Freedom

by David Wood

  “Took you long enough. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  Jillian’s car had only a rear license plate, so Dane made a point of backing all the way out of the parking lot before turning around and gunning the engine. He doubted Revere had bothered to watch them leave, but this was his first grand theft, and he didn’t want to leave anything to chance.

  When they were well out of sight of the Museum, Bones reached underneath his jacket and drew out a lantern. “Maddock was right. It was sitting on top of the bookshelf by her desk. Check it out!” He flipped the lantern over, revealing a rectangular stamp with the name Revere.

  “That doesn’t look like the mark on the butter knife,” Dane observed, glancing at the lamp before returning his eyes to the road.

  “Revere used more than one mark.” Jillian took the lantern from Bones. “This is one he used for larger items.”

  “I can’t believe we found it,” Dane said. “Next question: what happens when she notices it’s missing? Won’t the cops be on our tail in a matter of minutes?”

  “Not unless she takes it down for a close inspection. I snagged one of the display lanterns and switched them out. She’s so short, and the bookcase is so tall, that I doubt she’ll notice the difference at a glance. I’m sure she’ll figure it out sooner or later. Hopefully, it’ll be some time down the road when we are all forgotten.”

  “Nice one.” Dane frowned. Here he was, praising a man for the skill with which he engaged in criminal activity. Heck, paying Bones any sort of compliment felt strange.

  “Thanks, bro.” Bones took the lantern back from Jillian and turned it over in his big hands. “The base of this thing is weird. It’s got a cross running through it.” He held it up for them both to see.

  “Some of Revere’s artistry, I imagine,” Jillian said.

  “You know, after we’ve solved the mystery, no reason we can’t return them anonymously.”

  “Them?” Dane spared Bones a quizzical glance.

  “We need the other lantern. As long as I’m in a thieving mood, I guess we should figure out how to get our hands on it.”

  “Actually, I’ve been thinking about that.” Jillian spoke slowly, as if choosing her words with care. “An ex-boyfriend of mine used to work for the transit system. We had a special place to meet while he was on break.”

  “What say you show it to me later?” Bones leered at her.

  “I don’t know.” She flashed a coy smile. “I still haven’t decided which of you is cuter.”

  Dane felt the back of his neck grow hot and he hoped they didn’t see his face redden. It wasn’t that he felt shy around women. He was just... reserved. He noticed Bones gazing at him, and fixed his eyes firmly on the road. It wouldn’t do for the two of them to get into it over Jillian just when they were starting to get along.

  “I can answer that for you.” Bones said. “Maddock is cuter; I’m hotter. Think of us as a buffet.”

  “All you can eat.” Dane didn’t know where that comment had come from, but Bones chortled.

  “Maddock! You made a joke! A good one, too.”

  “Who says I was joking?” Dane managed to keep a straight face, which only made Bones laugh all the harder.

  Jillian’s exasperated sigh cut through the frivolity. “If you two clowns will get serious. I’ll tell you my idea.”

  Dane listened as she outlined her plan. He couldn’t believe that, for the second time that day, he was planning a burglary. He’d hoped to rub off on Bones in a positive way, but the tables had been turned. Surprisingly, he was enjoying himself. When Jillian finished, he thought it over for a minute.

  “All right. Let’s give it a shot.”

  CHAPTER 9

  Their footsteps echoed through the Blue Line tunnel beneath Bowdoin Station. Dane looked down at the narrow walkway, scarcely wide enough for them to pass, and wondered why he’d agreed to this crazy idea. Should a car come along at an inopportune time, he doubted any of them could flatten against the wall tightly enough to avoid being roadkill.

  The latest car had left the station only seconds before, and Jillian had assured them it was only a short way to the turnoff. Their mini Maglites sliced through the darkness, illuminating the damp tunnel and gleaming rail line.

  They came to a battered door marked Danger. Do Not Enter.

