“Where’s Sharky?” Kerry asked when she saw Ryan.
“Inside.”
“Let’s test Tank,” she said. “See how he handles another male dog.”
Ryan turned and opened the door and called him. The shark come out, looking alert, and walked right up to the dog that was twice his size. Not aggressively, but not meekly. He stood at attention, not slouching or dropping his tail.
Tank sniffed and wagged his tail and made fast friends with the smaller dog in less than a minute. Evidently he had no aggression toward other dogs. He was just a big happy guy who had suffered the misfortune of spending the first year or two of his life with the wrong people. The sort of people that cost others money and time and effort and sometimes heartbreak in order to help the animals they had neglected.
Not Ryan’s sort of people.
But he had learned to do his best to follow Kerry’s example in such matters. He tried not to the think of the perpetrators who had caused the problems, but rather tried to focus on the positive side of helping the dogs in questions.
He had narrowly avoided getting in deep trouble once, years back, when he had focused on the human aspect and had executed his own hockey mentality of instant justice. The guy in that case, a few towns over, ended up suffering a few injuries, as well as the indignity of being stuffed into a cold doghouse on a March afternoon. From there he was eventually discovered by some girl scouts peddling cookies and was extracted and spent a little time in the much warmer and more comfortable hospital, recovering.
Chuck gave Ryan a long lecture about the ordeal, after a truck very similar to Ryan’s Ford had been reported rumbling away from the scene. Chuck made his point very clear that stuffing thoroughly beaten people into dog houses was not acceptable. The local cop of that town had made a deal with Chuck to let the incident go, as long as it didn’t happen again. On his end he assured Chuck that the dog abuser would be watched very closely, if he ever got another dog.
So it all worked out okay.
Ryan smiled as he stood there remembering. That was one guy who wouldn’t want another dog. Not because he’d learned a lesson and had grown to see the error in his ways. Simply because from that day on he would associate the presence of a dog with pain and helplessness and the dread of another visit from the guy in the Ford wearing the ski mask.
No, thank you.
“You look happy this morning,” Kerry said, stepping up to Ryan.
“Just reflecting a bit.”
“On what?”
“How I like dogs,” he answered. Not a lie. Just not the exact thought in mind when she’d noticed him smiling.
They visited for a while, eventually moving indoors. Ryan muttered something about being sorry for the day before. Kerry nodded and twirled her perfectly straightened hair around her finger and then tried to change the subject. Sometimes it was best to just move on rather than hash things out.
Chapter 22
The blonde drove cautiously as she moved north. The roads were becoming increasingly greasy in spots, and the last thing she needed was to crash a rented car and derail the whole day. So she drove slowly, with quiet Joey riding quietly in the passenger seat.
They stopped at the park and ride after exiting the interstate, where they spoke about the course of actions. Joey was a tad slow, and she was patient enough to realize that for everything to go off as planned, she would have to explain things to him several times.
She was okay with that. She had three hundred thousand good reasons for being patient and taking things slowly with her assistant for the day.
From the park and ride they continued north, following the map on her phone. Passing through the lights and entering Fall River. She cruised through town, noting the storage place on the left. It was way in off the road. Good. Only one car parked out front. Not a busy place.
Soft target.
She continued on by and cruised until she passed some large buildings. A fire station and a town hall and a small police building with no cruisers parked out front. Some other building of no meaning to her. She continued until they saw a sign welcoming them to a neighboring town. Just past the sign she pulled into a driveway and turned around and cruised south again.
***
She parked before the Pinewood Motel and went in alone and got a room. Paid cash for one night. Drove down the little access road by the white house serving as the office, down to the cabins in back, which were arrayed like a big horseshoe. The cabins were little white building, each looking like miniature Colonial houses with brick chimney’s from the fireplaces. She wouldn’t have minded staying in one, compared to the generic motels she often frequented.
But this was not an overnight deal.
It would be hours at most.
If all went well.
They went inside and looked around and got comfortable. Joey sat on an overstuffed chair and Jo sat on the edge of the queen-sized bed. She looked at him. He was looking at a little TV. Probably thinking about turning it on. She asked him again if he was ready.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“Tell me what you’re going to do.”
He opened his mouth, remembering, getting things straight in his mind. He really wanted to smoke a bowl and relax. Just float. He didn’t like stress and effort and responsibility. Not at all. He avoided it at all costs. But he did like money. And he liked the blonde girl well enough to let her boss him around.
“Take your time,” she said. “Remember, there’s a lot of money at stake.”
“Okay,” he said.
“One step at a time.”
“I’m going to wait.”
“Right. And you’re not going to draw any attention to the car. None at all.”
“Okay. I’ll just sit there.”
“And watch.”
“While you go inside.”
“Yes,” she said. “And if you see something or someone?”
“I’ll text you.”
“Yes. And while I’m inside I’ll ask about a rental and check the place out. See what and who we’re up against. Look for cameras. Make sure we’re good to go.”
