Thirty-Two and a Half Complications

by Denise Grover Swank

  I chuckled. “Deal.”

  Moments later, we saw movement by the empty plant. Dust filled the air and the Charger zoomed past us.

  “I’m going to follow it for just long enough to get the plate number,” I said, starting the engine.

  “Okay.” Neely Kate started to dig a pen out of her purse.

  The Charger stopped at the end of the road, then turned toward town. I was about to follow it when two more vehicles emerged from the plant. A black pickup turned in the opposite direction from the Charger, and I recognized the long scratch down its side.

  “Neely Kate! I’ve seen that truck before! It turned down the road toward the farm where I found the body. I saw it the day after the robbery.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Which one do I follow?”

  “I don’t know. Uh…the Charger. Best that we don’t follow the murderers. We’ll just stick to car thieves.”

  And bank robbers, but that one seemed a given at this point. “Okay.” I turned right and went after it, but it sped up to beat an oncoming train, crossing the tracks only seconds before the bars went down.

  I pulled the car to a stop. “Please tell me you got the license number.”

  “No. Sorry.”

  “Why was it speeding? Do you think they knew we were following them?” I hated to think of what they might do if they did.

  “I don’t know.” She sounded worried. “Maybe they’re just thrill seekers.”

  “Maybe.” But now we had nothing to show for our stakeout. Or did we? “I’m going back to that plant.”

  She sat up straighter. “What?”

  “Maybe we can see what they were up to. It should be safe. We saw them leave.”

  “Okay. Let’s do it.”

  I released a nervous laugh. “Weren’t you supposed to be the voice of reason?”

  “I barfed on a guy in a bar. I think we’re long past that.”

  I made a U-turn and steered Neely Kate’s car down the cracked asphalt road to the dilapidated fertilizer plant. It was comprised of several buildings connected with large metal pipes that stretched a good fifteen feet over the road between the structures. Several smaller buildings were scattered around the larger ones, and the entire property was surrounded by a chain-link fence that was busted in multiple places. But the road to the plant was wide open.

  “My uncle used to work here,” Neely Kate said as we approached the abandoned site. “It used to be the place to work in Fenton County.”

  “A stinky fertilizer plant?”

  “They paid well.”

  It may have been the place to work years ago, but now it was a real eyesore and the town had talked about tearing it down. Teens liked to come out there to party late at night, climbing around the big pipes and getting into trouble. I was worried about what we’d find. But when we followed the path where the car had turned, there were no signs that anyone besides us was currently present.

  As I drove slowly down the road between two buildings, a now-familiar smell hit me. “This is it, Neely Kate. The smell I noticed on Mick and in my vision.”

  “A rusty, earthy smell? You’re right.”

  “Now what?” I asked, slowing down. “Do we get out and walk around?”

  “I don’t know. Let’s drive around first.”

  “Okay.”

  We circled the entire complex once with no sign of anything untoward.

  “Let’s drive around one more time,” Neely Kate said. “And if we don’t see anything worth investigatin’, you can tell Mason and let him sort it out.”

  “Good idea.”

  I started our second sweep, driving slower, and Neely Kate gasped when I was about halfway through.

  “Rose, your vision—you saw a paned window with Y-shaped crack, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Like that?” She pointed to the structure on her side. A small office with paned windows on one wall jutted out from the side of the larger building. There was a Y-shaped crack in the bottom pane.

  “Oh, my word,” I gasped. “That’s it.”

  “Nobody’s here. Let’s check it out.”

  I parked the car and we got out and walked slowly to the door. Neely Kate reached it first, but I pushed her back. “Neely Kate, let me go first.” No need for her to walk headlong into possible danger.

  She started to protest, but I pushed past her and tried the doorknob. I wasn’t surprised to find it unlocked. The room was dark and empty, and the floor was littered with beer cans and bottles and cigarette butts. When I turned and faced the window, a chill shot down my spine.

  “This is it. This is the room from my vision.” I was standing in the exact same spot where I’d been in the vision.

  “So…?” she asked, spinning around to take in the room. “They meet here?”

  “I guess so. It makes sense. This whole area’s deserted, so they’d go unnoticed.”

  “What do you think they do when they get together? Discuss the next place they’re gonna rob?”

  “I don’t know.” I walked around the perimeter of the room. We had found where they met, but what good did it do us? I could tell Mason, but wouldn’t the police wonder how he knew? At least he could call in an anonymous tip. “I have four days to get my money back,” I sighed. “And we have more questions than answers.”

  “At least it’s something.”

  “But it’s not enough.”

  Neely Kate’s cell phone rang and I jumped, feeling nervous even though nothing ominous was happening at the moment.

  She glanced at her phone and groaned. “Hey, Granny,” she said when she answered. She looked at me and rolled her eyes. “No, Granny. I don’t remember agreeing to go to Bingo tonight. I already have other plans.” More silence, and then she shook her head, her mouth puckered into a frown. “Fine. Be ready at six.” Another pause. “Love you too. Bye.”

  “Bingo night again?”

  “She loves it, what can I say? I only wish she could get one of my cousins to take her.” She gave the room one last look. “Okay, let’s go. I need to at least try to make Ronnie dinner before I pick her up. I have yet to make it through cooking an entire meal without barfing.”

