Sweating profusely, Dirk squeezed the hand brake and came to stop behind his black SUV. He hopped off the bike, looked around and then he lifted the cargo hatch. The parking area at Palmer was a little more crowded than when he had left some thirty minutes earlier. Several of the restaurant employees had started to arrive for the day making the back part of the lot a pretty busy place. Dirk welcomed the added activity because it took the attention off him. He grabbed the bike securely in both hands and placed it carefully in the back of the SUV. He shut the hatch, climbed aboard and started the engine. He backed slowly out of his parking spot, smiling at anyone who happened to pass by. He gently pressed the accelerator and drove steadily across the lot toward Buena Vista. He stopped at the entrance to Palmer and looked across the road at the entrance to Bridgeport. There was no sign of the Community Watch officer he had encountered earlier. He waited for a lone car to pass and then turned onto Buena Vista Boulevard for his trip home.
Dirk was certain that his quick thinking earlier at the mail station had kept him from being detained by the security officer. If he had tried to run or acted suspiciously, he would have been detained and the County Sheriff would have been called in. Dirk would have been searched and they would have found the .38 with the damning silencer in his fanny pack. A full scale investigation would have ensued and the sordid plot to kill Ed Roberts would have been most certainly uncovered. He felt very good about escaping such an unbelievably difficult situation and coming out unscathed.
He breathed a huge sigh of relief as he drove along the boulevard toward home, knowing that his own nimble thinking had probably saved him from a criminal investigation and possible prison time. The one thing he wasn’t looking forward to was telling Cathy Roberts that her forty grand was gone, her husband was still alive and she’d have to find someone else to do her dirty work. “The bitch will be furious,” a sly grin broke out on his clean-shaven face.