Stolen: A Mason Gray Case by William Markham

Author:William Markham [Markham, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Impressions Media
Published: 2019-03-15T16:00:00+00:00

14

The sky was turning the steel gray of a winter evening as the thief hustled down the sidewalk. He was no ordinary thief, however. He was a master thief. There was none better. There was nothing he couldn’t steal, and he’d never been caught. Over the years, he’d taken fewer and fewer jobs because he didn’t need the money and it held no thrill for him anymore. The only jobs he took were ones that held some personal value for him or were for a good cause which is why he occupied himself with other interests, vocations that presented a challenge.

This evening was different. A dial tone purred in his ear as the cellphone he held tried to make a connection. Four rings, then five, and no one picked up.

He glanced around for the fifteenth time to make sure he wasn’t being followed. It wasn’t something that normally concerned him. He had a way of moving unseen along the tree-lined streets when he wanted to. It was just like the way he could get in and out of any location without being spotted, which is why he was never caught. It was an innate ability, one that required no thought. When he had thought about it, however, it was mostly to wonder how it worked. The best he could figure was that it sprung from a subconscious understanding of eyelines and fields of view, calculating angles of approach and vectors of movement that allowed him to be virtually invisible.

The phone purred on. Seven rings. Eight. On the tenth, someone picked up.

“Yes,” said a voice like old parchment rustling under a scribe’s fingertips.

“I’m out,” said the thief.

“Why?”

“He’s close.”

“Who?”

“The detective. No one has ever been this close before. If my involvement is discovered, I’m dead.” The thief’s voice pitched higher as he spoke. He hadn’t been this nervous in ages.

There was a pause as the man on the other end considered the new information. “We will deal with the detective,” the papery voice finally said. “Your continued involvement is greatly appreciated. It displays a measure of goodwill that will be returned in kind. Lie low for a while if you wish but stay close.”

The line went dead.

The thief blew out a long breath and watched the cloud of fog it created. He slipped the phone back in his pocket and picked up the pace. His employer might not be worried yet, but the fact that the detective had gotten this close already spoke volumes about Gray’s skills and that added an unanticipated and unwelcome element of danger to the arrangement.

If his employer could get rid of the threat, so be it. If not, he would relocate—maybe to California. The weather there was a lot better than Chicago.

He refocused on his surroundings and slid through the shadows like a ghost. Ten minutes later, he unlocked the door to his apartment and began to pack. “Three days,” he whispered to himself. “Three days and then I’m gone.”

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