Entrance to Nowhere

by Marja McGraw

  “You’re right, Auntie. We’re all coming at this from the wrong direction. Pete and I should be looking for clues and asking questions. One of the geeks might have information without realizing they have it. I’m going to talk to Pete.”

  I handed her the dish towel and headed for the Safe Room.

  Trap and Layne were coming out of the office when I passed through the living room. When they saw me, they stopped talking. The looks on their faces made me think of clues. There was something they didn’t want me to hear.

  Was I becoming too suspicious? Of course, not. I’m a private eye, just like my aunt said. Now was the time for me to become suspicious – of everyone.

  We’d taken to leaving the remote for the Safe Room on a book shelf near the hidden door. Hidden? We all knew where it was, and it wasn’t behind a bookcase. Too easy to figure out. No, it was behind a large television screen. There were seams in the wall that weren’t visible to the naked eye. The TV made it seem like an unlikely place to look for a door to a Safe Room. When the door slid to the side, the TV slid in the other direction on its own wall. In a way, there were actually two doors. It was kind of confusing.

  I used the remote to open the door and scurried down the stairs, in a hurry to find Pete. As I thought, he was in the security room.

  “Pete, I’d like to speak to you.”

  No one turned around. They were too busy watching Jason work some magic on the computer.

  “Pete?” I spoke a bit louder.

  He turned around slowly. “What?”

  “We need to talk.”

  “Can it wait a minute? This is interesting.”

  “Meet me upstairs in five minutes. Please.”

  “Okay.” He turned back to the action.

  “That’s amazing,” Scott said to no one in particular.

  I climbed the stairs, passing Trap and Layne at the doorway. Gentlemen that they were, they waited for me to exit before they entered the Safe Room.

  I sat down on the couch, thinking things through. In a way, wasn’t what I did the same as the government? They researched things and they looked for clues, too. Of course, they had a lot more resources than I did, but still…

  I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed my office number.

  “Webster and Goldberg, Private Investigators.” Felicity’s sweet voice greeted me, sounding very businesslike.

  “Fel, this is Sandi.”

  “What’s up?” she asked.

  “Long story, and I’m sure Stanley has told you most or all of it. Is he there?”

  “I didn’t understand most of what he told me. He’s the computer guru around here. Hold on and I’ll have him pick up the other line.”

  “Stan here,” he said, picking up the other phone.

  “I’ve got a job for you,” I said.

  “It must be important. You and Felicity didn’t even speak for more than a moment.”

  “It is. There’s a man who calls himself The General. He seems to be behind everything that’s going on here. If I tell you what little we know about him, can you do your magic and try to find something out about him?”

  “I can try.” He sounded dubious.

  “Just give it your best effort. I’m sure you know how to get into those dark places on the Internet where people try to recruit… Well, you know what I mean.”

  “I do. You’re talking about the dark web.” His voice had deepened and he sounded too serious for the man I know.

  “Please be careful, but if you can find anything, it would be a big help.”

  I told him what little we knew about The General, which was almost nothing, and what types of recruiting he might be doing.

  “I’m on it, Sandi. I’ll call as soon as I find anything.”

  I knew I could count on Stanley to give it his best shot.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  “Who were you talking to,” Aunt Martha asked, walking into the living room.

  “Stanley. I asked him to do some research on the dark web about The General.”

  “What’s the dark web?”

  “My understanding is that it’s a portion of the Internet that’s hidden from search engines and uses masked IP addresses, but I’m no expert. I guess, in a way, it would be like Trap’s Safe Room. It’s there, but not everyone can access it.”

  She nodded, but didn’t look like she really understood. “Speaking of the Safe Room, I’m going downstairs. Why don’t you come with me?”

  “I’m waiting for Pete. You were absolutely right. We’re private investigators and we’ve been riding on the coattails of others. We need to start conducting business in our own way.”

  She smiled. “Now you’re cookin’.” She disappeared through the hidden door.

  Pete joined me about five minutes later. “What’s up?”

  “Pete, we’ve been going about this all wrong. We’ve been depending on information from Griz and Scott, and we need to do this our way. We’re private eyes, remember?”

  “You’re right, sweetie. As far as figuring this out, we’ve been too lax. It’s time to step up and take care of business.”

  I was right? Would surprises never end?

  I recalled something my husband had said when we were stranded in a ghost town, trying to solve old murders. “You once said to ‘look up, look down, look all around.’ That’s what we need to do.”

  “You’re right, again. We’ve been so busy trying to find Trap that we haven’t been paying enough attention to what’s behind all of this.”

  “I called Stanley and asked him to see if he could find anything on The General. I asked him to search the dark web, in particular. He’ll call me back.”

  Pete sat down on the chair across from me. “I think there’s more to Layne than meets the eye.”

  “I was thinking the same thing, but I have a feeling that Trap knows more about him than he’s letting on.” The little gnat that kept flying around was disappearing.

  “We haven’t spent much time around Trap. What gave you that idea?”

  “Like I said, it’s just a feeling. They came out of his office and when they saw me, they clammed up. Layne was wearing a poker face, but something about Trap’s expression made me suspicious.”

