Once a Hero by Jan Thompson

Author:Jan Thompson [Thompson, Jan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781944188610
Publisher: Georgia Press LLC
Published: 2020-06-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Eight

“I should have gone into the bank with you.” It might be one of the few things he regretted in life, but Jake felt it all the more now that his feelings for Beatrice had grown stronger. “Next time don’t tell me no.”

“It’s my fault now?” Beatrice kept her eyes on the road as she drove the rental car.

“I’m not blaming you. After what happened at the cabin…” Jake shook his head. “I should have gone with you.”

“Like you said, I told you no.”

“Thank God you’re okay.”

Beatrice nodded.

“Tell me your three-amber brooch isn’t in the stolen purse,” Jake said as Beatrice stopped at a red light.

“In my jeans pocket.” Beatrice didn’t show him, though.

He didn’t press for it. “Whew.”

“You don’t trust me? Did you assume I put it in my brightly-colored crossbody bag?” Beatrice talked as she listened to the navigator on her phone telling her how to get to the private airport.

Jake sighed. “I’m guessing there’s more.”

“There’s something valuable in the crossbody bag.” Before she could continue, her hands-free phone rang. It was Ken.

“Got it, Bee.” Ken hung up without fanfare.

“Isn’t it nice to have employees who instinctively know that I’m driving and can’t read text messages so they call me to tell me three words and then hang up?”

Jake brushed aside Beatrice’s question to ask one of his own. “What did he get, exactly?”

“There are two brooches in a pretty box inside the crossbody bag. That’s what Molyneux wants.”

“A box? The brooch box that no one could find?”

“I didn’t spend the last five years looking for that box for nothing.” She paused. “Let me correct that. My brother, my team, and I. I don’t usually operate alone.”

“The real box?”

“Yes, with some modifications.”

Jake understood. “You inserted a GPS tracker into the box.”

“Ken did.”

“The two brooches in there, though…”

“Are fake, of course.”

“Will it blow up?”

“No. You can’t board a plane with an explosive.”

“I knew that, but how sure are you they will fly out of the country?” Jake asked.

“Because the rest of the Amber Room is not in the United States. At least we hope not.”

So many unanswered questions. “Let’s backtrack a bit. Did you know those two homeless men were fakes?”

Beatrice shook her head. “I figured as soon as Molyneux knows I’m here, she will deflect her personnel toward me.”

“I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“It’s a bit late for that, isn’t it?”

What did she mean by that? Jake waited for an explanation, but Beatrice drove on in silence.

Jake did not push her. He could be a patient man. He had been hunting for Molyneux for a few years now. He had been trained to wait patiently—for a few more minutes.

“I saw those two men as I was entering the bank.” Beatrice went in another direction with the conversation. “However, I could not assume they were not genuinely homeless, you know?”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t nimble on my feet.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to go home and rest that leg for a few days? I’ll text you if we find anything.

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