“Then,” Joey said, and paused. “Then, I’ll keep waiting. Until you leave. I won’t move.”
“Until they take me to look at the storage units.”
He nodded sharply.
“To make sure it’s right for me,” she said. “You don’t move unless you hear the signal. The signal will be when you hear me say how much I love the snow. That will mean we’re going forward with the plan. If you don’t hear it, don’t move. If I say I’m not ready for winter, it means not to move. Just wait. We’ll have to leave and try something else later.”
“Okay,” he said.
“Repeat it back to me.”
He did. Slowly. He got it right, save for some stammering between details.
“Good,” she said.
Joey said, “Then, if I hear the signal, about the snow, I move. I’ll follow you to the storage things.”
“Keeping a distance.”
“Yeah.”
“Then what?” she said.
Joey remembered the steel bar. It was a heavy claw tool, a short pry bar. It was in the car, ice cold, just waiting. He would slide it up his coat’s sleeve and then lower it only when he needed it. A silent killer. It had been the girl’s idea.
“The weapon,” she said.
“The bar,” he said.
She said, “Right. You don’t use your gun unless all else fails. It’s too loud. We could get caught. And we definitely don’t feel like getting caught.”
“Right,” Joey agreed.
“Okay, once the person is dealt with, we close the door on the storage unit and we go search the office and find the money. If we can’t find it, we can call whoever owns it. We’ll have them come in, saying there’s no one there to help us. We’ll wait in the car. They’ll show up to help us. Then we’ll deal with them. Put them in the same unit, if we have to. Or leave them in the office.
This place doesn’t look too busy.”
“And we’ll get the money,” Joey said.
“Yes, we’ll get the money. But we have to do everything right. If we mess up, we’re out the money and we might get caught. We don’t want to go to jail.”
“No,” he said.
“Okay, let’s not mess up.”
“Okay.”
She said, “Good. So we do everything right. Then we drive away in the snowstorm. No one will know you were here, except for your tracks in the snow. The woman from the motel won’t connect me to the crime until we’re long gone. We’re home free.”
Joey nodded.
The girl smiled and said, “Just you and me.”
Chapter 23
Man and dog walked through town after their successful visit to the Barking Lot. They went south to Dunkin’ Donuts and then walked back north to their place. Just enjoying the cool air and the snow. Not expecting any problems.
They checked in with Rosie. She had the door to the apartment open and was baking brownies. The whole place smelled like hot chocolate fudge. She had already made all the calls. Most of the customers weren’t too concerned and said they’d stop by sooner or later, whenever they got around to it. A few had been slightly more concerned and said they would be in at some point to check their units and get the keys for their new locks.
Good enough, Ryan figured. Problem dealt with.
He opened the office closet and dug out the extension cords and strips of Christmas lights. Plugged in each strip of lights to test them. Four in total, two for each section of fence on either side of the driveway. One out of four didn’t work.
Clark Griswold problems.
“Maybe Hometown has a few strips left over in the back room from last year,” Ryan said.
“If not, we can order some,” Rosie said.
“Yeah, but I don’t want to wait.”
“Me either.”
“I’ll go over and check.”
He left Sharky with Rosie and went across the street. Got in line at the register and asked Meredith Glines about the lights. She wasn’t sure. She’d have to go look.
She left Sal’s wife at the register and they walked to the storage area out back. Checked around on shelves, opening a few boxes. There were boxes of random things everywhere. Odds and ends that might come in handy at a convenience store.
“Bingo,” Meredith finally said, smiling large as she held out a small box. “Only three left.”
“I’ll take all three,” Ryan said. “Better to have extra than not enough.”
***
He didn’t see the rented car approach from the motel. His back was to the road and he was kneeling by the white fence after stretching multiple extension cords down the driveway, now wrapping lights along the fence’s rails, trying to get them somewhat even, and trying to leave a little excess to wrap around the sign.
He looked over as the white Toyota passed. It was dirty from driving on the greasy roads. The snow on the roads had mixed with dust and grime, and the whole car was caked with a film of gray-brown grime, worse from the front wheels back. He glanced at the rear plate. It was light in color with dark digits, but through the grimy film he couldn’t tell if it was from New Hampshire or not. Probably just someone coming in to get their new key and check on their unit.
The lights still had most of his attention as the Toyota parked. A girl got out. Not a young girl, not an older woman. A young woman, somewhere in her twenties. Small, thin. Dirty blonde hair below her shoulders. Dressed warmly. Not a model, not ugly. Nothing about her stood out. She got out of the car, head down slightly against the snow flurries, and stepped into the office. She hadn’t paid him any mind. In his sweatpants and field coat, he looked like hired help doing odd jobs, not the owner.
Ryan couldn’t tell if there was anyone else in the car. The windshield was dirty, with a clearer section from the track of the wiper blades. And the snow kept falling, barely pattering on the windshield. Slightly melting and beading on the clear section. Slightly accumulating on the rest of the glass.
