Bad Scene by Max Tomlinson

Author:Max Tomlinson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
Published: 2021-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Colleen heard the muffled sound of a door opening on the other side of the building: the door at the top of the stairs she had shut on her way here. Her nerves ratcheted up.

No time to photograph the documents that lay on the rug before her. For a moment, she thought about swiping the files but that might only implicate Pamela when they were found missing. She grabbed the two file folders, jammed them back into their respective slots in the file cabinets, shut the drawers quietly, pushed the four Chicago locks in.

Threw her Polaroid camera in her bag, bag over her shoulder.

Footsteps came steadily down the hall.

She tiptoed over to the door, locked it. But whoever was coming probably had a key. She spun, eyed two straight-backed chairs at a small worktable. Rushing over, she grabbed one, took it to the door, jammed the back up against the door handle, wedged it in, back legs off the floor. She tested it. Good and lodged.

Another escape route was needed.

The window. She dashed over, heaved it open with a judder. Wind and rain blew in.

Then she noticed the desk drawer. That gave her an idea. She went back, pulled on it. Locked. She pulled the deeper side drawer. Also locked.

Footsteps approached the door.

“Who’s there?” It was Gust. The doorknob rattled.

She had her mini crowbar out of her bag and jammed it in the deeper drawer, made a particularly messy job of ripping the drawer open, shredding wood. Once open, she found what she was looking for: a metal petty cash box. She pulled it, threw the cash box into her bag. This would look like a burglary, divert attention away from the files.

“I’ve called the police!” Gust shouted outside. “I’ve got a gun.”

Not what she wanted to hear. A key went into the lock.

The door opened but banged against the chair. Gust pushed. Jammed.

Bag over her shoulder, Colleen headed back to the window. Wind and rain blew as she climbed out, Gust shouting at her. The sill was slippery.

Fortunately, it was a short drop to the ground.

Landing in a sloppy crouch, she raised herself up. Hefting her bag, she charged around the back of the building on the wet grass. Slipped on a corner, went down with a thump, got back up. Past the doghouse with the still silent Dobermans, back to where she had climbed up the wall.

Boom was waiting in the shadows.

“Someone coming,” she said before he could speak. “Head for the fence.”

“Roger that.” Boom grabbed his bag.

Lights came on. The slam of the door inside.

They pounded across the sodden lawn. Reached the fence as the back door flung open and smacked the wall. A shaft of light spilled out and a man came out in a striped robe, holding a flashlight and, much to the detriment of Colleen’s nerves, what looked to be a pistol.

“Who’s there?” Gust shouted.

At the fence, Boom squatted down to cup his hands together again for Colleen’s sneaker. She stepped in quickly, still shaky from her climb up the wall and her tumble out the office window.

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