CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

 

 

Alec Auerbach stood at the door to his private hangar near Denver International Airport. He could tell something was off immediately, even before typing in the code on the keypad. The plastic case covering the keypad was slightly angled, as if it had been removed and then replaced in a rush.

Could have been the wind that did that. Could have been a person.

Alec drew his pistol and keyed in the code, then leaned forward into the dark hangar. No one home.

“If you’re in here, come out now and I’ll kill you quickly. If you make me chase you, it’s going to get a lot worse.”

No reply.

Alec flicked the light switch, and the overhead lights ticked on one by one, like a row of dominoes. Humming softly.

He crept inside, keeping his pistol at a downward angle so he wouldn’t shoot anyone by accident. Alec only liked to shoot people on purpose. Accidental killings were always a big mess, especially if it was someone who worked for him and Nathan. Telling their families, paying them off… those scenarios always dragged on for endless amounts of time and became increasingly expensive.

Alec crossed the hangar, toward the office in the corner. The light was off, but that didn’t mean no one was at home. When he reached the door, he tried it and found it locked. He jabbed in his key and yanked it back. Pistol up.

There was no one here, but Alec noticed right away that some of the papers on Nathan’s desk weren’t arranged properly. Alec always straightened any papers sitting around. Seemed unlikely that he might have left them to sit in a messy pile. Nathan might have, but would have been odd that Alec wouldn’t have noticed the mess and fixed it.

He left the office and glanced around. He checked the collection of coolers next to the office. All of them were in uniform stacks, except for the third one from the top in the fourth row. It was slightly ajar. Someone had been looking in the coolers.

Alec fished a phone out and called Nathan, still keeping the gun in one hand.

“It’s me,” Alec said once Nathan had answered.

“Obviously,” Nathan said.

“We need to talk.”

“Seriously, Alec, I can’t drive down to Georgetown again. I have way too much going on right now.”

“I’m on a burner phone. We can talk freely. Listen to me, Nate. Is Z still in town?”

“No, he’s up here with me. What’s going on?”

Alec stowed his gun so he could check the desk drawers for missing items. “Someone’s been in the hangar, but it’s supposed to have been cleared out since Wednesday. Everything feels out of place here.”

Nathan breathed on the other end for a second or two. “Anything important missing?”

“Not that I can tell. We haven’t had any cargo here all week, so I’m not sure what they would have found.”

“Maybe they weren’t looking to take something. More like leave something behind.”

Alec stood up straight. “You think our friends did this?”

“Could be. I haven’t seen Welker at all today.”

Alec sighed. That racist cop, the one who referred to Alec and Nathan as his Polack associates. He was something of a necessary evil.

Not for much longer, though. No more payoffs, no more limiting cargo shipments.

“Maybe he knows what’s coming at the meet in Vail. He could have been poking around, trying to find our angle.”

“No reason to assume that,” Nathan said. “But no reason to trust him, either. What are you doing there? Why aren’t you up here yet?”

“I’ll be there tomorrow in plenty of time. I came back to drop off a little present for your girlfriend yesterday.”

Nathan hesitated. “Z and I had a long talk about her, and he helped me to see I’m being too sentimental. If you need to take care of her, that’s okay with me.”

Alec considered it. “I think I can handle Daisy. I’m going to check in on her later, so we’ll see.”

“I’ll leave it up to you.”

Alec paused when an idea popped into his head. “That guy who was sniffing by the warehouse on Tuesday, the one who got into a fight with Z?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you get a look at his face?”

“No,” Nathan said. “You think it’s someone we know?”

“What about the guy you told me about? The neighbor, Micah Reed.”

“Could be. It’s entirely possible that if Reed is the same guy who was poking around the other day, he might have come back to break in.”

“Makes sense,” Nathan said. “Sounds like he may be more involved than I’m comfortable with.”

“I’ll stop by his apartment later when I visit Daisy. Give him a message too, maybe a stronger one than Daisy gets.”

“Just do it clean, Alec. No mistakes.”

He bit his lip and wondered if Nathan had said that out of thoroughness, or if it had been some passive-aggressive comment suggesting Alec was likely to make a mistake. Hard to tell from Nathan’s tone of voice, sometimes.

“You there?” Nathan said.

Alec chose to ignore the previous comment. “You don’t need to worry about me. I’ll get rid of Reed and make sure Daisy understands to keep her mouth shut. If there’s a communication problem, I’ll take it further.”

They said their goodbyes and Alec was about to close up the hangar when he noticed something along the back wall. An object sticking up from the floor. The pressure panel had been triggered, but someone had shoved a screwdriver in it to prevent it from activating the silent alarm.

He knelt next to it and tapped a finger on the handle sticking up into the air.

“Son of a bitch.”

Nothing he could do about it now, so he deactivated the trap by disarming the security panel hidden in the nearby wall, then closed up the hangar.

He took the screwdriver with him, for good measure. Maybe he could get someone to pull a set of prints from it. Or maybe not. If he found any prints, they would most likely be from Micah Reed.

When he stepped outside, a blast of headlights blinded him. He lifted a hand to block out the light, then he squinted to identify the driver of the car.

Everett Welker.

Everett killed the lights and got out of the car. Big shit-eating grin as he hooked his thumbs into his belt loops and moseyed toward Alec.

Alec gripped the screwdriver in his hand.

“Hey, hey, little Auerbach brother, what’s shaking?”

“I was leaving. What are you doing here?”

Everett took a comb from his back pocket and ran it through his thinning hair. “Came to log a delivery. Our guy is at the warehouse right now. He’ll be on his way here within the hour. I was going to meet him.”

Alec narrowed his eyes. Everything this detective said was like an accusation. Alec reminded himself to breathe, that he only had to put up with Everett for a couple more days, until Vail.

Once the meeting happened, all business would be finalized at the mid-mountain restaurant. No more kickbacks and payoffs to people who didn’t deserve it. No more of Nathan and Alec sleeping with scorpions, always checking their flesh for stabs of deception.

Everett glanced down at the screwdriver in Alec’s hand. Alec had to resist the urge to leap forward and drive it into Everett’s neck.

Not now, not yet. Be patient.

Alec stepped aside, leaving Everett a clear path to the door. “Okay, then, Detective Welker. I won’t get in your way.”