With Cruel Intent (53 page)

classes," she assured him.

He spun the dial on the lock, like

he'd done a hundred times before, but the

mechanism did not open. Seymour laughed

nervously, looking back at the officers, as

he tried the combination again, this time it

opened easily, and he pulled the lock from

the locker and stepped aside, "Take a look

for yourself, just my sweaty gym stuff."

Natalie deferred to the city

patrolman, as she was actually outside her

jurisdiction. The city officer opened the

locker and noted, just as Seymour had

indicated, that it appeared to be gym

accessories. He looked through the items

at the bottom and acknowledged, along

with Officer Guest, that the shoes were

Nike's. Changing his attention to the upper

shelf, nothing seemed out of place. He

withdrew a pen from his shirt pocket and

lifted the clothing behind the deodorant so

he could see underneath. Seymour stood at

such an angle that he could not see into the

locker, but was not worried, knowing

there was nothing there.

"Seymour Wood, I'm placing you

under arrest for bringing a firearm onto a

state-run university. Other charges are

likely to follow, but please turn around

and place your hands behind your back."

Natalie was just as shocked as

Seymour, "What you got officer?" she

asked, as he cuffed Seymour.

He pushed Seymour over to the

campus cop, as if he were to watch him

then returned to the locker, and lifted the

clean clothing, again with the pen,

revealing to Guest the silver revolver

underneath. She took a pair of white

gloves from her rear pocket, put them on,

and removed the gun from the hiding

place, a Smith & Wesson .38 Special.

Natalie lifted the barrel to her nose, a faint

smell of gunpowder indicated the gun had

been fired sometime recently. Looking

into the cylinder, she could see the

weapon was loaded.

"Seymour, where did you get this

gun and have you fired it recently?" she

asked.

"I swear, I've never seen that gun

before. How could it have gotten there? I

don't even know...." he said, not believing

what was happening. "Isn't it obvious that

somebody put that there for you to find?"

"Seymour, it's going to go way

better for you if you cooperate with us

now, and tell us everything you know," the

patrolman said.

"But I am cooperating! I have no

idea how that got there! I've never seen it

before!"

Natalie suddenly got a sickening

feeling in the pit of her stomach, "Hold on

a minute, give me a sec to call in to the

Sheriff, okay?" she asked the arresting

officer.

"Sure, knock yourself out," he

replied.

She keyed the microphone at her

shoulder and reached dispatch, "This is

Deputy Guest, can you get 'The Wolf' on

the horn." A moment later the Sheriff was

at the other end.

She explained the situation, the

finding of the gun and the arrest of

Seymour Wood, and then asked, "Do you

remember the make and model of that

pistol that was taken from the third of our

break-ins?"

"Yup, Smith & Wesson .38

Special, why? What you got there?" he

asked, excitement unmistakable in his

voice.

"The same. I'll go with the officers

to booking, then call to get the serial, see

if this is really our guy," Natalie said.

"What do you mean, ‘really your

guy’? What the hell are you talking about?

That is not my gun!" Seymour blurted out,

almost in tears.

"Good work Guest, call me when

you get there," the Sheriff concluded.

Seymour was read his rights, and

the trio again moved together, Seymour in

cuffs and the gun being carried by Natalie

in a gloved hand. Forensics had been

phoned to process the locker, and the

campus security individual had been left

to secure the site, until they arrived. Lester

was absolutely overcome with emotion

when he saw the three depart from the

gymnasium, click, click, the shutter

working quickly. With Seymour, his

competition out of the way, almost

certainly for an extended period of time,

there was nothing more for Lester to do

but go home and make the final

preparations for his departure with

Blanche.

Seymour sat in the back of the

squad car, a tear running down his cheek,

not understanding what had just happened,

but desperately needing someone that

would just believe him. He needed to

speak with Blanche.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

Jeremy broke his own rule and

phoned Iggy’s cell from a payphone half

way between his office and home. The

communication

through

the

online

apparatus made it sound like the

culmination of their years of planning was

to take place this week. He wanted to hear

it from his mouth that everything was a go.

There could be no screw-ups; they would

not get a second chance.

Iggy answered the phone on the

third ring, “Hello, Director Savard.”

“Iggy, it’s me, I will keep this

brief. Your last message said you were

prepared for this week. Do you have

everything our man will need?”

He immediately recognized the

voice as Jeremy’s but was disappointed

that there was no exchange of niceties

before getting to the gist of the call.

“Yeah, Felix coded a message to me

yesterday saying, he’s ‘in like Flynn’ with

your step mom and thinks either

Wednesday or Thursday would work for

our guy.”

“Great, but do you have everything

he will need? It must appear to him that

it’s the same as the others, however, we

will want him to be there at a specific

time.” Jeremy paused and thought for a

moment. The line was silent but for the

sound of the two men breathing. “Do this.

