said, “A few people taking a dirt nap would agree with you.”
“Okay. You keep the gun. So what now?”
“I’m going to have dinner,” he said, and when she raised her eyebrows, he added, “Call me if you get anything.”
He still needed to show the video to Marcie and Liddell, but he was worried about Moira. She hadn’t answered her cell phone, her office phone, or Katie’s home phone. He thought about calling Katie, but if everything was okay, she would worry needlessly.
He drove down the dirt access road and punched in Moira’s phone number but got her voice mail again. She had better damn well be home. He stepped on the accelerator as he pulled onto Highway 41 and headed south. One of the benefits of being a cop was getting to drive fast. Katie wouldn’t be home or she would have answered the phone. But why wasn’t Moira answering her phone? He called Liddell and explained that he would be a while. He had to go check on Moira. It wasn’t like her to not call at least.
He drove down a series of twisty side streets and came out in front of Katie’s house. The lights were off inside. He checked his watch again. Almost eight. Maybe they’d given up waiting for him and gone out to eat.
He went to the front door and knocked, and, not getting an answer, walked to the back, where he found Eric’s business card stuck in the door.
Moira,
With Eric at Bone Fish
Be home soon
It was Katie’s handwriting. So she went to eat with lover boy, Jack thought. That’s why Eric didn’t answer his phone. But that was an hour ago. How long did it take to eat? And where was Moira? Why hadn’t she left a note for him?
“Crap!” he said, and got back in his car.
Moira brushed a stand of hair back and checked the next item on Eric’s list. He wanted all these files on his desk in the morning? It would take hours to find them, and she hadn’t eaten. Plus, she was tired from climbing up and down the ladder. She eyed the stack of file folders she’d placed near the door and groaned inwardly at the thought of carrying armloads of them up the basement stairs. Now she wished she hadn’t told Eric that she would stay. At least he had told Jack why she had had to cancel their dinner plans.
The building was creepy when it was empty, and she was glad Nova had left the basement hallway lights on. By the time she was finished, the entire first floor would be dark. She would have to feel her way down the hall to her office unless she could find Nova. Maybe he had a cart she could borrow. Or just maybe he would help her.
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
The Taurus sat in the school bus parking lot down the street from the Civic Center building. Clint watched a lone female walk down Main Street. “She shouldn’t be out alone,” he commented.
“Yeah, there are some seriously dangerous assholes out here,” Book said, and they both laughed. “You know, I’ve been thinking. The boss didn’t say we had to take it easy this time. She wants this one dead, but she didn’t say how.”
“What have you got in mind?” Clint asked warily.
“Maybe we can have a little fun. She’ll be dead. She won’t care.”
Clint remembered the full clip Book had unloaded into the drugstore owner. No point arguing with a man who could lose it like that. He looked at his watch. “It’s time.”
Both men pulled Nomex balaclavas over their heads and adjusted them. Book checked the action of the Beretta 9mm pistol and holstered it. He pulled a hunting knife from the sheath on his belt and held it up. The fifteen-inch blade ended in a wicked point, making it the perfect killing weapon. The serrated edge opened a cut that was almost always fatal.
“I’m gonna gut her like a catfish!” Book said. “But I’m gonna have my fun first.”
“Let’s just get this done, Book,” Clint said.
The two men moved stealthily from their car and into the bushes at the side entrance of the Civic Center. A pair of headlights turned onto the street a ways down. In a minute it would be alongside them.
They sidled onto the landing. Book peered through the glass doors while Clint kept an eye on the approaching vehicle.
“Clear,” Book said, and opened the door with the key the client had left in the bushes