Missouri Loves Company (Rip Lane Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

the orange key, and then closes her fist around the key.
    “Well look at that,” I said to Olga. “Anna used two lockers. She must have given me the key to the empty locker, while she kept the key to the other locker, the one that held her duffel bag.”
    “Why would she have done that?” Olga said.
    “So she could set me up for the fall.”

CHAPTER 14
     
     
    “Y OU THINK A NNA set you up?”
    “It’s looking that way, Olga.”
    “How’d she do that?”
    “By making those two goons think I had the locker key.”
    “You mean the key for the locker with her duffel bag in it.”
    “Yeah, that’s what I mean. Dammit, how could I be so stupid.”
    “How’d she make them think you had the key?”
    “You’ll see on the video, come on, let’s watch the rest.”
    Olga hit the PLAY button on the DVR remote.
    We watched the next part of the video.
    On the screen Anna is walking toward me. Her hands are empty. The duffel bag is nowhere in sight. Anna resumes her seat on the bench beside me. We talk. Then she holds up an orange locker key. She holds it up high enough for everybody in the bus station to see.
    “Right there,” I said to Olga as I waggled my finger at the monitor. “That’s when Anna set me up. She wanted those two goons to see that key in her hand. And she wanted them to see me taking it from her.”
    “Why would she want that?” Olga said, and hit the PAUSE button.
    “Because if I’m the one holding the key, those two guys’ll come after me instead of her. I’m guessing they know Anna, and they know what’s in the duffel bag, and they want whatever it is. I think Anna recognized them at the bus station. I think she knew what they wanted. I think she got scared, and decided to set me up.”
    “What’d you ever do to her?”
    “I did her a favor. Let that be a lesson.”
    We watched more of the video.
    On the screen I take the key from Anna’s hand. I put it in my pocket. The two guys in Armani suits start to eye me. I sip my coffee and talk to Anna. I sip my coffee again while Anna casually glances at the two thugs. Then she and I talk some more. After a while Anna rises from the bench to go to the ladies’ room. While she is gone I keep an eye on the two goons. One of them is watching the door to the ladies’ room, and the other one is watching me. Anna is gone a long time. Finally I get up from the bench, walk to the ladies’ room, and knock on the door. When nobody answers I ask a woman to check on Anna. The woman checks the ladies’ room. Anna is not in there. Nobody is. So I enter the ladies’ room to search for clues.
    “The window in there was open,” I told Olga.
    She nodded, and we continued to watch the video.
    On the screen I come out of the ladies’ room. I look around the bus station for a moment. Then I exit through a glass door. Outside I get on the bus to Topeka, which is parked close to the glass door, close enough to be seen by the security camera. A minute or so passes before I get off the bus. When the bus drives away I take an orange locker key from my pocket. I walk quickly to the lockers. I open one. Empty. No duffel bag. I close the locker door and leave the key in the lock. I scan the bus station for the two goons, but I don’t see them anywhere. I exit through a glass door into the parking lot. The goons come out from behind a pillar, exit through the same glass door, and follow me into the parking lot.
    “They must have followed me back to the campground last night,” I said to Olga.
    “And broke into your motor home this morning,” she said.
    I didn’t say anything. I was thinking.
    Olga didn’t say anything either. Maybe she was thinking too.
    I rubbed my chin with a thumb.
    “Olga,” I said finally, “fast forward the video.”
    “How far?”
    “Not sure. I’ll let you know when to stop.”
    We watched the images skitter rapidly across the screen. Less than a minute later I told Olga to stop the video. I had spotted Anna on the screen.