Looking Over Your Shoulder

by P.D. Workman

CHAPTER 23

  WHEN THEY GOT OUTSIDE, Abe seemed somehow more frail than he had when in the institution. He was definitely recovering from his wounds, able to stay awake, and to walk and talk now, but he moved slowly, painfully, a bit like a tottering old man. And his face in the bright sunlight was washed out and lined. Ursula couldn’t remember him looking so old before. It was a strange moment of jamais vu. Ursula tried to shake the feeling off, and took Abe by the arm, like they were a couple of young lovers out for a walk. But really she wanted to feel him beside her, and to support him in case his energy flagged.

  “This is nice,” Abe said, drawing in a breath of fresh air. “I feel like I’ve been cooped up for a year.”

  “It’s felt long to me; it must seem twice as long for you,” Ursula agreed.

  He looked around carefully. Ursula tried not to do the same, not to feed into the paranoia. Abe was well right now, stable, a side effect of being convalescent and having his medications fed into an IV, and then carefully monitored once he was on solid food again. She had learned years ago that stable didn’t mean normal. It didn’t mean cured. It just meant manageable.

  “Do you think it is safe?” Abe questioned nervously.

  “Lovett says that he thinks that they got everybody. Except for Latoyez.”

  “And the inside man,” Abe countered.

  “Yes, but we know that’s probably Mike. And he won’t do anything to hurt you or us, as long as you stay quiet and out of his way. He’s not the type that would hurt you.”

  “And the boss,” Abe said, looking around carefully. "We still don’t know who that is. He is still out there, and he could still hire someone else to kill me.”

  “Agent Lovett thinks that as long as you don’t make waves, he’ll leave you alone.”

  “How can he know what the boss thinks, if he doesn’t even know who it is?”

  Ursula shrugged.

  “Maybe one of the thieves will give him up. Maybe they’ll make some more progress.”

  “Maybe.”

  They walked to the car, stopping every now and then to look around. Ursula just let him look without interfering. Once he had convinced himself that there was no danger, they could enjoy the rest of the day.

  “Can we go get it?” Ursula questioned. "You can show me the rest of the proof, and maybe we can figure out more when a second pair of eyes looks at it.”

  Abe looked over his shoulder.

  “If we are followed, you’re going to lead them right to it.”

  “You’ll make sure no one is following. Lovett says that you’re quite adept at it.”

  Abe gave a small, crooked grin.

  “I am, aren’t I?” he said.

  “They had a devil of a time keeping surveillance on you.”

  “If they’d just told me that it was them, I wouldn’t have had to spend so much time losing tails,” Abe complained.

  “Well, you weren’t supposed to know.”

  “Stupid.”

  Ursula opened the passenger door for Abe, and he slowly and carefully folded himself into the seat. Ursula got into the driver’s seat.

  “I’ll take a round-about route,” she promised. “And you can watch for any tails.”

  Abe nodded. He pulled the seatbelt down, and she helped to pull it across his hips and buckle it in. He was still pretty sore, and he grimaced and pulled the belt away from his chest slightly, holding it and inch or two away from his body.

  “Okay?” Ursula questioned. “All set?”

  “Let’s go.”

  Ursula pulled out slowly. She tried to drive smoothly, with no sudden stops or accelerations. Abe was still holding himself tense, but at least she wasn’t aggravating his wounds with her driving. Abe kept checking the mirrors and looking around, but he didn’t say anything, so Ursula assumed he didn’t see any tails and it was safe to proceed. They circled the block a couple of times upon reaching the storage lot, and then Abe conceded that it was safe. He nodded and they pulled into the lot and up beside number 911. While Abe stiffly extracted himself from the car, Ursula jumped out and unlocked the door. By the time he was around the car, she had picked up the small safe.

  “Shall we open it here?” she questioned excitedly.

  “No,” Abe shook his head. "Too public. Anyone could walk up. We’ll go home or something. Home, I guess. I don’t know about this, though. If they’re watching the house and see us come home with the safe? They’ll know what it is. We’ll be walking right into a trap.”

  “It will be okay,” Ursula reassured him. “We’ll keep a close watch.”

  He reached out to take the safe from her, and Ursula shook her head.

  “There’s no way you can carry this with your injured chest muscles. You know your physiotherapist told you not to pick up anything heavy.”

  “It’s not that heavy.”

  “Yes it is. Open the back door for me so I can put it down on the seat.”

