Chris Kuzneski - The Prophecy

‘A beautiful woman like you? I find that hard to believe.’

She blushed at the innuendo, her blue eyes shining in the dimly lit room. ‘There you go again. Always flirting.’

He raised his hands defensively. ‘Sorry about that. From here on in, I swear I’ll be on my best behaviour.’

She giggled at his claim. ‘Don’t become a Boy Scout just for me. Your best behaviour is probably too boring for my taste. I’d settle for pretty good behaviour with an extra side of compliments. I mean, a woman always likes to hear she’s beautiful.’

‘Strangely, DJ said the same thing about himself. He’s such a pampered little princess.’

She laughed at the comment. ‘I wish I had a best friend like that.’

She nodded, envious. ‘Like I said, I wish I had a friend like that.’

The two of them talked for another ten minutes, learning about each other’s backgrounds — including Megan’s job as a hostess at one of the nicer restaurants in Philadelphia. Eventually, Payne changed the topic of the conversation, focusing on something that had been bothering him.

‘When you knocked on my door,’ he said, ‘I had the feeling that you wanted to talk about something in particular. Was I imagining that?’

‘Not at all. I actually remembered something that might be important, and I wanted to tell you guys before I forgot.’

‘Go on.’

Megan crossed her legs in front of her, resting her elbows on her knees. ‘The people who searched Ashley’s apartment were looking for your letter, right?’

Payne shrugged. ‘We think so, but we don’t know for sure.’

‘Well, if she was hiding it, I think I know where it might be.’

He leaned forward in his chair. ‘Where?’

‘In the basement.’

‘The one in my apartment building. For a hundred bucks a month, you can rent a storage closet. They aren’t very big, but they’re perfect for storing boxes and junk. They’re pretty safe, too. All of them come with a lock.’

‘And Ashley rented one?’

Megan nodded. ‘I helped her carry a table down there once. Her space was jammed with all kinds of stuff. At least it was a few months ago.’

Payne considered the information. ‘You know, the odds are pretty good the intruders wouldn’t have known about it. Obviously that doesn’t mean she hid the letter there — for all we know she might have a safe-deposit box somewhere in the city — but if she wanted round the clock access to it, that would be a lot safer than under her bed.’

‘That’s what I was thinking, too.’

He smiled. ‘I’m glad you thought of it. We can check it out first thing in the morning.’

‘And then what?’

‘Well, I guess that depends on what we find.’

‘Actually, I was hoping for more of a long-term prognosis.’

‘Oh, you meant when can you safely go back to your life?’

Payne shrugged. ‘To be honest, I’m not really sure what to tell you. Right now I have some contacts researching the gunmen who attacked us in Pittsburgh. If we catch a break or two, we might be able to wrap things up in a couple of days.’

‘And if we don’t?’

He grinned. ‘There’s a decent chance we’ll be spending Christmas together.’

37

Ideally, Jones would have entered the basement alone while Payne and Megan stayed hidden in the vehicle. With his lock-picking skills, Jones figured he could break into the storage closet and search it in less than five minutes. Unfortunately, that plan wasn’t feasible because Megan didn’t know the unit number. She was pretty sure she could identify it by sight although she had only been there once, a few months back, but she wouldn’t know until she looked for herself.

Following much discussion, the trio split in two. Jones and Megan entered the complex together, and Payne kept watch from the driver’s

Not that they were expecting a roomful of treasures.

The truth was they didn’t know what to expect from a career thief like Ashley. The unit might be filled with a shipment of stolen goods, or it might be emptier than Al Capone’s vault.

Whatever the case, they wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible.

As Jones led the way into the lobby, he held his gun inside his coat, ready to fire at the first sign of trouble. Megan walked closely behind him, suspiciously eyeing everyone they passed as they opened the door to the stairs. Jones paused and

‘Which way?’ Jones whispered.

‘Up ahead on the left.’

Jones nodded, then hustled forward, trying to minimize the time they spent in a corridor that had no exits or places to take cover for nearly twenty feet. At the end of the stretch, Jones peeked his head into the storage area and saw nothing that worried him. Locked doors, approximately twenty in all, lined both sides of the room which ended in a cinderblock wall. As far as Jones could tell, extra security measures had not been installed, meaning he didn’t have to worry about cameras or alarms. All things considered, he couldn’t have been happier.

‘You’re clear,’ he said to Megan. ‘Which one is hers?’

‘Let me check,’ she said as she walked forward.

Megan knew it was roughly two-thirds of the way back on the right. Ashley had needed her help to carry a breakfast table that was more cumbersome than heavy. She remembered they had struggled to get it through the closet door.

The memory brought a bittersweet smile to Megan’s face. A few days ago, she had considered Ashley a friend. Now she didn’t know what to think of her. Despite the lies, the Ashley she knew simply didn’t match the person Payne and Jones had described. And because of that, Megan didn’t know how to feel about her neighbour. Should she grieve at her death, or be thankful she was out of her life for good?

‘Any luck?’ Jones asked from the doorway.

Megan blinked a few times, then nodded. ‘It’s this one here. I helped make all these scuffmarks on the door frame.’

‘Trade places with me,’ he said. ‘If you see or hear anyone , let me know right away.’

‘No problem.’

Brushing past Megan, Jones pulled out his lock picks and eyed the closet. It was protected by a simple keyed knob, one that took him little time to defeat. With a quiet click, he opened the door a few inches and eyed the interior for booby traps. Thieves were typically a paranoid lot, mostly because they knew how easy it was to steal

‘What are you waiting for?’ Megan asked.

‘Patience,’ he said to her. ‘Never rush into the unknown.’

A few seconds later, he was confident the door was clear.

Payne eyed the traffic as it flowed in both directions past the apartment complex. Even though the snow had stopped falling and the temperatures had climbed above freezing, the grey skies remained. People streamed past on the slush-filled sidewalk, trekking through puddles that had been layers of ice the night before. Most walkers shivered as they moved, their faces red and chapped from the bitter winds. Instinctively, Payne turned up the heat in the Suburban.

Throughout Pennsylvania, it was a miserable time of year.

Up the street, a group of six people huddled

Not that Philly had been all bad. Without this trip, he never would have met Megan, the first woman to pique his interest in a very long time. Due to his wealth and celebrity status, he rarely met anyone in his hometown who wasn’t familiar with his life story — at least the details that weren’t classified. Because of that, he found it difficult to meet people who wanted to get to know him instead of people who knew about him. In his world, gold diggers and smooth talkers were round every corner, always trying to get a piece of him. For that reason and a few others, he spent most of his time walled off from the rest of the world.