dollhouse. I was pretty sure it would fit inside the miniature freezer and I could suddenly “remember” that I had heard the freezer clunk after I’d wrapped it and then got so distracted when Will and Mr. Bradshaw came back, that I hadn’t unwrapped it to see what caused the clunk.
Okay, that was weak. Dwight knows how seldom I let my curiosity go unsatisfied, but maybe he’d be so glad to get the damn thing that he’d overlook how it actually turned up.
Besides, if Candace had recorded anything about Daddy, Talbert, and me, his knowing I’d palmed it would be the least of my concerns.
When I buzzed Dwight at noon, he was too tied up to meet me. I took that as an omen that it was okay to implement my third option and to drive over to Will’s warehouse.
On my way out of the courthouse, I was surprised to see Daddy coming up the steps with a man I didn’t recognize.
“Daddy! Hey. Were you coming to look for me?” I asked.
“Naw,” he said. “I just got a little business needs tending to.”
I looked at the other man inquiringly and Daddy reluctantly introduced us. “This is my daughter Deb’rah, Mr. McKinney. Deb’rah, Mr. McKinney’s the preacher at that new church over near us.”
“The Church of Jesus Christ Eternal?” A sour taste rose in my throat. This was the pompous bastard who used scripture to humiliate his wife and keep the women of his church in check?
“Brother Kezzie’s told me a lot about you, Judge Knott,” he said, taking my hand in a two-handed clasp that was no doubt meant to convey warmth and pleasure in the meeting.
I was speechless, and when I looked at Daddy there was an odd expression on his face that I couldn’t quite interpret.
“Sorry, Deb’rah, but we ain’t got time to stand here a-chitter-chattering,” he said briskly.
McKinney told me again how really nice it was to meet me, then they were gone, striding across the lobby to a hallway that led to the tax offices and to our register of deeds.
Register of deeds?
For a moment I was tempted to dash after them and demand to know what was going on. I’ve heard that McKinney has a silver tongue when it comes to talking the elderly into giving parcels of their land to the church so that he could do the Lord’s work. The catch to that is that the church is his personal property, which means that all the deeds are registered in his name. It’s said he sold some of the donated land to finance a used-car dealership that was supposed to turn a profit for the church, but so far there’s been nothing to show for the prosperity except a nicer-than-usual parsonage and the well-cut suits that McKinney wore.
Surely Daddy wasn’t about to turn over some of his land to McKinney?
“
The preacher was silent.
As Judith Viorst once put it, this was turning into a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
When I pulled up at the side door of Will’s warehouse, I did get a small break. There was no sign of his van and a small, hand-lettered card in the door window informed the world that he expected to be back by one-thirty. I tried the door. Locked, of course, but with a little more luck, he had only pulled the door to without bothering to throw the dead bolt on the upper lock. One of my nephews had showed me the credit card trick and the simple lock opened on my first try.
Just to be safe, though, I called out as soon as I was inside. “Will? Anyone here?”
The office was empty, so I passed on into the warehouse proper and called again.
My luck was still holding. There was no response.
Will had left a few lights on, but they did little to cut the gloom and the floor space was so jammed with boxes, furniture, and bric-a-brac that it took me a few minutes to locate the dollhouse. When I did, I was surprised to see that half the furnishings had been unwrapped and lay strewn across the tabletop where the dollhouse sat. Happily, Will hadn’t gotten to the kitchen things yet. I’d wrapped them last and put them near the top of the second, smaller, cardboard box. I soon found the little freezer and, as I’d hoped, once the shelves were removed, the flash drive ought to fit perfectly. I took it out of my pocket, but before I could slide it inside, I thought I heard something rustle behind me.
Trying to look innocent, I turned with the drive and freezer in my hands and said, “Will? Guess what I’ve found?”
But I saw no one and realized that I was letting my guilty conscience spook me.
I turned back, intending to wrap up the freezer and put it back in the box because I wanted Will here when I made my great discovery. But as I reached for the paper, two things happened. I heard a shot and my left arm immediately felt as if it’d been stung by a very angry hornet. What the hell?
A second shot zinged past my head so close it almost singed my hair.
I dropped everything and dived for cover behind a chest of drawers just as another shot buried itself in the wood.
I eeled along the floor till I was behind a tall wardrobe. My arm was on fire and when I looked down, I saw that the sleeve of my white linen jacket was red with blood and I had left a trail of bright drops on the floor. Bleeding like a stuck pig, where could I hide? The shooter was between me and the only way out. Beyond the office were roll-up garage-type doors, but even if I could get there without being seen, they would be locked and I wouldn’t have time to figure out how to unlock them before the shooter heard me.
Frantically, I looked around for a safe haven and saw a heavy metal door standing ajar nearby. Of course! The
