Running Out of Time

by Cindi Myers

  At ten forty-five, they left the trailer. At a warehouse on the other end of town they traded the pickup for a panel van, Bread and Butter Caterers stenciled on the side. Jace drove past the church where Gini’s service was being held. The parking lot was full and more parked cars lined either side of the street. From there, it was only five blocks to Gini’s house, where Leo was staying. The cottage sat well back from the road in a grove of mature trees. Roses climbed trellises on either side of the front door, their scent heavy in the humid air.

  They headed for the front door, carrying two plastic totes that to any passerby would look like supplies for the catered reception. Laura blocked the view from the road while Jace made quick work of the front door lock, which didn’t even have a dead bolt. Then they were in.

  Gini Elgin had favored hominess over haute couture in her furnishings, a sagging sofa with faded floral cushions sharing space in the living room with a scuffed maple coffee table, an armchair upholstered in gold velvet, and a braided rug in shades of brown and gold. Dust filmed every flat surface, and Laura wondered if Leo had even been in here since his return.

  The dining room and a small home office had the same air of disuse and abandonment. Only the kitchen looked lived-in, with a stained coffee cup in the sink and an open box of cereal on the counter. Jace went to the brick-like cordless phone in its charging station on one end of the counter. “I’ll start here,” he said. “Set out the food, and then see if you can find his bedroom.”

  Laura unpacked a tray of finger sandwiches and another of cookies and set them on the kitchen island. The real caterers would bring more food later. She and Jace had carried these two trays as part of their cover.

  She turned her attention to the search for Leo’s bedroom. Though she knew the house was empty, she moved cautiously down the hall, as wary of leaving evidence behind as of surprising an unforeseen occupant of the house. The first door she reached led to a bathroom with avocado-green tiles and an old-fashioned claw-foot tub. A blue bath towel hung crookedly on the towel bar by the tub, and a man’s shaving kit balanced on the edge of the sink.

  Leo’s bedroom was next door—a child’s room with a single unmade bed draped in a blue corduroy spread, posters for decades-old baseball players on the walls. Old athletic trophies shared space on a bookshelf with paperback thrillers and computer software manuals. A small desk in the corner held a laptop computer and a phone charger, minus the phone. Dirty dishes and fast food wrappers crowded the nightstand.

  “This his room?” Jace looked in the doorway.

  “Yeah.” Laura stepped aside to let him get to the desk. “Pretty depressing. I think he’s probably been spending most of his time in here.”

  “Makes our job easier.” Jace assessed the room, then picked up the bedside lamp and examined it. “I’ll put one bug here, another on the desk,” he said. “It’s overkill, but we’ve got the hardware, so why not use it?”

  While he worked, Laura searched the bookcase, closet and dresser drawers. She felt under the mattress, looked behind the curtains and shone a flashlight into the heating vents, looking for any secret stash. The local police had already searched the house once and hadn’t found anything linking Leo to the explosion at Stroud Pharmaceuticals, but it never hurt to give everything a second going-over.

  “If he did plant that bomb, I think he made the device somewhere else,” Jace said.

  “Where else?” Laura asked. “This place doesn’t even have a garage, just that little shed out back, and the report from the search team says it’s full of gardening tools.”

  “A storage unit, maybe. An abandoned barn? There are probably a few of those around here.”

  “Maybe we’ll hear something that will give us a better idea.” She watched him fit the tiny listening device into the base of a stapler that sat on one corner of the desk, then snap the bottom of the stapler back in place.

  She hugged her arms across her chest. “Let’s get out of here,” she said. “This place gives me the creeps.”

  He stowed his tools and they headed toward the door. One step into the hallway, Jace froze.

  “What’s wrong? Why did you stop?” She shoved at his back, then went cold all over as she recognized the sound of the front door opening, and someone coming inside.

  Chapter Eight

  Laura’s anxiety radiated around her and through Jace. He reached back, grabbed her hand and squeezed.

  “I’m okay,” she whispered.

  He released her hand and moved forward, stopping at the end of the hallway as Leo rounded the corner toward them. The younger man, face pale and eyes reddened, stared at them. “Who are you?” he demanded, his voice shaky.

  “We’re from the caterer.” Jace extended a hand and Leo automatically took it. “We weren’t expecting anyone so soon.”

  Leo dropped Jace’s hand, and his gaze shifted away. “I... I needed to get out of there,” he said.

  “We’re very sorry for your loss.” Laura adopted a Southern accent and prayed Leo wouldn’t see past her disguise to the woman who had chatted him up at the bar last night.

  “What were you doing back there?” Leo looked past them, toward the back of the house.

  “We like to check that the bathroom is ready for guests,” Laura said.

  Leo scowled. “It took two of you to do that?”

  She didn’t miss a beat. “There was a spider in the sink. I asked Jeff to kill it for me.”

  Great improvisation, Jace thought, though Laura didn’t strike him as the type to freak out over a spider. In fact, the only time he’d ever seen her lose her cool was when he kissed her. She’d all but melted in his arms, making him believe that even if she resisted the idea of getting involved with him, she wanted him.