  Abe did as he was told, and Ursula put it into the back seat, listening to the rattling noise.

  “Why won’t you tell me what’s in it?” she complained.

  “It’s not safe.”

  “It couldn’t be much more of a safe,” Ursula laughed.

  Abe made a face. He went back around to the passenger side, and Ursula got in. They didn’t say anything on the way home. Ursula took a little bit of a meandering path on the way home, but she really wanted to get there and find out what was in the safe, so she didn’t indulge Abe’s paranoia too much. As they pulled onto their street, Abe suddenly stiffened, as if he’d been tased.

  “What is it?” Ursula questioned, worried.

  “That black car,” he pointed. “Get out of here, fast.”

  She hesitated. Every black car couldn’t be sinister. She really wanted to see the safe unlocked. Another wild goose chase right now was not in her plans.

  “Go!” Abe yelled. “You want to be shot too? Go, Ursula!”

  She reversed and squealed the tires pulling out of the street and heading back for the highway. She didn’t expect anything to happen, but as she retreated, she saw a big black car pull in behind her, speeding to keep up. Her guts tied in knots.

  “How did they know?” she questioned.

  “Did you tell someone we were going to get the safe today?” Abe questioned, holding tightly onto the car door on one side and the emergency brake on the other side, his face pure white with pain as the car rocked back and forth as Ursula took the corners at speed.

  “No… no, just Agent Lovett. The kids. I don’t think I said anything to anyone else.”

  “Somebody knew. Or else they’ve been watching the house waiting for me to get back all of this time. There! Take the exit!”

  Ursula swerved and for a moment was afraid the car was going to roll as she took the corner too quickly. Abe’s sharp intake of breath told her how the chase was hurting him.

  “I’m sorry!”

  “Keep going,” he said through gritted teeth. He looked around desperately. “There, that ramp.”

  “We just came that way.”

  “Just do it.”

  She followed his instructions as he tried to direct her through the twists and turns of the cloverleafs and various exits, trying to outwit the black car. Ursula hadn’t seen it for a while. Abe directed her to pull over under an overpass, and pointing, showed her a service access road, unpaved, that led out behind it. Ursula slowed down and took the narrow road, leaving the busy highway behind.

  “Keep going,” Abe whispered, as if afraid that someone might overhear them. "Take the left fork. There’s a little pump house about a mile down, it’s really not used any more, nobody will be there.”

  Ursula followed his instructions, and they pulled up beside the small, dilapidated building. It was obviously abandoned, the latch on the door hung broken, the door slightly ajar.

  “Bring the safe in,” Abe whispered. “We’ll hide out here for a little while. Make sure that we’ve lost them. Maybe leave it here
and come back to retrieve it when it’s safer.”

  Ursula nodded and quietly got out of the car. She couldn’t hear any car engines or wheels crunching through the gravel. It was silent, far enough away from the highway not to be able to pick up the noise of traffic. They could have been miles away from the city instead of right in the heart of it. She got the safe out of the car and she and Abe peeked in the door, then quietly let themselves in. It was pretty empty, an old table and a couple of broken chairs. Some blankets and debris, perhaps left by a homeless person who had sheltered here for a while.

  Ursula put the safe down on the dusty floor.

  “What now?” she questioned. “Do we open it here?”

  “Not yet,” Abe said, “they could still be out there.”

  He listened at the door for a moment, then walked to each of the grimy windows, trying to peer through them. They both froze at the sound of tires coming down the road toward them. Ursula’s heart was in her throat.

  “Abe!”

  Abe swore, and looked around, trying to figure out what to do. It was too late to make a run for it. There was nowhere to go. And the pursuers would know that they were here; the car was right outside. They were trapped.

  The car pulled to a stop outside. Abe moved to join Ursula, then to stand protectively in front of her. They were both unarmed. But he shielded her with his body anyway. There was the sound of a door thunking shut, and then measured footsteps through the gravel to the door.

  “Don’t come any further,” Abe warned, raising his voice. “You step through that door, and I’ll drill you.”

  “Abe?”

  The familiar voice was followed by Dennis’ familiar face poking through the door.

  “Abe, Ursula? Is everything okay?”

  They looked at each other. It was Dennis. It was Dennis. They had eliminated him from their suspect list because he had been in the terminal before Abe, but they had been wrong. And Ursula had even told him all about the safe. Now here he was. Dennis smiled, coming the rest of the way into the room.

