Page 24 of Bernadette
“Mikel Stokes, he’s with the FBI.”
“Do you have his phone number?”
“Why?” Chuck looked at her funny, trying not to sound jealous that she wanted his number.
“Did anyone from the outside agencies, or bowls of soup that you call them write down the license plates of the people here?” She waved her hand and looked at the crowd that she swore had doubled in size. “Why not get their plates and not tonight, nor maybe tomorrow, but come Monday morning, I’m sure Montoya would have a program that would be able to run them. We could see if he were actually here, though there’s no sense trying to look for him in here. It would be like a needle in a haystack.”
“You’re right,” Chuck said as he pulled his phone and instead of calling, he sent a text. A response came in ten minutes later, and Chuck looked at Bernie with a grin.
“What?”
“Stokes said I should kiss you for that information. The thought had never crossed their minds. As we speak, all the outside agents are going row by row and snapping pictures of the plates, along with the front of the vehicle. When they’re done with one row, they’ll send it to Astrid’s e-mail before moving onto the next row.”
“Will they have locations of the vehicles?”
“Yes.” Chuck nodded and passed her his phone so she could see the response from his text. She looked up and grinned at him.
“I’ll take a raincheck on that kiss. I’m not saying no. I’m saying not at this time, not until I get to know you better.”
“I can deal with that.” Chuck grinned as he stepped closer, wrapped his arm around her and they made their way over to where Morgan and Wyatt were getting ready to cut the cake.
CHAPTER10
Bernie scowledat eight the next morning when there was a big commotion coming from the area where she had entered Wyatt and Morgan’s home the night before. She had been up since five, and after she’d cooked her own breakfast and cleaned up after herself, she didn’t know what to do. She had found an area in the living room that had a reading nook and after browsing the shelves, she latched onto a book she’d been meaning to read for months. With a full cup of coffee, she settled down to read.
When the commotion turned into heavy knocking, she eased her way out to what she figured was called a breezeway and looked out the window beside the door. She quickly hobbled over to unlock the door.
“Mrs. Stuart, are you okay?”
“Yeah, sorry, I forgot Dolly wasn’t going to be here today. We’re over at the barn cleaning up after the wedding and I wanted to bring these gifts over.”
“Oh, sure,” Bernie stepped back, and because it seemed nice out, she left the inside door open. “Do you need any help?”
“No offense, but if you could open the door for us, that would be great.” As soon as she said that, someone hollered from outside, and they exchanged a grin. Bernie went back to the door and opened it. She had to hold it open for at least ten minutes for all the people to bring in gifts, dirty dishes, and other things. The last person to arrive was Dolly herself.
“How did you sleep, dear?” the older woman asked her as she passed the basket she held to Bernie, who looked down and grinned when she saw it contained eggs. She felt them, and laughed when she realized they were still warm.
“Good. I slept well, and it has been a long time since that’s happened.”
“I’m glad. Wyatt gave me the morning off because he wasn’t going to be here, but I’m here now to get everything put back where it belongs.” She looked up when the door opened and three Erwins walked in. “You’ll have to wait for your breakfast.”
“We already ate, Dolly,” Dillon said as he grinned at her. “The morning chores are done, and we’re here to help clean up the shed before we pull the equipment back inside. Then we’re heading to the fields. It’s supposed to rain in a few days, and we want to get those fields done before it hits.”
“Do you want me to pack you a lunch?”
“Could you? I know there’s plenty of food left, so that would do fine.”
“Who’s all going?”
“Me, DJ, Lucas, Alex, Wilson.”
“Anyone else?”
“Randy, George, and Paulie never showed up this morning to do their chores. We can’t wait around for them to coddle their hangovers, so they’re out.”
“Okay,” Dolly said, and began to hustle around the kitchen. Bernie stood off to the side, out of the way, and watched in shock as the food began to pile up on one side of Dolly. In a matter of minutes, she had at least two dozen thick sandwiches made, and Bernie watched in awe as several baggies were made up with salad in them. As she stuffed them in paper bags, she also threw in several napkins, bottles of water, and plastic utensils. “All set,” she said as she started moving them from the counter next to the refrigerator over to the island.
“Wow, that was fast, as well as a lot of food,” Bernie said in shocked awe.
