Natalie detected sincere surprise and concern in his voice, not what she expected from someone carrying a concealed weapon. 'No, I'm sure she's fine, we just need to ask you a few questions out in the hall, so if you'll just come with me.'
'Sure, sure, no problem, but my family is okay, is that what you are saying?'
He followed Officer guest and the other officer out of the doors. Mrs. Wild stayed behind to calm the class. Once outside, the patrolman asked Seymour for his backpack and sat it aside.
'Seymour Wood?'
'Yes, I'm Seymour Wood. What's going on?'
'We have a report that a student named Seymour; brought a handgun on campus with them today and we are investigating that complaint. Do I have permission to search your person and your backpack?' the officer asked.
'Yeah, please do. I don't have a gun, only gun we've got is an old single shot my dad use to hunt with.'
The officer instructed Guest to pat Seymour down while he searched through the backpack. Natalie had him stand against the wall and spread his feet and place his hands behind his head. She carefully moved her hands over his arms, waist, pockets, and anywhere she felt a weapon could be concealed. The young officer wished the exercise was under more favorable circumstances but found no hidden weapons. Likewise, the backpack contained school supplies, textbooks and binders, but no gun.
Natalie was relieved to see that the engaging, handsome man she'd met earlier, did not appear to be the subject in question. She asked, 'Do you have a car here Seymour?'
'Nah, I take the bus.'
'And you do not own any firearms, is that correct?' she asked again.
'How about a locker on campus, you got one?' the security guard jumped in with a pertinent question.
'It's not an assigned locker, but I keep one over at the gym for my racquetball class,' Seymour informed them, unconcerned.
'Would you mind showing us that locker?'
'No problem, can I have my backpack?' he asked.
The four walked together, departed the Robert E. Lee building, and headed for the gym. Lester was thrilled to see the student surrounded by three armed officials and headed for the gym. He took picture after picture trying to be casual about it. When the group was a good fifty yards beyond his location, he picked up his things and moved to a vantage point outside the gym, where he could get some classic pictures of Seymour in handcuffs.
Seymour stood in front of locker 1137; it appeared just as he had left it an hour before.
'When did you last access this locker Seymour?' Natalie asked.
'I had racquetball last period, so just over an hour ago. I came here right after the matches, showered and dressed, locked it up and went to Mrs. Wild's class, where I met you.'
'That's fine, just open the locker for us and you can get back to your classes,' she assured him.
He spun the dial on the lock, like he'd done a hundred times before, but the mechanism did not open. Seymour laughed nervously, looking back at the officers, as he tried the combination again, this time it opened easily, and he pulled the lock from the locker and stepped aside, 'Take a look for yourself, just my sweaty gym stuff.'
Natalie deferred to the city patrolman, as she was actually outside her jurisdiction. The city officer opened the locker and noted, just as Seymour had indicated, that it appeared to be gym accessories. He looked through the items at the bottom and acknowledged, along with Officer Guest, that the shoes were Nike's. Changing his attention to the upper shelf, nothing seemed out of place. He withdrew a pen from his shirt pocket and lifted the clothing behind the deodorant so he could see underneath. Seymour stood at such an angle that he could not see into the locker, but was not worried, knowing there was nothing there.
'Seymour Wood, I'm placing you under arrest for bringing a firearm onto a state-run university. Other charges are likely to follow, but please turn around and place your hands behind your back.'
Natalie was just as shocked as Seymour, 'What you got officer?' she asked, as he cuffed Seymour.
He pushed Seymour over to the campus cop, as if he were to watch him then returned to the locker, and lifted the clean clothing, again with the pen, revealing to Guest the silver revolver underneath. She took a pair of white gloves from her rear pocket, put them on, and removed the gun from the hiding place, a Smith amp; Wesson.38 Special. Natalie lifted the barrel to her nose, a faint smell of gunpowder indicated the gun had been fired sometime recently. Looking into the cylinder, she could see the weapon was loaded.
'Seymour, where did you get this gun and have you fired it recently?' she asked.
'I swear, I've never seen that gun before. How could it have gotten there? I don't even know….' he said, not believing what was happening. 'Isn't it obvious that somebody put that there for you to find?'
'Seymour, it's going to go way better for you if you cooperate with us now, and tell us everything you know,' the patrolman said.
'But I am cooperating! I have no idea how that got there! I've never seen it before!'
Natalie suddenly got a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach, 'Hold on a minute, give me a sec to call in to the Sheriff, okay?' she asked the arresting officer.
'Sure, knock yourself out,' he replied.
She keyed the microphone at her shoulder and reached dispatch, 'This is Deputy Guest, can you get 'The Wolf' on the horn.' A moment later the Sheriff was at the other end.
She explained the situation, the finding of the gun and the arrest of Seymour Wood, and then asked, 'Do you remember the make and model of that pistol that was taken from the third of our break-ins?'
'Yup, Smith amp; Wesson.38 Special, why? What you got there?' he asked, excitement unmistakable in his voice.
'The same. I'll go with the officers to booking, then call to get the serial, see if this is really our guy,' Natalie said.
'What do you mean, ‘really your guy’? What the hell are you talking about? That is not my gun!' Seymour blurted out, almost in tears.
'Good work Guest, call me when you get there,' the Sheriff concluded.
Seymour was read his rights, and the trio again moved together, Seymour in cuffs and the gun being carried by Natalie in a gloved hand. Forensics had been phoned to process the locker, and the campus security individual had been left to secure the site, until they arrived. Lester was absolutely overcome with emotion when he saw the three depart from the gymnasium, click, click, the shutter working quickly. With Seymour, his competition out of the way, almost certainly for an extended period of time, there was nothing more for Lester to do but go home and make the final preparations for his departure with Blanche.
Seymour sat in the back of the squad car, a tear running down his cheek, not understanding what had just happened, but desperately needing someone that would just believe him. He needed to speak with Blanche.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
Jeremy broke his own rule and phoned Iggy’s cell from a payphone half way between his office and home. The communication through the online apparatus made it sound like the culmination of their years of planning was to take place this week. He wanted to hear it from his mouth that everything was a go. There could be no screw- ups; they would not get a second chance.
Iggy answered the phone on the third ring, “Hello, Director Savard.”
“Iggy, it’s me, I will keep this brief. Your last message said you were prepared for this week. Do you have everything our man will need?”
He immediately recognized the voice as Jeremy’s but was disappointed that there was no exchange of niceties before getting to the gist of the call. “Yeah, Felix coded a message to me yesterday saying, he’s ‘in like Flynn’ with your step mom and thinks either Wednesday or Thursday would work for our guy.”
“Great, but do you have everything he will need? It must appear to him that it’s the same as the others, however, we will want him to be there at a specific time.” Jeremy paused and thought for a moment. The line was silent but for the sound of the two men breathing. “Do this. Tell him that we know the target will be out of the
