Bullseye

by Virginia Smith

“Power up your computer, dude. I need you to work some techno-magic and get me past a security system.”

  In the background he heard a sleepy woman’s voice ask a question. Lauren, Brent’s wife.

  “It’s Mason,” Brent answered. “Who else would have the nerve?” Then into the phone. “Where are you, anyway?”

  Mason examined the darkness around him. “I’m standing in a parking lot, trying to get into the fitness center where my wife worked when she was murdered.”

  A pause. He heard the shuffling sounds of movement, and knew Brent had gotten out of bed.

  “All right, give me a minute to boot up. Did Caleb arrive okay this morning? I haven’t heard anything from either of you all day.”

  “Yeah, he’s here. We’ve had a bit of excitement tonight. I’ll tell you about it later.”

  The time seemed to stretch into hours. Familiar computer tones sounded in the background. A minute or so later Brent said, “Okay, I’m ready. What kind of system is it?”

  The company name was etched on the side of the keypad. “Sugarcreek Security Systems.”

  “Sugarcreek.” Computer keys tapped in the background. “Yeah, here it is. Hmm. I wonder what kind of system it is.”

  He examined the keypad, but couldn’t find a model number. Of course, that didn’t mean a thing. This was just the access panel. The real system lay inside somewhere, probably in the back office. “It looks pretty old.”

  “Well, let’s hope not. It’s going to be hard to disrupt the code in an old analog system. But if it’s a voice-over IP system with a digital signal, I might be able to do something. Give me a minute.”

  Minutes passed, during which the only sound Mason could hear was the tapping of keys and Brent’s breath coming in over the phone.

  “Let me see. Looks like you’re at 756 West Jefferson Avenue?”

  Mason held the phone out and looked at it. Amazing. He’d known there was a GPS system in this fancy device, but had no idea it could pinpoint his location down to a specific street address. Karina and Caleb both watched him, unspoken questions etched on their faces. Mason shook his head and put the phone back to his ear.

  “Yeah, that’s right.”

  “Okay, I’m tapping into you now and scanning for signals in your area. Stand as close to the alarm system as you can.”

  Mason edged toward the wall and bent at the waist until his cell phone, still held to his ear, was inches away from the keypad. “I’m right next to it.”

  “Good. Give me a minute.”

  More tapping, and then a long pause.

  And then a sound that cracked almost as loud as a gunshot in the parking lot. The click of a door lock.

  Mason grabbed the metal handle and shoved it downward. All the way down. He could hardly believe it. Karina’s mouth hung open, and Caleb’s eyeballs nearly popped out of his head.

  “We’re in.” He pulled the door open, speaking into the phone at the same time. “Dude, you rock.”

  A smile sounded in Brent’s response. “Next time give me something hard.” His tone became serious. “I assume you know what you’re doing, right?”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Mason replied. “Don’t worry. I can handle it. Go back to bed.”

  He disconnected the call and pulled the door open. Exchanging a glance with Caleb, he stepped forward. The big man nodded and stepped in front of Karina. He put a protective arm in front of her, and followed Mason across the threshold.

  Inside the fitness center, nothing moved. Mason stood, statuelike, and scanned the room. The shadowy, spidery figures of exercise equipment filled a wide-open area. Beneath his shoes the same thin, worn carpet he remembered. The combined odors of stale sweat and antiseptic spray filled his nostrils.

  The door started to swing closed behind Karina, but in the moment before it latched shut, he leaped backward and caught it.

  “We might trigger the alarm if we open it when we leave.”

  He found that he had whispered the explanation, though he couldn’t say for sure why. Obviously no one could hear. He looked around for something to wedge in the door, but came up empty.

  “Here.” Karina slipped off a sandal and offered it to him. “I’ll get it on the way out.”

  He set the thin shoe in the crack between the door and the doorjamb while she removed the other one and set it aside. Then they crept forward.

  The office was in the corner to their right, and he directed Caleb there with a nod. The door was closed, but when Caleb turned the knob, it opened. He grinned at Mason, opened the door and went inside.

