Upstate Uproar (24 page)

Kate stopped at a red light. “I wish there
was something we could do tonight.”

“I have an idea.” Vivian clicked off the
radio. “But it’s kinda illegal.”

T
he light turned
green but Kate kept her foot on the brake. Vivian pointed for her
to turn left, though they were in the right lane. The car remained
stopped.

Vivian looked up and down the street. “No
one’s coming. Go! We need to see who would want to hurt Nicole, and
the best place to look for information is in her office. It’s to
the left. Let’s do this.”

Kate put both hands on the wheel but still
didn’t move. “Can’t we get the key from her in the morning?”

“We need to look tonight,” Vivian said and
pointed to the left.

“How do you plan to get in her office?” Wendy
asked.

“I haven’t figured that out yet, but we’ll
know it when we see it.”

“Small town, maybe she left the door
unlocked?” Lucy suggested.

“Highly unlikely.” The car behind them
honked, and Kate pulled through the intersection, going straight.
“I can’t go to jail. I’m pregnant. Can you imagine? ‘Excuse me, do
you have a maternity prison outfit?’ I want to help Nicole, but it
will have to be with her consent and in the morning.”

“But what if someone is trying to kill her?”
Vivian pleaded. “Besides, they’ll get you an extra-large, not
maternity.” She poked at Kate and giggled.

Kate was silent, but Vivian could see her
brain in overdrive.

“Someone might try to sneak into her hospital
room and finish her off. Security in the typical hospital isn’t
exactly Fort Knox. It’s more like mall security. I bet I could
sneak into any part of that hospital in the middle of the night, if
I were a bad guy, and take out a patient, especially a defenseless,
doped-up damsel in distress.”

“Let’s not test that,” Pierre said.

Lucy patted Kate’s shoulder. “I vote we go to
her office, see what we can see. You can stay in the car if you
want.”

Kate sighed. “Why do I listen to y’all?” She
made an illegal U-turn in the middle of the street, tires
squealing.

Everyone screamed, even Pierre.

“You listen because you’re a 1 percenter,”
Wendy said and laughed.

“A what?” Vivian asked.

“There’s only 1 percent of the law she
doesn’t break, like the biker gangs.”

“Geez, I don’t think so,” Kate said, turning
right. “I’d much rather be part of the über rich 1 percent.”

“It’s because you really want to help Nicole
and you, like I, suspect she’s in trouble,” Vivian said as they
stopped with a jerk in front of the newspaper office.

All the lights were out in the brick
building. Everyone sat in the car, unsure what to do.

Vivian continued. “And you bend to peer
pressure. For that, we thank you.” She started to get out, but Lucy
grabbed her arm.

“How are we going to see anything in
there?”

Wendy reached for her purse. “I’ve got a
small handy-dandy flashlight in here. That’ll help.”

Pierre opened his door. “I’ll check the
front. If it’s locked, I’ll go around back, see if I can find a way
in.”

He ran to the front door and tugged, but it
didn’t open. He jogged around the corner of the building and was
gone for a couple of minutes before returning to the car.

Vivian rolled down her window. “Any
luck?”

“There’s an old ventilation fan in the back.
It’s running slowly so I’d have to stop it, but I think there would
be enough space for someone to squeeze through.”

“Not it!” Wendy called.

“Me, neither!” Vivian yelled.

Lucy swatted at both of them. “Y’all haven’t
even seen it yet.”

Wendy got out and held the door for Lucy. “We
just ate chili. If I get squeezed I’m likely to squeeze out
something myself. Nobody wants that.”

“Fine,” Lucy grumbled. “I’m having images of
squeezy cheese. I don’t want to see it come to life.”

“I’ll hold down the fort here,” Kate said.
“If I see anything suspicious or if someone shows up, I’ll
honk.”

The group, minus Kate, went around back, and
thankfully the lights were out behind the newspaper building.
Vivian looked up and down the alley but didn’t see anyone. They
were relatively well hidden.

Pierre pointed to the fan. “I need to find
something to wedge in there to stop it turning.” He picked up a
wooden pallet and set it underneath the fan, then piled two more on
top of it. “This will help.”

