Blindside(25)

I knocked again.





CHAPTER 32


ALICE WATCHED THE computer monitor carefully. She’d decided the tall man in the sport coat was definitely a cop. He had a handsome face and broad shoulders. She’d also decided she wouldn’t mind him putting handcuffs on her just for a night.

She watched him wander around the hallway for a moment. Then he gave a solid knock on the door.

She looked at Oscar and reinforced the command to keep silent, running her finger in a slashing motion across her throat. There was no way Oscar would realize that was literally what she’d do if he spoke.

She motioned toward the door with her head. Janos quickly and quietly moved across the floor. He stood to the side of the door and held his pistol out about head height. Then he edged around to the center of the door and started placing the barrel at different locations, kept looking at the computer monitor to see if he could line up the shot through the door.

Oscar motioned Alice closer to him and whispered, “The door is reinforced with extra metal and a thick plastic material in the middle.”

Alice asked softly, “Why? To make this like a bomb shelter? Does it have to do with the warehouse?”

Oscar said, “I think it has to do with noise and vibration from the warehouse. But the door is solid and thick.”

Alice made a hissing sound to get Janos’s attention. She shook her head for him not to shoot, but he didn’t turn around.

She was too late. Janos was already squeezing the trigger.

Alice quickly glanced at the computer monitor and saw that his gun was lined up just about with the cop’s face.





CHAPTER 33


I PAUSED RIGHT in the middle of the door. For a fleeting moment, I thought I’d seen a shadow from under the door. Just something that moved very close to the doorframe.

Then I heard a faint tapping sound. Not in any rhythm. Just like someone was moving something around on the metal door.

I tried the knob again. This time with a little pressure on the door. It was solid and secure. Probably best that it was. The last thing I wanted to do was terrify a witness I needed to talk to. If Jennifer was home, I didn’t want to just barge in.

I looked back at the warehouse. I stepped over to a window and wondered if it would be worth waiting here. How long would she be out? What if she didn’t live here at all? These are the same kind of questions I ask during every surveillance.

It was definitely easier before I had kids. Especially when Maeve had worked evenings at the hospital. I’d stay out on surveillance all night to catch a witness. The alternative was going home to an empty apartment.

Now it was the opposite. Now I had to manage ten lives, even if one of them was at a prison upstate. I also wanted to talk to my grandfather. Often he came up with the best advice, without even knowing anything about police work.

I stepped back to the door and knocked one more time. I wasn’t going to get an answer. I knew it.

On a cop’s instinct, I moved from the door to the side of it. Just in case someone crazy on the other side did something stupid.

Thirty seconds later, I started back down the hallway. I took the stairs quickly, then hesitated as I stepped out onto the sidewalk. I wondered why they didn’t have better security. Maybe they locked the door at night.

I’d come back tomorrow and see if I could find her.





CHAPTER 34


ALICE WATCHED AS Janos looked over his shoulder at her. He released his finger from the trigger but left the gun trained on the door. Then Alice motioned him away from the door altogether.

They watched the computer monitor to see what the cop was doing. He looked through the windows into the warehouse, waited, knocked again, then started to walk away.

Oscar showed her how to view the cameras he’d set up all around the building. It was impressive. She watched the cop hurry down the stairs, then step out the front door. From there, the camera on the outside of the building caught him pausing next to the door.

Alice smiled and said, “Very impressive system, Oscar. I hope you don’t waste your talents working for a corporation or the government. You could do very well on the wrong side of the law.”

They all laughed. Oscar was smiling now. He thought the danger had passed. He wanted to be part of their little group.

Alice realized this was not going to happen. He was a witness who could identify them. And she was starting to wonder if it was even worth it to ask Jennifer Chang to come back to Estonia. She’d just say no. It was a waste of time. Maybe eliminating Jennifer would be easier for everyone. And more fun.

No matter what happened, Oscar knew too much.

Janos had the same thought. He smiled and said, “Oscar, will you give us a quick tour of the warehouse before we leave? I think it’s cool how your apartment is above it. Did you say there was a door to the warehouse up here?”

Oscar nodded and said, “They’re supposed to lock it every evening, but they almost never do. No one from the building wants to go look at coffins.”

Janos allowed Oscar to slip on some jeans and loafers for the tour. Once they were down in the warehouse, Janos kept walking at a fast pace to the loading dock where the truck was backed in.

Oscar caught up to Janos with Alice directly behind him. The truck was three-quarters full with pallets of caskets. There were four stacked on each pallet. A huge spool of plastic wrap on rollers was in the truck. It looked like quitting time had come just as they were about to wind the plastic around the four caskets already in place on the truck.