back into the wall. I couldn’t see over the massive body so I just held my breath and hoped the pig guy wouldn’t be taking a closer look. He must have been satisfied because I heard him walking away and then a couple seconds later, the door slammed shut. I managed to shove the pig off of me and ran for the door, but it was one of those old styles that locked automatically from the outside.
Crap!
There wasn’t even a ceiling to climb through.
I pulled out my phone and sent a text.
Need a diversion and a rescue. Locked in freezer.
Gertie: On it.
Ida Belle: Good God.
Chapter Five
I heard the back door open again and this time Liam greeted the pig guy and they started discussing weights and prices. I ducked back behind a shelf on the opposite side of the cooler from the pig in case Liam came inside to check out the product.
Out back, I heard a small engine fire up and rev.
The moped!
“What the heck!” Liam shouted, and footsteps ran for the back door. “Someone’s stealing my moped!”
“And my boudin!” the pig guy yelled.
I heard scrambling for a minute and the sound of jiggling keys, then a vehicle fired up and I assumed either Liam or the pig man were going after Gertie, who was undoubtedly the boudin thief. I tugged on the door handle, silently willing the thing to open, but it wouldn’t budge. No way was Gertie going to outrun a truck with a moped.
The back door opened again and I let go of the door handle, hoping whoever had entered hadn’t heard me trying to escape.
“Who’s there?” the pig man called out.
Double crap!
I grabbed the plastic sheeting from behind the pig and pulled it over my head. It had barely hit the floor when the door flew open and the pig man stomped inside. I couldn’t see much with the thick plastic over me, but there was no mistaking the dark object in his hand. Well, this had gone south fast.
I had totally Gertied.
I waited until he took a step in my direction, then launched. As I tackled him, I threw the plastic over his head and he went flying into a heap in the corner. I sprang up and ran out of the freezer, slamming the door shut behind me. I just hoped he didn’t start shooting. Those freezers weren’t cheap.
No way was I running out the back door, so I headed to the front of the store, texting Ida Belle that I was out of the freezer as I went. The coast was clear in the entry so I eased up to the windows to stare outside. I heard an engine racing and barely ducked behind a fake ficus tree when Gertie shot by on the moped, wearing an ET mask and with a trail of boudin links around her neck, flying behind her like a scarf. Liam’s truck was right behind.
The pig farmer pounded on the freezer door, yelling and threatening to open fire, so I bolted out the door and in the opposite direction of Liam and Gertie. The lot next to the strip center was wooded so I dashed into the trees for cover and so I could take a moment to figure out what the heck to do. I’d barely gotten into the trees when I heard a huge boom that shook the ground and then saw debris flying up and over the strip mall.
Gertie had gotten onto the service road with the moped, Liam still hot on her tail, but as soon as the blast went off, he slammed on his brakes, made a U-turn and headed back for the shop. I stepped out of the tree line near the access road and waved wildly at Gertie, trying to get her attention. She saw me at the last minute and decided that was a good time to make a hard right onto the grass.
It wasn’t.
The moped was airborne for a moment as it launched off the curb. The ET mask looked strangely appropriate in that instant. Gertie lost her grip and her ride midair and fell into a mudhole. Miraculously, the moped kept going, but I was too busy staring at Gertie to realize it. By the time I realized it was still in motion, diving was my only option for escape, so that’s what I did.
Right into a blackberry thicket.
I sprang out of the thicket as if I’d bounced off a trampoline. Gertie had climbed out of the