued, “Anyway, we’re also looking into Buckley’s business empire. Seems he had the clean side and the dirty side. And they only became intertwined when he needed to launder the dirty money through the clean storefronts. But it’s going to take the best financial forensics guys at the Bureau to untangle all the stuff.”