The Queen of Cool (41 page)

Lo shook her head.

“
When you think of
remembering him, how do you feel?” Manny asked.

“
Scared and frustrated.
Numb,” Lo said.

“
When was the last time you
felt that way?”

“
Every day,” Lo said. “But…
no, you’re right. I felt like that when you interviewed me at the
police station. I must have seen him there. Were officers from
other agencies watching?”

“
Some people from the
government,” Manny said. “Air Force investigators, FBI…”

“
That’s right,” Lo said. “I
had to go to the bathroom. Will took me. We stopped to get some
water on the way back. The man was at the water fountain. He got me
a cup. Thanks Manny.”

“
Tall? Dark hair? Kind of
vanilla looking?” Manny asked.

“
Uh huh.”

“
He’s a Fed,” Manny said.
“One of those guys who doesn’t say where he works but has a high
security clearance. Makes the hair on the back of your neck stand
up.”

“
Well, he said he tossed
our house,” Lo said. “He said he took it when they were there. He
told me not to shoot him with it.”

“
Where is the gun?” Manny
asked.

“
I was afraid it had a
tracking device or something on it,” Lo said. “So I hid
it.”

“
Good thinking,” Manny
said. “And he was at Don’s grave?”

“
Uh huh,” Lo said. “Wait,
how did you know?”

“
It’s his birthday,” Manny
said. “You haven’t begged me to take you there.”

“
You
are
a great detective,” Lo said.

“
I keep telling you,” Manny
smiled at her in the rearview mirror. “Too bad Will Wallace is
almost as good.”

“
Or better,” Sy said. “They
could have a video of her or…”

“
Now Sy,” Manny
interrupted. “Would you have been able to stay away if it was
Renee’s birthday?”

Sy looked at Manny, glanced at Lo, and
turned to look out the window.

“
He could have easily shot
me or hurt me, but he sent Will on a wild goose chase, gave me the
gun, and told me to scoot,” Lo said. “Makes me wonder…”

“
What’s that Lorraina?”
Yazmin asked.

“
If maybe someone is
working on our side,” Lo said.

“
I doubt it,” Sy said.
“More likely their side coincides with our side. Think on it. We’re
looking for a deadly chemical and someone from the government is
too? They probably want it to… I don’t know… go after the militia
in Idaho or those kids occupying the parks.”

“
Having a bad day?” Manny
asked Sy.

Sy’s head jerked to look at Manny. He gave a
slight nod.

“
It’s my good friend’s
birthday,” Sy said. “I’d been working on a new pie recipe for him
when…”

Manny nodded. He pulled into the Nature
Center and drove through the preserve to a parking lot on Shoreline
Road. Lisa and Larry waited for them near the car. Mutt and Mrs.
Williams were standing at the Crosstimbers trailhead.

Seeing their car, Mutt and Mrs. Williams
started to walk the land bridge across the West Fork of the
Trinity. Lisa and Larry walked to the trailhead. Manny parked. Sy
and Yazmin left the car. Manny waited for Sy and Yazmin to get
ahead of them.

“
That was really dangerous,
Lo,” Manny said.

“
I know,” she
said.

“
You won’t do it again?” he
asked.

“
I don’t think so,” Lo
said. “And yeah, that’s the best promise I can give right
now.”

Manny nodded in the rearview mirror.

“
Okay, let’s go,” Manny
said.

He got out of the driver’s seat and helped
her out of the back. They walked in companionable silence across
the land bridge and into the forest. After the trail turned away
from the water, they found everyone waiting for them in a clearing.
Lo was so happy to see everyone she hugged each of them, even Sy.
She was just about to make the rounds again when Manny noisily
cleared his throat.

“
I know it’s fun to see
everyone,” Manny said. “But we need to keep this short.”

“
Lo was already seen
today,” Sy said.

“
Lo!” Lisa looked shocked
and worried. “What are you doing?”

“
At Don’s grave,” Sy
said.

