We Planned a Murder by Derek D Wheeless

Author:Derek D Wheeless [Wheeless, Derek D]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Derek D Wheeless

CHAPTER 16

SLOPPY

From the Whiffletrees, I rushed to the hospital to check on Brockett and hopefully to see my grandmother again, despite the hour. Too many people I cared about had ended up in ICU. My grandmother was asleep, but the nurse on duty said she was continuing to improve. So far, the medical tests had shown no permanent damage to her brain. As far as Brockett, the doctors had removed the knife and he was doing well also. I left Ms. Baxter surrounded by half a dozen teachers from the Academy and set off on the bike. By two-thirty Thursday morning, I was at Dream’s. I pulled the bike around to the back alley and killed the motor. Pitch black. Not a soul in sight.

Mr. Dream always kept a key hidden in a small, rusty tin with a magnet on the back that snapped to the top of the metal frame of the back door. As far as I was aware, I was the only one he’d ever shown it to. “In case of an emergency,” he’d once told me. If tonight didn’t fit the bill, I didn’t know what would.

I slipped on a pair of latex gloves I’d confiscated from the hospital, felt my way to the back, and located the key. I unlocked the door, tucked the tin with the key inside my pants pocket, and made my way into the back hall. It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the semi-darkness, the only light coming from the dim glow of a few security lights in the kitchen. The alarm keypad at the back door began chirping, counting down its one-minute delay. I punched in the word SCOUT, the password Dream had given me, and waited for the system to go into standby mode.

It didn’t. The red light continued to flash, the keypad continued to chirp, and the one-minute I had to disarm the system continued to drain.

I tried the code again. Still nothing.

I typed in the word DREAM. No dice.

I typed in the words ICE and ICECREAM, even HARDCASTLE. Nada.

Three things were certain. One, I had to get into Dream’s office, and I knew I wouldn’t get a second crack at it after what I had planned for tonight. In fact, the success of the case was riding on it. Second, I had to forget the alarm. This whole operation was about to get loud and sloppy. And third, once the alarm tripped, I had less than two minutes before the police showed up with weapons drawn. A lot of people were about to visit Mr. Dream’s in the middle of the night, many of the same ones who’d just wrapped up a crime scene in Castlerock Estates. They wouldn’t be too excited about fielding another late-night run, especially if they caught my mug in both places.

I took the five steps to Dream’s office and tried the door handle. Locked. And another keypad, without the accompanying key slot. My locksmith set wasn’t going to help me here.

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