“Idiots!” he yelled at the two men behind him. “Fucking idiots. I can’t believe you screwed this up. This was a no-brainer. Get the old lady and bring her to the locker.”
“We knocked on the door like you told us,” one of the men said. “Polite. And we asked her if she was a grandma. And she said, yes.”
“She’s not the right grandma,” Shine said.
“We didn’t know that.”
“And then you brought her to the house in Pleasantville instead of the locker,” Shine said.
“She hit Andy with the frying pan and he had a big gash on his cheek. So, we stopped at the house for a Band-Aid. We figured there wouldn’t be any Band-Aids here.”
“Now she knows about the house,” Shine said.
“She wasn’t in the house,” the guy said. “She was in the trunk. I figure it doesn’t matter because we’re gonna kill her anyway.”
“We still need the old lady,” Shine said. “The right Grandma. She has the last clue. She has the numbers to get into the safe.”
Two more men walked out of the storage locker, bookending my mother. Her hands were bound. Her walk was steady and unassisted. She looked okay.
“Follow me to the safe house,” Shine said. “We’ll stick her there and use her to get the old lady.”
Shine got into the Mercedes. My mom was placed in the backseat of the Escalade with the two men. One of the men standing watch on the outside of the unit got behind the wheel. The fourth man shut the garage door and got into the Taurus.
“They’ve got your mom and they’re leaving,” Potts said.
“We need to get to the Buick.”
“Indy would take this car,” Potts said.
“This Honda?”
“The owner is in the storage unit behind us,” Potts said. “I can hear him rummaging around in there. And he left his car unlocked with the key fob in the cup holder.”
“That’s car theft.”
The three cars drove single file around the end of the building, with the Mercedes leading the way.
“They won’t know it’s us in this car,” Potts said. “And it’s here!”
He opened the door, got behind the wheel, and started the car. I ran around the car and jumped in.
“This is a nice car,” Potts said, rounding the end of the row. “The owner keeps it clean inside. It smells nice. After I got the job delivering pizza my car always smelled like pizza.”
“I’ve never seen your car.”
“I traded it for a PlayStation 4Pro.”
“You traded a car for a gaming console?”
“It wasn’t much of a car, and the 4 Pro is awesome.”
Shine turned right onto Philadelphia and the two cars followed him. We gave them a good lead before we exited the storage facility.
I called Lula. “It’s not necessary for you to look at the condo,” I said. “Go to Egg Harbor and wait for me to get back to you.”
“Did you find your mom?” she asked.
“Yes, but it’s complicated. I can’t talk now. Just wait in Egg Harbor.”