Collin drove up to the gate at the Gene Search compound. Everything looked the same as before. He was hoping to gain entrance here rather than through the woods. Crossing through the woods took hours. He took the direct approach and pulled up to the gate. There was a button on an intercom so he pushed it.
A voice answered, “May I help you?”
“I have a delivery for Doctor Phelps,” Collin lied.
“He is not here.”
“Are you sure? Why would they ask me to deliver something to him if he wasn’t here?”
“I don’t know honey, but nobody is here. They packed up and left weeks ago.”
“Do you know Doctor Holt from the lab?”
“You mean HGL?”
“Yes. He is the one asked me to drop this envelope off. Can you let me in so I can do that?”
“Do you know where the office is?”
“Yes, I’ve been here before.”
Collin drove in as soon as the gate opened. He drove up the hill and slowly made his way to the building he had entered before from the back. This time a woman was standing out front waiting for him. He parked near the front door and smiled at her.
“Hi there. I’ve got the keys.”
Collin got out of his car and approached the woman.
“Hi, my name is Larry.”
“Well Larry, I’m Doreen. Nice to meet cha.”
“Thanks for letting me in.”
“Larry, you forget something?”
“Huh?”
“You said you had an envelope?”
“Oh, right!”
Collin reached back into the car and grabbed a large manila envelope that he had shoved some blank papers into as a ruse.
“Here it is.” Collin was hoping Doreen didn’t want a look inside.
“Can I leave the keys with you, Larry? It’s time for my break. I always watch my soaps during my break.”
“Oh. Sure. I’ll come find you when I’m done. I would like to take a break myself.”
“Use the john on the second floor. They’re nicer. At least the ladies room is.”
“Thanks.”
Doreen hurried back to the office where her soap operas were on. Collin unlocked the door and let himself in. He looked at the key ring Doreen had given him. It had a small, ratty tag on it that read, “master keys”. He opened the door and looked back to confirm that Doreen was out of site. Then he went to the car and pulled a tool box out from under the passenger seat. He kept a variety of things in this box including a block of special clay for making impressions of keys. He grabbed the clay and took it into the building with him. As he walked into the building he found the elevators and pushed the button for the third floor. In the elevator he worked on getting the impressions for the keys on the ring. He was finishing the second key when the elevator stopped and he got out on the third floor. He made the impression for the last key and put the clay away and started looking around. The third floor had bathrooms, a cafeteria with a kitchen and a library with overstuffed comfortable chairs. Everything was clean and tidy; no food had been left in the kitchen. The library still had some scientific magazines and a computer terminal so it did appear as if the folks that worked here would be back at sometime.
Collin took the elevator down to the second floor which was actually the ground floor. The reception area and a locker room were all he found there. He took the elevator down to the bottom for a quick look to confirm that it was as before. Then he took the keys back to Doreen. She was enthralled by the TV and the drama being shown so she didn’t even look up.
“Put the keys there on the desk. Thanks.”
Collin did as he was told and left going home to make a set of keys from the impressions. By the time he was done Lily would be home from work. Maybe while dinner was cooking he could massage her feet and see if he could get her to relax a little. She had been in a grouchy mood since the mall visit. But she had not mentioned anything specific that was bothering her. It was unusual for her to be preoccupied and now it had been several weeks.
Chapter Sixteen
Gene Search: A Collin Carter Mystery Page 15