Fortune and Glory

by Janet Evanovich

  “I’m going to circle around this building so I can get close without the two men seeing me,” I said to Potts.

  “Then what?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. One step at a time.”

  I honestly didn’t know what I would do. I had no idea what was going on inside the concrete bunker, and I didn’t want to make things worse for my mom if she was in there. If I made a move to rescue her and failed it would be horrible for both of us.

  I turned to go, and the garage door opened at the end of the row. Potts and I crouched behind the Honda and watched everyone come out of the storage unit.

  Shine stormed out first. He was waving his arms, and even from this distance, I could see that his face was red.

  “Idiots!” he yelled at the two men behind him. “Fucking idiots. I can’t believe you screwed this up. This was a no-brainer. Get the old lady and bring her to the locker.”

  “We knocked on the door like you told us,” one of the men said. “Polite. And we asked her if she was a grandma. And she said, yes.”

  “She’s not the right grandma,” Shine said.

  “We didn’t know that.”

  “And then you brought her to the house in Pleasantville instead of the locker,” Shine said.

  “She hit Andy with the frying pan and he had a big gash on his cheek. So, we stopped at the house for a Band-Aid. We figured there wouldn’t be any Band-Aids here.”

  “Now she knows about the house,” Shine said.

  “She wasn’t in the house,” the guy said. “She was in the trunk. I figure it doesn’t matter because we’re gonna kill her anyway.”

  “We still need the old lady,” Shine said. “The right Grandma. She has the last clue. She has the numbers to get into the safe.”

  Two more men walked out of the storage locker, bookending my mother. Her hands were bound. Her walk was steady and unassisted. She looked okay.

  “Follow me to the safe house,” Shine said. “We’ll stick her there and use her to get the old lady.”

  Shine got into the Mercedes. My mom was placed in the backseat of the Escalade with the two men. One of the men standing watch on the outside of the unit got behind the wheel. The fourth man shut the garage door and got into the Taurus.

  “They’ve got your mom and they’re leaving,” Potts said.

  “We need to get to the Buick.”

  “Indy would take this car,” Potts said.

  “This Honda?”

  “The owner is in the storage unit behind us,” Potts said. “I can hear him rummaging around in there. And he left his car unlocked with the key fob in the cup holder.”

  “That’s car theft.”

  The three cars drove single file around the end of the building, with the Mercedes leading the way.

  “They won’t know it’s us in this car,” Potts said. “And it’s here!”

  He opened the door, got behind the wheel, and started the car. I ran around the car and jumped in.

  “This is a nice car,” Potts said, rounding the end of the row. “The owner keeps it clean inside. It smells nice. After I got the job delivering pizza my car always smelled like pizza.”

  “I’ve never seen your car.”

  “I traded it for a PlayStation 4Pro.”

  “You traded a car for a gaming console?”

  “It wasn’t much of a car, and the 4 Pro is awesome.”

  Shine turned right onto Philadelphia and the two cars followed him. We gave them a good lead before we exited the storage facility.

  I called Lula. “It’s not necessary for you to look at the condo,” I said. “Go to Egg Harbor and wait for me to get back to you.”

  “Did you find your mom?” she asked.

  “Yes, but it’s complicated. I can’t talk now. Just wait in Egg Harbor.”

  An occasional bungalow hugged the side of the road but mostly we were driving through scrubby pine intermingled with heavier forested areas. After two miles the Mercedes led the other two cars onto a gravel driveway and disappeared into the woods.

  Potts pulled to the side of the road and cut the engine. I slid the window down and listened. Car doors slamming shut. Men talking. And then quiet.

  “This is where we abandon the car,” Potts said.

  “I get the feeling you’ve done this before.”

  “Mostly in video games. Usually there’s a high-speed chase involved. I’m awesome at the high-speed chase. Especially if it’s an obstacle course.”

  We walked the length of the driveway and moved into the woods to look at the house. It was a small ranch. Probably three bedrooms. The yellow paint was peeling, and the yard was mostly dirt and weeds. No garage. Everyone was inside.

