Deadly Cost of Goods

by Margaret Evans

  “Like this,” he demonstrated while Laura watched from the workroom side. “Now you try it. And don’t moan too loudly. I don’t want Harry rushing over thinking…you’re in trouble or something.”

  She went through the motions of gliding onto the mezzanine and began her show with floating, outstretched arms and low moans, turning her head back and forth as she recalled seeing Lorelei doing seventeen years ago.

  “Yikes,” Connor said. “That’s just how I remember it, too. All you need is a steam machine.”

  “Nobody can forget that. I like your idea of a steam machine, but I guess it’s not practical in this case.”

  “Remember, Sven will have hold of your apron strings and will pull you back after a few seconds. It’s dark in those aisles without electricity and it should look like you’re fading away.”

  “I can’t make a joke about Sven and apron strings, can I?”

  “Please don’t,” he said and checked his phone.

  “They’re here; I’ll let them in.”

  So they practiced where they would each stand and how they interacted with Laura. Sven looked decidedly uncomfortable watching her. He took Laura aside.

  “You’re dredging up something from a long time ago that I’ve tried to forget.”

  “I know. Put it out of your mind for now.”

  “Yeah, that’s what Connor said. Flynn would have loved this operation; he’s the only one who thought it was cool to see a ghost when we were kids. There’s your vest,” Sven said, pointing to the Kevlar vest he had set on the work table when they first arrived. “It should fit under your…costume. It’s easy to put on. Just pull on like a jacket and snap and Velcro everything together to fit. Make it tight.”

  Sammy was fascinated with his first real operation. There were a lot of things he could not share with his family and close friends about his job, but this was on the next level. He understood his part was small but incredibly important to move a civilian to safety the minute gunfire was exchanged. It made him feel like a real part of the team.

  “So when we do the hand-off from Sven, you leave right away with me, Laura.”

  She nodded.

  “I will, and if you want to drag me by the hand to go faster, that’s okay, too. Just remember when we get to those steps, we’ll have to slow down a bit.”

  “The three of us are headed over there after dark tonight, Laura,” Connor said. “We’ll approach through the woods and sneak into the shack. We need to know how the whole setup looks.”

  “They put stick-on LED lights everywhere, including the stairways and tunnel, right?” Laura asked.

  He nodded.

  “Will you be running into any other teams?”

  “No idea. But it’s possible, even though the Chief and I told them we’d be there tonight. We’ll just stay out of their way.”

  Sammy looked thoughtful.

  “So we’re the only ones who haven’t been there before. How come?”

  “You were about three years old, Larsen,” Sven told him. “They barricaded the place when they found out the Sarge and Laura snuck in.”

  “You forgetting something, Corporal?” Connor butted into the conversation.

  Sammy caught the look between them.

  “You were there, too, Sven, weren’t you!”

  * * *

  After the trio of officers left, Laura went upstairs to change into regular clothes and tucked her costume into a back corner of her closet. She brushed out her hair and saw there were still kinks in it, so she pulled it back in a French braid and banded it.

  Then she headed back down the stairs to the shop to restock, raising the shades on her way.

  The doorbell app buzzed her phone and she saw Erica was out front with her biweekly dozen yellow roses. Then Erica’s knock. She pulled the door to the workroom closed.

  Laura punched in the code and unlocked the front door.

  “Hi, Erica. Thank you so much for bringing these over. Let me get my wallet. Come on in.”

  “I came earlier but I saw from a distance that you had everything closed up. Once the cops left, I figured I should come by to see if everything’s okay.”

  Laura knew Erica didn’t miss anything, if there was anything to see or notice.

  “Oh, we’re good. Just a minor police matter. Sorry if we gave you a concern.”

  “You haven’t been broken into again, have you?”

  “Nope. Something small they asked me just to keep to myself.”

  “Three of them?”

  “Well, Sammy partners with Sven sometimes, and you know Connor. He’s involved in anything I do.”

  “Did you break a law?”

  “No. You know me better than that. Don’t give it another thought, Erica. Everything’s good.”

  * * *

  Tuesday in the shop, Laura was edgy and excited. Her electricity lit the store and her customers bought more holiday items than ever. She was delighted to see Jenna’s t-shirts go, as well as the red-white-and-blue wax teeth and sparkler hats. There were more in the back, including the flags, but the holiday spirit she saw was genuine and gratifying.

  In spite of the excitement, the day went slowly for her…and she couldn’t wait until Wednesday…when she would pretend to be Lorelei Rage.

  Chapter 35

  About two o’clock in the afternoon on Wednesday, a semi with an enormous trailer pulled over on Route 4 roughly across the street from the Old Library. As it slowed to a full stop, the gears sounded as if they were being stripped. Smoke poured from under the hood of the cabin. The driver got out and put flags and flares behind the truck as there were no shoulders on this rural road. He stood behind the truck, talking on his cell phone, gesticulating wildly as he talked. He finally clicked to end the call and shoved his phone in his pocket, kicked one of the semi’s tires as he climbed back up into the cab to wait.

