CHAPTER
80
SAM COLE ROLLED OVER, opened her eyes, and nearly screamed.
Puller was sitting next to her in a chair he’d drawn up to the bed.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she said, sitting up.
“Waiting for you to wake up.”
“Why didn’t you just wake me up?”
“You were sleeping so peacefully.”
“I didn’t think that mattered to you. You woke me up before from a sound sleep.”
“It was nice watching you sleep.”
She started to say something and then stopped. “Oh,” she said.
Puller looked down.
Flustered, she said, “So you decided to wait and scare me to death?”
“Wasn’t my plan, but it sort of worked out that way.”
Before she could say anything else he held up his camera.
“You want to take my picture?” she said in a confused tone.
“I want you to look at some pictures.”
“What am I looking at?”
“Stay here. I’ll make some coffee and we can look at it together.”
Thirty minutes and two cups of coffee later, Cole sat back against her pillow. “Okay. What does all this mean?”
“It means we have a lot more digging to do. And not a lot of time to do it.”
“And you’re sure this is important?”
“It’s why they broke into Strauss’s safe. And I think it was why the Reynoldses and Treadwell and Bitner were killed. So, yes, it’s important.”
“But I thought they were killed because of the soil report.”
“I did too. But there was nothing on it that would raise any alarm. They were killed because somehow it was found out that these plans had been taken from Strauss’s safe. And they also discovered that Bitner and Treadwell had told Reynolds about it. So they had to die too.”
“So what happened to the soil report?”
“Remember the pieces of the certified mail delivery we found under the couch?”
“Yes.”
“I think the killers planted them there. As a red herring.”
“Why? And why not just leave the whole thing for us to find?”
“Then we don’t waste any time running that lead down. But if we had thought about it some, it was pretty convenient that they left the green pieces of the certified mail receipt for us to find.”
“And Larry Wellman?”
“Was on patrol when they showed up. He had to be silenced.”
“Damn, Puller, it makes sense.” Her features became troubled. “So they killed Larry just to plant pieces of paper to throw us off?”
“Way I see it.”
“And Dickie?”
“In way over his head. I don’t think he knew anything about the killings. When he found out, it was only a matter of time. And when I enlisted his help I pretty much signed his death warrant.”
She looked at him quizzically. “When did you think of all this?”
“When I was back in Afghanistan.”
“What?”
“In my head only,” he said. “My brain tends to work faster when I’m there,” he added in a low voice.
“I can understand that,” Cole said slowly.
She looked at the pictures on his camera. “So what do we do with these?”
“I’m going to download it to my computer and then print out pages. But the bottom line is we need to go there.”
“Go there? You mean just to look?”
“No, I mean more than that.” He checked his watch. “It’s still dark outside. You game?”
“It wouldn’t matter if I am or not. We don’t have any time to waste. Now get out of my bedroom so I can change.”