I hung back and watched them make their way slowly out of the house, giving a deep sigh of relief. If our luck held through the rest of this operation, I’d die a happy man.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Nate drove us from the E.R. parking, still chuckling. He glanced at Tony, who was riding shotgun. “That was one wild story. Fallin’ off a ladder onto a toolkit with a screwdriver sitckin’ up?”
Tony shrugged. “I don’t think they cared, long as they didn’t have to report it to the cops.”
I shook my head. “Yeah, but you might’ve wanted to tell us what your story was going to be before we went in there.”
“Hey, it worked, didn’t it?”
I picked a small canvas bag off the floor and rummaged through it. “Okay, before we get back to T&M, we’d better make sure and go over what went down at Crosby’s compound after we finished our attack.” A small felt bag made its way into my hand. “Dave, you found this sack of jewels on top of the desk in Crosby’s bedroom. Anything else?”
“No, and even though Nate and I heard something under the floor in the closet that blood trail led to, we couldn’t find a trap door.”
“An’ no sign of anyone getting out before we torched the joint, either,” Nate said. “In fact, I thought I could still hear somethin’ in there even after we started the fire.”
Tony gave a serious look at me over his shoulder. “I doubt the Demon Bitch made it out of the place, but we better not assume anything. At least until proven otherwise.”
“I fully agree,” I said. “We need to keep close tabs on the after action report that’s made about this particular fire.” I shook the canvas bag. “Besides the hundred thousand in the safe and sack of jewels in the desk, we got some flash drives. Have to see what’s on them when we get a chance.”
“You plan on giving those drives to the feds?” asked Dave.
“Only after we’ve given them a look.” I stowed the bag behind my seat. I had another thought. “Did everyone get a rifle from our stash back at the office?”
Nate gave a nod. “Yup, I got one for everyone but you. Thought you said you’d already weaponed up.”
I gave a theatrical groan. “Damn, guess I’d better pay closer attention when you say something.”
“Since when you going to start doing that?” asked Tony with a chuckling laugh.
* * *
It seemed only minutes passed before we pulled up outside T&M Security. Marty and two others met us at the curb. “Been quiet as a tomb the past hour,” Marty said. “Tony, you doin’ okay?”
Tony eased carefully from the SUV. “Yes, just can’t run anywhere yet.”
“Heh. You c’n lay around out here and guard the back seat of the vehicle while we go in. How about that?”
“Sounds good to me. From what you told us on the radio it’s been pretty quiet since the bad guys got here. Any change?”
He nodded towards the two with him.“Naw. The only trouble’s been tryin’ to keep my ratpack from chargin’ in.”
“In that case, break out the masks and let’s go.” I walked towards Marty’s van. “We’ve still got a bunch to do before daylight.”
Once masked up with rebreathers, we made short work of our scout through the building. Two of Crosby’s bunch were on the ground floor, lying near the entrance. The sight of the two bluish-faced corpses sobered everyone. The rear doors were unblocked and opened. A cross-draft would help dispel the gas more quickly.
Second floor was more of the same–tomblike silence, and bodies slumped seemingly everywhere. None of them had survived. Marty and his gang busied themselves unbolting windows and opening them. The rest of us began the arduous task of dragging bodies down to the van we’d moved close to the rear entrance, and loading them in.
Tony hobbled inside, holding a gas detector while walking through the first floor area. Once at the far end of the building, he gave a thumbs up. “All clear this floor.”
Dave pushed the legs of the last corpse into the back of the van before hurrying over to Tony. “Here, let me check upstairs.”
“Yeah, and hurry it up, willya? These masks are stifling,” Marty said.
Tony made shooing motions. “In that case, why don’t you and your ratpack take our visitors back to their vehicles and move ‘em about ten blocks away? Y’don’t have to wear masks to do that.”
Marty’s crew had just disappeared with the last body when a police car came drifting around the corner. I turned to Tony. “Pass word to Nate and Dave; the police just showed. I’ll tell them our security system alerted us, and we saw someone driving away to the south of here. Hopefully that’ll keep them from nosing around where Marty’s doing his thing.”
I strode towards the police vehicle just now stopping, a smile on my face. “Hi, officer. Glad you came.” I dug out my wallet while he and his buddy stepped from the vehicle. “I’m one of the owners of T&M. We got an alert on our security system, and hotfooted it here.”
The officer took the driver’s license I offered him. “Baker, is it? Francis Baker?” He gave me a sharp once-over and handed my I.D. back. “What’s with all the windows and doors being open?”
“We have to do that when we do an emergency shutdown of our security system. All the sensors have to be tripped and re-set. A real pain to do, but it’s the most reliable system on the market, so worth it in our opinion.”
The other officer, a tall heavyset man, came around the front of their vehicle, hand outstretched. “Mister Baker? It just dawned on me who you are. You gave a presentation at our quarterly training session, didn’t you?”
I shook his hand, my fake smile turning real. “That’s right, I did. I’m tickled you remembered.”
It was another five minutes before