  “It’s perfectly safe,” Jillian whispered. “This leads to a mechanical room that’s no longer in use. My ex put this sign here to discourage unwanted visitors.” She grimaced. “Come to think of it, I wouldn’t be surprised if the loser is living under here. Hope he hasn’t changed the locks.” She fished a key out of her pocket, unlocked the door, and tugged on it, but it did not budge.

  “Let me get that.” Bones gently removed her hands from the doorknob, took hold of it himself, and yanked it open. The door drew back with a loud, scraping sound that reverberated through the empty tunnel.

  She led them down the dank passageway and into a room thirty feet square. Exposed wires dangled from the ceiling, and various conduits and electrical boxes lined the far wall.

  “Doesn’t look like anyone’s found your love nest,” Dane said.

  “I don’t think he’s been back.” Jillian walked to the corner and nudged a bundle with her toe. “The air mattress is right where I left it.”

  “Have I told you you’re my kind of girl?” Bones tried to slip his arm around her shoulders but she moved away.

  “I was your kind of girl. That is, if you like them young and stupid.”

  “Pretty much.”

  Jillian rolled her eyes.

  “Where do we go from here?” Dane looked around for another door.

  “Straight up.” She pointed toward the ceiling. “Give me a boost?” She moved to the far wall and took hold of a conduit. Dane cupped his hands and, when she stepped in, hauled her up until she stood atop an electrical box. “Follow me, boys.”

  Dane was an experienced climber and had no trouble following as she scrambled up into the ceiling. He glanced back to make sure Bones was keeping pace.

  “Hurry it up, Grandpa. I’m going to fall asleep waiting for you.”

  “I believe I outclimbed you every time in training.” Dane had no idea if that was true, but he wasn’t about to admit it.

  “Today’s opposite day? Next time we’re on leave, I’m taking you back to North Carolina. We’ll head up into the mountains and see who’s the better climber.”

  “Sounds good.” Dane realized he halfway meant it. Rock climbing in the Appalachians sounded like fun, even if it did involve Bones.

  “I’ll introduce you to my sister. All my friends think she’s cute, but they’re scared to make a move.”

  “Afraid you’ll kick their asses?”

  “No. Afraid she will.”

  “Maybe I don’t want to meet your sister after all.” Dane winced at the sudden mental image of Bones in a dress.

  “If you two Marys are done gabbing, we’re almost there. Stay right behind me.” Jillian scrambled ahead.

  They crawled forward for a good twenty yards, Bones muttering all the while about Dane getting the “better view.” Finally, they came to a stop in front of a metal vent. They fell silent, listening for voices or footsteps, but the only sound he heard was the whir of a refrigerator.

  “It’s the employee break room in the Old State House,” Jillian explained. “My boyfriend and I used to climb up here and steal food.” She pushed the vent free and slid out into the room. Dane followed, scarcely managing to squeeze his shoulders through.

  “I don’t think you’re going to make it,” he told Bones.

  “Watch me. I’ve been spelunking all my life and I’ve squeezed through cracks smaller than this.” He paused, staring at Dane.

  “What?”

  “Squeezed through cracks? Dude, I serve you up a fat pitch like that and you don’t knock it out of the park?” Shaking his head, he wormed his way through the gap and stood. “Still got work to do on you, Kemosabe.”
>
  Dane ignored him. He opened the break room door an inch and peered out into the dark, silent hallway.

  “Lights out.” He turned off his Maglite and Bones followed suit.

  “Why?” Jillian whispered.

  “I’ve got excellent night vision, and there’s plenty of light from the street to see by.” He moved out into the hallway and crept silently through the darkness. Jillian had confirmed that the doors were alarmed, but the building had no interior alarm system. At least, there had not been one when she’d explored the building in years past.

  They halted at the doorway that opened into the display room and peered inside. The lone security camera was mounted above them, aimed toward the main entrance.

  Bones slipped his jacket off and tossed it up onto the camera. It took two tries, but it finally hung there. “No video evidence.”

  “Jillian, watch the front door,” Dane whispered. As she hurried across the room, they moved to the lantern.

