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I remembered the words well as I removed the second underwire and made the appropriate bends. Using one as the tensioner and the second as the pick, I worked the lock.
I swallowed a gasp when I felt the familiar give in the tension wire. Removing the pick wire, I carefully turned the lock and listened.
Nothing.
Slowly, I opened the door and found the hallway empty. Stepping out, I cringed at the squeak the door made closing.Had they heard it?
CHAPTER 36
Duke
We were stillfive miles from Thousand Oaks when Winston came on the comms line. “Guys, it really is a USB stick, not a drive.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“It’s a USB key to a locker at the SafeStor location near here. We ran into these at the bureau. It’s an electronic key that can’t be copied or hacked.”
That brought us closer, but we were running out of time. “We need what’s in that locker.”
“On the way,” Winston replied. “Full afterburner.”
“I don’t get why Rossi would send a locker key to your girl,” Lucas mused.
I shook my head and darted around another truck. “We stick to the plan until we know something more.” That didn’t make me feel good, because our plan of checking the two company locations was pretty feeble.
My brother nodded as we approached the freeway exit.
Excalibur Plating was closest, so that made our choice of which to check first.
“Not here,” Lucas observed after we made a thorough sweep of the parking lot and adjoining streets. “Meet us at the Knife Creek address,” he said into comms. “Nothing at Excalibur.”
“Roger,” Terry responded. “Almost at the freeway exit.”
Frustrated, I hit the steering wheel. We were stuck behind traffic at a light. I looked around the guy in front of us for an opening in the oncoming lane.
“Don’t even think about it,” Lucas said. “Cop parked on the right, and we’re not in LA. We don’t have Marcus to cover for us. Get pulled over now, and we lose a half-hour minimum.”
“We can’t wait. My woman needs us now.”
“As Zig Ziglar said…” Lucas began, starting another of his quotes, “‘Be careful not to compromise what you want most for what you want now.’”
We heard a phone ringing over comms.
“Kitty, I can’t talk now.” It was Terry. “Seriously, I’m in the middle of something. It’ll have to wait. Grace…Grace?”
“Problem?” Lucas asked before I could.
“Sorry, I forgot to turn off comms,” Terry explained. He didn’t say any more.
“We’ve got it,” Winston said in my ear.
The light turned green, and we crept up to the intersection.
“Enlighten us,” Lucas demanded.
“It’s Aiden Pons, the COO at Knife Creek. The box has a recording of him agreeing to pay the EPA guy a ton to overlook falsified well tests on underground water quality and some test data that I’m guessing proves failures.”
“Jordy, where is he right now?” I barked.