Lo shot Sy the evil eye while the group
shook their heads at her. Before she could defend herself, Manny
spoke.

“
Who knows what?” Manny
said.

“
I went into the downtown
Fort Worth tunnel. It basically runs under downtown to the river,”
Sy said. “The guy who took me said the tunnels are closely
monitored with video and sound. There’s no way anyone got down
there without FWPD knowing they were there.”

“
There’s no record of Don
being down there,” Manny said. “I went through the tapes myself.
Nothing.”

“
I didn’t find anything at
The Queen of Cool warehouse,” Mutt said. “I thought there’d be
something but between the FBI and our cleanout, but it’s all
official Queen of Cool business. I tracked down the HDAC warehouse
manager. He remembered the special shipments but said he didn’t
have anything to do with them. He said they would appear on his
desk.”

“
All packaged up?” Lo
asked.

“
Ready for shipment,” Mutt
said. “He thought it was weird, but he was told not to be too
curious. Seems he took the advice.”

“
Mrs. Williams?” Manny
asked. “What did you find?”

“
My daughter and I went
through our attic and basement,” Mrs. Williams said. “I didn’t tell
her what we were looking for. I just said I wanted to clean things
out. We went through every box and every scrap of paper. We didn’t
find anything. I thought a couple of boxes were missing, but it’s
hard to tell after all these years.”

“
Yazmin and I went through
the house,” Lisa said. “We went through the attic and the basement.
Mutt helped us look into the spaces between the walls from the
attic. We found some stuff, probably from people who owned the
house before Mom and Dad, but nothing from Don.”

“
A few guys from the shop
helped me demo what’s left of the garage apartment,” Larry said. “I
really thought we’d find something there.”

“
Nothing?” Lo
asked.

“
Burned up clothing, food,
timbers,” Larry said. “We were able to salvage some of the flooring
but that’s about it.”

“
There’s not much left,”
Mutt said. “The gun safe had nothing new in it.”

“
No other hidden
compartments?” Manny asked.

“
Not that we found,” Mutt
said. “Larry looked. I looked. Yazmin looked.”

“
Amanda and I went to the
River Crest property,” Larry said.

“
Larry!” Lo said. “She
can’t be involved.”

“
She isn’t,” Larry said.
“She thought we were looking to see what was left. Alisha and Rick
are talking about rebuilding the house for you, Lo, to live in. I
told her we should go take a look. She was happy to do anything
connected with you. She misses you, Lo, terribly. Alisha too. This
is the longest they’ve ever been without talking to you. It’s hard
on both of them. Plus…”

Larry glanced at Lisa and she shook her
head.

“
Plus, what?” Lo
asked.

“
Sue Ellen’s been sniffing
around,” Larry said. “She’s shown up at our condo and Alisha and
Rick’s place. She even came out while we were at the property.
Brought us iced tea.”

“
Did you drink it?” Lisa
asked.

“
Not a chance,” Larry said.
“Amanda wouldn’t even touch it. I’ve never seen her so angry. She
literally chased Sue Ellen off the property.”

“
Did you find anything at
the house?” Manny asked.

“
No,” Larry said. “We
checked everywhere and went through what’s left of the basement.
Nothing.”

“
If anything was there, I’m
sure Jaden took it,” Lo said.

“
Speaking of Jaden,” Sy
said. “He’s looking for you Lo. He’s told everyone that you’ve been
kidnapped.”

“
He filed a missing
person’s report,” Manny said.

“
What did you do?” Mutt
asked.

“
I filed it,” Manny
shrugged. “What’s missing to him isn’t necessarily missing to
me.”

“
We’re going to have to
deal with him,” Sy said.

“
How?” Lo asked.

“
He just wants Lo’s
attention,” Lisa said.

“
Well, if that’s it, we
should get back,” Manny said.

“
I have something,” Lo
said.

Everyone turned to look at her.