  It sat in a plexiglass box atop a pedestal. He gazed at it in the dim light that filtered through the windows. There were still streaks of dark brown encrusted within its seams. Whoever had tried restoring it to 1775 condition had failed to remove all of the molasses. There was little in the way of glass left within it, and Dane couldn’t help but wonder how much abuse the lantern had suffered, stuck underground for so many years.

  “So there it is,” he whispered. “The lantern that helped kick off our revolution. Well, one of the lanterns, at any rate. The one that wasn’t captured by the British that night.”

  “Yep. There it is, all right.”

  “You ever been this close to history before, Bones?”

  “Yeah, I have,” Bones replied.

  Dane didn’t turn his head, but he heard the sobering tone, and he knew it took something significant to make Bones adopt such a serious note.

  “I’m sure I’m going to regret this, but what was it?”

  “I held Booth’s Derringer.”

  Dane snapped his head around. “Wow. How’d you manage that?”

  Bones never took his eyes off the lantern. “They were cleaning the displays when some of my friends and I were walking through the theater. One of the workers left the case open, so I walked over and grabbed it.”

  “How long did you hold it?”

  “A few seconds. Wish I could have fired it. That would have rocked.”

  “There’s someone outside!” Jillian’s soft voice carried through the empty hall.

  “Time to get to work.” Bones took out a set of tiny metal tools on a ring which he’d picked up at an auto parts store. “Feeler gauge,” he explained.

  “If you say so.”

  Selecting one of the tools, Bones slid it into the lock and worked it. Moments later, the lock turned. “Wafer locks. Not even a challenge.”

  “How did you do that?”

  “As I have said many times, it’s a product of a misspent youth. Nowadays, I only use my powers for good. Or for fun.”

  “Maybe hanging out with a reformed criminal isn’t the worst thing in the world.” Careful not to leave fingerprints, Dane opened the case, took out the lantern, and slipped it into a drawstring backpack, then replaced the lantern with a folded card reading,

  “THIS ITEM TEMPORARILY OFF DISPLAY”

  It wouldn’t fool anyone for long, but it might delay the moment someone discovered the theft. Sweat pouring down the back of his neck, he called to Jillian. When she joined them, Bones retrieved his jacket, and Dane led the way back to their escape route.

  “You okay, Maddock?” Bones frowned at him, genuinely concerned.

  “It’s stupid, but this is my first theft. I mean, I was technically an accomplice on the last one, but this time, I’m the one who actually took the lantern and carried it away.”

  Jillian and Bones exchanged stunned glances.

  “Not even a candy bar when you were a kid?” Jillian asked.

  “Or a car when you were in junior high?” Bones took a step away from the others and held up his hands. “Don’t hate. It was a special occasion.”

  Dane sighed. “Just when I was starting to think you were all right.”

  Bones gave him a high five. “I’ll straighten you out yet, Maddock. How about we go back to Jillian’s and see what’s up with these lanterns?”

  CHAPTER 10

  While he believed they had gotten away clean, Dane kept checking his rear-view mirror for blue lights. He didn’t completely relax until they pulled up in front of a tall brownstone.

  “Home, sweet home.” Jillian’s voice held a note of sadness. “My grandfather bought it in the 1940’s, and Daddy inherited it some thirty years ago.” Her voice cracked. “I may end up selling it and find a small place for me somewhere else. Too many bad memories here.”

  Dane searched for words of comfort, but he couldn’t imagine the pain of losing a parent. Before he could think of something to say, his sharp eyes spotted something amiss.

  “Did you see that?” He pointed at an upstairs window. “A flicker of light, like someone’s in there with a flashlight.”

  “I don’t see anything.” Jillian’s voice was tight.

  “Bones and I will go in first. Stay close to us.”

  They walked in, but Dane didn’t let Jillian get too far inside, holding his hand out to keep her back. He suddenly wished he had his Walther P99. Oh well, nothing to be done about it now. He shut the door, careful not to let the click of the lock echo through the house.

