Page 81 of Run to Ground
“Let me see,” he said, sweeping the beam from his flashlight across the floor in front of him as he crossed to the back of the cooler. As he got closer, he fanned the light across her feet and then her legs, bent in front of her as she sat on the floor. She twisted her face away from the glare of the flashlight.
Theo frowned. Viggy was sitting next to her, as he’d expected, but he wasn’t focused on Jules. Instead, he was facing the opposite shelf, every muscle in his body alert, staring at a cardboard box on the second shelf.
Viggy wasn’t just sitting. He was signaling. There were explosive materials in that box.
“Good boy, Vig!” Theo praised, trying to force his voice to sound pleased, rather than panicked. His fingers were numb as he dragged out the stuffed penguin from his pocket. “Good dog!” After the shortest game of “tug” in the history of domesticated dogs, he tossed the penguin through the cooler door into the main kitchen. Viggy bounded out of the cold space after it.
Theo looked at the top of the box Viggy had been focused on, but the flaps were folded over tightly. “What’s in this box, do you know?”
“Sherry brought the box into the diner with her.” Jules’s voice was thin and high.
“Sherry brought it?” His brain was refusing to make connections, to draw lines between facts and reach conclusions. How could he accept that Sherry, Don’s surviving daughter, had shot a man and then locked Jules—his Jules—in a walk-in cooler with a bomb?
Pulling a pen from his pocket, Theo stepped over to the box that had held Viggy’s interest. He gingerly lifted one of the flaps just enough for him to point the flashlight into the box. As soon as he saw the wires, his last hopes that it was all a misunderstanding dissolved, and he lowered the flap carefully.
Jules shifted, drawing Theo’s attention in time to catch her wince. “These cuffs hurt. Do you think you can get them off?”
“Let me see,” he said, crouching next to Jules so he could shine the flashlight on her bound wrists. He needed to get her out of there, away from the bomb. Anger built in him as he ran his finger along the edge of the cuff where it dug into Jules’s skin. Sherry hadn’t bothered to double-lock the cuffs, so they’d tightened to the point that they were cutting off circulation to Jules’s hands. Moving as fast as he could without scaring Jules, he pulled out his handcuff key and tried to fit it in the lock. “Fuck.”
“What’s wrong?”
“These cuffs are an off-brand.” He resisted the urge to swear again, and maybe throw something. “My key won’t work on them.”
“Oh.” Her voice came out small. “How can I get out of them, then?”
“We’ll get Fire out here with one of their cutting tools and snip that chain. Once we get you outside, they can work on taking off your new bracelets.” He turned on his portable radio. After the initial beep and two seconds of silence, Lieutenant Blessard’s voice echoed through the walk-in cooler. From his tone, which was just short of a yell, Theo had a feeling Blessard had been trying to reach him for a while.
“…your status? Goddammit, Bosco, turn on your fucking radio and tell me if you’re alive or not!”
Theo rattled off his unit number. “Can I get someone from Fire to meet me at the front entrance with some heavy-duty bolt cutters? Something that’ll cut through a cuff chain.”
“Fire Rescue One copies,” a new female voice responded over the radio, a siren echoing in the background. “We’re three minutes out.”
The lieutenant spoke again. “I’ll send them in as soon as they arrive. Where are you in the building?”
“Negative!” Theo snapped, and then repeated more calmly, “Negative. Donotenter the building. I will meet you at the front door to get the cutters.”
After a momentary pause, Blessard asked in a controlled voice, “Did the dog find something?”
With a quick glance at Jules who, even in the dim light, Theo could see was looking more and more terrified, he muttered, “Affirmative.”
“Get out now, Bosco.”
“Working on it, LT.” When Jules made a small, scared sound, he crouched down next to her again and cupped the back of her neck in a clumsy attempt at comforting her. He vowed to himself that he would get her out. Whatever it took, he’d get her out alive. “I’d recommend moving the perimeter back another two hundred feet.”
“Out now, Bosco! The bomb squad is on its way.”
“That’ll take too long. It’s an hour drive, and I bet they haven’t even left Denver yet.” The lack of response confirmed it. “All three of us will be out as soon as possible.”
The silence that time was even heavier, but all Blessard said was, “Copy.”
Viggy trotted back into the cooler and dropped his penguin next to Theo’s right foot, then looked at him expectantly.
Trying to keep calm, Theo ran his gaze over the shelving the handcuff chain had been looped around. It was welded metal, and cutting or dismantling that would take longer than waiting for Fire to arrive and snip the chain.
“Fire’s on their way to the door.”
At Blessard’s words, Theo stood, grabbing the end of Viggy’s leash. “I’ll be right back.”
