Page 91 of Home Town Knight

“Tucker came here? How’d he know he would find money?”

“No questions right now.March.”

A shove came from behind, and I tripped, catching myself awkwardly against the ground. One of my nails snapped at the tip. I winced at the small jolt of pain. I scrambled upright. “I’m going!” When I got close enough to the door, Duke threw a key at my feet. “You could hand it to me, you know. Or do you want to stare at my ass when I bend over?”

He looked at me, not betraying a glimmer of interest. “Stop talking. Unlock the door.”

All right then.

I unlocked the deadbolt and went inside when he told me to. The cabin was dimly lit by cracks of sunlight between the blinds. I couldn’t see much except for a couch with a TV and entertainment center.

Duke was a few steps behind me. “Sit over there.”

He pointed to a pipe that came out of a wood stove and connected to the wall. The stove was black cast iron, designed to look old-fashioned but without much wear and tear. It wasn’t running. The cabin was cold.

I sat on the floor. Duke stood over me. “I’m going to come close now and lock you to the pipe. Donotmess with me. You’ll be very sorry.” He set his pack and weapons well out of my reach, then swiftly knelt beside me, pulling a handcuff key from his pocket.

Duke smelled like antibacterial soap, the kind sold in bulk to big buildings. Muscles bulged under his flannel shirt. I almost fought him. My arms twitched, and he glared at me like he could see it. See my very thoughts. “Don’t,” he muttered.

He quickly unlocked one cuff. Looped the short chain around the pipe. Relocked the cuff.

The key went back into the front pocket of his flannel. I stared at that pocket as he moved away, and then I exhaled. I was both relieved he wasn’t near me anymore and angry at myself for wasting that opportunity.

“How long have you been living here?” I asked.

Ignoring me, Duke flipped on a light, and the rest of the space came into view. A surprisingly modern, if small, kitchen. A bank of screens on a table in one corner, all showing video feeds of trees, road. One showed the entrance to this cabin.

“Security cameras?” I asked, nodding at the screens.

“Of course. I’m not stupid. You’d do well to rememberthat.” He went over to the couch and sat, pulling out a laptop that had been tucked under a cushion.

“Then how did Tucker get close enough to steal from you? Did he already know about Stillwater?”

Instantly, Duke glanced up and focused on me. “Stillwater?”

Dammit, I hoped it hadn’t been a mistake to say that. But I shrugged it off. “I’m not stupid either. You wanted to know what I know. I’m sharing. But I expect you to share too.”

His cold, calculating eyes studied me. “Ace Tucker got lucky. Or unlucky, depending on how you wanna look at it. My best guess is he saw the armored van enter the property. Same access road we took. It visits every couple of months, give or take.”

“You didn’t think an armored car would draw attention?”

“It’s well disguised. But Tucker or Ellis realized what it was somehow. Maybe one of the drivers stopped to take a piss, and they saw he was wearing body armor. Decided the van was a more interesting prospect than the elk they’d been hunting.”

“But Tucker and Ellis got separated. Tucker’s the one who found the money and the coins.”

“Ellis stayed back, probably to keep a lookout. I only saw Tucker on the cameras.”

“Then why didn’t you stop him from robbing you? Why let him get away?”

Another long silence. Duke went back to his laptop, eyes moving like he was reading, then typing. Finally, he looked up again. “If you know so much, you tell me. Why would I let Tucker steal from me?”

The hardness in his face told me the answer. “You didn’t. It was…bad luck. Like you said before.” I glanced at the screens again. The feeds shifted periodically, and an interior view appeared. Not this cabin. A different space broken up by metal grating. It reminded me of the evidence lockup at Owen’s station.

I remembered something River had said before. That Stillwater would have locations where those coins were manufactured, distributed. Andstored.

“You store things on the property,” I guessed. Like the gold Stillwater coins, cash, maybe weapons. Anything Stillwater’s clients in the region might need. I could imagine that Stillwater had many storage spots like this. And the armored car visited, picking up or dropping off. Almost like an ATM machine. “But not in this cabin. Another building. And for some reason, you got held up. Couldn’t stop Tucker before he got away.”

Duke’s jaw clenched. Released. “Very good. Youaresmart.”

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