Fire Defender by Rodney Hartman

Author:Rodney Hartman [Hartman, Rodney]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-05-03T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19 – Delay

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Mick straightened up in the seat of his SUV as the door to the trailer opened. From his position hidden on a pullout in the woods on a hill overlooking the trailer park, he focused his binoculars on the thin man in the doorway.

The girl’s dad, he thought. The old drunk must be going to that job at the hardware store the other team told us about. He’s supposed to get off at three. Mick glanced at the clock in the dash of the SUV. It’s a quarter after seven now. Once the girl leaves, I’ll have plenty of time to search the place.

Mick continued watching the scene below. The thin man stood in the doorway a moment before finally exiting. The girl followed him out. They spoke for a few seconds then the man unchained a bike from the light pole next to the trailer. Straddling the bike, the man made his way out to the main road. The girl watched the man until he was out of sight. Turning, she entered the trailer. Mick looked back at the road before training the binoculars on the trailer. He licked his lips half-tempted to go down and confront the girl alone. Cynthia Jager’s reminder the previous night to remain discreet came back to him. It’s not worth the risk. I don’t care how good the girl looks.

At seven-thirty, the door to the trailer opened again. Mick watched the girl lock the door before getting on her motorcycle and heading out of the trailer park in the direction of town. He waited another fifteen minutes to make sure no one came back unexpectedly before starting the SUV. Just as he put the vehicle in gear, his cellphone rang.

“Yeah, Boss. What’s up?”

“Harrison wants you to go to Seattle and pick up a package at the freight office.”

Rubbing his eyes with his left hand, Mick sighed before looking back at the trailer. “Fine. I’ll leave in an hour, as soon as I search the girl’s place. They just left. Give me a—”

“Negative,” came Cynthia’s reply. “You need to leave now. The colonel doesn’t know about searching the trailer, and we don’t want him to find out. If her ring’s inside, we want to be the ones to give it to the colors when they arrive. You’ll have to search the trailer when you get back.”

Mick made a quick estimate of the roundtrip to Seattle. “It’ll be close. The girl’s dad gets off at three today from the hardware store, according to MacDonald’s team. The girl gets out of school a little after that. I might not get back from Seattle in time to search before one of them makes it home.”

The cellphone remained silent for a couple of seconds. When his captain finally replied, her voice was curt. “Can’t be helped. If it looks like you’re running late, you’ll just have to search the place tomorrow. We can’t let Harrison know what we’re doing; at least not yet.”

“Roger that,” Mick said.

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