“He’s not far out of town, is he?” Eton murmured.
“None of us are,” she said. “It’s another reason we love living here. We are a very close-knit community. Except for this guy apparently.” She thought this over for a while. “You said a couple towns over, right?” Frowning, she continued. “We pretty well know everybody within a certain vicinity, so it will be distressing if it’s anybody I know.”
“It’s hard to say,” he said. “We’ve got question marks for certain people, but we’re not exactly sure who and what their involvement is, if any.”
“Who?”
He hesitated.
“I’ve lived here all my life, Eton,” she said. “If I can help you sort out the characters in this scenario, I’d be happy to.”
He quickly mentioned the playboy with the sports car.
She snorted at that. “Ugh. He’s an idiot,” she said. “He might take money to do a job, but it would have to be a simple position because he really can’t do anything more complicated.”
“Okay,” he said. “How simple?”
“Very. He could do the most basic of tasks. His focus is really on what’s between his legs,” she said dismissively.
“But, if he got into trouble, would he do something bigger in order to get out of it?”
She tilted her head and said, “He would do something bigger, if it meant elevating his lifestyle. He is really chafing at the bit because his parents cut back on his allowance.”
“And he’s got big car payments,” Eton said.
She looked at him. “Is that thing not paid for?”
He shook his head.
“Well, in that case, he might do something stupid,” she said. “Who else?”
“The owner of the security company.”
“Yeah, well, that’s another guy who is overly focused on his genitals.”
“Did either of these guys come on to you?”
“Both,” she said, with a wave of her hand. “Not my type.”
“And just what is your type?” he asked.
“Not babies and not men who don’t know how to handle themselves,” she said.
He nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
“Meaning?”
“I don’t think anybody would put me in those categories,” he said.
She smiled and said, “I agree. You are the last one I would think of along those lines.”
“Thanks,” he said, “that’s a compliment.”
“Well, if those two are the competition, the bar isn’t all that high. Just sayin’.”
He cracked up laughing, loving the spunk in this girl.
As he rounded a corner, she said, “That driveway up there leads to Joe’s place.”
Eton immediately shut off the lights and drove past the driveway. After they were well past, he turned around near the top of an incline, slowly drifting the vehicle downward.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’ll park, then get out and walk,” he said. “Text Joe, and tell him we are outside, taking a look around.”
She did, and, as soon as that was done, he pulled off onto the shoulder and said, “This is about as good of a hiding place as we’ll get,” he said.
“Yeah, and it’s not much of one,” she said.
“No, it sure isn’t, but that’s all there is.”
“Okay,” she said. “Now what?”
“Now we’ll get out and walk,” he said, “and this is when you have to pay attention to me and stay at my side. Otherwise, I’m leaving you here in the vehicle, and you’ll have to lie down and hide.”
She just stared at him.
“Right, so I guess you’re staying with me,” he said. “We’ll quietly walk up the road and come across the property up at the highest elevation and then down to Joe’s place. Did Joe answer you?”
She pulled out her phone and nodded. “Yeah, he sent me a thumbs-up.”
“Good,” he said. “Let’s go take a look.”
Just then her phone buzzed again. “Joe says the guy is up the hill.”
“Perfect,” he said. “Let’s see if we can flush him out.”
She hesitated, then he looked at her and said, “Your choices are to go into Joe’s house, stay in the car, or come with me.”
She frowned.
“Otherwise I’ll make the choice for you.”
“What would you prefer?”
“I would prefer you go into Joe’s,” he said.
“That’s not a bad idea. He is pretty unnerved, isn’t he?”
“He is, indeed, and with good reason.”
“Okay.” She hopped out and walked up the driveway, while Eton watched. He’d gotten out the same side of the vehicle, so he only had to open and to close one door, in case anybody was listening. Once outside, he smiled, as she walked up to Joe’s door and knocked. Joe let her in, and, after she was safely inside, Eton raced up the road and around the corner.
Inside, Joe looked at her and asked, “Where is Eton?”
“He’s checking out the hill up above.”
Joe nodded with relief. “Good,” he said. “I don’t like a whole lot about this.”
“Tell me what’s going on,” she said, and he filled her in on the strangeness going on during his overnight shift up at the townhome site. “Interesting,” she murmured. “And how did you meet Eton?”
He told her, and she wasn’t at all surprised because she’d seen Eton as that kind of guy. Although it might have been a business deal, more for information than anything, but she didn’t tell Joe that. Besides, it still came from the same place, which was from Eton’s heart.
“Well, let him check it out,” she said. “Then we should be good to go.”
“You’re sure he is safe?”
“No,” she said, “but I’m betting my life on it.”
“Exactly,” he said. “I guess that’s why I called.”
*
Eton slipped out into the darkness, away from the house to take a good look around. No reason for anybody to be here bothering Joe, but that didn’t mean that assholes didn’t unite for a cause and usually the wrong one. With Sammy safely inside with Joe, Eton quickly swept around the outside area, checking the trees, looking all around the area to see if anybody was keeping an eye on him. Sammy had mentioned a stranger outside her house last night as well. But why?
Was that related to Annie’s husband or was that something else completely? Because no doubt things could get confused when multiple issues arose. That Joe was here and that he’d received a threat and didn’t want to go to work tonight was obvious. But, if he didn’t go, that would also send off some alarms. They needed to avoid that as well.
Things were coming to a crunch, but Eton wasn’t sure if any of the issues were connected to his case. That was a frustrating thing when you had a lot of different seemingly unconnected threats happening. Like now. But he felt a kinship with Joe, who was just trying to help out his family. He seems to have gotten caught in something that was particularly ugly.