“Last pass was ten minutes ago,” I said. “Let’s go.”
We headed into the study and I opened the window. I’d already placed a stepladder underneath it to help all of us exit without incident. And by all of us, I meant Gertie and her bad knees. Ida Belle went first, then made sure Gertie got out without incident, then I climbed out last, and we set off down the side of the house, keeping our position behind the bushes. I stopped at the end of the house and peered out, making sure there were no random ATF agents lurking about. I didn’t think they would be foolish enough to pull the same thing twice, but if my job had taught me anything it was that humans weren’t often rational.
The space between the houses was clear, so I ran across to Ronald’s yard, Ida Belle and Gertie close behind. We moved across his backyard and two more houses before turning and heading for the street. I stopped at the edge of the house and scanned up and down the road, looking for any sign of movement or oncoming headlights in the distance, but everything was quiet.
The place I’d chosen for the pickup car, a completely nondescript Honda Accord, was directly between two streetlamps, so almost no light reached the vehicle. The owners of the house it was parked in front of were the cheapest people on the block and had something against burning outside lights. It provided the least visibility for our passage.
I set off across the yard at a fast walk. If anyone drove by and caught sight of me, they would probably take running or even jogging as my attempt to escape a pursuer. That meant a call to the sheriff’s department, so I settled for fast walking. Ida Belle followed at almost the same pace, while Gertie lagged behind. Ida Belle and I were already in the car and ready to go while Gertie negotiated the last quarter of the yard.
“Close the door,” Ida Belle said when Gertie climbed in the car. “If I’d known you were going to make this a midnight stroll, I would have gotten you a wheelchair.”
I started the car and drove one block back from Main Street, then headed for the highway.
“Why didn’t you just make me wait in the car like a good retriever?” Gertie asked.
“That whole bathroom thing would have been a problem,” Ida Belle said.
I clutched the wheel as I turned the car onto the highway. Usually, I’d be joining in or at the very least laughing at their banter, but right now, I was too wired. Too ready to get answers and get everything back to normal. My issues with Carter were bothering me more than I was willing to let on, and with Ida Belle’s safety and Hot Rod’s health hanging in the balance, I couldn’t clear my mind enough to make the tough decisions I needed to make.
I peered out the windshield, scanning the highway in front of me, looking for the SUV, but the road was clear. Ida Belle noticed my unusual level of concentration on the road and frowned.
“Do you think they screwed up?” she asked. “Miscalculated the fuel and they had enough to get away?”
“I doubt it,” I said. “But maybe he never left town.”
“Or maybe they have him already,” Gertie said. “This is the Heberts we’re talking about. I’m going to bet on efficiency where things like this are concerned.”
She had a point. The Heberts were on the wrong side of the law when it came to most things, and speed and stealth were two of the things that kept them out of jail.
Still…I handed Ida Belle my phone. “Send a text to Little and ask if they have the thieves.”
Even though we were 99 percent sure the Seal brothers were the guilty party, I was still using the generic description because if life in Sinful had taught me anything, it was that things were rarely as they appeared.
Ida Belle sent the text and watched the screen. A couple seconds later, my phone signaled an income text.
“He says they are en route to the storage facility,” Ida Belle said.
I could hear the excitement in her voice and felt it as well. This was turning out to be surprisingly easy. All we had to do now was get information out of the thieves and prevent the Heberts from killing them when it was over.
Piece of cake.
It was the second item on that agenda that occupied most of my thoughts on the rest of the drive. By the time we arrived at the storage facility, I had decided on either a logical argument or begging if it came down to it. Prayer might be thrown in there as well.
A couple of cars were parked in front, including Big and Little’s Hummer, but Ida Belle’s SUV was nowhere in sight. I saw one of the Heberts’ employees waving me toward the gate and drove through as he opened it.
“They must have put the SUV back in the storage unit,” Ida Belle said.
I nodded. “Probably the best thing until we get all of this sorted out. For all we know, there might be more people than these guys looking for it.”
“There’s a cheerful thought,” Ida Belle said. “When we figure out what that darn key is hiding, I’m taking out a full-page ad in every newspaper in the parish, letting everyone know that the treasure hunt is over.”
“It’s not the worst idea,” I said. “Unless, of course, there’s something else hidden in there and we didn’t find it.”
Ida Belle stared at me in dismay. “Don’t even go there.”
“Maybe you should paint it bright pink and put daisies on it or something,” Gertie said. “Dudes would never steal a bright pink vehicle, even if it had a million dollars and ten naked supermodels hidden inside.”
“That would defeat the purpose, since then I wouldn’t drive it either,” Ida Belle said.
“The unit door is partially open,” I said, feeling my pulse tick up a notch.
Mannie was standing outside the unit and waved to us as I pulled up and parked. I jumped out of the car and practically ran the couple of steps over to him.
“Everything went okay?” I asked.
Mannie grinned. “Like clockwork. They’re waiting for you inside.”
He leaned down and lifted the door the rest of the way, and we got our first look at the result of our successful plan.
Big and Little stood in the middle of the storage unit, two men duct-taped to chairs in front of them. I greeted the Heberts as I walked over and got my first personal look at the Seal brothers.
Identical twins. Five feet eleven. A hundred seventy-five pounds. Decent muscle content but lean. Smart enough to be scared. Even if they weren’t duct-taped to chairs, I could take both of them with little effort.
Ida Belle and Gertie stepped up next to me and looked at the brothers. Gertie shook her head. “I can’t believe after all these years, you still haven’t learned a thing.”
The brothers looked at the three of us and glanced back at Big and Little, clearly confused by the mix of people in front of them.
“Have they said anything?” I asked.