  * * *

  The broken-down truck and its driver’s actions were not missed across the street in the Old Library. There was very little traffic on this road and usually nothing interesting, not even a stretch limousine.

  Ruby Howe shoved some people aside so she could see through the crack in the boarded-up window.

  “It’s a broken down semi,” she said. “Get back to work. We have a schedule to keep.”

  She called Bucky Swindell and Bronco Turner into her office and shut the door.

  “Keep an eye on that truck and the driver. I want to know if he sneezes in our direction.”

  “It looks like engine problems, Ruby. It could be there for a while until it’s towed.”

  “Well, you two just keep both your eyes on it. We’ll have to do some scouting around if it’s here past nine tonight.”

  * * *

  By the time the wrecker got there, the driver had the hood up. Smoke was still pouring from the engine. The tow mechanic took one look and went back to his truck. He brought over a fire extinguisher and tried to stop whatever was causing all the smoke.

  He was partially successful and poked around a bit under the hood and ended up pulling off his cap and scratching his head. There was a heated exchange between the semi driver and the mechanic, with lots of shoulder shrugs on the part of the mechanic and angry arm waving on the part of the semi driver.

  The mechanic ultimately went back to his truck and made a call.

  The semi driver went back to his cab and also made a call.

  About thirty minutes later, a second wrecker pulled into the bait and tackle shop parking lot. There was only one other pickup in the gravel lot at the time, so there was still another space available.

  The driver of the second wrecker walked over to the first wrecker to talk with that mechanic. The two mechanics then walked over to the semi whose driver had just climbed down from his perch in the cab. The three men looked under the hood and together they were moving, touching, pulling things around, but still some steam oozed from the engine compartment, both above and beneath the front of the truck.

>   The second mechanic made a call and was talking for a while on his phone.

  The semi driver shook his head and went into the bait and tackle shop. He came out with what looked like a packaged sandwich, a can of soda, and a bag of chips to those watching from across the street, and climbed back up into his cab to eat, having quietly advised the shop owner what was about to happen. The one legitimate customer had just left.

  The two mechanics got together in the empty spot of the bait and tackle three-spot lot to discuss the problem. They took turns pointing to the semi then both got on their phones. Then the second mechanic got back in his wrecker, backed out of the bait and tackle lot, did a three-point turn and headed back the way he had come.

  The first mechanic walked over to tell the semi driver what was happening.

  In the meantime, another semi with an equally big trailer pulled up behind the first wrecker. The driver got out and waved to the wrecker driver to move his vehicle out of the way. Then the driver of the second semi also attempted a three-point turn and wound up blocking the road in both directions as he edged forward a bit, then backward a bit, making it more like a three-hundred-point turn between the far side of the road and the tackle parking lot. At one point, he had to move forward into the Old Library parking lot to complete his maneuver.

  Once he was turned in the opposite direction, he pulled forward into the left lane and backed up to the broken-down semi. There was barely ten feet of space between them. The flares and flags were moved to the front of the second semi. Both semi drivers opened their back doors, and box by box, began a transfer of goods from one truck to the other. As the boxes were pulled out to transfer, many of them were stacked three-high on the road between the two trucks, blocking any view of foot movement into the shed below the truck door levels.

  * * *

  “You’re joking,” Ruby said when she saw what was going on. “It still won’t bump us off schedule. Those people will all be gone by morning. Just keep an eye on them.”

  Unfortunately, next she had to deal with the superstitions of her workers.

  “Dear holiness!” the man cried out, yet another worker whose name she had never learned. “There’s a black cat on the roof! I saw it watching us through the skylight! I saw its eyes gleaming! That’s a terrible omen. And now the two trucks!?”

  When Ruby spoke to the workers, she laid it on the line with a deadly calm voice.

  “Get. Back. To. Work. Now.”

  And they did, but several of them looked up to the skylights from time to time just in case the black cat with gleaming eyes came back.

  * * *

  By seven o’clock that evening, the bait and tackle shop owner had shut down and left. All of the teams were in place in the Old Library, having come from numerous different points along the old farm road and some from the two semi trucks’ side opening doors. The two truck drivers were still painstakingly transferring heavy boxes from the first truck to the second, stopping to talk, and stopping to make calls.

  The teams were on both sides of the first floor in the hidden passageways and the second floor mezzanine. There were additional Duluth police throughout the forest behind the library and in the woods across the street on both sides of the bait and tackle shop.

  By eight o’clock, Laura was snuck in through the woods across from the library, obscured by the two semis and the fading light. She was led down the stairs she hadn’t seen for seventeen years, now sufficiently lit, through the tunnel that was longer than she remembered and back up the second set of stairs to the mezzanine level on the left side with Sven and Sam right with her.

  Now all they had to do was wait until nine o’clock to spring the trap.

  It was a long wait, but when all teams got their messages that the daisy was blooming, they stood ready to execute.

  As the S.W.A.T. team member turned the knob and opened the panel slightly for Laura to slip through, she did so and played her part to the hilt.

