Chapter 66

 

AUNT BESS STRETCHED out her back as she got out of the car with Grimes. It was an estate, sure, but it was an estate for short folks. They had pulled over next to a small section of warehouses which looked deserted and had been for a good while.

“I can’t see why you would think this place was worth scoping out.” Grimes, a pleasant-looking blond boy rubbed his hand over his stubbly chin. He shuddered as a huge water rat scuttled on past.

She shook her head.

Kids.

She strolled up the road a bit and saw a gate half open. She wandered through, Grimes in tow, and eyed the large truck-loading bay. On the other side she stopped, a security light stood high overhead but was covered in some kind of colored plastic.

“Could be the flashing light, maybe?” she mumbled, more to herself than Grimes.

He shrugged, too busy avoiding the broken glass on the ground.

Glass?

At knee level to her, there were windows which looked like the building had sunk into the ground. Not smashed but the same as the warehouse Aeron and Renee had needed a quick getaway from.  

Bess sniffed the air. Lilia had said a river. Lilia had said Aeron had specifically mentioned river water and how it smelled. She sniffed at the air some more, followed the building around and stopped at the murky brown water. It was good enough for her. The distance from the city made it a great place to stash things. Besides, you could scope either side of the river with ease. They’d see the authorities coming with enough time to stash whatever they were hiding.

She glanced back at Grimes.

If it was like the warehouse Renee and Aeron were in, she didn’t need an officer involved in a shootout.

She pulled a piece of candy from her cardigan pocket, unwrapped it, and plopped it in her mouth. “Why don’t you head back and check out that smashed-up door over there.”

One of the smaller warehouses had a bay which looked like someone had driven a car through it.

Grimes cocked his head. “I think I should stay with you.”

“A woman needs few things, dearie; enough to put food on a table, warmth, a good heart . . .” Bess pulled her pistol from inside her waistband. “And a way to shoo folks who are looking to cause trouble.” She winked at his raised eyebrows. “You shouldn’t judge a cover by its age.”

She primed the pistol and wandered toward the warehouse.

She was happy to trust Grimes, he’d checked out. Eli trusted him so she would. She glanced over her shoulder to find him still watching her.

“You gonna be useful?”

He nodded and hurried off. She shook her head at him. Maybe it would have been best to leave him with the kittens?

She pressed herself up against the wall as the sound of something twitched in her ears. She waggled her finger in them, trying to dislodge the tinnitus. She was far too old to be coming out of retirement.

She knelt down to listen—machinery, still working, maybe a generator. Odd for an abandoned warehouse. She glanced up the steep wall face, her gaze lighting on a smashed window.

Aha, so that’s where the glass was from.

She studied the mud around her and smiled. The tip of a boot. A small boot. She pulled out her phone from her bra and took a picture. She may not have had a handbag these days but having large breasts meant she didn’t need to.

She crept toward a fire door. It was ajar, an arm poking out.

Hmm.

She pulled a ventilator out of her bra. Just a fancy name for a gas mask that only buzzed into life when there was something nasty to filter out. Lilia had told her to bring her little toolbox only as a precaution. That she wasn’t to go sniffing around dangerous places at her age. She smiled at that. Her baby sister talked more crazy talk than she did.

She pulled on her gloves and prodded open the door, pistol ready in case hostiles were still inside. The man slumped in the doorway was cold. Nothing was chewing on him yet so it had to be recent.

She moved in. An office of some sort. Papers scattered on the floor; a ramp down to a room. She felt her ventilator kick in and pulled out some goggles from her bra. Good thing they were prescription, she was a lot more short sighted these days.

The place looked deserted but she wasn’t buying it. Whoever the guy was at the door, he could have had friends. She headed into some waiting room with a screen. Instruments on the side. She pulled the screen back to check there was no one behind it.

Nothing.

She cocked her head and stooped down. A piece of plastic. She pulled out a hanky, her phone, and placed the plastic into one of the slots. She could never remember the name for things. Breadcrumbs? Drives? Card slots? Why did she have “reader” in her head? Hmm. Something like that. She pressed send.

 

FAR completed. J with me. Exit strategy car.

 

It reeled off a list of medical statuses that Bess raised her eyebrows at. She pulled the breadcrumb from the phone, wrapped it up, and pocketed it.

Her ventilator kicked in again and she frowned. She walked over to the corner of the room and looked up, some kind of gas. She opened the door to the hallway and sighed. Whoever the men were in the hallway, they hadn’t made it far. She checked each one’s pulse. Nothing.