He moved up closer to the road and looked at the lights on both fences from a wider angle. Not perfectly straight, but almost good enough. Just a few little adjustments here and there.
He hated sloppy work. More so he hated sloppy Christmas lights that appeared to have been heaved onto something rather than placed with some care.
Do it right, or don’t bother.
The light project was over within a few more minutes. Ryan gathered the little plastic things the lights had been coiled around and started walking for the office.
Just as the blonde girl walked out.
She went straight to her car and got in. Started it and cut the wheel and drove toward Main. She waved to Ryan as she passed. He waved back, figuring her for just a friendly customer. Waving wasn’t abnormal in rural towns. Sometimes total strangers waved to other strangers, just to be friendly.
The guy in the passenger seat didn’t wave. He just sat there. Ryan couldn’t see him well enough to make any judgement calls. So he took the high road and assumed him to be nothing more than a harmless guy.
But he did get a better look at the rear license plate.
Massachusetts.
He stepped inside. It felt very warm after being outside with cold fingers. Rosie had closed the door to the apartment while the blonde girl was in there. To keep Sharky from making her nervous. He asked about the blonde.
“She’s interested,” Rosie said. “But she wants to talk it over with her husband before making it final. They think a small unit will be enough, but want to be positive before signing anything.”
“The car looks to be from Massachusetts,” he said.
“She said they just moved up here. Her husband got a new job over at the wire factory. They’re staying with her husband’s family and hoping to find a little house in the area fairly soon. She seemed nice.”
“Was that the husband in the car with her?”
“She said it was some relative who showed her the way here. The husband has started working the new job already. They’ll be back around three to decide.”
Ryan nodded. Then he asked how the brownies had turned out.
“I’m still the queen,” Rosie said with a proud smile.
“Go check out the lights.”
She got up and put on her coat and went out. Ryan went through to the apartment to test the brownies.
***
Back in the little white motel cabin, Jo sat on the bed again and tried to think. Quiet Joey sat in the chair again, watching her. He was thinking a little. Not much.
“I can’t be positive,” she finally said. “But I think the girl lives there. She came through a door into the office. I think there’s an apartment back there. The office is only a part of the building. And there’s definitely a dog back there. I saw the tracks in the snow. And the girl said something about shutting the door to keep the dog out of the office.”
Joey kept quiet.
“Plus we don’t know about the handyman,” she resumed. “Maybe he lives in the apartment. Or maybe not. Maybe he’s just some local guy helping out with Christmas lights. What kind of assholes put up lights this early?”
Joey shrugged.
“You should see this girl,” Jo said. “She’s huge and she’s in there baking something.”
Joey smiled briefly.
“Okay,” she said after a deep breath. “The good news is I didn’t see any cameras anywhere. Nothing on the computer monitor. I saw several doors in the office. One might be a bathroom. The others might be storage. I’ll have to check. But the apartment is a problem. And the dog is a problem.”
“Yeah,” Joey said.
“Can you kill a dog with that bar?”
He shrugged.
“If it doesn’t bark or anything, we don’t have to worry about it. But if it starts coming after us, we’ll have to kill it. Just smash it over the head a few times.”
“Dogs make
me nervous,” Joey said.
“Too bad,” she snapped.
Joey sat there quietly.
“You feel like giving up the money because of a dog?” she asked.
“No.”
“You said you’d help me.”
He nodded.
“So don’t get scared now. We’re almost there.”
He nodded again.
She said, “You can’t fire the gun until we’re almost ready to leave. Someone will hear it. They might come looking for the fat bitch and find us searching the place. So you have to kill them both with the bar, if possible.”
“The guy?”
“Hopefully he’ll be gone. It looked like he was done stringing those lights when we left. But we’ll wait a little while to be sure.”
“What if he’s there?” Joey asked. “I can’t fight a guy that size.”
Joanne took a long breath, wishing she’d been more patient and found a more competent helper.
“Just saying,” Joey said.
“Why don’t you have one of those silencer things for your gun?” she asked.
“They cost a lot.”
“You want to get paid a lot, don’t you?”
He nodded.
“Never mind,” she said. “If the guy is there, hold him at gunpoint. It can’t take long to search the place. If he gives you trouble, I’ll hit him over the head with the bar.”
Joey nodded. He didn’t like the idea. But he wanted the money. And now he was doing a little thinking of his own. He wasn’t the sharpest guy around, but he recognized trouble when it came along.
Something about the anger on the girl’s face and in her tone made him wary. She wasn’t pleased with him. She was losing her cool. It made him think she might try to get away with more than her half of the score. So he had to watch her. He had to be ready to handle her, if necessary.
“Never mind,” she said.
Joey said, “What?”
“You’re too dense to handle anything close to a plan. We’ll have to just barge in. Hit fast. In and out. I’ll take the girl out while you point the gun. Then I’ll handle finding the money.”
I Warned You_Welcome to Fall River Page 17