  “Seriously, are you guys okay? What are you doing here?” he questioned cheerfully.

  “What are you doing here?” Abe repeated, staying between Dennis and Ursula, still shielding her.

  “I saw your car, out on the highway. Ursula driving like a madwoman. I saw you take the service road, and knew where you were going. I circled around and came to see what was up.”

  “How did you know?” Abe questioned.

  “How did I know you were here? Well, I showed you the place in the first place, didn’t I?” Dennis demanded, laughing. At Ursula’s surprised look, he filled her in further. “My step-brother comes here sometimes, when he’s hiding out.” He gestured at the abandoned blankets and bottles in the corner. “So whenever he disappears, it’s one of the first places I look. I brought Abe with me once, when I was looking for him.”

  Ursula looked at Abe for confirmation, and he nodded stiffly, not looking completely convinced by the story. They were both acutely aware of the safe sitting there on the floor, waiting to be opened. Dennis shrugged, smiling and looking them over.

  “So… we gonna have a picnic here, or what? That’s got to be the weirdest looking picnic basket I’ve ever seen.”

  “It’s not a picnic basket,” Abe said.

  “Obviously not,” Dennis agreed. “Is this the evidence that Ursula was talking about? The mysterious safe that you won’t tell her what’s in it? She said it rattles like gemstones…”

  Dennis went toward the safe, and Abe’s gaze followed him nervously.

  “Leave it be,” he warned.

  “Or what?” another voice questioned.

  They all turned quickly. They had been joined by a fourth. This was a man that Ursula didn’t know, although his face looked a little familiar. Somebody else who worked at the airport, maybe?

  “Victor,” Dennis said in surprise, confirming Ursula’s supposition. “What are you doing here?”

  “Coming for what is mine,” Victor said, and pointed to the safe with the gun that he held.

  “You?” Dennis questioned. “You’re the inside man?”

  “Very good,” Victor agreed. “You know, I never liked you, Dennis. How nice of you to join Abe; now I can be rid of both of you at once.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Abe demanded. “The police haven’t got enough to identify you yet. Why don’t you just run?”

  “Because of that,” Victor said, pointing again at the safe. “Because you’ve been accumulating all of the evidence there. I can’t let you take it to the police. Besides, I kind of like my job. I don’t want to leave.”

  “There’s nothing in there,” Abe said, shrugging his shoulders. “It’s just a bunch of junk. Just a bluff.”

  “Well, your bluff’s been called, nut-case, so open it up.”

  Abe looked over his shoulder at Ursula. She shrugged and nodded. What else were they going to do? Was it worth getting shot? Again? Maybe if they gave him what he wanted, he would go away. If he got all of the evidence that showed who he was, then he could just leave.

  But somehow she knew that he wasn’t going to just leave. He intended to leave no witnesses. And how long would it be before someone found them here, in this secluded pump house?

  Abe went slowly over to the safe. He knelt down, supporting himself with his hand for a moment. He looked like he could faint at any time. Ursula hoped that he hadn’t reopened his wounds during the car chase. He could be bleeding again now. Abe spun the combination dial back and forth carefully and tried to open the box. It didn’t open.

  “Quit stalling,” Victor ordered. “Open it.”

  “My hand’s shaking,” Abe said. "I must have messed up.”

  Again, they waited while he spun the dial. Again it didn’t open.

  “You want me to shoot your lovely wife in the head?” Victor screamed. “Open it!”

  Abe looked at Ursula, and turned back to the safe again, turning the combination dial very slowly. He pulled on the door, and this time there was an audible click when it opened.

  “Get back,” Victor ordered, stepping forward and shoving Abe sprawling on the dusty floor. Victor reached into the safe and pulled out a handful of loose gems. Or what first looked and sounded like loose gems. Ursula inched a little closer to see what was going on, and saw that they were flat glass marbles, like you put in decorative vases, and penny rings and jewelry, obviously fake, for children’s dress-up.

  “What the hell is this?” Victor demanded, flinging a handful across the room. He reached back into the safe and pulled out a few sealed envelopes. Laughing, he started to rip them open, but looked confused when he looked at the first one. He opened the next one, face turning purple with rage. “What the hell is all of this?” he demanded. “Is this a joke? What are you trying to pull here?”