  “Now what?” Potts asked.

  “Everyone is inside, and the shades are down. That means they can’t see out. I’m going to the back of the house and try to determine where they’re keeping my mom. I’m guessing they’ll stash her in a bedroom.” I sent Morelli’s and Ranger’s phone numbers to Potts’s cell phone. “You stay here and call Joe Morelli and Ranger. Fill them in and give them our location.”

  I slipped my phone into my back pocket and tucked my .38 into the waistband of my jeans. I left my messenger bag with Potts and instructed him to guard it with his life.

  New mantra, I told myself. From here on out it was balls to the wall. I moved across the yard with as much stealth as possible. I hugged the side of the house and listened at a living room window. I could hear men talking. I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I had a half-inch view of the room where the shade didn’t meet the window frame. I knew there had been five men in the cars. I could see three of them in the room. I didn’t see my mom, and I didn’t hear her voice. A fourth man crossed the room and disappeared from view. I crept around to the back and peeked in a kitchen window. No one there.

  I got lucky at the far end of the house. I found a bedroom window with the shade half closed, and I could see my mom duct-taped to a straight-back chair. I caught her attention and made a sign not to talk. I tried opening the window. Locked. Breaking the window could draw the attention of the men in the living room but I saw no other option. I didn’t want a SWAT team arriving and my mom inside as a bargaining chip. I was about to smash the glass with my gun butt when Gabriela tapped me on the shoulder and scared the bejeezus out of me. I would have instinctively shot her, but I was holding the wrong end of my gun.

  “I’m here to help,” she whispered.

  “How did you get here?”

  “I followed you, of course.” She held up a glass cutting tool.

  “Do you always carry a glass cutting tool?”

  “Tools of the trade,” she said, fixing a suction cup to the window.

  “What trade is that?” I asked.

  “It depends on the moment,” Gabriela said. “By my count there are five men in the house. Another car with two more men just arrived and the men are standing watch outside. We’re going to take your mom out the window. Cross the backyard and go straight into the woods. I’ll cover you.”

  My mom’s eyes were as big as saucers. I gave her a thumbs-up, and she did an eye roll so huge that it almost tipped her chair over. Thirty seconds later Gabriela removed a circle of glass from the window, reached in, and opened the lock. The window was up, and Gabriela crawled in. She cut my mom free and passed her out of the window to me. Gabriela followed.

  “Is your grandmother okay?” my mom asked me.

  “Yes,” I said. “She’s with Lula.”

  “She won’t be okay when I get done with her,” my mom said. “I’m going to put her in assisted living somewhere far away. Georgia or Texas or Slovakia. I told her to give the keys to Benny and she wouldn’t do it. And you’re no better. You went along with it all. And look what happened. I got kidnapped. They put me in the trunk of a car.”

  “I know. I’m sorry but we need to discuss this later.”

  “In the trunk of a car!”

  “Not now, Mom. We need to get out
of here.”

  I grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the tree line. We were halfway across the hardscrabble yard when one of the men walked around the side of the house. He shouted to his partner and fired a shot over our heads.

  Gabriela turned and fired two shots, hitting the gunman on the second. He went down to the ground, and we ran into the woods. Gabriela caught up to us and turned us in another direction.

  “We want to circle around the house and go toward the road,” she said. “Slow down and try not to make noise. There’s a rusted-out Airstream camper just past the house. We can use it for cover, and I can try to pick them off one by one.”

  We bushwhacked through the undergrowth, listening to the men shouting to each other back at the house and in the woods behind us. Gabriela was leading the way. She looked like she knew what she was doing, and she was dressed for the job. Camo cargo pants, a formfitting V-neck olive drab T-shirt, and thick-soled, spike-studded boots. Small camo backpack. Olive drab utility gun belt sized for a woman.

  Gabriela held her hand up and we all stopped and listened. Someone was stalking us. Dried leaves and twigs were crackling under his footstep. I could see a sliver of silver peeking out of the thick vegetation in front of us. It was the Airstream.

