Tahoe Moon (An Owen McKenna Mystery Thriller Book 20) by Todd Borg

Author:Todd Borg [Borg, Todd]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thriller Press
Published: 2022-07-31T16:00:00+00:00

THIRTY

I looked around the shop. The goal is always to find the item that’s out of place and thus reveals an aspect of the territory that bears further investigation. There were few items other than shop tools. On the wall hung a spiral-bound pin-up calendar. At the end of the workbench was a can of Skoal chewing tobacco, a stinking mug half full of tobacco spit, and a smallish TV tuned to ESPN but with the sound on low.

At a right angle to the bench, just past the big vise, was a small desk with an old black landline phone that was so grubby that the dirt had lightened it to a charcoal gray. The desk had a single drawer. I slid it open softly. Marko wouldn’t know what I’d seen. His head was still clamped in the vise. He was under enough stress that he likely couldn’t focus on my activities.

There was a cell phone. I put it on mute and slipped it into my pocket. There were a few pens, a few business cards, a few paperclips. I lined up the business cards and took a picture of them with my phone.

On the desk was a laptop computer, the lid folded down. I lifted it up. The screen lit up, again no password required, another demonstration of Marko’s stupidity or his arrogance. Ain’t no one gonna mess with my computer.

On the screen was the word TOR. Capital letters. In purple. Next to it was a logo of what vaguely looked like an onion, a round shape made of layers. I pushed on the laptop’s touch pad and up came a box that looked like a login screen. I shut the computer.

Throughout my search, I looked for anything that looked like a catalytic converter. I saw none. Beyond the desk were three cardboard boxes. The flaps on one were partially open. I looked inside. Motorcycle gas tanks. The flaps of the next box were taped shut. I pulled at them until the tape ripped. That box had some styrofoam inserts to protect the contents and smaller white cardboard boxes, too small to contain catalytic converters. I opened one up. It had an electric starter motor. All the small boxes looked similar.

I looked around the shop. Over by the back wall of the garage was an unusual sight. A small blue dumpster of the kind that trash trucks pick up and dump over their top. But it was substantially smaller than normal, probably so it was easier to use inside a building. Directly behind the dumpster was a small roll-up garage door. The door was shut, and I could see the big padlock locking it. They didn’t want the dumpster’s contents to be easy to steal.

I walked over and lifted the hinged lid. The dumpster was full of metallic cylinders vaguely like mufflers but smaller.

Catalytic converters. I did a rough count of the number of converters on the top layer. About 40. The height of the dumpster was enough for something like 12 layers.

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