Page 33 of Operation: Discovery

He’d had the same thought. The whole place felt odd, as if they were treading on a grave or somewhere they shouldn’t. A woman came out of the building and jerked down the surgical mask covering the lower part of her face. She tugged a pack of cigarettes from the pocket of her scrubs, tapped out a cigarette, and shoved it between her lips. After lighting it, she held it in her mouth while she rubbed her hands together against the chill in the breeze.

“Do you think she noticed us?” Dee whispered, squinting at the woman.

“Doesn’t look like it.” Brendon matched her tone. “Is it weird that she seems familiar?”

Dee shook her head wildly. “No, I thought the same thing but ignored it because, how could I? The only places I’ve been to in town are the blood drive and Wayside.”

The only place they would’ve both seen her was at the blood drive. He’d seen two nurses, the one at the front desk whose face had remained covered and the one who’d gone into the same back room where he’d found Adam. He’d seen her face. It had to be her. He waited, hoping to see who else was there. He glanced at his phone to check the time: 11:03. The request for painting help had only just begun.

“It won’t be long before she notices our car sitting here and that we’re not part of her group. If she recognizes us, like we recognize her, she’ll run unless she was actually one of the parents from the blood drive. Maybe that’s why she seems familiar to us,”

He glanced around, trying to recall if he’d actually seen her face before or if there was something else he might be remembering. Was it possible he was only reacting to her mask after what they’d seen at the blood drive? Why would she need a surgical mask to paint? “Where would they run? They can get in their cars, but where could they go?”

“Further out into the countryside or into town,” Dee answered him. “They seem to know this area well enough to be able to escape easily.”

“Maybe. But there’s not much out this way and the highway toward Cheyenne is toward town. If they run toward town, I’ll have Officer Blake respond before they can reach the first stop sign.”

Dee gave him a questioning glance. “It’s not that I don’t believe you, but they managed to get away in the middle of town. I don’t think they’ll wait around to get caught this time, either. And last time we called in the police, they retaliated.”

Dee might not trust him with his assessment of the situation, but she was absolutely right about the bombing and the nurse most likely recognizing him. His chair was memorable where he wasn’t. Even if some other man in a wheelchair came, they’d probably run just like they would for him.

The woman took a long drag on her cigarette and squinted into the sun, finally looking directly at them. She tossed her cigarette on the ground and tugged her mask back up then ran for the door.

“Should I go catch her?” Dee reached for the door.

“No!” Brendon gripped her arm. “You’re not going in there alone. Not until we find out what is going on here. This could be innocent, but I don’t want you walking into a trap in case it isn’t.”

Dee laid a hand over his. “I don’t mind.”

She was not getting hurt on his watch. Not when the only reason she was even in the state of Wyoming was because of him. If not for the second chance missions, Connor would’ve asked someone closer to help Rebecca. Connor could claim otherwise, but it wouldn’t be true. “I mind,” he muttered. “I don’t want you going in there alone. Even assuming the worst, you won’t be prepared for anything they might do.”

She nodded. “Well, they know we’re here now. What do you think we should do?”

If there was anywhere close by to hide and watch for a while, that would be the plan he’d go with, but there were no fields or anything nearby that would camouflage a few people, much less a car. “Let’s drive for a little while. When we come back, we’ll see if they’re still there or if they left after they saw us. If they leave, then we’ll know something was going on and we can call in Nixon.”

“But if they leave, we won’t know where they go.” She made no move to start the engine. “This might be a legitimate call for help painting a building. We won’t know until we see more.”

He didn’t want to make a move until they were forced to. If anyone else came, they’d have to make a quick decision, just to potentially save others from what might be going on. He picked up his phone and dialed Nixon’s number.

“Officer Blake,” he said.

“Have you driven around 5thStreet at all today?” Brendon asked.

“This sounds like a trick question.”

Brendon laughed. “There are more handmade signs up. Can you check who owns the old garage about five miles outside of Piper’s Ridge if you follow 5Th?”

He heard clacking over the line, like computer keys. “Fifth becomes 319.” More clicking followed. “Looks like that garage was purchased at a bankruptcy sale two months ago by the Word of Life church out of Madisonville.”

Dee’s eyes widened, and her mouth formed the wordhow,though no sound came out.

“They’ve owned it for two months. Do you know of anyone doing anything out there?” Brendon asked. Suddenly, this was looking like a dead end. If a church owned the building, they really could be looking for help in cleaning it up.

Then again, why had they both felt like they recognized the woman outside and why had she run into the building as soon as she noticed them?

“Care to enlighten me as to why you’re asking about a garage that should’ve fallen down a decade ago?” Nixon asked.

“They’re having a painting party, but it looked a little suspicious.” Now that he said it out loud, he realized how silly the whole scenario sounded. “Both Dee and I felt like we recognized one of the women here as being at the blood drive.”

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