  Gabriela motioned for us to go. We covered half the distance to the camper and a man burst out of the woods in front of us, holding us at gunpoint. Without a moment of hesitation, I pulled a Potts. I staggered sideways a little, rolled my eyes back in my head, and did an Academy Award–winning faint, grabbing hold of my mom and pulling her down with me.

  The instant we hit the ground, Gabriela went airborne, looking like G.I. Ninja. She planted her boot to the man’s chest, he let out a whoosh of air, and the gun dropped out of his hand. Gabriela kicked him hard in the crotch with her toe spikes. He went to his knees and rolled into a fetal position.

  “He was the one who locked me in the trunk,” my mom said, getting to her feet. “Asshole,” she yelled at the guy, and she kicked him in the vicinity of a kidney.

  Another thug came out of the woods and went for Gabriela. I rushed over and yelled “Hey!” He turned to look at me, and I smashed him in the face with my gun butt. Blood gushed out of his nose and I hit him again.

  “Ow,” Gabriela said. “Nicely done.”

  A police chopper flew low over the yellow ranch house. Red and blue lights flashed on the driveway. We could see parts of the house through the trees. It was surrounded by men in black SWAT gear. I recognized them as Rangemen. We walked out of the woods, and by the time we reached the house the yard was filled with cars. Local cop cars, Rangeman SUVs, and two EMTs. The last car down the driveway was Lula with Potts and Grandma.

  Lula, Grandma, and Potts parked and hurried over to us. Grandma grabbed my mom and hugged her close. “Are you okay?” she asked. “Are you okay?”

  “I don’t know,” my mom said. “I think so. I was really scared. They locked me in the truck of a car. And they put duct tape across my mouth.”

  “They did that to me, too,” Potts said. “It was uncomfortable. I don’t want to have that happen anymore.”

  My mom turned to me. “Thank you for rescuing me, but you could have been killed. I saw your face in the window and I had such a mix of emotions. Relief that I might be able to escape and horror that you might be captured or worse. Those men were terrible. No respect for anything. And then Charlie Shine showed up. I never liked him. All those gaudy pinkie rings. And everyone knew he abused women.”

  “It looks like we missed all the good stuff,” Lula said. “And I see Gabriela standing over there all by herself. What’s she doing here?”

  “She followed me,” I said. “And she helped with the rescue.”

  “She shot someone,” my mom said to Lula. “And she flew through the air and wiped out one of the bad guys like you see on television. And then Stephanie smashed her gun into another bad guy’s face.”

  “And you kicked one of them,” I said. “It was a good kick, too. Right in the kidney.”

  “I got carried away,” my mom said. She looked around. “There are a lot of people here.”

  “I called Joe Morelli and Ranger,” Potts said. “They were already on their way. Ranger was right behind us. I think Morelli must have notified the local police.” He looked at me. “Lula and your Grandma were waiting in Egg Harbor and I told them to come here. I hope that was okay.”

  He had my messenger bag hung cross-body. I took the bag from him and told him he did great.

  “It’s like I’m in a video game,” he said, grinning. “Freaking awesome… now that it’s over.”

  Ranger walked over, raised the flap on my messenger bag, and dropped the two safe keys into the bag. “I found these on Shine when we went inside ahead of the police. Don’t let them get away from you. I need to send some of my men back to Trenton. I’ll catch up with you later.”

  A police transport truck and a third ambulance parked in the front yard. Morelli drove in and went to the transport truck. He turned midway, stopped, and looked at me for a long moment. I gave him a thumbs-up, he nodded acknowledgment and continued on to the truck.

  “It’s almost here,” Grandma said. “Treasure time. We just need to go get it.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  It was close to four o’clock when we assembled at the storage facility. Grandma, Lula, Potts, my mom, Morelli, Ranger, and Ramone, Ranger’s safecracking specialist. Gabriela was there as well, keeping to herself.