  Now was not the time to be thinking about that, he reminded himself.

  “You need to leave,” Leo said.

  “We won’t be much longer,” Jace said. “We just need to arrange a few things.”

  “No! I don’t want you here.” Leo’s voice rose, his eyes wild. “It’s bad enough I have to put up with all these people coming over after the funeral. You can at least leave me alone for now.”

  “All right.” Laura took Jace’s arm. “We can finish later.”

  They moved past him toward the kitchen, but paused in the hallway to listen as he made his way down the hall and shut the door to his room behind him. “Let’s go,” Laura said.

  They left the food, grabbed up both totes and headed out the front door. Jace started the van, drove around the corner and parked behind a deserted office complex.

  He texted Rogers that they were out, then leaned his head back against the seat and let out a breath, waiting for his racing heart to slow. As operations went, he had been in tighter spots. Still, it was unnerving when the surveillance subject found you in his house.

  “Why did he leave his own mother’s funeral scarcely twenty minutes into the service?” Laura asked.

  “Funerals are hard for a lot of people,” Jace said. “Maybe it got to him and he just wanted to be alone.”

  “Maybe.” She swiveled toward him. “Drive back around to where we can get a good look at the house.”

  “All right.” He started the engine again and drove around the block, parking at the end of the street, where they had a clear view of Leo’s driveway and front door. They had scarcely parked when a white Chevy sedan turned onto the street.

  Laura gasped as the sedan passed, the driver never even glancing in their direction. “That’s Merry Winger,” she said.

  “Remind me who she is.”

  “She’s Parker Stroud’s girlfriend.”

  Merry turned into the Elgins’ driveway, got out and walked up to the door. She was a pretty blonde in a neat navy-blue miniskirt and a sleeveless white blouse, and very tall white heels. She rang the bell and a moment later, Leo answered t
he door.

  “He doesn’t look happy to see her,” Laura said. She had pulled a pair of binoculars from the backpack at her feet and was studying the couple. As she said this, Leo stepped aside to let Merry in, and shut the door behind her.

  Laura lowered the glasses. “How did you know he was going to meet someone?” Jace asked.

  “It was just a hunch.” She continued to stare toward the door. “But what is Parker’s girlfriend doing meeting Leo Elgin in secret?”

  “We don’t know that it’s secret.”

  “He left his mother’s funeral to meet up with her. That’s pretty secretive, if you ask me.” She leaned forward, as if that would help her see through the closed door. “And where is Parker?”

  “Maybe Leo and Merry have a thing on the side?” Jace speculated. “Or they were a couple before and now that he’s back in town she’s trying to renew the acquaintance?”

  The door opened and Merry emerged. Head down, she hurried to her car, then drove away. Laura sat back in her seat. “She wasn’t in there long enough to do anything,” she said.

  “He didn’t even walk her to the door,” Jace said. “So maybe they’re not having an affair. Or maybe she came on to him and he turned her down.”

  Laura stowed the binoculars again. “Let’s head back to the trailer. Maybe your recording devices will pick up something useful.”

  * * *

  “HE HASN’T HAD a single phone call in the last twenty-four hours,” Rogers said when Jace checked in with him Sunday afternoon. “No visitors since the reception after the funeral, and all of those conversations are variations of either condolences over the loss of his mother, or questions about what he plans to do next.”

  “What does he plan to do next?” Jace asked.

  “He doesn’t know. That’s the answer he gave everyone, and if they tried to press, he either changed the subject or clammed up entirely.”

  “What about Merry Winger—the woman who showed up right after Laura and I left? What did they talk about?”

  “She delivered something,” Rogers said. “Here. Let me play you the recording.”

  Sound of door opening.

  Leo: What do you want?

  Merry: I brought you this.

  Leo: You’d better go.

  Merry: Not until you tell me what’s going on.

  Leo: Unintelligible mumble.

  Merry: No. You men are all alike. You think I’m stupid and I’m not.

  Leo: You need to go now.

  Long pause. High heels clicking on hardwood. Slamming door.

  “Any idea what she brought him?” Jace asked.

  “It could have been a sympathy card or a cake or plastic explosives,” Rogers said. “We can’t tell from his reaction.”

  “Merry works in the Stroud offices with Laura. Let’s see what she can find out. In the meantime, we need eyes on Leo.”

  “We don’t have enough people to babysit him full time,” Rogers said. “At this point we don’t have any proof he’s even worth watching. It was a stretch getting the okay to bug his place.”

  “I’ll watch him after my shift at the factory,” Jace said.

  “When will you sleep?”

  “When he does. You can keep an eye on him while I’m at the factory.”

  “I have other work to do,” Rogers said.

  “When you have a free moment,” Jace said. “Just for a few days.”

  Rogers grunted, which Jace chose to take as agreement. “What do you think we’re going to find out?” Rogers asked.

  “Who he’s seeing, where he’s going. If he assembled that explosive, he did it somewhere other than his mother’s house.”

  “I’m willing to try for a few days,” Rogers said. “But I’m not convinced we’re not wasting our time.”

