The sheriff on the other end of the line grunted. “Let me make a few phone calls and I’ll get back with you.”
“Thanks, Sheriff. I’ll be waiting.” He punched the button on the phone again and turned to the woman.
“Why would they keep something like that quiet?” Ingrid wondered.
“A bigger question would behowthey were able to keep it all under wraps,” G8 noted. Seeing Ingrid staring at her hands in her lap, he added, “Is it possible the fire was contained to only a small section? And the rest of the labs are still intact?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know what to think anymore. I just know it looked like the whole building was evacuating. The place was a madhouse.”
“It’s also possible that everyone was promised a limited number of weeks’ pay in the event they were unexpectedly let go.” Biggs rubbed his cheek. “Miss Shyne, have you received any additional pay since you left?”
She shook her head. “Not that I know of, but we get paid monthly. On the last day of the month.”
G8 checked the desk calendar above the sheriff’s blotter. “Which isn’t for another few days. Is it possible those people from the labs haven’t discovered the babies are missing?”
“After nine days?” Biggs snorted.
G8 clarified what he meant. “Isn’t it possible that whoever went back to get them and found them already gone, is it possible they think someone else got them?”
“Someone elsedidget them,” the sheriff countered.
“That someone else on their team got them and is waiting to be told what to do with them,” G8 insisted. “Not that someone on their team basically kidnapped them and handed them over to the authorities, which is thelastthing the labs needed to happen.” He ran his palm over his bald head. “I’m sorry I’m not making myself clear.”
“I understand what you’re trying to say,” Ingrid told him. “You’re thinking the lab people aren’t concerned right now about the babies because they believe one of their own managed to save them.”
“But I’m guessing that’s all about to change, if it hasn’t already,” Biggs remarked. “There’s been enough time gone by for them to realize that no onehas the infants, and they’re starting to get panicky. It won’t be long before they put a target onyourback because you’re not answering your phone. Speaking of…” He held a hand out to her. “Let me have it.”
“My phone?”
“Yeah. Gimme.” He crooked his fingers twice.
She pulled her phone from her purse and gave it to him.
“G8, go out and get the mop bucket from the janitor’s closet. Fill it a few inches with water from the water fountain and bring it back here.”
G8 hurried to comply. He remembered seeing a door marked CUSTODIAL in the hallway when they were returning from the gym. The door was unlocked, and he grabbed a blue bucket off the metal shelf rack, emptying the rags left inside. A quick trip to the water fountain, and he took it back to the sheriff’s office where Biggs promptly dropped the phone into the water. Taking the bucket from him, the man set it on the floor behind his desk.
“Now that that’s been taken care of, I suggest you get a burner phone. It comes with a temporary, non-traceable phone number. Phil sells them down at the mercantile. Oh, and use cash. No more credit cards from here on out until I give the okay.”
“What if I don’t have enough cash on me?”
“Tell him to charge it to me. You can pay me back when you get the chance.” He gave Ingrid a stern look. “You sure the last time you used that phone was yesterday?”
“Yes. I called my OB-GYN to cancel an appointment.”
Biggs pursed his lips as he thought. “Then it’s possible those people know you were in Bakkonville after they discovered you were not at your place. But you haven’t called your folks since you left there and came here, correct?”
The young woman shot him a nervous look before peering up at G8. There was undeniable fear in her blue eyes, and he knew why. “You called them to let them know you’d arrived here, didn’t you?” he gently asked.
“I didn’t call them. I texted them,” she admitted.
“Shit. Then those people know where you are,” G8 said, remembering what Cydney had told them about the authorities being able to track cell phone usage through phone towers.
He turned to the sheriff. “If they’re already aware of where she is, then there isn’t much sense in having her avoid using her credit cards, is there?”
“You’re probably right,” Biggs agreed. “Miss Shyne, you might as well put as much on those cards and take as much cash out on them as you can, and as soon as possible before the banks cancel them.”
“They can do that?” she asked, aghast.