  Ranger unlocked the door to the storage unit, rolled the door up, and we all peeked inside. The unit was the size of a single-car garage. It was concrete block on the inside just like it was concrete block on the outside. It was lit by two fluorescent ceiling fixtures. The unit contained a brown leather, slightly used La-Z-Boy recliner, and a large safe. The garage door was the only exit.

  Ramone stepped forward with a backpack. “I know this style safe,” he said. “This should not be a problem.”

  “Did you tell him about Hiroshima?” I asked Ranger.

  “Yes,” Ranger said. “He knows about Hiroshima.”

  I gave the two keys and the two wedding bands to Ramone, he walked to the safe, and set his backpack on the floor. Everyone moved away from the unit.

  “How long will this take?” I asked Ranger.

  “Not long,” he said. “One way or the other.”

  “Do you think we’re far enough away?” Lula asked. “Hiroshima is big.”

  Potts moved behind Lula, as if that would protect him from nuclear disaster. Morelli wasn’t saying anything. He was looking on with his cop face in place. Gabriela was silent. Grandma was leaning forward in anticipation, her eyes focused like lasers on the safe.

  I was a half step behind Grandma. We’d been through a lot to reach this point, and now that the nightmare of worrying about everyone’s safety was over, I was getting excited about the treasure. My excitement had less to do with how I was going to spend it, as what exactly was this treasure? Bars of gold? A priceless relic? What had we been chasing?

  The minutes ticked on. It seemed like a lifetime, but it was only four minutes on my watch when Ramone finally stepped away from the safe. The door was open, and there was a collective sigh of relief that we hadn’t all been blown to bits.

  We rushed into the storage unit and stared at the inside of the safe. It was as if all of the air had been sucked out of the room and no one moved. Everyone was frozen in stunned silence.

  “It’s empty,” Grandma finally said. “There’s nothing in it but some comic books. It looks to me like Jimmy used to come here to sit in his La-Z-Boy and read comics. How could this be? Where’s the treasure?”

  “Superman and Uncle Scrooge,” Potts said. “Excellent choice of comics but not worth much in their present condition.”

  “This here’s a bummer,” Lula said. “I almost got blown up for nothing.”

  “There was no charge attached to it,” Ramone said. “There was no chance of Hiroshima.”
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  Lula was hands on hips. “Well, what about those tunnels with the rats and the fire and the crazy-ass old assassin? What about that?”

  “All in a day’s work,” I said.

  Morelli was standing next to me. He looked over at me. Quizzical.

  I shrugged. Truth is, it could have turned out a lot worse. My mother and my grandmother could have been horribly hurt or killed. I could have been horribly hurt or killed. Those possibilities had been laid to rest.

  “The La-Z-Boys were sure there was a treasure in here. There were clues. There were keys,” Grandma said. “They were willing to kidnap and kill for it. What happened to it?”

  “In this video game I play there’s a princess. And a dragon took her treasure. It was in a chest in the tower room and the dragon flew away with it,” Potts said.

  “I like it,” Lula said. “Some hot-shot dragon flew away with the princess’s treasure.”

  “I guess it could happen,” Grandma said. “Did the princess get her treasure back?”

  “I’m working on it,” Potts said.

  “I can’t think about this anymore,” my mom said. “I’m exhausted. Look at the time. I need to get dinner going.”

  “I need some selfies for Facebook and Instagram,” Grandma said, standing in front of the safe. “I bet I could be a sensation. And if nobody minds, I’m going to take the comic books.”

  “I’m gonna snap some selfies, too,” Lula said. “I might be able to add in a dragon to mine.”

  Gabriela hadn’t moved forward with everyone else. She’d stood in place. Her expression throughout was thoughtful. Ranger was back on his heels with the same thoughtful expression.

  I knew what they were thinking because I was thinking the same thing. This wasn’t done. There was more.

  Morelli’s phone buzzed, and he checked the screen. “I have to go,” he said to me. “I don’t want to lose sight of Shine. And I have paperwork to do. I’ll call you later.”

  I turned to Lula when Morelli walked away. “Can you take everyone home? I want to stay and talk to Ranger and Gabriela.”