Chapter 27 Diem #2
I’d been about to make short work of the padlock but paused, glancing back with a questioning glare. “What does that mean?”
“We are impatient and drawn to trouble, but we both know you’re a softy and your threats don’t mean much. I pegged you on day one, and so did he.”
I frowned. “I’m intimidating.”
“Not as much as you think. Maybe at one time, but you’ve chilled out.”
I wanted to say he was wrong, but the statement carried weight. I’d spent my adult life hiding behind a menacing front, but lately, more and more people saw beyond the facade. I didn’t throw my weight around as much anymore. I would never be social, but my communication skills had vastly improved.
Were my walls coming down? Was this the progress Dr. Peterson had talked about? Why else would Tallus’s dad have invited me to fish with him? Why else did Aslan go out of his way to spend time with me? Help me?
Tallus touched my forearm. “It’s a lot to think about, but I suggest you contemplate that groundbreaking reality later, Guns. We need to get moving.”
“Yeah. Okay.” Reflected in the depths of Tallus’s eyes was a truth I never thought I’d see. You’re a good person, they said, and Tallus believed that heart and soul.
I made quick work of the lock, snapping it with a forceful squeeze of the cutters. Tallus pocketed it while I set the tool aside. I unwrapped the chain and left it on the ground before wedging my fingers under the door.
Bracing, knowing it would be creaky and loud, I said, “I’m only lifting it a foot or two. We’ll crawl under, and I’ll prop it up. Ready?”
“Ready.”
The bite of metal against metal echoed louder than I hoped.
It sang in my teeth and shivered along my spine.
I winced, hoping no one was around to hear.
The scent of charred metal and toxic fumes leaked from inside and penetrated the night, choking me.
I coughed a few times before the fresh air thinned it out.
Once the gap was large enough to admit a man of my size, I urged Tallus to crawl under and hold it for me as I dropped to my belly and followed. I used the bolt cutters to prop the door, hoping it would offer some light, but the effect was pitiful.
The interior of the unit was a wall of impenetrable darkness. I fumbled for the flashlight I’d secured to my belt earlier and clicked it on.
Tallus did the same, sweeping his around the unit, one hand pressed to his nose. “God, it reeks in here.”
The room had been soaked by the firefighters, so everything was wet, which only accentuated the putrid scent. I trailed the light around the room, taking stock of what remained. A burned file cabinet with pulled drawers sat in a corner. Whatever it had contained was long gone.
Based on the overall damage in the unit, I suspected it was where the fire had been set.
“First and foremost. Let’s see if we can prove this is Lukyan’s unit.”
“Oh, it is.” Tallus approached the skeletal remains of the cabinet, squatting and digging in the ashy remains.
“It’s far too big a coincidence that we saw him leave here less than an hour before the fire started.
He cleared this place out, but he couldn’t take everything, so he burned what was left. ”
“Why not make more than one trip?”
“Maybe he didn’t need this stuff anymore. Maybe he was afraid his time was limited.”
“Setting a fire is destructive and draws attention.”
“True. I don’t know, D. I feel like he panicked.
He knows someone is onto him. He knows Darcy meeting him at the café was a setup.
If he thinks the police are moving in, he would want to cover his tracks as fast as possible, which suggests those banker boxes are important, and he definitely has something to hide. ”
“If this is his unit.”
“It is,” he reiterated.
Tallus shone his flashlight at mounted shelves that ran along the upper edge of the square room as he craned to see. “The stuff up there looks undamaged.”
“The stuff down here is ruined.”
A wet and charred mound of desecrated boxes sat in a puddle near the back wall.
What had once been a plastic shelving unit had melted into a disturbing blob along a different wall.
The only thing left intact was a standing industrial toolbox.
The bottom half was blackened, but it was otherwise in decent shape.
Tallus examined it, opening and closing the drawers, before pacing and swinging his flashlight over the concrete floor. “Do you think he kept a car here?”
I considered the toolbox and a few other mechanical pieces of equipment left behind.
“Possible, but I doubt it. These aren’t controlled environments.
A guy with luxury cars and money would want better.
Five minutes, Tallus. Let’s see if anything important survived.
I want proof that Lukyan rents this place.
Take pictures if you can, but it all stays here. ”
I didn’t expect we’d find anything with the state of the unit. If Tallus’s suspicions were correct, Lukyan had taken the important files and made sure to destroy the rest.
Tallus rolled the toolbox under the mounted shelves, and I gave him a boost so he could stand on top. While he explored what remained above, I dug through the ashes below to see if anything had survived.
A short time later, two things happened. Tallus called out, “D, I found your proof,” and a car engine sounded in the distance.
We both froze and listened.
The engine noise grew louder.
It was moving toward our location.