  Dane headed upstairs, taking each step with care. The third step from the top squeaked, causing him to pause and flinch. He filled his lungs with air and continued to the landing, wishing he had a weapon.

  His heart hammering away, he eased into the room where he’d seen the light. The dull light from the streetlamp out front provided ample light, enough to see this was a study or office of some sort. Bookcases lined the walls, and a small desk sat in the bay window facing the street. The drawers were open and their contents strewn across the floor. Whoever had been there had gone. Dane and Bones made a quick search of the rest of the upstairs rooms with no success. When Dane turned to head downstairs, he noticed Jillian’s absence.

  “Where’d she go?” he whispered.

  “I don’t know. She was waiting in the hall a few seconds ago.”

  A loud crash followed by an agonized scream broke the silence.

  They pounded down the stairs, the screams echoing through the darkness. They reached the first floor and darted into the living area. Dane flipped on the light to reveal Jillian and a skinny man tangled on the floor. She had him in an ankle lock, pouring all her strength into flattening out the man’s foot. From the looks of things, and the way the man kept screaming and pounding his fists on the floor, she had already done some serious damage.

  “Jillian!” Dane yelled. “Let go of him.”

  “No!”

  “He’s not going anywhere. We won’t let him.” Dane’s thoughts raced. Who was this guy and what did he want? He didn’t look like the men who had chased them the previous day.

  “You got me, you got me,” the man wailed.

  Bones grabbed Jillian and wrenched the man free from her grasp, pulling her away as Dane moved in quickly and stood over the fallen man.

  “You try to run, and I’ll make what she did to you feel like a massage. You get me?” The man nodded and Dane grabbed his shoulder. “Get up.”

  The intruder rose gingerly. After patting him down and finding nothing in the form of a weapon, Dane shoved him into a nearby chair. The man, favoring his injured ankle, nearly fell. He slumped down, glaring at Dane.

  He was a weedy fellow with a patchy black beard and receding hair of the same color. His lip curled in a sneer, and he breathed hard through his nose. Perhaps he thought it a tough look, but his Vanilla Ice t-shirt ruined the effect.

  Dane looked to Bones and saw Jillian break away from an embrace and hurry into the adjoining kitchen. He felt a brief pang of something, may
be jealousy, but suppressed it.

  “She okay?” he asked.

  “Yep.”

  Dane firmed his jaw and turned back to the intruder. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

  The man remained defiantly silent.

  Bones brushed past Dane, smiled at the man, then struck him hard across the ear with his open hand. Their captive raised a hand to the side of his head and Bones kicked him in the stomach. The fellow doubled over and retched.

  “Jillian,” Bones called, “you got salad tongs and a corkscrew in there?”

  “Yeah, why?” Her voice was weak. Clearly, the break-in had shaken her.

  “This dude needs a little eye surgery.”

  “What are you gonna do to me?” Panic washed over the intruder’s face.

  “Just something my ancestors have been doing to white men for centuries. I have to tell you it hurts. A lot.”

  He blanched and a frightened moan escaped his lips.

  Jillian re-entered the room, not looking at the intruder, and handed over the utensils.

  “Grab me a knife, too, in case I want to scalp him.” Bones rubbed his hands together in anticipation while the man continued to moan. “Oh, shut up. Stop being a little wuss.”

  “I guess we should call the police,” Dane said.

  “Not yet. First, I want to extract some information.”

  “Yeah, just question him and let him go,” Jillian called from the kitchen. “No need to involve the cops.”

  Dane wanted to argue, but he thought he understood her reasoning. If the fellow knew about the lanterns, talking to the police could impede their search and potentially link them to the thefts. “I’m going to ask again. What’s your name?”

  The fellow’s lips moved, but he uttered no sound. Running out of patience, Dane grabbed him by the front of the shirt, hauled him to his feet, and relieved him of the contents of his pockets: a flashlight, wallet, and Swiss army knife. He took out the license and read the name aloud.