They didn’t talk; they didn’t need to. From here out hand signals would suffice.
They were also prepared to deal with Matt should he discover them. Not the way they had dealt with Larry Duke, but differently, so there’d be no resemblance.
Because spring was just beginning, despite the calendar, most plants offered little concealment. Aiding them, however, Keller had some evergreen shrubs along the front, back and sides of his house. They’d tested them earlier and found they weren’t brittle.
The bushes provided a perfect hiding spot as they crouched down in the back, waiting for the entire world to go to sleep.
Except for one damn cop car that drove by every so often. A lot of protection in such a sleepy town. That cop also changed their plan. After a few hours, they realized he was random in his appearances. Back door it would be.
They waited, shifting position just often enough to keep from getting stiff.
Around two thirty, they began to move stealthily, freezing often in case some random person happened to glance out into the night and see some moving shadows. It made for a slower trip from the side of the house to the back door.
Several windows on nearby houses looked straight into Keller’s yard, but the first man figured those windows didn’t create as much of a threat as a sharp-eyed cop who was probably hoping for any kind of distraction, even investigating shadows.
The back door proved to be an easy open. A lousy screen-door type of lock, easily broken with little noise.
The floors creaked more than anticipated, slowing them down as they paused frequently to let the noise slip away. No other sounds disturbed the house.
At last they opened the interior door, which let into the hallway. It seemed odd to the first man that the mudroom didn’t open to the kitchen, but it didn’t really matter. It was close to the office in the ell.
Another few steps and they were inside their target room, through a door that had been left open. Searching everything took a while, too, because they were looking for tiny stuff, like a disc or flash drive, and even into files in a cabinet, hoping to spy a label that might come from a different source. And they were trying to be silent.
They found a bunch of those flash drives and were getting ready to leave with the laptop computer when a voice startled them.
“What the hell?”
They’d been ready for this. Man Three grabbed Matt Keller from behind, wrapping one arm around his chest and clamping a gloved hand over his mouth.
Man One stepped in to finish it.
AS THEY WALKED, Cat was surprised to feel Duke touch her arm. She looked at him and saw him make the sign with two fingers to his eyes, then point toward one house.
Matt Keller’s house. Oh damn. She peered into the night, trying to see what had alerted Duke. Then she noticed a couple of shadows that appeared out of place. Wrong size for a tree and shaped all wrong.
They weren’t moving, however, so she was ready to dismiss them as a trick of light. But then she saw movement, and it wasn’t the movement of a tree or large bush swaying.
Two people? Crouched down? She hadn’t worn her gun, but now she wished she had.
She glanced at the house and thought she saw a light inside. Matt. Without hesitation, she ran toward the front door.
“Want me to chase them?” Duke’s voice drew her up short.
He was off before she could say a word, although at that point she had a bigger concern: Matt Keller.
Without any more discussion, Duke took off into the night toward the alley.
Cat’s attention centered fully on Matt. If someone had broken into Matt’s house, was he still alive? Or had he been tortured like Larry Duke?
She couldn’t waste time wondering about the perps until she made sure Matt was reasonably okay.
The front door was locked. She sped around to the back, running because Matt’s life might depend on speed. They’d had to break in somehow, and a back door was concealed from the street.
Assuming those guys had gotten in at all.
Inside, she moved with reasonable caution while her heart hammered, aware that someone might be there other than Matt. After she’d checked the front rooms, she looked down the hallway. There was only one closed door, and light spilled from a little ell.
She checked that and the bathroom as quickly as she could, barely noting the mess in the ell, then called out, “Matt? Matt?”
No sound answered her. Cat’s heart nearly stopped. Oh my God.
“Matt? Are you here?”
She thought she heard something from behind the closed door. Muffled. She couldn’t wait any longer. She turned the knob and opened the door, prepared for just about anything.
When she flipped the light switch just inside, she found Matt lying on his bed, ankles and wrists wrapped in zip ties. His arms were above his head, his cuffed wrists tied to the headboard by rope. Duct tape covered his mouth.
Without another moment’s hesitation, she hurried over to rip the tape from his mouth. “Are you hurt?”
“Mostly bruised, I think.” His voice shook. “It was like being tackled by two linebackers. Damn, what happened?”
“I think you might have been robbed. And since I don’t have my radio on me, can I use your phone?”
“Yes. Then get these damn ties off me. They’re too tight.”
She grabbed the phone beside the bed and called the emergency number.
Then she went on a hunt to find a tool to cut those ties. She already heard the sirens.
DUKE RETURNED TO a swirl of cops and EMTs. Matt Keller was being carried out on a gurney over his protests that he was just a little bruised. Some injuries might not be immediately apparent, one of the EMTs told Keller. Better safe than sorry.
Immense relief filled him, knowing that Matt was still able