  “Help him check the files,” Mason told Karina. “I’m going to look around out here.”

  A look of understanding dawned in her face. Once more, she placed a hand on his arm. At the touch of her soft skin, a wave of sorrow nearly overpowered him, and he realized how close to the surface his emotions were in this place where Margie had worked. Had spent her last hours on this earth. Wordlessly, he covered Karina’s hand, and smiled his appreciation for the comfort she offered. Then she left him to join Caleb in the office.

  Mason stepped into the workout area. Exercise machines surrounded him. He had avoided gyms since Margie’s death, finding them too painful. The equipment looked different than when he’d been here last. Sleeker. Newer. Not as clunky as the old stuff. The free weights in the far corner looked the same, in fact that steel rack was probably the same one he’d used four years ago. The rest of the equipment had been replaced, though. Except…

  His gaze fell on an old machine tucked off to the right. An abduction machine, with a black vinyl seat, knee pads and a metal peg that could be moved downward to increase the resistance. A sign hung on the stack of weights. Out of Order.

  Mason couldn’t stop a smile. That machine had been out of order back when he worked out here. Funny they’d never repaired it.

  The smile melted off of his face. Not just funny. Strange. Unusually so. He studied the rest of the equipment. New, all of it. All except that one machine.

  He crossed the floor, his shoes silent on the thin carpet, and stood before the machine. The curly vinyl-covered wire that held the pin in place dangled from the top weight, broken. A hole in the bracket on the left side of the frame was empty, missing the bolt that would hold the moving arm in place. The exact same malfunction as four years ago.

  Mason circled the machine, examining it from every angle. Why had management replaced every piece of equipment in the place except this one? And if they weren’t going to replace it, why not at least repair it?

  That was when he noticed the carpet. There was almost no nap left on any of it, so if he hadn’t been studying the machine closely he would have missed the indention. But once he looked, the evidence was unmistakable. The carpet held the faint, almost imperceptible, outline of the machine just beside its current position.

  He lifted his face toward the office. “Caleb!” His stage whisper produced no response. He spoke in a normal voice. “Caleb! Come here.”

  The big man appeared, Karina at his heels.

  “We haven’t found anything yet,” he said as he crossed the floor to join Mason.

  “Well, I might have. Give me a hand moving this.”

  Mason went to the back of the equipment, and jerked his head toward the front. They grappled for a moment to find a handhold, and then bent their knees.

  “One. Two.” Mason counted off, and braced himself. “Three.”

  They lifted together. The thing was heavy, which, of course, it would be with a stack of weights on it. Together they barely managed to lift it an inch off the carpet, and then move it quickly to the side.

  When they’d set it down, Mason gazed in triumph at the place they’d just uncovered. Beneath the abduction machine lay a carpeted panel. He lifted it and uncovered an indented area in the flooring
. Inside, about eight inches down, was a lever.

  This was it! His insides jumped with an excitement he could barely control. They’d found something. Whatever it was would surely, surely, help them prove Alex’s innocence, and maybe even lead them to Margie’s killer.

  He knelt down and grasped the metal bar. His gaze sought Karina’s.

  “Should I?”

  Grinning with almost as much excitement as he felt, she nodded. When their eyes met he felt a jolt of energy arc between them. He was living in the moment, even as he unearthed the ghosts of his past, with Karina beside him. And it felt right.

  TWENTY-THREE

  It was like something out of a science fiction movie. Karina watched Mason fidget with the lever for a moment. Finally he pulled it straight up.

  The floor-to-ceiling mirror in front of her moved.

  Beside her Caleb gave a low whistle. “Would you look at that?”

  The middle panel of the mirror receded inward, and then, with a screech of gears that cried for oil, slid to one side. In the gap left by the open panel, a narrow staircase led downward into darkness.

  Mason and Caleb straightened, and the three of them stood still for a moment, staring. Karina strained to see down the stairs, but the dim light from the streetlights outside only illuminated the first two steps. The rest disappeared into blackness.

