Walk Softly, Danger: A Reed Ferguson Novella (The Reed Ferguson Mystery Series) by Renee Pawlish

Author:Renee Pawlish [Pawlish, Renee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Creative Cat Press
Published: 2020-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

I spotted a bench in front of the hotel and waved Haley over to it. We sat down and continued our conversation where the bartender wouldn’t overhear us.

“Now we know where Kaiser lives,” Haley said. “Let’s see if we can find anything out at his property.”

“First, we have to find the road the bartender mentioned,” I said as we sat down. I pulled out my phone, connected to the Internet and went to Google Maps. “Hmm, it’s pretty isolated out there.” I showed Haley the map.

“If Kaiser’s running some kind of smuggling ring, that makes sense,” Haley said. “Fewer people around to see what he’s doing.”

“Yeah, but he’ll see us coming, too.”

“So what?” She threw me a hard look. “Let’s go talk to this guy and find out what he knows.”

“Normally I’d be fine with asking around and seeing what comes of it,” I said. “But if we start asking Kaiser questions about trafficking or shipments arriving tonight, he’s going to warn off whoever’s bringing it. And then what happens to those women? They need our help.”

“I want whoever’s behind this dead,” she spat out, then followed up with a string of expletives directed at the traffickers.

“I know, but wouldn’t it be better to let the shipment arrive and nail all of them at once?”

“I guess so,” she said.

“And here’s another thing.”

“What?”

“We’ve been assuming Kaiser’s involved in all this, but what if he isn’t? We’ll look like fools.”

She drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “Fine, we’ll go out to his house and look around.”

I clicked the map again. The street view gave us a good idea of what was out there. On Castle Creek Road, near Highway 82, a few huge houses were set back from the road. Farther down the road, there were fewer houses. Then there was an unmarked road with only one house at the end of it.

“There’s no way to approach by car,” Haley said.

I nodded. “We’ll have to hike in.”

“How far?”

I studied the map. “If we park on Castle Creek Road, it’s about two miles, maybe three.” I surreptitiously glanced at her. She was in shape to handle it. “But if we park at the end of the road, someone might see my car and wonder what it’s doing there.” I zoomed in on the map. “It looks like there’s a trailhead farther down Castle Creek Road. We can leave the 4-Runner there and work our way through the woods to Kaiser’s house.”

She stood up. “We’re wasting time.”

“Let me get my car.”

I got up to go find the valet when I spotted Willie coming up the sidewalk. Her eyes darted from me to Haley, then back to me.

“Reed, what’s going on?” Willie asked as she approached. I’d told Willie that Haley didn’t want anything to do with me, so I’m sure she was wondering why I was even speaking to Haley.

“Haley, this is my fiancée, Willie Rhoden,” I said.

Haley stood up. “Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Willie said. “How do you like Aspen?”

Haley smiled, the first one I’d seen on her.

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