Page 10 of Broken Wheels
There was a pause. “And that’s fine. But you’re right, you should’ve come and told us. We would have sent someone with you.”
Josh snorted. “Michael, we’re meeting in a mall full of people. I’m pretty sure it’ll be safe. I just wanted you to know.” What was the big deal? It wasn’t as if he was in any danger.
“You wait for Dixon before you set foot in there, do you hear me?”
Michael might have been blowing things up out of all proportion, but his tone let Josh know this was the only viable option. Then the mall came into sight.
Josh glanced at the clock on the dash. He was already cutting it close. Not that he’d be late, but he wanted to make sure he didn’t arrive on the dot either. One thing was for sure—he wasn’t about to go over the speed limit. Josh hated driving at the best of times, especially when it was all too easy for him to get distracted while doing it.
“I can’t wait for Dixon. If I’m late, Cliff might leave. And I need to know what’s going on.”
“Josh—”
“I’ll be fine,” he promised. “Have to go. I don’t want to be late.”
“Josh, don’t you?—”
He disconnected the call. There would be hell to pay when he got back to CrossBow. But by then at least his curiosity would be satisfied.
Chapter 4
Josh sat on a bench, scanning his surroundings for any sign of Cliff. The mall was full of shoppers, and above the annoying canned music, he could hear the delighted cries of kids on the nearby rides around the corner.
Josh preferred the tinkling sound of falling water, not that it was easy to hear above the music. Four benches had been placed around the small fountain that contained maybe an inch of water, its sculpted center an elaborate representation of four leaping fish, thin jets erupting from their mouths and cascading into the shell-shaped receptacle below.
Kinda fancy for a mall.
Definitely too fancy for this mall. Someone was obviously suffering from delusions of grandeur.
He glanced at his phone: 2:56. Still no sign of Cliff.
Ever since he’d received the email, he’d been pondering about what Cliff could possibly have to share that was so urgent. Josh had left the project eight years ago, but not before he’d acquired certain files as insurance.
He hadn’t trusted those guys one bit, even if they were the US government. And dealing with Porter did nothing to dissuade him from that distrust.
“Aw, Mom, I wanna go on the train.”
The piercing voice shattered Josh’s peace, and he jerked his head in its direction. A woman stood by the pillar at the corner of the mall intersection. Her hand was on a stroller containing a baby, and a little kid tugged at her coat, pointing in the direction of the rides.
“Stevie, you’ll have to wait.” Her patient tone told Josh this was a normal occurrence.
“But there’s no one on it now,” Stevie protested, tugging harder.
In the stroller, the baby started crying, and she knelt beside it. Stevie cast longing glances along the mall to where a nearly empty trackless train circled the lobby.
Josh peered at his phone: 2:58.
Come on, Cliff, where are you?
“Stevie, will you stop that?”
He returned his attention to the mom and her kids. Plainly she was having difficulties trying to corral little Stevie. Josh scanned the shoppers. There was no one around him who even vaguely resembled what he kind of remembered Cliff looked like, and the mom could probably use a little help.
The heck with it.
He got up from the bench and headed to the pillar where Stevie had shifted his whining into a higher gear.
She sighed as Josh approached, and he listened as she attempted to bribe the kid with promises of treats once the shopping was done.