  Pete generally trusted my gut feelings, and this didn’t seem to be an exception. “We need to buddy up to Trap and see what we can find out.”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “My aunt needs to pump him. He trusts her. Granted I don’t really know her that well, but some of the stories my mother has told about her would lead me to believe she could order a bear to step into a trap, and he’d do it. You’ve seen how she can be when she wants something.”

  My husband smiled. “Griz seems to see something he likes in her, and he doesn’t trust most people. Comes from being a cop for so many years.”

  I nodded. “I know. I‘ve seen the same trait in you. In fact, you can be kind of intimidating sometimes.”

  He stood and stepped in front of me, crossing his arms and looking down on me, trying to be intimidating.

  “Sorry, pal. It doesn’t work with me.”

  He laughed. “You’re a hard case. I’m going downstairs to talk to Griz. You speak to your aunt.”

  I nodded. “Would you please send her up here? I don’t want to talk to her in front of the others.”

  Ryan and Pete crossed paths at the secret door, and the kid headed for the office.

  “Gotta get in some computer time,” he said, walking past me. “Your aunt is making Mason, and I do mean making him, show her some security tricks. It was getting on my nerves.”

  I nodded again and started to feel like a bobble head. It seemed like I was doing an awful lot of nodding.

  I stood and walked to the front window while waiting for Aunt Martha.

  I saw dust in the air far off and knew someone was driving up one of the trails, but it didn’t appear to be moving toward us. It was probably someone on an ATV, but I�
�d keep an eye on it. At this point, anything could be something to worry about.

  A squirrel ran up one of the nearby trees, where it sat on a branch and surveyed the area with quick, sharp head movements. Trap had hung up a bird feeder, and it didn’t take long for the little critter to steal some seeds. In fact, when he headed back down the tree, his cheeks were puffed out, full of food.

  I glanced back toward the dust and saw that it was moving away from us. Good. I could let my worries on that score bite the dust, so to speak.

  My aunt joined me. “Pete said you wanted to talk to me.”

  “I do. Why don’t you sit down and relax.”

  I held up my index finger in a just-a-sec gesture and walked toward the office.

  “Ryan? I’m going to close the door so my aunt and I don’t disturb you.”

  He waved over his shoulder, but didn’t speak.

  I closed the door and walked back to my aunt, sitting down next to her on the couch.

  “I’ll come right to the point. I think there’s more to Layne than we know, and I believe Trap might know more about him than he’s letting on.”

  “Oh. You want me to pump Andrew for information?”

  “Well, yes, but don’t be too pushy. Be yourself. He trusts you.” Don’t be pushy and be yourself seemed to be an oxymoron.

  “Hmm. He does, doesn’t he? I’ll see what I can do.”

  “And, Aunt Martha, I don’t want him to know I put you up to it. Wait for a while before you talk to him.”

  She clasped her hands and slid them between her knees, staring at her lap for a moment. Lifting her head and looking into my eyes, she said, “I can do this. I’ll be just like the P.I.s in the movies.”

  “No, no, no,” I said. “Be yourself or he’ll think something’s up.”

  “Of course. I should have thought of that, dear.”

  I suddenly remembered the security cameras inside the house. Glancing up at one, I hoped they weren’t tuned into us because I didn’t want Trap to know we were conspiring about him.

  My aunt followed my gaze. “Don’t worry,” she said. “We weren’t talking that loudly.”

  She smiled.

  “Oh, if my daughters could only see me now. They’d never believe what I’ve become involved in. They think I’m just a cranky, doddering old woman, and they tend to keep their distance.”

  “I’m sorry, Aunt Martha. You know, my mother and I are a lot closer now than we used to be. Time can change things.”

  “No, they’re right. I’ve spent too many years issuing orders and being hard to get along with, and they’ve felt the brunt of it. I never made a life for myself. This little adventure had given me an entirely new perspective.”

  “It’s not a little adventure, and I wish you’d remember not to think of it that way.”

  “Sorry, dear, but I’m having so much fun. That old goat downstairs has awakened something in me that I’d forgotten about.”

  Oh, no, I didn’t want her to give me too much information. The thought of awakening something in her kind of scared me. She certainly couldn’t be having thoughts about love and sex, right? Nah. Not Aunt Martha.

  “Let’s go downstairs,” she said. “I’ll wait a bit before I tell Andrew I’d like to speak to him.”

  We opened the hidden door and hurried down the stairs. She seemed quite anxious to join the crowd.

  Pete glanced at me and I nodded, just barely, letting him know I’d talked to her.

  “Andrew, may we speak upstairs?” she asked.

  So much for taking her time. I dropped my head in frustration.

  Before he could give her an answer, the door opened at the top of the stairs.

  Ryan stood, holding it open. “I think you’d better come have a look at this. The General struck again.” He seemed to be speaking to all of us.

  Scott stayed in the security room and the rest of us hurried up to the office.

  Mason sat down in front of the computer screen. “I was checking my emails and this popped up on the screen. He pointed at the pop up.