The fan was about nine feet up, in the middle
of the brick wall. “Can we do this without breaking the fan?”
Vivian asked him. “Or Lucy?”

Pierre shrugged. “Guess we’ll see.” He walked
to the other end of the old building and around the corner. He came
back with a log the length of his arm and the width of a mayonnaise
jar. “This should do it.”

“Where’d you get that?” Lucy asked.

“Wood pile at the house across the street,”
he answered, then said to Lucy, “I’m going to boost you up. Once
you get inside, look for the fan switch and cut it off.”

Wendy handed Lucy her flashlight. “May the
Force be with you.”

Pierre jumped onto the pallets and lifted the
log. “You should take a few steps back, just in case.” He adjusted
the log in his right hand, getting a good feel for the weight
distribution, then looked back at the girls. “Here goes
nothing.”

In one smooth motion he jumped up, then
heaved the log with all his might, reaching up and slamming it
between two blades. Bits of wood flew down onto Pierre and the
pallets.

Vivian was impressed. The fan motor still
hummed but the blades were no longer turning.

Pierre landed awkwardly on the pallets, which
caused him to lose his balance. He fell back on his butt and
winced. “Ouch.”

“Wow!” Lucy said, reaching to help him up.
“That was a Spider Man move if I ever saw one!”

Pierre shoved the pallets aside, leaned
against the wall and laced his fingers together. “You ready, Spider
Woman?”

Lucy looked up and down the street, not
seeing any activity. She focused her attention and planted her
right foot in his hands. “As I’ll ever be.”

Wendy and Vivian got on either side, just in
case things went awry and she toppled.

Pierre gave Lucy a boost, and with Wendy and
Vivian’s help she managed to scramble her way up to where she had
both feet on his shoulders, like a cheerleader, but the ledge of
the fan was only to her chest. The fan’s four-foot blades looked
even bigger up close, and the ledge’s 18-inch depth felt
shorter.

I’m going to dive for it,
Lucy
thought. “Y’all be ready to catch me if this doesn’t work! I’m
going to pull myself in.”

Pierre had his hand on the back of her thigh
and was holding one of her hands. Vivian and Wendy had their arms
outstretched, hands on the sides of Lucy’s legs, helping steady
her. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you, babe,” he answered. “I’ll boost
you up more when you’re ready.”

Lucy let go of his hand and put both palms on
the edge. She bent her knees. “Okay, here we go. One, two,
THREE!”

She pulled herself up, feeling Pierre’s
strength push her forward. She landed on the ledge, square on her
tummy, next to the log holding back the blade. Because it was dark
inside the building, she couldn’t see down. She squirmed more onto
the ledge and lay like that for a minute, letting her legs hang
down and catching her breath.

Wendy and Vivian golf clapped from below.

“So far, so good.” Lucy pulled the flashlight
from her pocket and shined it into the warehouse below, looking for
something to land on. An eight-foot table piled with newspapers was
directly beneath her.

Crap, I have no other option.

She stuck the flashlight back into her
pocket, then maneuvered herself through the humming fan, getting on
her hands and knees. She yelled down, “There’s a table below. I’m
going to dangle from the ledge and drop onto it.”

“Are you sure it’s not too far?” Pierre said.
“We don’t want any broken legs tonight.”

“I think it will be okay.”

Lucy positioned herself sitting on the ledge.
How am I going to do this exactly?
She turned around and got
on her knees, head between two blades. She began to scoot back,
soon dropping her right leg over the edge.

Courage. Courage. Come on, Lucy, you work out
six days a week. You can do this!

Then her left arm slipped forward, hitting
the wedged log and moving it a tad. The fan blade moved toward her
face, but the log held.

Not for long.

“OH SHIT!” she yelled, watching as the log
spun free.

Lucy fell into darkness.

L
ucy crashed onto the
table inside the newspaper building feet first, but the papers were
slippery, and her feet kept going, so she landed on her ass.

“Lucy! You okay in there?” Pierre yelled,
panic in his voice. “Lucy? Are you all right?”

It took her a moment to shake off the fall.
“Uhhhh, I think so.” She did a quick check of body parts. “Yes, I’m
okay.” She slid off the table, doing another quick check as she
stood. Everything seemed to be working.

