No baby, no surprise, I thought. They know someone is catching on to them. They left Jef somewhere else and they’re packing up everything incriminating and taking it off site too. I’m sure they won’t take it to their house in Bexley, so where will they take it? I knew I was going to have to follow them, when they left.
Once I snuck back out of the house and got back to my dad’s car, I texted Mama our signal then I pulled out and found a spot a way down Hamlett street where, with the binoculars I remembered to grab this time, I could watch and wait. Within five minutes of sending the signal, I saw Mama and Hannah leave. They drove off the opposite way of where I was parked, much to my relief.
The white sedan the Arnoff’s had gotten into on Friday evening was parked at the curb across from the house, facing in my direction. If they were getting in the car I now could see with my binoculars was a Cadillac model when they left, and coming this way, it wasn’t ideal for me but I didn’t have a lot of alternatives.
I was so busy trying to figure out a plan to get turned around without losing them, I almost missed them backing out of the driveway in a black car I hadn’t seen before. When I’d come in the back, I didn’t bother to look around and notice it. I just made a beeline for the root cellar door. Now it was headed in the same direction Mama and Hannah had gone.
Not knowing at first if one or both of them was in that car, I had no choice but to get in gear before I lost sight of it and follow it.
We drove out of Columbus entirely getting on first I-670 North, then State Route 161 staying on that as it successively turned into State Route 37 and 16 in turn. A man was driving and I could see at some points a woman lean slightly left from the passenger seat. They didn’t seem to be conscious of me but the further along we went, the further I hung back, putting as much traffic between me and them as I dared to do while trying not to lose visual site of them. I didn’t want to be noticed and, fortunately for me, there was a lot of Saturday afternoon traffic to use for cover.
When I started to see signs for Dresden, I began to realize that we might be nearing the end of the line. My thinking was dashed when we turned off of Route 16 onto State Route 60, going south. We would be bypassing the entire town, shooting down my theory.
My dismay was short lived. Just south of the last exit for the town proper, the car slowed, then turned off to the right. As I came up on the spot where it turned off, I saw that it was an Amish style farm. There was another vehicle in the driveway, the maroon Ford.
Lacking any sort of vantage point at all to stop at, I did the only thing I could do; I drove right on by. In my rearview mirror, I saw a man get out of the driver’s side and the trunk lid pop up.
I drove nearly another quarter of a mile before I found a place where I could get turned around, park and sort of keep the car hidden from view. Try as I might though, I didn’t have a very good view myself of the farm.
Fearing that the three of them were going to take the paperwork I thought they might have in the black car out of it and destroy it, I broke down and called Mel.