Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Courtney deactivated the security alarm so she could quietly slip outside. Once she was past the door, she took some deep breaths to slow her pounding heart. Even though the house was enormous and Ian couldn’t possibly have heard her going through the drawers in his office, she’d still worried. It was a relief to have gotten out with all the cash in hand.
No one knew she had it, and it wouldn’t be missed until after the fact.
She checked her phone, confirming she had enough time before sunset. Her timing was good.
Behind Martha and Ronald’s cottage, right next to his vegetable garden, was a storage shed for tools and gardening equipment. She knew it also held a good-sized ladder. Looping the bag over her arm, she made her way to the shed. Ronald only locked it at the end of the season, which was currently to her advantage.
The ladder was close to the front of the shed, but heavier and bulkier than she had anticipated. Still, she managed to wrestle it out the door and carry it across the yard. Maneuvering through the statuary garden was tricky. When she reached the statue of Perfection , aka Naked Man , she set up the ladder alongside it and began to climb.
At the top, she stretched to reach Naked Man ’s extended hand and slipped the bag over his raised fingers. The bag swayed only slightly before coming to rest. Unless there were sudden gale-force winds, that bag wasn’t going anywhere. She stood there, looking around the property and back at the house. The vegetable greenhouse was in back of the statuary garden parallel to the guest cottage, and behind that was what they called the woods—a few acres of untended land. It provided a nice screen.
The greenhouse blended into the background during the day, and at night it was even less visible. Ronald and Martha’s windows were lit up, but she couldn’t see any movement behind the lace curtains. In the main house, the lights of Brayden’s second-floor bedroom were on, but the blinds were down. Courtney could be seen from either angle, but they’d have to be looking out the window at just the right moment. The timing was unlikely. She felt pleased at having successfully left the house with a bag of money and hanging it in the specified place before the deadline. Badass even. This must be how it felt to be Rebecca Cavanaugh. She’d problem-solved and come up with something right in the nick of time. Under different circumstances, she’d feel triumphant, but that wouldn’t happen until Dana was home safe and sound. She gave the bag one last look, then descended the ladder and folded it up, returning it to the shed.
How were the kidnappers planning to retrieve a bag hanging from a tall statue in the middle of private property? She had a few ideas but wasn’t entirely certain. Ian had grabbed the phone and hung up before she could ask how Dana would be released, so that was an unknown as well. The only thing she knew for sure was that she would be there to witness how it would happen. She grabbed a small step stool out of the shed and went back outside, crossing the property.
Behind the door of the greenhouse, there was enough room for her to sit on the step stool and wait. Courtney would be barely visible, and as an added bonus, she’d be out of reach of the mosquitoes, which were in full force this evening. Best of all, this location gave her the perfect view of the hanging bag of ransom money. She patted her crossbody handbag.
She was more than ready.