  “You don’t know who you crossed, but you’ll find out soon enough. Come back and do what I told you or I’ll find you, no matter where you are. And bring that rich fat cat with you. He’s the key to everything. I’m not playing games. We have a job to do, and we need to do it now.”

  It wasn’t signed, but we all knew who it was from – The General.

  “Isn’t there some way to trace that back to where it originated?” I asked.

  “No,” Jason said. “He knows how to cover his tracks. We don’t have the right programs to track him.”

  Ethan looked frightened. “He’s not kidding. He’ll come after us. Maybe we should go back to the strip mall and do what he says.”

  “Not on your life,” Griz said. “We’ll take care of you and you’ll stay here.”

  My aunt looked disgusted. “If Layne found us, who’s to say The General won’t? I mean, we can’t be that well-hidden.”

  “That’s not up for discussion,” Trap said. “Besides, I told Thomas where to find us, but no one else knows.”

  “Not even Greta?” I asked.

  “Not even Greta. The only other people who know about the mansion are the builders, and I took great precautions to be sure they wouldn’t talk.”

  My aunt looked shocked. “You didn’t – “

  “Kill them?” he interrupted, laughing. “Of course not. We brought them up here in buses and they stayed on the property until this place was done. Then we bused them back out. They couldn’t see out the windows. I also had them sign iron clad agreements about confidentiality.”

  “Still…” My aunt seemed to be looking at Trap with a renewed respect.

  “Now, what did you wish to discuss?” he asked.

  “Later, sonny. Later. We’ll discuss what I want when the time is right for me. Now is not the time.”

  He looked surprised, as though no one had ever spoken to him this way. And he looked at her with renewed respect, too.

  Chapter Thirty

  “Are you sure there’s no way to backtrack that pop up and find The General?” I asked, looking at Ryan.

  He sighed. “Okay, it’s possible, but it would take too long. It’s not like what you see on TV.”

  “Of course. Not like television. I need to remember that those shows are mostly fiction.” I blew air out between my lips, making an odd sound. “It’s not going to happen in ten minutes, but I trust you. You can do it.”

  Pete turned to Jason and Ethan, who’d been standing quietly and listening. They both looked nervous.

  “When you arrived at the strip mall, did you have to take your own equipment or was it already there?”

  “It was already there,” Ethan replied, “but we took along our personal laptops, too.”

  “According to you, The General dropped Trap off and left without going inside, right?”

  “Yes,” Jason said.

  Sometimes I catch on quickly. “If the computers and other equipment were already there, then The General had to have been there before you arrived. He had to set things up.”

  Jason looked surprised, apparently never having thought about this in the right context. “That’s right. He had to have been there, or at least one of the people who worked for him.”

  Pete and I looked at each other.

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked.

  “We need to go back to the mall and take a good look around,” he replied.

  “And look up and down and all around?” I joked.

  “You betcha.”

  My aunt looked skeptical. “You won’t be able to go until tonight. They’re probably keeping an eye on their equipment.”

  Pete glanced at her. “I’d be willing to bet he’s already removed everything. He couldn’t take a chance on the boys calling in the authorities.”

  “Duh.” My aunt slapped her forehead, surprising all of us. “Of course.”

  “Besides,”
I said, “I hate using flashlights. We don’t know that we have all that much time, either. We need to go today.”

  “Who’s ‘we’?” Griz asked.

  “Me and Pete. This is what we do and it’s where our expertise steps in.” I felt rather proud of myself.

  Trap looked thoughtful and stepped forward. “I have a couple of old cars in the garage. If we lost the electrical grid, we’d end up losing power in our vehicles, too. Today’s autos use computer chips. It wouldn’t have an effect on the older model vehicles.”

  “Old cars wouldn’t be so easily noticed, either,” Pete said. “We can park on the street behind the mall and come in the back way, like we did when we snuck in and spoke to Trap.”

  He quickly glanced at Trap.

  “Uh, I mean Mr. Trapper.”

  “Trap is fine, Pete.” The wealthy man smiled at my husband. It was the first time I’d seen him smile, and he had perfect teeth, not buck teeth the way my aunt remembered, along with a dimple. “Wait here and I’ll bring you a set of keys.”

  “Aunt Martha, Trap amazes me. He doesn’t even seem shaken by what he’s been through.”

  “That’s Andrew, although I think some of it is a front. He took everything in his stride as a teenager, too. I never saw him appear rattled.”

  “Maybe it’s a defense mechanism.” I’d had to act coolheaded during my tenure as a private eye, too. Never let the bad guy see fear on your face – Rule Number… Well, I didn’t really have a set of rules. At least, not by the number.

  Trap returned with a key ring and handed it to Pete. “You know how to drive a stick shift, correct?”

  “Yes, sir. Not a problem.”

  “Okay, why don’t you all go about your business while Pete and I put a plan together?” I asked. There wasn’t much to plan, but I knew I’d feel better if we strategized before leaving for town.

  “They could still be watching the mall, just in case he scared the boys enough to send them back there,” I said.

  “I doubt it,” Pete said. “If there was a chance that the boys had contacted the authorities, he wouldn’t be dumb enough to go back to the same place.”