They all wore the same shirt and trousers, it reminded her of the UPS uniform. She ran her thumb over the emblem and pulled out her phone to take a picture. She could remember the days when they had to carry a camera too. The little devices were kinda smart.

Smart phones.

She chuckled to herself and headed down the hallway, clearing each room. She found one man slumped against an office wall. There was a chair at the center of the room, zip ties discarded. The man had no shoes on and had been searched by someone.

Aunt Bess left the room and cleared the rest of the hall. The remaining door was locked so she dug out her tools and let herself in. Another man lay on the floor. He’d been hit by the gas too. She knelt down beside him. He’d been knocked out before. She scoured the damp cellar like room. There was blood on the far wall, a discarded piece of ripped clothing. She picked it up and tucked it in another hanky. Best to clear the trail.

She walked back to the room that she’d heard the vent hissing in and pulled out a black meter. She switched it on and held it up. The meter flickered to and fro until the green light came on.

She winced.

Nasty stuff.

She headed to the other end of the corridor and broke into the room. She ran her fingers down the panel. The only light on was for an alert. She sighed. The men working there must not have realized that they were releasing a poison.

Nice staff relations.

Aunt Bess shut off the release and went back outside and found Grimes who was still taking pictures of the broken door. She shook her head as she stashed her mask and equipment back in her bra. She wanted him to record the scene not build a collage. 

“You find anything?” she asked.

He jumped. The man squealed like a woman. Attractive. “No . . . just that there was a car here and there isn’t now.”

Hopefully the boy hadn’t made detective on skill. Bess walked to a patch of shavings. She pulled out a hanky and picked them up. 

Metal.

She spotted the discarded cover in the corner. “Whoever it is, they got a tail.”

Grimes frowned at her but Bess pulled out her phone. She texted Renee’s number from memory and sent her the details of the poison and the pictures. She heard the sound of cars nearby and motioned for Grimes to follow her. She hit Lilia’s speed dial number then ushered Grimes into the passenger seat and took the keys. He drove like an old woman. 

“Agent Fleming.”

Bess rolled her eyes. She’d heard a lot about Abby Fleming and she wasn’t impressed. “Hello dear, it’s Bess, Lilia’s sister. I’ve got a bit of an issue with one of the girls. Would you be so kind as to put her on.”

“Of course.”

Bess smiled, firing up the car. The sucker punch worked every time with mothers.

“Bess?”

“Twig, I got a poisonous gas, a lot of dead guards, and your missing general has a tail.” She slammed the car into reverse and into the warehouse they’d just walked out of. A few moments later, three cars zipped past the entrance. Brakes screeched.

Grimes’s face paled. She patted him on the knee.

“I’ll send you Ursula’s details. Meet us at the airport.” Lilia’s voice was all business now. She was proud of her kid sister.

Bess slammed the car into drive and they shot out onto the road. “Sure thing. Grimes and I are gonna pick up some cookies. I been itching for a taste since we touched down.”

She zipped them over a railway crossing and smiled as the warning lights started flashing on and the gates lowered. Things like that often happened to her. She had a sneaking feeling her dear mother wasn’t as mad at her as she pretended to be.

“I’ll text Blondie to let her know,” she said.

“Thank you.” Lilia’s worried tone said it all.

Bess cut the call and glanced at Grimes who was staring at her like she’d morphed into the president.

“Won’t they have spotted my plates?” he asked.

Bess shook her head at him, again. “Motion sensors alerted them not cameras. Places like that don’t go recording anything that could be used as evidence.” She wondered if he’d slept through the academy. “Besides, I changed your plates.”

Grimes frowned. “You did, when?”

Bess chuckled. “When you were cooing over the kittens. I caught you.”

“Ma’am, I think you are mistaken,” Grimes said, sucking in his chin. “I don’t even like cats.”

“Yeah sure.” She screeched them around a bend, and Grimes crunched into the side door. “And it’s Bess. Ma’am makes me feel old. I ain’t in here.” She tapped her chest.

His eyes twinkled. “Bess.”

She smiled. If that impressed him, he’d be amazed at how many cookies she could consume in one sitting. She tapped the wheel.

Cookies.

Lilia could do with more cookies. She worried too much. She needed to relax more. Bess had covered tracks, broken into warehouses, and evaded pursuers more times than she’d had birthdays, and that was a lot of pursuers.

Aeron would be just the same.

Walk in the park.

Like Bess, Aeron was a Lorelei after all.