'I'm curious.'
'Well, it seems like I saw a big green something snaking through the forest.'
'A what?'
'I just remember green and round and, like, translucent. Like a giant garden hose winding through the trees.'
'You're not going to tell me it looked alive, are you?'
'I don't know what I saw, except it was green. It seemed a block or two long.'
'They're probably hiding the Loch Ness monster.'
She yawned and turned over.
'Hey, did you hear that?' Nate said in a suddenly alert voice.
'It's the wind in the trees. They creak,' Dan said.
'Pretty scary night tonight,' Nate said.
'Yeah.'
'Are you gonna go out on dates with Ms. Fischer?'
'No, I'm not.'
There was silence for a while.
'I won't rub it in,' she whispered.
'Thanks,' Dan said.
10
'I hate to lose five hundred thousand.' Jeb Otran sat with one arm braced straight against the library table. They were in the conference room at the Hutchin firm with Patty McCafferty on the speaker phone. 'As for the compound in the woods, that's really the business of those who own it-unless they have our money. I just wonder if what you saw was on Amada or Metco.'
'We couldn't tell, although I believe it was at least near Amada land, because we were in the upper end of the forest,' Maria said. She sat with Dan on one side of the table, Jeb and Hutchin on the other.
'If you tell the police about this locked room and this threatening conversation or whatever it was, I would suppose you'll have to tell them about the money,' Jeb said.
'Oh, this is great,' Patty McCafferty groaned over the speaker box.
'We could ask the sheriff not to publicize it. After all, there's no particular reason they should. We don't have to officially report the theft.'
'So we just ignore the fact that we were assaulted and robbed with a deadly weapon? That we were shot at? That someone tried to kill us?'
'Maria, you're right. It's tough to remain silent,' Patty said. 'And perhaps even dangerous. On the other hand, at the moment it seems you're safe. We also need to worry about what they're really doing out there. If they are doing something illegal, it could be dangerous.'
'If they broke in and stole the photos, they damn well know you've figured out they're up to something weird,' said Hutchin. 'They'll have some explanation for all that stuff if the police go out there.'
'Of course,' Jeb said, and looked at Dan, 'they may have come and taken those pictures for purely business reasons. You may have engaged in an act of industrial espionage without realizing it.'
'You mean we stole their property,' Maria said.
'One wonders if we're dealing in both cases with the same people. And that is perhaps the best reason for reporting it. The violence, I mean,' Otran said. 'What's going on in the woods may be somebody's legitimate business. It's private property. But, of course, breaking into your house, if it was them, makes it illegitimate.'
''But, Jeb, you've got to be concerned about what's going on out there…,' Patty began.
'Curious is a better word. Like I said, it's private property.'
'For the forty years we've known each other, you've been obsessed with a person's right to screw up the world on his own land.'
'Relax,' Otran said, 'I didn't say we wouldn't find out. I was about to say I didn't want our lawyer or, for that matter, your lawyer out breaking the law anymore-subject to the proviso that we need to get the money back legally.'
'Well, it seems to me-'
'Patty, if you'll just let me finish…'
Dan stared at Maria, who was also trying to conceal her shock. This strange conversation indicated a level of familiarity between Jeb Otran and Patty McCafferty that they never would have guessed at.
Now that Otran was telling them to cease and desist in their investigation of the compound in the woods- except as it might pertain to getting the money-Dan decided he would say nothing in front of the others about the photographs in his camera. Still, for personal reasons, Dan felt compelled to tell Otran privately after the meeting. Maria appeared to be staying quiet on the issue as well.
'We are still left with the theft of the money and the shooting. I think it should be reported,' Jeb said.
'And I do too,' Patty agreed.
'I can claim attorney-client privilege as to the source of the money,' Dan said. 'I don't think I have to disclose it. Just that it was taken, that we gave chase, that we were shot at in our car.'
'What about the break-in at your home?'
'I wouldn't bring it up. After all, we took something from them and we don't know what it means,' Maria said.
'Leave it out,' Dan said.
'That's it, then,' Hutchin agreed. 'We won't do a thing, Jeb, except for Dan and Maria telling their story about the theft of the money, the chase, and getting shot off the road.'
'I'll make a call to Amada and Metco,' Jeb said.
'Once again, I'm sorry about this delivery and the way it turned out,' Hutchin said.
'I can't imagine how anybody found out about the briefcase,' Dan said.
'Well, I can't, either,' Jeb said. 'We'll be talking. And, Patty, try not to sue me this month, will you?'
'I haven't sued you in a year, and that was only because you got your back up and wouldn't listen to reason.'
'You mean I wouldn't bow to your threats.'
'Have a nice day, Jeb.'
'You too.'
Jeb rose and Hutchin followed, leaving Maria and Dan alone in the library.
'We neglected to mention the photos,' she said.
'Uh-huh. I noticed.'
'What do you think we should do?'
'Well, I have my own score to settle with these people. They invaded my home. That's personal. Now if you're in this thing, I think we should take the photos to a university and find out what some of the science means. Even if it's just routine chemistry, we might discover what sort of routine chemistry they're into.'
'Maybe we should each take a few days off to figure this out. I'm checking into the Palmer Inn,' Maria said.
'So formal.'
'What's that mean?'
'It means for casual comfort, good home-cooked meals, you should stay at my place.'
'You're sweet. But I think we need some separation between good and industry here.'
'Listen, men and women have lived in the same house and fought for millennia.'
Not surprisingly, she had no response for that.
Dan and Maria waited at the Wintoon County Sheriff's Office for Sheriff Robert McNiel to receive their complaint personally.
