Джанет Иванович - Fortune and Glory

“I’m going to circle around this building so I can get close without the two men seeing me,” I said to Potts.

“Then what?” he asked.

“I don’t know. One step at a time.”

I honestly didn’t know what I would do. I had no idea what was going on inside the concrete bunker, and I didn’t want to make things worse for my mom if she was in there. If I made a move to rescue her and failed it would be horrible for both of us.

I turned to go, and the garage door opened at the end of the row. Potts and I crouched behind the Honda and watched everyone come out of the storage unit.

Shine stormed out first. He was waving his arms, and even from this distance, I could see that his face was red.

“Idiots!” he yelled at the two men behind him. “Fucking idiots. I can’t believe you screwed this up. This was a no-brainer. Get the old lady and bring her to the locker.”

“We knocked on the door like you told us,” one of the men said. “Polite. And we asked her if she was a grandma. And she said, yes.”

“She’s not the right grandma,” Shine said.

“We didn’t know that.”

“And then you brought her to the house in Pleasantville instead of the locker,” Shine said.

“She hit Andy with the frying pan and he had a big gash on his cheek. So, we stopped at the house for a Band-Aid. We figured there wouldn’t be any Band-Aids here.”

“Now she knows about the house,” Shine said.

“She wasn’t in the house,” the guy said. “She was in the trunk. I figure it doesn’t matter because we’re gonna kill her anyway.”

“We still need the old lady,” Shine said. “The right Grandma. She has the last clue. She has the numbers to get into the safe.”

Two more men walked out of the storage locker, bookending my mother. Her hands were bound. Her walk was steady and unassisted. She looked okay.

“Follow me to the safe house,” Shine said. “We’ll stick her there and use her to get the old lady.”

Shine got into the Mercedes. My mom was placed in the backseat of the Escalade with the two men. One of the men standing watch on the outside of the unit got behind the wheel. The fourth man shut the garage door and got into the Taurus.

“They’ve got your mom and they’re leaving,” Potts said.

“We need to get to the Buick.”

“Indy would take this car,” Potts said.

“This Honda?”

“The owner is in the storage unit behind us,” Potts said. “I can hear him rummaging around in there. And he left his car unlocked with the key fob in the cup holder.”

“That’s car theft.”

The three cars drove single file around the end of the building, with the Mercedes leading the way.

“They won’t know it’s us in this car,” Potts said. “And it’s here!”

He opened the door, got behind the wheel, and started the car. I ran around the car and jumped in.

“This is a nice car,” Potts said, rounding the end of the row. “The owner keeps it clean inside. It smells nice. After I got the job delivering pizza my car always smelled like pizza.”

“I’ve never seen your car.”

“I traded it for a PlayStation 4Pro.”

“You traded a car for a gaming console?”

“It wasn’t much of a car, and the 4 Pro is awesome.”

Shine turned right onto Philadelphia and the two cars followed him. We gave them a good lead before we exited the storage facility.

I called Lula. “It’s not necessary for you to look at the condo,” I said. “Go to Egg Harbor and wait for me to get back to you.”

“Did you find your mom?” she asked.

“Yes, but it’s complicated. I can’t talk now. Just wait in Egg Harbor.”

An occasional bungalow hugged the side of the road but mostly we were driving through scrubby pine intermingled with heavier forested areas. After two miles the Mercedes led the other two cars onto a gravel driveway and disappeared into the woods.

Potts pulled to the side of the road and cut the engine. I slid the window down and listened. Car doors slamming shut. Men talking. And then quiet.

“This is where we abandon the car,” Potts said.

“I get the feeling you’ve done this before.”

“Mostly in video games. Usually there’s a high-speed chase involved. I’m awesome at the high-speed chase. Especially if it’s an obstacle course.”

We walked the length of the driveway and moved into the woods to look at the house. It was a small ranch. Probably three bedrooms. The yellow paint was peeling, and the yard was mostly dirt and weeds. No garage. Everyone was inside.

“Now what?” Potts asked.

“Everyone is inside, and the shades are down. That means they can’t see out. I’m going to the back of the house and try to determine where they’re keeping my mom. I’m guessing they’ll stash her in a bedroom.” I sent Morelli’s and Ranger’s phone numbers to Potts’s cell phone. “You stay here and call Joe Morelli and Ranger. Fill them in and give them our location.”

I slipped my phone into my back pocket and tucked my .38 into the waistband of my jeans. I left my messenger bag with Potts and instructed him to guard it with his life.

New mantra, I told myself. From here on out it was balls to the wall. I moved across the yard with as much stealth as possible. I hugged the side of the house and listened at a living room window. I could hear men talking. I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I had a half-inch view of the room where the shade didn’t meet the window frame. I knew there had been five men in the cars. I could see three of them in the room. I didn’t see my mom, and I didn’t hear her voice. A fourth man crossed the room and disappeared from view. I crept around to the back and peeked in a kitchen window. No one there.

I got lucky at the far end of the house. I found a bedroom window with the shade half closed, and I could see my mom duct-taped to a straight-back chair. I caught her attention and made a sign not to talk. I tried opening the window. Locked. Breaking the window could draw the attention of the men in the living room but I saw no other option. I didn’t want a SWAT team arriving and my mom inside as a bargaining chip. I was about to smash the glass with my gun butt when Gabriela tapped me on the shoulder and scared the bejeezus out of me. I would have instinctively shot her, but I was holding the wrong end of my gun.

“I’m here to help,” she whispered.

“How did you get here?”

“I followed you, of course.” She held up a glass cutting tool.

“Do you always carry a glass cutting tool?”

“Tools of the trade,” she said, fixing a suction cup to the window.

“What trade is that?” I asked.

“It depends on the moment,” Gabriela said. “By my count there are five men in the house. Another car with two more men just arrived and the men are standing watch outside. We’re going to take your mom out the window. Cross the backyard and go straight into the woods. I’ll cover you.”

My mom’s eyes were as big as saucers. I gave her a thumbs-up, and she did an eye roll so huge that it almost tipped her chair over. Thirty seconds later Gabriela removed a circle of glass from the window, reached in, and opened the lock. The window was up, and Gabriela crawled in. She cut my mom free and passed her out of the window to me. Gabriela followed.

“Is your grandmother okay?” my mom asked me.

“Yes,” I said. “She’s with Lula.”

“She won’t be okay when I get done with her,” my mom said. “I’m going to put her in assisted living somewhere far away. Georgia or Texas or Slovakia. I told her to give the keys to Benny and she wouldn’t do it. And you’re no better. You went along with it all. And look what happened. I got kidnapped. They put me in the trunk of a car.”