Get Lost by Robert D Kidera

Author:Robert D Kidera [Kidera, Robert D]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Suspense Publishing
Published: 2015-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Your secretary is alive. Whether she stays that way is up to you. The price is $500,000. I know you have it. Make out a certified bank check to cash. No tricks or you both die. Mail the top envelope with your check inside to the address listed. I have added a stamp for your convenience.

You have 48 hours to respond. Don’t wait. No cops.

Mahatma

I read the message a second time, recalling that Onion said the two guys back east each laid out a quarter of a million when they disappeared. The price had gone up over the years. I dropped the letter opener onto my desk and slid the lower right-hand drawer open. My whiskey bottle was less than half full.

It stayed that way. This called for clear thinking.

Rebecca’s cryptic Find Mahatma would be my starting point. Her disappearance and Klein’s had to be connected. Mahatma’s M.O. seemed consistent with what Onion and Sloppy discovered about the disappearance of at least two of the dead men in my barn.

But what tied it all together?

My right hand reached for the Mont Blanc on the desktop, my left pulled a clean piece of paper from a drawer. I jotted down everything I could think of that seemed to matter.

Why all the bodies in my barn? Klein Associates owned the house for years. That was an obvious connection. But a couple of the bodies were men who disappeared after Aunt Nellie moved in. Wouldn’t she have known?

I went to the kitchen, poured a tall glass of water from the tap and tossed in a handful of ice cubes. The ribs from C.J.’s sat on the countertop. I put them in the refrigerator for later. Otis’s food bowl was empty, so I filled it. I walked to the empty bedroom and stared at all the boxes.

Three-thirty. Three hours to rummage through Nellie’s things. Three hours before my hoped-for meeting with Sam and Carlson.

Archuleta called the minute I opened the first of Nellie’s boxes.

“Your lucky day, Gabe. The FBI wants to talk with you after all.”

“Wonderful.”

“You may find such enthusiasm premature.”

“I’ll take that chance. We’re on for tonight?”

“Carlson will give you half an hour.”

“Do the Feds care about Rebecca’s disappearance or is that case all yours?”

“If it ties in with the bodies in your barn and with Klein, I’m sure they’re interested.”

“Good. Because FedEx just dropped off a ransom note. I need to decide what to do.”

“Don’t do anything until we get there.”

“Six-thirty?”

“Six-thirty.”

He hung up. I turned to the first box, not quite sure what I was looking for, not sure I’d know it if I found it. The first time I searched through Nellie’s things, I passed over the six boxes labeled “Clothing.” Today I’d check them all.

The first two boxes contained hand-tooled boots, women’s vintage Western clothing, several hats, a cream-colored formal gown, and a pile of blouses and skirts. Good stuff in its day. The third box weighed more. I’d found her jewelry.

My Aunt Nellie was a wealthy woman. When I

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