She checked her pocket for the flashlight,
but it wasn’t there. She could make out the back door, two big
pieces of equipment in the middle of the room and more tables along
the wall. She looked at the table she fell onto and the newspapers
she’d knocked everywhere. She got on all fours and crawled around,
feeling for the flashlight. Not finding it, she crawled to the
table and felt underneath.

Her fingers brushed the flashlight, rolling
it just out of her reach. She bent lower and stretched her arm as
far as it would go, barely touching the flashlight. She was able to
roll it toward her and clutch it in her fist.
Finally!

She stood and dusted herself off before
clicking it on. The big pieces of equipment she had seen were the
printing presses, and the tables along the wall held reams of
paper, pens, manila folders and other office supplies. She shined
the light toward the back door.
Let’s hope there’s not an
alarm.

She unlocked the deadbolt and turned the
handle, holding her breath. She yanked the door open, ready to run
should an alarm sound, but none did.

Pierre stepped in, placing both hands on her
cheeks. “That was quite a ruckus.” He slid his hands to her
shoulders and down her arms.

“I proved white women can jump, but I also
proved we can fall with the best of them.”

She laughed, and the girls walked in.

“Nice job, Wonkita! I’m impressed!” Vivian
high-fived her. “I couldn’t have done that.”

“You should have seen Pierre dodge that log!”
Wendy said. “But all he cared about was you. It’s sweet.”

Vivian took the flashlight from Lucy. “Unlike
the Amazing Maize Maze, this bad boy’s mine. I’ve been here
before.” She shined it around the room and tried to remember the
layout of things from their visit yesterday. She could make out the
doorway to the office.

They made their way around the printing
presses to the door separating the printing area from the office.
The windowless hallway was pitch black, so Vivian opened the door
to the restroom and flipped on the light. She took a minute to let
her eyes adjust before walking down the rest of the hallway to the
office.

She saw the two wooden desks in the middle of
the room and Nicole’s desk centered in front of the window. A green
banker’s lamp sat on it, along with a cup full of pens and stacks
of notepads.

“I’ll start with Nicole’s desk,” Lucy
said.

Vivian walked to one of the desks in the
middle of the room and began opening drawers. Wendy picked up one
of Grandpa’s white file boxes. “I’ll take this into the hallway and
start going through it. We need to find Grandpa’s heavy hitters
list.”

“I’ll help you with that,” Pierre said and
picked up a second box.

Vivian pulled the middle drawer of the desk
open and shined the light inside. Paper clips, pens, stapler,
staples. She shut that and opened the top right drawer. Stationery.
Next drawer, blank notebooks. Top left drawer held a stack of Lake
Placid Brewery coasters.
What the heck?
The drawer below
that was empty.

Vivian moved on to the next desk but didn’t
find anything significant. She walked over to Lucy, who was looking
through a file.

“Anything good?” she asked.

“Brandon’s file was on top of Nicole’s desk.
I think we need to take it back to the B&B with us. This sucker
is thick, and we don’t need to leave the light on long enough to go
through it now.”

“Good idea.” Vivian looked around the room
and saw Nicole’s big, chrome briefcase beside her desk. “It’s got
locks, but let’s see if we can put the file in here.”

Lucy tried the latches, and they clicked
open. She raised the lid and took out a pile of files. “April
Robinson, Jeremy Donaldson, Mike Grimm, Tracy Holt.”

“Tracy? What’s in that file?” Vivian
asked.

Lucy opened it and read a few pages. “She
bartended at the Lake Placid Brewery and dated a guy named Scott
Erickson. Says he was a plumber who took off to Omaha.”

“What’s in Omaha?” Vivian asked, baffled.
Why would you leave the beautiful Adirondacks for the
Midwest?

“He went to work for his uncle out
there.”

“This folder’s different,” Vivian said. “It’s
purple. And that’s not Grandpa’s bad handwriting. The folder itself
looks newer.”

“Maybe Nicole started this file?” Lucy said.
She flipped through two more pages, then put all of the files in
the case and shut it, careful not to change the combination on the
locks.

Vivian opened the door to the hallway and
shined the light toward the group in the restroom. “Any luck in
there?”