As they drove away, Cordelia kept checking the rearview mirror just to be sure a black sedan didn’t suddenly make its way down Edna’s street. She exhaled when all remained quiet. Pulling onto the highway, she drove the long stretch out to Sean O’Leary’s home.
He lived a good forty minutes away in the town of Catterwood, a small community not unlike Sarsaparilla Falls. The mark of his influence could be felt in the worn-down building fronts, pawnshops, and liquor stores. In the distance, large oil derricks dotted the horizon. Catterwood’s charm had been eaten away by the vast wealth and power of one man.
There was so much he deserved to be put away for.
They parked down the street from Sean’s home, a grand palace with white pillars and a gray stone facade with prize-winning hydrangeas bordering his walkway. Arline knew the layout and the codes, and Daisy knew how to pick locks, so they decided the two of them would accompany Cordelia into his lair. Belinda Sue would stay behind to keep watch and be their getaway vehicle if needed.
Both Arline and Cordelia wore all black, but they went in the back just to be safe, though Sean didn’t have many neighbors—the perk of breaking into the home of someone who valued his privacy. Not so much as a single curtain ruffled as they slipped into his backyard.
The glow coming off the pool cast an eerie light over their surroundings. Mixed with the faint light from the moon, they could see just enough to move about without standing out themselves. The porch lights hadn’t been turned on, and Cordelia hoped that was a sign that he hadn’t yet made it back from the brush country. Or maybe Archer’s man had picked him up, and he was still being held for questioning.
Arline punched in the security code to disable the alarm and Daisy went to work on the lock, making much faster progress than she had at the Abernathy compound. Her hands didn’t shake this time around either. She came prepared to end this.
Once they were inside, Cordelia grabbed Arline by the elbow.“I’m begging you to ignore your instinct to steal just this once. We need to keep it clean this time.”
“I know that,” Arline snapped. “I already snagged the codes to this house, I can come back anytime I want.”
While that didn’t necessarily set Cordelia’s mind at ease, at least she knew Arline wouldn’t take anything now. They couldn’t give Sean an excuse to claim a break-in or a frame job. It would ruin everything if he had even the smallest crack to slither through.
Not bothering to take in the fine furnishings or the ornate details that made up his home’s impressive interior, the three of them followed Arline directly to his office. A large safe that looked straight from the 1800s stood against one wall. His desk was easily three times the size of the pastor’s, with a shiny black surface that seemed to reflect tiny specks of light.
The top drawer closest to the high-back leather chair was open and Cordelia slipped the vial of palytoxin inside. She was just about to shut the drawer when a dusty book with an ancient cracked cover caught her eye. Peeling open the lid with careful fingers, afraid the whole thing might crumble to dust, she scanned the first few pages. There was a map leading to what appeared to be a cave about twenty miles outside of town. A series ofX’s marked with barely legible symbols dotted the yellowing paper, along with daily excerpts. Cordelia only caught a few sentences before closing the book again, but she’d been right about the cave. The entries were clearly written by a miner who had settled in Sarsaparilla Falls when it was brand-new.
This must’ve been the journal Sean O’Leary had stolen from Porter Sheldon.
Cordelia slipped the book into the pocket she’d sewn into her skirt, feeling like a downright hypocrite for stealing afterthe lecture she’d given Arline, but she figured the journal was an exception. Sean could hardly report it stolen seeing as he had stolen it himself. And perhaps Cordelia could finally get a look at what made Chickadee land so valuable there were people willing to kill to get their hands on it.
The slamming of a car door out front caught their attention. A dog started barking, followed by a series of commands to heel, as well as rushed apologies. The commotion allowed the three of them to rush out the back, past the side gate, and into the neighbor’s yard without being detected. They hid behind a rosebush and watched the lights come on in Sean O’Leary’s home.
If they’d been even another ten minutes, he would’ve caught them. Cordelia still didn’t believe in divine intervention, but she couldn’t chalk everything up to coincidence either.
Quiet as a church mouse, Belinda Sue rolled the car up to the neighbors’, and Cordelia, Daisy, and Arline hopped in. She then drove to the end of the street and parked behind a large clump of bushes. Cordelia called the anonymous tip in to the local sheriff’s office, as well as the FBI. Then they sat there in silence as the flashing lights barreled down the street.
And just like that, the fear and uncertainty that had been plaguing them was over. Several officers from the state police had arrived and argued with the local police. His notoriety ended up being his downfall, and it seemed everyone wanted a piece.
An hour later, Cordelia’s heart thumped hard against her chest as she watched Archer pull up to Sean’s home. As he led Sean out in handcuffs, she could’ve sworn his eyes squinted in the direction of their car and a slow grin ate up half his face. This probably wouldn’t fully repair what had broken between them, but she had a feeling this would be one time where he’d let a little dishonesty from her slide.
Daisy pulled out a pack of gummy worms. “You should go talk to him.”
“Talk to who?” Cordelia pulled a pair of binoculars out of the glove compartment. A handy leftover from her brief bird-watching days.
A man in a brown uniform stopped to intervene in Archer’s arrest. Cordelia adjusted the lenses to get a closer look at the man. He had a holster and a badge. He might’ve been the sheriff of Catterwood, and he didn’t look too pleased. Archer’s firm stance, his refusal to back down, and the way he owned the scene sent a pleasant flutter through her stomach. Maybe things weren’t completely over yet.
Daisy nudged Cordelia’s shoulder. “You know who. He was lookin’ over here.”
“You think now is a good time for that?”
“Maybe not.” Daisy bit the head off her gummy worm. “He sure knows how to take command though, am I right?”
Cordelia didn’t respond, but a small smile played across her lips.
She went back to observing with her binoculars just as the argument with the sheriff appeared to be over. A few more members of the FBI showed up and started hauling boxes out the front door. Hopefully they contained enough evidence to put him away for a good long while. By that point, the sheriff couldn’t do much more than stay on their heels, yapping like an overzealous dog while the feds went over his head.
“What do you suppose he has on that sheriff?” Belinda Sue asked.
“Who knows,” Cordelia said. As far as she was concerned, if he wasn’t a threat to the Chickadee, he didn’t much matter. Catterwood could deal with him.
“Give me a week,” Arline said.