  “Yeah, I’m eager to get home to Mason.”

  “Still no call, huh?”

  “No.”

  We started to leave the room when I noticed a folded piece of paper on the floor, partially hidden by a crushed beer can. Neely Kate made it outside before she realized I wasn’t behind her. She whirled around, standing in the doorway. “Rose?” Noticing the paper in my hand, she walked back toward me. “What is that?”

  I unfolded the stained and dirty sheet, surprised to see that it was some sort of chart. A table of about fifty rectangles filled the page, each filled with what appeared to be random handwritten numbers. While the paper seemed to be a copy, some of the boxes were circled with blue ink. Unable to make heads or tails of it, I handed it to my friend. “Do you have any idea what this is?”

  “It kind of looks like a giant Sudoku puzzle, only the circled numbers are twenty-nine, two hundred and eighty nine, twenty-four, and one.”

  “I’ll give it to Mason to see if he can figure it out.”

  We drove home in silence, as all the excitement and worry of the day had me exhausted. I was in desperate need of a nap and given Neely Kate’s hormones, I suspected she was too. When we pulled down my driveway, the absence of Mason’s car in front of the house was like a kick in the gut.

  “Don’t worry,” Neely Kate said, patting my hand, then handing me my Big Bill’s container. “He probably had to go to his office at the courthouse.”

  The thought of the food inside the Styrofoam made my stomach revolt. “Yeah. Probably.”

  “Are you okay out here alone?”

  I turned to her in surprise. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

  She lifted her eyebrows. “Do you want me to actually list the reasons?”

  I laughed. “I’m fine. Have fu
n at Bingo.”

  She leaned across the seat as I got out. “Say, you don’t want to go with us, do you? Your visions might come in handy.”

  I groaned. “After what I saw earlier, I never want to force a vision again.”

  She watched me climb the porch steps and when I had the front door unlocked, I waved and pushed it open. Muffy ran through the threshold, jumping up on my legs with her tail wagging as Neely Kate drove away.

  “Where’s Mason, Muff? Did he go to work?”

  Rather than answering, she scampered down the steps and starting racing in figure eights in the front yard. I didn’t blame her. She’d been cooped up inside all day. The air was cooling off, so I put the wings in the refrigerator and grabbed a blanket to take to the porch. Muffy needed to run around and let off some energy so I knew I’d be outside for a bit. I sat in a chair and covered my front with the blanket, watching my little dog run around. I felt bad about leaving her all day, especially since Mason had left her too. Where was he? But I was too exhausted to think about it, so I closed my eyes and rested my head against the back of the chair.

  I must have fallen asleep because when I opened my eyes, the sky had darkened and Muffy was whining at my feet. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled. When I saw a figure lurking on my front porch, I sat up and screamed.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Rose?” Mason called out, alarmed.

  “Mason?” I bolted out of my chair and threw my arms around his neck.

  He tightened his arms around me. “You’re freezing. How long have you been out here? You looked like you were sleeping. What happened?”

  “I brought Muffy out, but I brought a blanket with me because it was cooling off. I was so tired I must have dozed off.”

  “Come on, let’s get you inside. It’s not safe for you to be out here like this.” He opened the front door and followed me inside.

  “Mason, where were you all day?” I asked as I turned on a lamp. “I kept trying to call you.” I couldn’t hide the panic in my voice. “I was really worried when I couldn’t reach you.”

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I had to go to my office and then on to a crime scene. I didn’t realize my phone was dead until I got a call about the robbery on the office phone. Then I tried calling you back, but you didn’t answer your phone. I almost had a sheriff’s deputy come out to check on you.”

  “Except you were worried which one would come.”

  He paused and stared into my face. “Rose, I’d call Joe Simmons myself if I thought you were in danger. I’d never put you in harm’s way to save my pride. It’s important you know that.”

  I reached for him and pulled him into a hug. “I know. And I love you for it.”

  “I love you too. Are you hungry? Have you eaten?”

  “Not since Neely Kate stopped for ice cream.”

  “Judging from all your calls, I take it you had an eventful day.”

  “You could say that.”

  We went into the kitchen and I pulled the container from the fridge. “I brought you my leftover hot wings from Big Bill’s Barbeque. Neely Kate and I went there for lunch.”

  His quirked his brow at me. “You were at Big Bill’s today?”

  “Yeah, Neely Kate said Ronnie Junior had a craving.” When he gave me a blank stare, I added. “Don’t ask.”

  “Rose, Big Bill’s Barbeque was robbed right after closing time today.”

  “What?” I turned to face him, my jaw dropping.

  “It was robbed late this afternoon. We’re guessing it was the same guys who robbed the bank. They had those masks you described. But there were three of them this time. The third one had a Spiderman mask.”

  “I have some information that might help.”

  His eyes lit up. “Did you go see Samantha Jo?”

  “Among other things.” I put the container in the microwave and turned it on. “Let me start at the beginning.” I fixed a plate for each of us and spent the next ten minutes telling him everything about my day—except for the forced vision—while he listened. I also gave him the chart I’d found, which seemed to confuse him as much as it had perplexed Neely Kate and me.