Tell him that we know the target will be

out of the house at 8:00 p.m., doing a

showing that we have arranged, and he’ll

be free and clear for at least two hours.

Tell him we want the place ransacked,

needs to be more bizarre than anything

he’s done. We want him to carry on the

premise that the perpetrator is escalating

his theme.”

“Okay, that sounds good. I’ve got

the same stuff as before, key, picture,

layout and general information. Can you

think of anything else?”

“Yeah, throw in an extra thousand

bucks cash, tell him it’s a bonus for doing

such a good job and that the rest of his

money will be sent when the job is done.

You think Felix is up to this?”

“I guess we’ll find out. I think he’s

actually enjoying himself, in a strange kind

of way,” Ignatius said.

“Okay Iggy, make this happen.

Coordinate everything for Thursday night,

that’s four nights from now, at 8:00 p.m.,

do you have any questions?”

“No, other than, when do we hear

from you again?”

“Could be months, just stick to the

plan. Don’t you two screw this up!”

There was no goodbye, just the

click of the receiver as the line was

disconnected.

Iggy sat in his car mulling over the

discussion he’d just had with his ‘friend’.

They had thought of everything, he was

sure they had. He was anxious to have it

all over with. The sneaking around, the

plotting, and the stress of it all were taking

its toll. He didn’t know how much more

he could put up with. At least it appeared

as if there was light at the end of the

tunnel. He pulled up his laptop and logged

onto the forum, formatted the message in

such a way that Felix would understand,

and hit ‘finish’.

He would get the message,

‘Thursday night it’s a go, 8:00 p.m., final

performance, speak with a friend.’

Felix had done his homework,

looked over all the information and

statistics, land surveys and everything else

Beverly had provided him. He spent an

hour Monday morning on the phone with

the Developers discussing the pros and

cons of the property. He was relieved to

hear that they weren’t ready to commit but

wanted some more work done before

making a final decision. This was not

Felix’s first time around the block with

real estate deals. He’d worked in Chicago

behind the scenes, to secure and flip

properties identified by the corrupt

mayor’s organization, with a little

something always kicked back their way.

He could make anything look legitimate,

which was his specialty.

He worked on the dining room

table at Caroline’s, typing and drafting the

documents that he would normally want

approved and looked over, by both a

buyer and seller, before he brokered a

final deal. He made sure that Mrs. Muir

and Caroline knew exactly what he was

doing, the more witnesses the better at this

point. “Don’t appear to hide anything,”

Jeremy had said. When he completed a list

of questions that the CEO wanted

answered, he called Beverly Davis.

“Beverly, how are you? Felix

Unger here.” He waited for a response.

“Felix, I was hoping I’d hear from

you today. Did you get the documents I

scanned and emailed you?” she said,

while looking into the rear view mirror of

her BMW, smoothing her hair and

checking her makeup.

“That’s one of the reasons I’m

calling. I’ve been on the phone a good part

of the day with the CEO, and they are still

very interested, even more so now that

I’ve filled them in, but they have a few

questions and concerns they would like

me to address with you,” the smooth Felix

said.

“Oh, well that sounds really good.

I’m sure I can clear up any concerns or

question ya’ll may have, and the other

reason you phoned?” she asked, already

knowing the answer.

“I don’t know how much longer

I’ll be in town but I just can’t get you off

my mind. Was wondering if you’d like to

have a drink or two with me tomorrow

night. I’m kind of tied up till then, we

could go over the list of concerns I’ve got

and spend some time together, kill two

birds with one stone,” he said, almost

dropping the phone when he realized what

he’d said.

“That sounds lovely. Should we

meet or do you want to pick me up?” she

asked.

They

finalized

their

meeting

arrangements, agreeing to meet at a local

bar for some ribs and drinks and

'whatever', the following night.

Felix needed to make one thing

clear to Bev and wanted to get the

phrasing just right, “Bev, I hate to even

say anything, but I just want to be clear

about one thing. I have a reputation to

uphold, if the company I’m representing

were to get word that I was having

anything but a professional relationship

with a business associate, especially with

one as attractive as yourself, it could be

devastating for my personal business. Do

you see where I’m going with this?”

“Certainly, I understand perfectly.

I will keep our meetings and dealings

strictly to myself until such time that we

need to involve other parties. How does

that sound?”

“I would really appreciate it, can’t

wait to see you tomorrow.”

Once off the phone with Felix, Bev

hit another number from her cell and

dialed the Valdosta Library. Blanche

answered the phone, as she always did,

pleasant and professional.

“Is this the beautiful and busty

bombshell that runs the library?” Bev

said, in a loud obnoxious voice.

“If this is Bev Davis it is, but if

it’s Ester Anderson, then no, you must

have me mistaken with someone else,”