Page 60 of Intangible
Knox could almost hear her heart breaking. She thought she meant something more to Memphis. Shit, even Knox could see that, and he was no expert on matters of the heart. No, the look of pain in Memphis’ eyes as he continued to watch her spoke volumes. But, for now, they had to be smart.
“Okay,” she said quietly. “I understand. I don’t like it, but I understand.”
* * *
“This side street appears to be our best choice.” Curtis was pointing to a large map of the downtown area spread out on the bed.
“Every day they walk back down here to the waiting car. There is a period of just a few minutes when they are on their own. The sheeting protecting pedestrians draped over this door should hide what’s happening from the parking lot.” His men nodded, studying the location.
“O’Neill, did you make arrangements for this door to be left unlocked?”
“Yes, sir. I paid the construction foreman this morning and scouted out the location. There is plenty of room to park inside the building with a roll-up door that opens onto the back street,” he answered.
“Perfect. You and Davidson will follow them like normal tomorrow. I’ll get everything ready here,” Curtis said, pointing at the building. “After you help me secure them at the secondary location, you’ll be free to go. I will handle it from there. As always, you can expect payment in twenty-four hours after the job is done.”
With a nod, the two men left the room to return to their own for the night.
Lying awake last night, Curtis had hit on the perfect place to kill Thayer. If he staged the scene just right, it would look like Prescott had killed her then himself.
In researching both Prescott and Monroe, he had stumbled upon an old newspaper article about an abuse scandal involving the house Prescott had lived in. It would be perfect. Everyone would think he had gone mad and had taken Thayer with him, killing them both when they reached the house. It would create a scandal just in time to take the senator out of the discussion about the contract.
Curtis scrolled through all of the information he could find on the old foster home. Noticing that the house still stood vacant in one of the sketchier neighborhoods, he decided to research the ownership.
Pulling up the tax records, he discovered one Randall Jackson had bought it a few years ago. The only permits filed were for demolition, but it had expired a while back. As far as he could tell, the house still stood vacant on the property.
Old newspaper articles showed pictures of the house. Armed with those and the address from the records, Curtis left his room to find it. He had to make sure it wasn’t being used by squatters or as a crack house, though that would only add to the media circus. This had to work, he was running out of options.
Pulling up to the front of the dilapidated house, he fished the flashlight out of the side pocket of the SUV. He debated the gun in the glove compartment, but he had his knife with him for protection, so he left the gun there. He always preferred a knife anyway. It made the fight more personal.
Curtis walked around the house, trying doors, until he finally found a broken window around the back. Pushing it up, he slid into what appeared to be an old bedroom. The walls were covered with random graffiti, so he assumed it had become a favorite hangout of the neighborhood kids.
It didn’t take him long to make a quick sweep through the first floor before climbing the stairs to the remaining bedrooms. He wished he had found out which room Memphis had been terrorized in, it would have been more poetic, but he supposed any of them would do.
He chose the back bedroom on the top floor. The window was shrouded by a large tree which would keep any prying eyes from seeing them, and it was the farthest from the road.
Testing the sheetrock around the room, he knocked a hole in two places, allowing him to wrap a rope around the corner post. This would work for his purposes, all he needed were a few more items and he would finally be ready.
He climbed back out the window with a smile. By the end of the weekend, this would all be over, the senator would be destroyed and Curtis’s new lifestyle as good as guaranteed.
Chapter 24
“Last day,I promise. After today, you can go home while Knox tries to flush them out.” Memphis had been up since dawn thinking about what happened after they called this off today.
He knew Thayer would return home while he headed back north to his practice. It didn’t mean he liked the plan, he just knew he needed to do whatever was necessary for Thayer. Knox was still baffled why he couldn’t find even a trace of who was hunting her, but then, neither could the feds.
“We could just stay in bed today,” Thayer moaned, pulling the covers tighter around her. “You could take off all of those bothersome clothes and slide back in here with me.”
She had flopped over, reaching for Memphis when she saw Knox standing in the doorway, his big arms crossed over his chest with a scowl on his face. “Uggg,” she said, rolling back over. “You’re always such a cockblock.”
“She said it, not me,” she heard Memphis say from the bathroom door with a laugh.
“Uh-huh,” Knox growled, turning around to head back to the kitchen. Memphis picked up his boots from the end of the bed, sitting down on the edge to put them on.
“Can we at least eat lunch somewhere new today?” Thayer asked as she crawled across the bed to him. Swinging a leg around, she straddled his lap, as he worked to tie his left boot, snuggling into his chest.
“We can. Someone is very crabby this morning.” Memphis observed, kissing the top of her head. Sitting back, Thayer gave him her best sneer before pushing him back on the bed, pinning his hands above his head.
He lay looking up at her with a smile as she bent forward to kiss him. Jay had swung by yesterday to check his arm and side. As long as he didn’t get too rowdy, he was back to somewhat normal.