  “I just wanted to figure out who the inside man was,” Abe said, his voice breaking, as he crawled around the floor trying to pick the scattered gemstones. “I just wanted to prove who it was, so they would leave me and my family alone.”

  “But this is garbage,” Victor insisted. "This isn’t proof! This is worthless! This is… insane!”

  “Was it really you?” Dennis questioned Victor in a wondering tone. "I never would have thought… no one thought it was you.”

  “Of course not,” Victor said tightly, whirling to look at Dennis. “The whole point is not to be suspected, nitwit! But then this one-” he turned back to face Abe again, drawing bead on him with the gun. “This one is lurking around, taking pictures of everything, asking questions, printing off computer trails, finding things that the cops missed…” he looked wildly around the room, then planted both feet and pointed the gun at Abe with a two-handed grasp. “Forcing us to take action before he could turn us all in.” His hands shook holding the gun. “Where the hell is the evidence?” he screamed.

  “Put down the gun and raise your hands!” a gruff voice ordered.

  They all jumped
. Victor whirled around, his eyes wide. All eyes turned to Lovett, standing in the doorway with his gun raised.

  “What?” Victor demanded, his voice suddenly an octave higher.

  “Put down the gun and raise your hands,” Lovett repeated calmly, "or I’ll have to blow your head off.”

  The seconds ticked by in silence. Everybody stared at Victor, waiting for him to move. When he did, it was to lower the gun slowly, inch by inch, and then to stand back up, putting his hands behind his head.

  “Kick the gun away,” Lovett ordered.

  Victor did so. Lovett moved in and forced Victor to his knees and down to the ground, quickly frisked him, and handcuffed him. Abe watched, eyes wide.

  “How did you know?” he questioned incredulously. “How did you know to come here?”

  “That was your wife,” Lovett said with a hint of a smile, gesturing toward Ursula.

  Ursula held up her phone.

  “You were standing in front of me,” she told Abe. “I texted him where we were.”

  “And then she called 911 so we could hear what was happening,” Lovett finished.

  They all stood there, looking at each other. Ursula went to Abe and helped him get gingerly to his feet. They hugged each other, and then turned to Dennis.

  “So it wasn’t you,” Ursula said.

  “Me? Of course it wasn’t me!” Dennis laughed.

  “You scared the heck out of us when you showed up here!”

  “Sorry about that.” He didn’t look at all ashamed, grinning widely at Abe and Ursula, laughing. “You shouldn’t have suspected me in the first place.”

  “Tell a paranoid schizophrenic not to suspect you,” Abe mocked. “That’s gonna work!”

  They all giggled, feeling punchy after the stress of being held at gunpoint. Shaking his head at them, Lovett took Victor out of the pump house. They followed him outside, where his car and a large black car were parked a ways down the gravel road. They had obviously not pulled right up to the pump house so as not to be heard. Lovett put Victor into the back of his car. Other cars, marked and unmarked, were pulling up quickly. Lovett motioned at them to stand down.

  “So what about Mike?” Abe questioned, rubbing his forehead. “He wasn’t involved either?”

  Lovett shook his head slowly, smiling.

  “But he ate the curry,” Abe protested.

  “He wasn’t part of the jewel heist,” Lovett said. “He was involved in industrial espionage.”

  “He was spying on me? On my project?”

  Lovett nodded.

  “Yup. So you got part of it right. But you got the wrong crime.”

  “Did you get him?” Ursula questioned.

  “Yes. He’s been arrested, and he’s singing,” Lovett turned back towards his car, where Victor was sitting in the back seat, head slumped down. "So this is the third arrest you’ve facilitated. Besides the actual jewel thieves. Maybe I need to get some schizophrenic investigators.”

  “Well, I’m glad that’s all over,” Ursula sighed.

  Abe looked back at the pump house.

  “Can you get my safe?” he requested, still clutching the fake gems in his hands.

  Lovett nodded and went back into the small building. Ursula looked at Abe’s prize.

  “Do you know,” she said slowly, "that they’re not really gemstones? Not real evidence?”

  Abe looked down at them. His forehead creased as he moved his fingers slightly to move them around.

  “It’s hard to explain,” he said slowly. “When I look at them, I can see both… I can see glass beads and toys… and I can see real diamonds and gems.”

  “Can you always?”

  “No. Sometimes I can only see what my brain wants me to.”

  “The delusion?”

  Abe nodded.

  “Just an illusion,” he said softly.