Thirty-Two and a Half Complications
Page 71

I rolled my eyes and squeezed her arm. “Maybe you’re rubbing off on me…and I’m rubbing off on you.”
Laughing, she made a U-turn and parked in the gas station parking lot, the car’s windshield facing the road. We stood watch for several minutes before Neely Kate released a groan. “I need to find the bathroom.”
I looked down at the melting sundae in the cup holder in the console. “Now?”
“I can’t wait. You sit in the driver’s seat so you can follow them and get their plate number if they leave.”
“I can’t leave—”
She bolted out of the car before I could finish my sentence. I got out and walked around to the driver’s side, then pulled out my phone and checked it for a message from Mason. Instead I found a text from Joe.
I WILL arrest you for obstruction of justice if I find you investigating this case.
Watching for a car to get its license plate wasn’t investigating, was it? I was just being a good citizen. Once I got the number, I was definitely going to give it to Mason.
Neely Kate took longer than usual. She walked toward the car, her face pale, a hand on her stomach. She slid into the passenger seat and groaned. “Next time I decide to mix hot wings and ice cream, smack me upside the head.”
I chuckled. “Deal.”
Moments later, we saw movement by the empty plant. Dust filled the air and the Charger zoomed past us.
“I’m going to follow it for just long enough to get the plate number,” I said, starting the engine.
“Okay.” Neely Kate started to dig a pen out of her purse.
The Charger stopped at the end of the road, then turned toward town. I was about to follow it when two more vehicles emerged from the plant. A black pickup turned in the opposite direction from the Charger, and I recognized the long scratch down its side.
“Neely Kate! I’ve seen that truck before! It turned down the road toward the farm where I found the body. I saw it the day after the robbery.”
“Are you serious?”
“Which one do I follow?”
“I don’t know. Uh…the Charger. Best that we don’t follow the murderers. We’ll just stick to car thieves.”
And bank robbers, but that one seemed a given at this point. “Okay.” I turned right and went after it, but it sped up to beat an oncoming train, crossing the tracks only seconds before the bars went down.
I pulled the car to a stop. “Please tell me you got the license number.”
“No. Sorry.”
“Why was it speeding? Do you think they knew we were following them?” I hated to think of what they might do if they did.
“I don’t know.” She sounded worried. “Maybe they’re just thrill seekers.”
“Maybe.” But now we had nothing to show for our stakeout. Or did we? “I’m going back to that plant.”
She sat up straighter. “What?”
“Maybe we can see what they were up to. It should be safe. We saw them leave.”
“Okay. Let’s do it.”
I released a nervous laugh. “Weren’t you supposed to be the voice of reason?”
“I barfed on a guy in a bar. I think we’re long past that.”
I made a U-turn and steered Neely Kate’s car down the cracked asphalt road to the dilapidated fertilizer plant. It was comprised of several buildings connected with large metal pipes that stretched a good fifteen feet over the road between the structures. Several smaller buildings were scattered around the larger ones, and the entire property was surrounded by a chain-link fence that was busted in multiple places. But the road to the plant was wide open.
“My uncle used to work here,” Neely Kate said as we approached the abandoned site. “It used to be the place to work in Fenton County.”
“A stinky fertilizer plant?”
“They paid well.”
It may have been the place to work years ago, but now it was a real eyesore and the town had talked about tearing it down. Teens liked to come out there to party late at night, climbing around the big pipes and getting into trouble. I was worried about what we’d find. But when we followed the path where the car had turned, there were no signs that anyone besides us was currently present.
As I drove slowly down the road between two buildings, a now-familiar smell hit me. “This is it, Neely Kate. The smell I noticed on Mick and in my vision.”
“A rusty, earthy smell? You’re right.”
“Now what?” I asked, slowing down. “Do we get out and walk around?”
“I don’t know. Let’s drive around first.”
“Okay.”
We circled the entire complex once with no sign of anything untoward.
“Let’s drive around one more time,” Neely Kate said. “And if we don’t see anything worth investigatin’, you can tell Mason and let him sort it out.”
“Good idea.”
I started our second sweep, driving slower, and Neely Kate gasped when I was about halfway through.
“Rose, your vision—you saw a paned window with Y-shaped crack, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Like that?” She pointed to the structure on her side. A small office with paned windows on one wall jutted out from the side of the larger building. There was a Y-shaped crack in the bottom pane.
“Oh, my word,” I gasped. “That’s it.”
“Nobody’s here. Let’s check it out.”