Chapter Twenty-One
NEARLY A WEEK LATER, CORDELIA PARKED HER CAR, HEADLIGHTS OFF, in the middle of the brush country, a mile away from the Abernathy compound. Thanks to a conversation Daisy had overhead between Edna and Beatrice St. James at Tilly’s Closet, they knew the fake midnight auction invitation had worked. They just had to sit tight and wait for Corbin to leave.
As soon as the pinpricks of light from his pickup truck disappeared into the vast plains on the way into town, Cordelia moved her car into Abernathy territory. It would take Corbin ten minutes to pick up Edna from his home base, and another hour from there to reach Crystal Creek. That bought them roughly an hour and a half to break in, search for evidence, and make their exit with plenty of time to spare. Hopefully, without Corbin being any the wiser.
Cordelia parked behind the largest building, a giant warehouse with a tin roof and corrugated walls. They had nothing but endless miles of flat plains, scrub grass, and sky at their backs. A safety precaution in case anyone came up the main road by surprise.
Arline’s orthopedic shoes crunched on the hard-packed gravel behind the smallest building, a wooden structure that looked like a double-wide storage shed. Cordelia stood beside her with her hands on her hips as she surveyed the property.
None of them had ever gotten so close to the parcel of land the Abernathys protected like rabid dogs. They assumed a workspace of some kind had been built, which accounted for the large, shadowy structure that rose from the earth like the sole tomb in a long-abandoned cemetery. They hadn’t been prepared for the smaller buildings that had been camouflaged by the warehouse. Or all the heavy machinery.
“What do you suppose this is about?” Cordelia nodded toward the rows of metal rods lined up on the ground, along with pieces of what looked like a pulley system.
“Oil.” Arline sniffed like she could smell it in the wind. “He’s got all the pieces for a rig right here. He’s probably just waiting for the permits to start building.”
“Or access to the right parcel of land,” Belinda Sue said, a sneer curling her lip as she stood on Cordelia’s opposite side. “I’m thinking this here is the real reason why he wants to get his hands on the Chickadee so bad.”
“There’s oil on Chickadee land?” Cordelia asked.
“Penelope thought there might be,” Belinda Sue said. “Of course, she also thought there was an abandoned gold mine and buried treasure from Gulf pirates too. The Chickadee’s got a whole host of legends around it, but none of them have ever been proven.”
Cordelia gestured at the scene laid out before them. “Obviously, Corbin thinks some of the legends are true, but he seems to be banking an awful lot on a rumor.”
“I don’t think this is strictly bankrolled by Corbin,” Belinda Sue said. “The Abernathys have always made their fortune in land development. Oil isn’t a casual side hobby. This looks like it’s got someone else’s fingerprints on it.”
“Who?” Cordelia asked.
“Only one way to find out.” Arline took a step forward, andBelinda Sue yanked on the back of her zebra-print caftan, dragging her back.
“We’re not having a repeat of that whole debacle with the church,” Belinda Sue said. “Save your bulling for someone else’s china shop. Daisy’s got this one.”
Daisy came rushing forward, waving a small metal box in her hand. “It’s been a minute since I picked a lock, but I’m sure it’s like riding a bike.”
Cordelia didn’t know how Daisy had learned to pick locks, or why she’d needed to use that particular skill often enough for it to become as habitual as bike riding, but that was one of those questions she’d learned not to ask. Nine times out of ten, she regretted knowing the answers.
The four of them approached the warehouse first. Cordelia held her phone’s flashlight up, while Daisy went to work on the giant padlock securing a set of chains wound tight around a pair of rolling metal doors. From the Chickadee, this building had looked so squat and unimpressive, but up close it was large enough to house a few planes.
Daisy muttered to herself as she dug around in the lock, waiting for the telltale click. A bead of sweat rolled down her temple. Cordelia chewed on a hangnail, trying not to put too much pressure on Daisy, but every second they spent trying to get into the warehouse was a second of searching time they lost. And they still had three more office buildings to check.
Letting loose an annoyed grunt, Arline clomped around to the other side of the warehouse. The grinding squeal of rusty hinges split the night air.
“If y’all are done playing with that lock, there’s an open window back here one of you could climb into,” Arline hollered.
Cordelia rushed around the corner with Daisy and Belinda Sue on her heels. Arline stood on a metal barrel and had a windowsix feet off the ground pushed all the way open. It would require a certain amount of upper-arm strength to pull herself up there, but Cordelia was likely the only one of them who could attempt it. She hadn’t forgotten how long it took the four of them to drag the pastor’s body to her car.
“Why don’t I peek around in here, while Daisy tries the locks on the smaller buildings?” Cordelia offered Arline her hand so she could take her place on the barrel. “If we split up, we can cover more ground and get out of here sooner.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Belinda Sue said.
The chicks left Cordelia with the warehouse while they went off to tinker with the smaller office buildings. She grabbed the sides of the window, wincing as she sliced her finger on a wayward nail. Throwing one leg onto the sill, Cordelia gripped the upper edges of the opening and pushed her arms back. Her muscles tightened, making her skin stretch as she seesawed her way in. Kicking her other leg against the corrugated shell of the warehouse, she tried to find purchase. Her bones burned from the strain, but she managed to pull herself up.
She dropped through the opening. Her ankle bent and her bone smacked the concrete floor as she landed at an awkward angle, but nothing snapped. She remained steady on her feet, with adrenaline keeping pain at bay. Dust particles floated in the air and she sneezed. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, but a series of high windows and skylights allowed plenty of moonlight to cast a silvery glow on the cavernous space.
Most of the open warehouse was taken up by more machinery, likely related to drilling. Cordelia had never seen land rigs in pieces before, so she couldn’t be sure, but the equipment looked new and expensive. Corbin and Edna had money by Sarsaparilla Falls standards, but they weren’t rich enough to eat their laying hens. So who was footing the bill?
And what had they promised in return?
Along the back wall, a long metal table built into the structure ran the length of the warehouse. Various papers and receipts littered the surface. Cordelia pulled out her phone and snapped pictures of everything scattered across the desk. She didn’t pause to read anything or parse out the relevant from the useless. They’d already burned through at least half an hour and she had no idea if the chicks were having any luck with the other buildings.
