Chapter Twenty-Five
Sterling leapt into his Lexus, and Austin took the passenger seat. They peeled out and sped down the road. Austin’s eyes were glued to his laptop. His directions were sudden with no room for error.
“Left,” he shouted as the turn came into view.
“Right, there.”
Sterling missed it, made a U turn, and sailed down the road. As they got into town, the directions became less distinct and less frequent. Austin seemed mesmerized by his computer screen as Sterling drove straight into the city. There must be some mistake.
After going around the same block three times, Sterling had to ask, “Have we totally lost them?”
“No, the signature for the boxes is right there in the center of these buildings.” They were passing two older high rises, graffiti covered with broken windows, when Austin cried out, “There!”
Screeching to a halt so fast that the car behind almost back-ended them, Sterling waved the vehicle on and put the car in reverse. An alley barely wide as a single lane was only recognizable by the flattened curb. Backing slowly in, Sterling wasn’t certain what he would find. The pavement opened to a central loading dock. There, parked against a raised platform, was a nondescript white van.
Austin seemed hopeful. “Isn’t this clever? Who would think of hiding goats in the city?”
“I don’t think the animals are here,” Sterling climbed out his door. “I’ll see what I can find out. Don’t leave the car.”
Austin sat lower in his seat. “Won’t argue with that.”
Vaulting onto the loading dock, Sterling headed for the only open doorway. He wasn’t certain what he’d do if he met up with someone, but letting his fist do the talking wasn’t out of the question. If Austin could do it, why couldn’t he?
Two men were arguing down a hall, so he chose that direction. Their voices drew nearer. Sterling ducked into a closet.
“Chuck had better nix the meat, or he’s in for it,” a deep voice said. Sterling wondered if they were referring to the goats but had no idea.
“He will. Bet he’ll have it done in an hour, tops,” a younger man reassured.
“I hate these all night security gigs. They’re the worst,” the other man said. “Good thing my shift is over at eleven. He better be back by then.”
Sterling remembered that one of Elaine’s companies was a security guard contractor that she had used for her construction sites.
Their voices were fading. “Well, Chuck’s got to run to check on the livestock first, but I think he’ll make it.” A light flicked on further ahead, and Sterling continued down the hall and peered around a doorway. He could see the edges of unloaded boxes, about a dozen of them.
The younger man spoke again. “I hope he brings two this time. One pizza for three people is crazy.”
The older man’s reply was drowned out by a car’s ignition. Not worrying about whether he was caught, Sterling sprinted back to the van but was too late. By the time he got there, the white van was gone. Vaulting off the four-foot platform, he jumped in his driver’s seat and threw the car in gear, as Austin frantically buckled his seatbelt. They raced down the tiny alleyway and onto the main road. The first light was red. Sterling slammed on the brakes and craned his head down each adjoining street. The van was gone.
“That way,” Austin said.
He pointed back the way they had come.
The kid was such an idiot. Sterling wanted to shake him. “The boxes are in the warehouse. You only tracked the boxes, but the goats are somewhere else. That’s where the van is going next.”
The intern resembled a bobble-head doll. “I know, but you need to make a U-ey.”
“You know nothing.” Sterling gritted his teeth. “Paige has lost everything. It’s all our fault. Don’t you get it?”
“I do.” Austin seemed unaffected by his anger. “While you were in the warehouse, I micro-dotted the truck.”
“You what?” Sterling gripped the steering wheel.
“See?” Austin held up his laser gun lookalike.
Sterling chuckled, whipped the car around and floored it.
It had been less than an hour since they left Paige and Petunia in the meadow, and Sterling found himself driving up the same street as the farmhouse again.
He was frustrated. “This can’t be right.”
“It is.” Austin’s attention never wavered from the flashing squares on his screen. “Right over there about two hundred feet.”
The driveway was directly past Paige’s. As they drove by, Sterling got a glimpse of a big white house with pillars in front but no cars or trucks. The house looked abandoned.
Sterling continued to the end of the road and headed back toward the farm. Austin closed his laptop. “We can take them. I punched you out.”
“Maybe,” Sterling rubbed his jaw thinking about it. “But there’s no reason to tell them we’re here, if they are really there at all.”
“They are.”
Austin almost had him convinced.
***