Page 29 of Astrid
“Thank you,” Astrid said as she strode down the hall, and knocked on the doorjamb. The sheriff looked up, and jumped to his feet.
“Astrid, right?”
“Yes, may I have a word with you?”
“Sure.” Tom pointed to the chair, and frowned when Astrid entered, and closed the door behind her. He didn’t say anything, but went back behind his desk, and waited for her to take a seat before he sat back down in his own chair. “What can I do for you?”
Astrid stretched out a leg and withdrew what looked like a wad of napkins from her pocket. She laid it on the edge of his desk, then looked at Tom with a grin. “I know you haven’t been updated on what we’ve been doing at Boswell, but I wanted to stop by and talk to you about what happened today.” Before Tom could say anything, she held up her hand to hold him off.
“Nothing bad, I promise you. It’s all good. But, were you aware of what happened the day Alan and I went to see a guy by the name of Neil Mason about putting in new kitchen cabinets for his fiancée?”
“Yes,” Tom breathed easier and leaned back in his chair. “Carl Miller called me earlier today and updated me on what he had learned. As you and I speak, he’s going to his superiors to see if he can get some warrants to install cameras.”
“Good.” Astrid nodded, then drew in a deep breath, and continued, “What I’m about to tell you, no one knows. This just happened about...” She paused long enough to look at her watch, then back up at Tom. “...thirty-seven minutes ago.” When Tom remained silent, she continued. She did note that he leaned forward, picked up a pen, and brought a pad of paper closer to himself, ready to take notes. At his nod, she began to tell her tale. “Morgan gave me an address earlier today to check out. She said it was an address that Uncle Chip gave her. That’s all I know,” she again held up her hand when he went to say something, but she did pull the original paper from her and handed it to him. He took it down and frowned at the address.
“Did you find anything?”
“No, nothing we are looking for when we check these addresses out. You know, things like fences, signs warning people to keep out. The stuff we saw at Neil Mason’s place, and speaking of him, I drove around for five hours in all directions from that address and wasn’t able to find anything. I stopped in at a local diner.” She nodded at his look and grinned when she gave him the name of it, and he wrote it down.
“Know it well, great burgers.”
“Yes, mine had just arrived when three men walked it. I’ll be honest here with you, Tom, at first I was repulsed, but the more I studied them, the more I got to thinking.”
“About?” Tom leaned back and let her talk. He had to admit that Morgan Stuart had so far brought in some very smart women to work with her. He wondered if maybe he couldn’t recruit them for his police force after whatever they were doing was done. Shaking his head to get back in the game, he nodded to her once more. “What were you thinking about?”
“They don’t seem like the creeps they were when I first met them.”
Tom shot forward and picked up his pen again. “When did you meet them before?”
“The day Alan and I went to Neil Mason’s to discuss the new kitchen cabinets. The three men at the diner were the first three men we encountered—the three that took our phones, and told us where to go. Oh, and they also were the ones with the regular rifles, not the military-grade guns.”
“Go on.” Tom nodded and took notes.
“The guy I had dubbed, ‘Tobacco Man’, because he had tobacco spit in his beard began to talk to me. The three of them sat in a booth across from my table. He asked if he knew me. After studying him intently, I admitted that I’d seen him when I was with Alan. I even told him that he had taken our phones, and they carried guns.”
“Do you think that was wise?”
Astrid shrugged, then sighed heavily. “I have absolutely no proof, but something about the guy named Griff, told me he wasn’t as bad a guy as he tried to make me or others believe. I can’t put my finger on it, but there was something about him that made me think he might be one of the good guys.” She sighed heavily again, then quickly leaned forward. “Again, I’ll be honest here, he asked me out. I told him I had just moved here and needed to get settled into my new place. You know, trying to set up the utilities and all that stuff. He then asked if I had any friends for his two friends. They are dating Justin and Alex, but I immediately thought of Joyce and Ava. However—” She grinned as she held up her hand. “—I won’t call them that. These guys know me as Jane, and I’ll introduce my friends as Joy and Eve.”
“Close to their regular names, but not so farfetched that they wouldn’t answer. What are you telling me?”
“May I?” Astrid pointed to Tom’s computer, then when he gave the go ahead, she rose, turned her back on him, then withdrew the camera from the button between her breasts. With a few extra pieces of equipment from her bag, she hooked up the camera to his computer. Together they both watched the conversation the four of them had.
At one point, Tom looked at her with a frown. “Are you sure these are bad guys?”
“I know, right? What tipped you off?”
“No criminal would refer his name to that TV show.”
“Thank you, I thought the same thing.” They continued to watch, and after Astrid sat back down, Tom smirked at her.
“You going to run that phone number he gave you? Or do you want me to?”
“Both of us.” Astrid laughed as she grabbed his pen and wrote down the number Griff had given her. She sat back and grinned. “Now comes the hard part.”
“Which is?”
“You saw on the tape that I took their napkins, right?”