  He was silent for a long moment after I finished, then said, “You did have an eventful day.” He looked at my plate and the barely touched food. “Are you still feeling ill?”

  I shrugged. “It comes and goes.”

  He watched me push my half-eaten wing to the side of the plate. “You’re still not ready to take the test?” he asked, his face expressionless.

  “No.”

  He didn’t say anything for several unnerving seconds. “Okay, I’ll let you take the lead on this for now.”

  I got up to put our plates in the sink. “Thank you.”

  He followed behind me. “Let’s clean this up and go sit in the living room. I need to talk to you about something, and I’d rather not do it while we’re hanging over the kitchen sink.”

  My chest constricted. “This sounds serious.” A lump burned my throat. “Are you breaking up with me?”

  He grabbed my arms and turned me to face him, his eyes flying open. “What? No! Why would you think that?”

  “After the Joe situation yesterday and you sleeping in the spare room last night and not going to church with me this morning…well, my imagination ran wild.”

  He pulled me into a hug. “Rose, please don’t worry about something like that happening. I love you, and I told you that I don’t take that lightly. When I make a commitment, I stick to it.” He laughed softly, his chest rumbling against mine. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

  I pulled back and wiped a tear. “I’m glad to hear it.”

  He kissed my forehead, his expression turning serious again. “Come on. Let’s go into the living room.”

  We sat on the sofa and he wrapped an arm around my back and pulled me close.

  “You got a lot of helpful information today, but I’m most worried that Lars Jenkins thinks you have information about him doing something illegal. He is not a man to be trifled with.”

  “I didn’t think I was doing anything dangerous, Mason. I swear. I was only goin’ over to talk to Samantha Jo when I had that vision—and we were in church, for heaven’s sake!”

  “Hey.” He looked down at me and smoothed back my hair. “You didn’t do anything wrong, and I’m not upset with you. Please don’t think I am. I’m so proud of the progress you’ve made over the last six months. You said you rarely used to do anything or go anywhere, but look at you now. You own your own business, and you have friends—good ones. But unfortunately, there’s a price for venturing out into the world—you risk having visions at inopportune times. It’s going to keep on happening too. The only alternative is for you to hide away from people like you did for so long, but you don’t want to go back to that life…and it’s not what I want for you either. You deserve much more, and the people who have yet to meet you do too.”

  I wiped away a tear. “Thank you, Mason.”

  “That being said, I’m worried you might be in danger. Especially after the robbery today. I have an uneasy feeling about all of it. Something big is about to go down, and I think you’re going to get caught in the middle of it.”

  Mason had great instincts and I’d learned to listen to them. He’d been the only one to correctly guess that Daniel Crocker would stick around Fenton County after his jail break. “I tried my best to be careful today, Mason. I only talked to Samantha Jo because you gave me your blessing, and when we saw the Charger I only wanted to get the license plate number… We didn’t even expect to see the truck. It gives me the heebie jeebies to think about it turning into our neighbor’s farm the other day. For all I know, that poor man was inside.” I shuddered, thinking about how close I’d been to a murderer that day. And Ashley and Mikey had been with me too.

  He searched my eyes. “You need to stay out of this now, okay? It’s too dangerous. Promise me.”

  “Okay. Do you know how much money th
e robbers got today?”

  “About eight thousand. They don’t take credit cards and it was a Sunday. Taylor said it had never been robbed before, which I find startling. He thinks there’s some unspoken rule that the place is off limits.”

  “Maybe the robbers are from out of town and didn’t know the rule?”

  “Good thought. Maybe,” Mason said.

  “I’m sure at least one of those five people at church are involved,” I said. “And I know two of them are from out of town. Lars Jenkins and Eric Davidson, although Eric seems the more unlikely of the two.”

  “Agreed.” He grinned, pride beaming from his eyes. “I think you missed your calling, Rose. You’re a natural at this.”

  “You’re actually encouraging me?”

  His smile fell slightly. “We’ve already established that I don’t want you out there pursuing this anymore, but there’s nothing wrong with you using the brain that God gave you to sort through what we know to draw some conclusions.”

  I stared at him in awe before continuing. “So based on my vision, they still don’t have enough money for whatever it is they’re planning.”

  “No, which means they’ll hit someplace else and probably soon.”

  “And the fertilizer plant?”

  “Unfortunately, it’s within Henryetta’s city limits, so the police will be in charge. I’ll tell them I got an anonymous tip. I doubt they’ll ask many questions. But I think you’re right. Whatever group they’re a part of has been meeting there.”

  “Too bad we didn’t get the license number on the car or the truck.”

  “I’m glad you were wise enough to know when to stay back. I’ll confess that I wish you hadn’t gone to the plant with just Neely Kate. If these guys have been meeting there and you’d showed up while they were around, you could have endangered yourself.”

  “And what about Samantha Jo’s involvement? What does your instinct tell you about that?”

  “I agree with you there. She and Moose are definitely behaving in a suspicious manner. I’ll see what I can dig up on them.” He tipped my face up to his. “I’m sorry she was mean to you.”