act of unloading.”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t want to turn them in, do you?”
He ran a hand down his face, forehead to chin. “I don’t hardly remember that place without Early being there. My father hired him because he had honest eyes. I’m having trouble believing he’s in this alone.”
“You think someone else at the factory is involved?”
“If I were betting, that’d be my guess.”
“Any idea who?”
“Just hunches.”
Annie didn’t ask for names. She didn’t really want to know them. It was disheartening to learn that people could be something so different from what they appeared to the rest of the world.
Just as they’d suspected, the truck took the exit they’d taken before, following the turns to the warehouse where they’d nearly gotten caught by the security guard.
Jack cut the lights, and they drove by the entrance, pulled over on a stretch of grass with a side view of the loading dock. Just as it had earlier, the truck backed up, the two men getting out and opening the warehouse door, then setting about the business of unloading.
Jack reached across the seat, popped open the glove compartment and pulled out a camera. His elbow brushed her knee on the trip back.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“That’s all right,” Annie murmured, drawing herself up like a sand crab bent on escape. Only, she had no place to go. Their eyes met for a moment, held, and something sparked between them, jolting through her with kick-start force.
He fiddled with the camera, checked for film. “Wait right here, okay? I’ll be back.”
“You’re not going down there, are you?”
“No. Just close enough to get a few shots as evidence.”
“What about the flash?”
“I’ll take them fast. Can you get in the driver’s seat and be ready to take off?”
“You have sleuthing in your blood, don’t you?”
“Does that mean you think I’m good at it?”
“So far.”
“Wish me luck,” he said and ducked out of the car.
Annie got out and went around, sliding behind the wheel. She set the chronograph on her watch, then sat watching it tick off seconds, each one raising her adrenaline level to another peak. When they’d added up to twelve minutes, the tight little ball of panic in her stomach began to unravel.
She couldn’t see him anywhere out there; the night was tar-paper dark. What if they’d seen him? What would they do? Did they have guns?
Don’t be ridiculous, Annie. Early Gunter may have turned out to be a thief, but he’s not a murderer!
No sooner had doubt waged an assault on that particular assertion than the passenger door popped open and Jack jumped inside.
“Let’s go!” he said.
Annie fumbled at the key, her fingers suddenly their own worst enemy. She turned it—finally!—shoved the gearshift into First and floored the accelerator.
They spun in the grass, then the tires caught the edge of the asphalt and shot them forward. Annie grappled with the wheel, the car veering right, then left.
“Whoa,” Jack said, “you’re good at this. Where’d you learn to drive like that?”
“School of scared spitless.”
Jack made a snorting noise and laughed a good belly laugh.
In spite of the fear that still had her in a choke hold, Annie smiled at the sound. “Did you get the pictures?”
“Enough I think,” he said, exhaling another chuckle and settling back in his seat.
“Do you think they saw you?”
“Pretty sure they did.”
Annie punched the accelerator, hurtling them down the country road, aware of the injustice to the posted speed limit, but at the moment it seemed the lesser of two evils. “Are they following us?” She threw an anxious glance at the rear view mirror.
“Don’t think so. They wouldn’t stand a chance of catching us, anyway.”
She shot him a look. Saw the amusement on his face and let up on the accelerator. “Well, they could have been,” she said.
“Yep.” Another smile.
Warmth settled over Annie. A sense of something good and right. Of gladness for the company of a man who seemed to find things to appreciate about her. She could not remember the last time she had felt this way. Had she ever?
Silence stretched out between them for a mile or a few. It didn’t matter because it was comfortable silence, companionable silence.
“Think they recognized you?” Annie asked after a while, tapping a thumb against the steering wheel.
“I doubt it. Might have gotten a look at the car.”
“Hmm. So what’re you going to do with the pictures?”
Jack sighed. “Wish I’d been wrong on this.”
“What makes people justify embezzling?”
“Maybe they feel they’ve been shortchanged somehow. That they’re owed something.”
“But it’s wrong.”
“Yeah, it is.”
“So what