  She shook herself to get rid of any creepy ideas. She knew exactly where that stairway led. The old grocery store probably had a basement. And if she were to bet, she’d say the basement had been converted into storage space for illegal weapons.

  Mason’s gaze caught hers. A fierce satisfaction gleamed in his eyes. “Wanna check it out?”

  “Now, Brother.” Beside her Caleb shook his head, a scowl gathered on his forehead. “Don’t you think we should call somebody before we go investigating dark cellars?”

  “And tell them what? That we found a stairway behind a mirror?” Mason snorted at the idea. He started forward. “Just a quick peek, and then we’ll make a call.”

  Karina was torn. Her instincts told her Caleb was right. They should call someone before they descended those stairs. But Mason was already on his way down. With a helpless glance toward Caleb, whose scowl could have boiled ice cubes, she followed Mason.

  The stairs were made of wooden slats, worn soft from decades of footsteps. The dank smell of old, wet concrete rose from the darkness when Karina approached, her hand on Mason’s back for comfort. He flipped a switch in the wall at the top, and below an ancient fluorescent light flickered on. It shed a dim white light over the basement. At the bottom of the stairway, the concrete floor met an unfinished cement wall.

  Karina gasped. Lining the walls all around her were deep wooden shelves. And piled on the shelves were guns. Dozens of them.

  Behind her Caleb gave a long, low whistle. “Would you look at that? It’s like al Qaeda’s storage shed.”

  She followed Mason into the room and stood in the center, circling to take in the view. How many guns were there? She couldn’t begin to count them.

  Mason approached a shelf and bent close, his hands clasped behind his back. “AK-47s here.” His gaze slid to the shelf next to it. “And M-4s.”

  “Wow.”

  Karina turned at Caleb’s exclamation to find him examining a heavy-looking weapon with a barrel a couple of inches wide.

  “Do you know what this is?” Tones of awe sounded in his voice. “It’s an M203 single-shot 40 millimeter grenade launcher.”

  Mason shook his head slowly, his gaze circling the room. “Can you imagine any reason why a law-abiding citizen would need to own a grenade launcher?”

  “Not a single one.”

  Karina’s nerves went taut. Was that a noise upstairs? She tilted her head sideways, listening, but heard nothing else. Maybe it was her imagination. A nervous buzz tingled along her muscles.

  “We’ve seen what we need to see.” She covered the two steps between her and Mason quickly and grabbed his arm. “Let’s leave and call someone. Detective Grierson maybe.”

  Mason looked at her for a moment, then nodded. “I’ll call Parker and have him meet us in the parking lot.” He slipped his phone out of its holder and glanced at the screen. “No service. Let’s get out of—”

  His voice fell silent when the floor above them creaked. He and Caleb both ducked, their gazes fixed on the ceiling. This time Karina was sure. Someone was upstairs.

  Her lungs froze. She scanned the room for a place to hide. Nothing. Terror gripped her throat and squeezed as feet appeared on the stairs. Shiny, highly polished shoes. Gray slacks with a pressed seam.

  Mason and Caleb both stepped in front of her, shielding her from the newcomer. Her instinct was to cower behind them, but she couldn’t bear to close her eyes to the oncoming danger. Her hands on the waistband of Mason’s jeans, she extended her neck and peeked over his shoulder.

  A relieved breath flooded her lungs as the person who descended the stairs came into view. First she saw a police uniform. Thank goodness! The police had arrived! Then the man’s face became visible and she almost laughed with relief. Parker Harding, the very person they were going to call.

  But he was not alone. Four sets of feet followed closely on his heels, and before Parker had even reached the bottom of the stairs, the men came into full view. And each one of them was holding a wicked-looking rifle, the barrels pointed her way.

  She felt the muscles in Mason’s spine stiffen beneath her fingers.

  “Parker. I was getting ready to call you.”

  Tension squeezed Mason’s voice so tight it almost squeaked. Caleb’s hand reached behind his back toward her, and Karina grasped it with one of hers.