“
I think the VX is at the
Swift packing plant property on Twenty-Third,” Lo said.

“
You think?” Sy
asked.

“
I guess I know,” Lo said.
“It’s a long story but after I went to Don’s grave, I went over
there. And… I’m ninety percent certain the VX is there.”

“
Why?” Manny
asked.

“
Don had access to the
property,” Lo said. “He was involved in a couple of attempts to
rehab the place. He knew every nook and cranny. There’s electricity
there and no one around. No one would notice if he moved stuff in
there. Since he’s in the Stockyard Station Partnership, they’d just
think he was doing something official. Plus, I bet it’s connected
to the tunnels under Exchange Avenue. It’s close enough. He could
have moved it there and no one would know anything about it.
And…”

Lo looked up to see she had everyone’s
attention. She blushed.

“
Never mind,” she
said.

“
No, Lorraina, tell us,”
Yazmin said.

“
Sy, when did you say they
finished destroying the VX stockpile?” she asked.

“
2008,” Sy said. “But he
couldn’t have burned it. Everyone would know.”

“
Isn’t there another way to
get rid of it?” Mrs. Williams asked. “Chemically?”

“
Newport Chemical Depot,”
Sy said. “Sure. They closed the base in 2010. Why?”

“
It sounds crazy,” Lo said.
“I mean, I know it’s crazy. But I wonder if Don destroyed
it.”

“
Or tried to,” Larry
said.

“
He could hire people from
Newport to set it up and do the work,” Sy said.

“
That would explain those
people on Don’s finances in the last year,” Lisa said.

“
The maintenance people?”
Lo asked. “I wondered about them too.”

“
Holy crap, Lo,” Manny
said. “That’s got to be it. They’re looking for the VX like we
are.”

“
They killed Don before he
could destroy it,” Lo said. “Well, I want to finish what he
started. Are you with me?”

Lo looked from one nodding head to the
next.

“
Lisa,” Manny said. “Can
you give Sy the list of the guys you found on Don’s
payroll?”

“
Sure,” Lisa
said.

“
Can you ask your old CO if
these guys are from this place in Newport?” Manny asked.

“
I’ll do it as soon as I
get back,” Sy said.

“
Good,” Manny
said.

“
We need to find the VX,”
Lo said.

“
Tonight,” Lisa said. “We
go to Swift and Company and see if we can find it.”

“
We need to get into the
tunnels under the Stockyard,” Manny said.

“
I know the owner of the
Cattlemen’s,” Mutt said. “From my drinking days. He’d let me down
there.”

“
Good,” Manny said. “You
and Larry go down the tunnels. The rest of us will explore the
Swift packing plant property.”

“
Tonight?” Lo
asked.

“
Is everyone in?” Manny
asked.

Everyone nodded.

“
I don’t know what I can do
but I’m in,” Mrs. Williams said.

“
We’ll have you run the
communications center,” Manny said. “I’ll get some walkie-talkies.
We’ll set you up to keep track of everyone.”

Manny smiled. He looked at each of them in
turn.

“
I can’t think of a better
group of people,” Manny said. “We’ll find the VX
tonight.”

“
And we agree to destroy
the VX if Don hasn’t?” Lo asked.

“
Hell yes,” Larry
said.

Her eyes flitted from Lisa to Yazmin.

“
Of course dear,” Mrs.
Williams said.

“
I’ll do it myself,” Sy
said.

“
Can you find out how it
was done?” Manny asked.

“
I intend to,” Sy smiled.
“Damn, that’s the best news I’ve heard in a long time.”

“
Tonight,” Lo
said.

Everyone nodded.

Q

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Thursday, early morning—6:15 a.m.

Days: 196

Lo stopped jogging and hopped in the
passenger seat of Sy’s battered Chevy truck. He took off down
Watercress Road.

“
Why are you running on the
road?” Sy’s voice was angry. Lo looked at him for a moment and
shook her head. She turned and focused on the lakeshore as it flew
past her window.