  Jace ended the call and looked up to find Laura studying him. “You’re going to surveil Leo?” she asked.

  “Merry brought him something yesterday. From the tone of their conversation, I don’t think she was the person he was expecting to see, and he got rid of her as fast as he could.”

  “What did she bring him?”

  “We don’t know. The bugs haven’t picked up any other suspicious conversations.”

  “So, if he left the funeral to meet someone, they either didn’t show, or they sent Merry instead,” Laura said.

  “That’s what I’m thinking.”

  “Maybe Parker sent her.” The frown lines on Laura’s forehead deepened. “I got the impression if he said jump, she’d ask, how high?”

  “Talk to her. See what you can find out.”

  “I’ll try, but I’m not her favorite person. Apparently, she applied to be Parker’s admin before I stepped in and took the job.”

  “Yeah, but it sounds to me like she wants to keep an eye on Parker. Maybe you can offer to be her spy.”

  Laura stared at him. “You really think she wants to keep tabs on him? I thought she wanted to be closer to him.”

  He shrugged. “Hey, I never claimed to be an expert on relationships. But I’m betting Parker wouldn’t have picked her for the job. Most men don’t like the woman they’re involved with always looking over their shoulder.”

  He couldn’t begin to decipher the look she shot him, though he would describe it as somewhere between disgust and incredulity. He started to reassure her that he knew she wasn’t the type to get all up in his business, but bit back the words. He and Laura weren’t “involved.” Never mind that he couldn’t be in the same room with her without being hyperaware of her: of her soft scent, her softer skin, and the hard shell around her emotions that he ached to break through.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” she said. “What’s your next move?”

  He grabbed a backpack with binoculars, camera, water and snacks off the floor beside his chair. “I’m going to keep an eye on Leo. Don’t wait up.”

  * * *

  THE FIRST THING Laura noticed when she arrived at Stroud Pharmaceuticals on Monday was that the damage to the side door to the executive offices had been repaired, the police tape removed, and the sidewalk replaced, and everything sported a new coat of paint. A crew must have worked all weekend to effect the transformation.

  Once inside, however, she noted people still avoided the area. Whether out of superstition or real fear, she couldn’t tell. Her coworkers’ reactions to her were still subdued, but she pretended not to notice. Maybe in their shoes, she’d be suspicious of the new couple, too. She didn’t need to be best friends with any of these people in order to do her job.

  She detoured to the break room and fetched two cups of coffee and two doughnuts from the open box on the table, then headed for Merry’s desk. The younger woman looked up as Laura approached, eyes narrowed. “What do you want?” she asked.

  “I need your advice.” Laura set a cup of coffee and a doughnut in front of Merry, then slid a chair close to her desk.

  Merry clearly hadn’t expected this. “What kind of advice?” she asked, still wary.

  “I want to do a good job,” Laura said. “But Mr. Stroud—Parker—doesn’t seem very happy with my performance. I figure you’re the person who knows him best, so I thought maybe you could give me some tips on how to get on his good side.”

  “Why should I help you do the job I wanted?” Merry asked. “The job I still want?”

  “I thought maybe I could do you a favor, too.” Laura focused on stirring a packet of sugar into her coffee. “I know you and Parker have to be discreet about your relationship, what with working together and everything. I can make it easier for you to get in to see him, and I can make sure you have all the access you want.”

  “I can see Parker anytime.” Merry tossed her head. “I don’t need your help.”

  “I can run interference if anyone tries to interrupt you,” Laura said. “And I ca
n give you his schedule so you know when he’s free.”

  “Why would you want to help me?” Merry asked.

  “Because I need your help to do my job,” Laura said. “And because Parker is always in a better mood after he’s talked to you.” The last part was a blatant lie, but she was counting on Merry wanting to believe it.

  Merry relaxed a little. “I can give you a few pointers for dealing with him,” she said. “But I can’t promise they’ll help. It could be he just doesn’t like you.” Her smirk said clearly that she didn’t blame Parker.

  “I’m grateful for any advice you can give me,” Laura said, keeping her face straight.

  Merry took a bite of doughnut and chewed, looking thoughtful. “I can’t believe I’m even suggesting this to you, of all people,” she said after she had swallowed. “But Parker likes women who keep themselves up. He’d probably like it if you dressed a little sexier—you know, shorter skirts and lower necklines.”

  Fat chance of that happening, but Laura nodded, her expression neutral. “Anything else?”

  “He likes it when I compliment him. You know, some men need women to build up their egos.”

  Did she really believe that? “But you’re his girlfriend,” Laura said. “I’m just his assistant.”

  “Well, yeah.” Merry shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe smile more or have a better attitude. If he’s grumpy around you, you must be doing something wrong.”

  Or maybe he’s just a jerk, Laura thought. “I’ll keep that in mind.” She stood. “Thanks.”

  “Just remember—you owe me.”

  “I’ll remember.” She started to turn away, but hesitated. “Hey, did you go to Gini Elgin’s services Saturday?” she asked.

  “Yes. Why do you care?”

  “I just wondered. I drove by the church and it looked like there were a lot of people there.”

  “Yeah, there was a big crowd.”