Page 84 of Backwater Justice
Dickie went back to the kitchen and then brought the cooler and the groceries to the basement. “Here you go. Make the best of it.” He removed the tape from her mouth. “If you behave, this will all be over soon.” He had absolutely no idea how, but he certainly hoped it would. He was confident she wasn’t going anywhere, so he cut the ties from her wrists. “See ya,” he said, as he left her sitting with tape over her mouth. When he got to the top of the stairs, he made sure the padlock was secured. Even if she screamed and yelled, there was no one around to hear her.
Dickie checked the clock on the stove. Almost seven. He’d been up for twenty-four hours. He needed some shut-eye before he went to work, so he stretched out on his couch.
Eileen crawled along the bushes to see if she could get a better look at what was going on inside. The kitchen light was still on, and the box was sitting in the middle of the room. About an hour later, she saw a shadow and ducked below the sill.
Dickie unfolded all the flaps of the box so it was now flat. He brought it to the shed, just in case he needed it for transporting something later. He went back into the cabin, took a shower, and left for work, with Eileen following not too far behind.
She sent a message for Avery:
Subject stashed FLAT box in shed. On the move.
Avery conveyed the information to the Sisters, while Fergus and Charles were reading the results of the lab tests.
* * *
The beeping of garbage trucks jolted Bart awake. He checked his watch. It was six in the morning. He’d missed his opportunity to get the machine out of the building.I can’t be everywhere at the same time.He figured the most important thing was to keep an eye on Isabelle. He craned his neck and spotted her car. Let out a sigh of relief. An hour later, he saw Isabelle go into the office, and then she shadowed the remaining housekeeper as she did her rounds.
By noon, Isabelle was anxious to get back to the main office. Kat had already left. Isabelle said her goodbyes and began her trip back to Salem.
Sasha was still on Bart’s tail, who was still on Isabelle’s. Bart pulled into the company’s employee parking lot in Salem, and Sasha moved her car to the end of the visitor lot.
Sitting in a car across from her was Eileen, who had been following Dickie all morning. He was still in his office.
Bart was exhausted. This secret-agent-man existence wasn’t half as exciting as he’d thought it would be. He dreaded having to drive back to Eugene later that evening, but he knew Dickie would split his spleen if he didn’t get the machine out of there stat. He wearily walked to the transportation shed, where Kathryn was checking out some of the vehicles.
“Nice line-up,” she commented, studying the modern Ford Transit Van with a high roof.
“Yeah. Got three of ’em in this year. Makes it a lot easier to haul and move around inside.”
Kat nodded. “I appreciate having room to move.”
Bart made small talk with her, asking the usual questions about how long she’d been driving, her favorite highway, rest stop, diner. Kat thought he seemed like a decent sort of guy. Too bad he’d hit a girl and kidnapped her.
CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE
The Winners and Losers
“This is quite the rum sort, innit?” Fergus said to Charles. “Three sets of prints, two different individuals’ DNA.”
“Let me take a look at that,” Charles said. “According to this, two sets of prints match for familial DNA. That means two people who handled this glass are related, and the other is not.”
“Correct, mate,” Fergus said.
“We’re going to have to tell Myra she needs to find out who served the drinks that night.”
“Right.”
“I’ll ring her.” Charles hit the speed-dial number for Myra.
“Morning, love.”
“Hello, Charles. How are you this fine day?”
“Well, it’s almost lunchtime for us.”
“It is, indeed.”
“Speaking of lunch, when you see Milton today, ask him who served the drinks the night of his heart attack.”