  “Really? Well, that would have been an interesting conversation.” Parker’s foot left the last stair, and he stepped aside so the others could move off the stairway. “I see you’ve stumbled on our little cache.”

  “Your cache?” Mason’s steady voice belied the tremble she felt in his body. “You mean Maddox’s cache, don’t you?”

  Parker chuckled. “One and the same, partner.” The chuckle ended abruptly. “Don’t tell me you hadn’t figured it out. I thought for sure Graham said something to you.”

  A puzzle piece fell into place, and Karina swallowed a gasp. Parker was working with Maddox in this weapon scheme. Officer Graham suspected him, and had been trying to warn Mason when he was killed. That meant—

  “You killed your own partner.” The accusation shot from her mouth before she could stop it.

  Parker’s chuckle cut off abruptly. “I had no choice. He was on to me.” His stare at Mason hardened. “He told you, didn’t he? I could tell he was going to at lunch yesterday.”

  Mason shook his head. “No, Parker. He didn’t.”

  The man reared backward as though slapped. Then he seemed to recover. “Well, he would have if he’d lived.”

  Thoughts of Officer Graham’s wife and children threatened to overwhelm her, but Parker interrupted with a barked order.

  “How did you track us here?” Mason asked.

  “Mason, Mason. Didn’t your mother teach you to close the door when you come into a room? In this case there’s a trigger in the doorjamb. After two minutes a silent alarm alerts the security company.” His gun barrel jerked toward the stairs. “Upstairs, all of you. There’s someone who wants to talk to you.”

  One of the hardest things Karina had ever done was follow Mason up those stairs. Caleb moved behind her, and his

  presence provided a barrier between her and the guns of the silent men who moved at Parker’s barked command.

  They returned to the fitness center’s main workout area to find the lights still off, the room still dark. But now a man sat on the abduction machine, a commanding presence in a light gray suit and flanked by a pair
of bodyguards who equaled Caleb in size.

  Russell Maddox.

  * * *

  Maddox smiled as they came into view.

  “Mr. Sinclair, what a surprise to see you again so soon.”

  Mason felt Karina’s body trembling behind him. Even Caleb, ever a tower of strength, hesitated at the top of the stairs.

  Maddox completely ignored Karina and Caleb. His sharp gaze caught Mason’s and held it.

  Where he found the strength to speak, Mason didn’t know. “Maddox, the only thing that surprises me is that you bothered to come here and risk exposure. After all, you’ve worked so hard to distance yourself from this operation. I’m flattered.”

  Maddox snorted. “Don’t be. I’m not here for you. Believe it or not, you’ve happened to stumble onto a critical meeting for our organization.”

  The information filtered into his brain. Why would Graham pick tonight to reveal his suspicions? Why would Grierson advise they retreat to a safe location tonight, of all nights? Obviously both of them suspected something, and were moving to stop a critical exchange of some sort. Which meant tonight was not a normal night.

  Reasons filtered through his mind.

  He took a stab. “Liquifying your assets, I assume?”

  Maddox’s smile deepened. “It’s good to see you’ve kept your wits sharp during the past four years. Yes, tonight an important exchange will occur.” He waved a hand to encompass the gym. “This place has served its purpose. It’s time to move on.”

  Parker took a few steps forward to stand beside Maddox, his gaze fixed on Mason’s face. Disgust churned in Mason’s stomach at the sight of his smug, arrogant smirk. Whatever role he filled in Maddox’s organization, he was responsible for Graham’s death. For that alone Mason would like to see that expression wiped clean on a patch of rough concrete.

  “You should have stayed gone, buddy.” His eyes flickered to a place behind Mason, where Karina stood. “Let the kid take the fall. What difference would it make? Where do you think a poor kid without parents is gonna end up anyway?”

  Realization dawned. “You killed José.” He spat the accusation. “That’s why Alex wouldn’t rat you out. He was afraid, because he didn’t want to go up against a cop.”