  Her slow arm waving and moaning and sad look caught the attention of several people on the first floor, two of whom screamed. Several shouted and pointed at her.

  Sven slowly pulled her back behind the panel, and the pair walked over to the next panel where she showed up again.

  Then a gunshot rang out and Laura was pulled back behind the second panel, but not before she saw something that sent the workers in the Old Library into a panic with volleys of weapons discharging at once, all over the library.

  Lorelei appeared on the opposite third floor mezzanine where she always appeared, and her hands were extended to Laura during the brief fake ghost’s second act. Her face was filled with sadness and pleading, and her eyes met Laura’s as if begging for help.

  Chapter 36

  From all levels, the raid teams broke into the room from all sides and levels and surrounded the entire operation. There was considerable gunfire from both semi-automatic and fully automatic weapons of all types, including the military grade arms the S.W.A.T. team carried.

  Sam and Laura could hear it echoing in the tunnel as they hurried to the other side.

  Laura stopped and turned around, worried about Connor in the mix of all that gunfire.

  Sammy tugged her hand.

  “Let’s go!”

  She followed, and they didn’t stop until they reached the other side and were up in the shack next to the bait and tackle shop. It was now deadly quiet, but they could hear shouting.

  “It’s over, Laura,” Sam said. “Now we wait while they move in to clean everything up.”

  The next sounds were the sirens for all the vehicles that always show up after a raid of this type: buses for the wounded, wagons for the dead, prisoner transports for the live and kicking. Plus the vehicles for the people in charge who had set this whole thing in motion and all the other police vehicles that blocked the road at either end and redirected traffic.

  Hordes of backup police officers, extra DEA agents, and FBI agents poured out of the vehicles to arrest everyone in the building who was ambulatory and part of the drug operation. Even the person named Ruby Howe was cuffed and loaded into one of the prisoner transports, yelling at everyone. Nobody escaped.

  Laura and Sam walked over to the bait and tackle shop and peeked around the side to watch the activity. Laura tried to make out anyone she knew…like Connor.

  “We have to wait until they get all the bad guys out of here, Laura. It’ll be a little longer.”

  But she saw a few S.W.A.T. team folks and DEA agents who were loaded on stretchers into the ambulances, as well as other wounded, and gripped Sammy’s wrist.

  “It’s okay, Laura, just a little longer,” he said, patting her hand. He, too, was worried about his sergeant and his corporal. But he had something more pressing to ask his former babysitter.

  “Hey, I saw something when you went out through the second panel, and it was like looking in a mirror. But there was mist or something around her. Explain to me what I saw.”

  She turned to Sammy with a serious face.

  “You saw the ghost of Lorelei Rage.”

  At first he laughed then he looked at her again.

  “You’re kidding.”

  She shook her head.

  As it dawned on him, he sobered.

  “You saw her before, and so did Connor and Sven.”

  “Yes, we did. A long time ago.”

  “Wow. A real spirit?”

  “Yes, one who is not yet at rest.”

  “Wasn’t she the girl who disappeared about a hundred years ago?”

  “That’s right.”

  Then Sammy’s phone buzzed and it was Connor telling him that all persons engaged in the operation had been secured and removed from the area. Now the forensic units and other DEA agents would move in to gather up all the evidence.

  “Sarge says we can go back over there, just can’t go inside. We have to stay outside and out of everyone’s way. He said we can just walk across the street.”

  She perked up.


  “He’s not hurt?”

  “He didn’t say, but he didn’t leave in a bus, so that’s a good sign.”

  As they emerged into the open, they saw, indeed, that prisoner transports and ambulances were leaving and nearly gone. The M.E.’s wagon was still there and a second one had arrived. Groups of agents and team leaders were standing on the grassy areas outside the Old Library, as well as in the library parking lot. More agents emerged from the library’s front door, carrying boxes to the evidence vehicles. Then they went inside again to gather more evidence.

  Sam and Laura crossed the street, weaving through multiple parked vehicles.

  Connor emerged from the front door and spotted them, pointed to the side of the library away from the parking lot.

  “You guys need to stay over here,” he said.

  Laura spotted a small gash on the left side of his forehead.

  “Were you shot?”

  “No, the sliding panel wouldn’t open fully and the two S.W.A.T. guys shoved their way through. I got kind of pushed into the immoveable wall. Not even a good story. This will all take a while, so let me know if you want Sam to take you home.”

  “What would I do there?” she asked. “Sleep after all this excitement?”

  “Just shout,” Connor said and rejoined the other officers and agents inside the building.

  * * *

  As they walked around the side of the Old Library, Laura realized they’d been sent to the boring outside wall in darkness lit only by a half moon. But was it really boring? She counted up three sets of windows from the hidden librarians’ rooms that ran along both sides of the library.

  “Hey, Sam, can I see your flashlight for a minute?”

  He handed it to her and followed her.

  “What are you looking for?”

  “How far from the front of the building do you think we saw the real Lorelei ghost?”