Page 127 of The Search

A door swinging shut?

Probably not. He’d been imagining sounds in this creaky old building all evening, Bill Ledwick thought. When you were as bored as he was, your imagination had a field day. He’d be glad to get back with the guys at the facility.

Better check the sound. Galen didn’t like anyone taking anything for granted.

He got up from his chair and moved down the long, dark corridor.

Silence except for the soft thud of his rubber soles on the marble floor.

He paused at the glass door of the record room. He stepped to one side and threw open the door. He waited a minute and then reached in and flipped on the light.

No one was in the room.

Of course not. Imagination.

Check. Just to make sure.

He moved to the file cabinet across the room and pulled open the drawer. He knew exactly where the file was kept. He’d checked it often enough.

He opened the file folder.

Shit!

“I heard from my man at the courthouse,” Galen said when he called Logan the next day. “The blueprints of the facility disappeared from the record department.”

Logan was silent a moment. “I thought that would happen. Rudzak’s not the type to rely on a truckload of dynamite parked near his target. No random hits for him. He wants to be sure of me.”

“Then he should have had his hired gun shoot you instead of Margaret.”

“That wouldn’t have satisfied him. It’s not a big enough statement. He wants to bury me at Dodsworth like I buried him in that prison. A final tribute to both him and Chen Li.”

“How is Margaret doing?”

“Not out of danger, but better. They’re going to let me see her in a few minutes. Her folks got in from San Francisco last night and they let her brothers visit her in intensive care.” He paused. “How’s Sarah?”

“A pain in my ass. She and Monty have been over every inch of the facility looking for cracks in my security. She knows emergency procedures better than my second-in-command, and I think she’s memorized every corridor in the damn building.”

“Did she find any cracks?”

There was a hesitation. “One. But it was more of a hairline fracture.”

“So she’s satisfied that Dodsworth’s safe?”

“Yes, but now she doesn’t see why Rudzak would persist in targeting it.”

“Tell her about the blueprints.”

“I’ll tell her. She may still worry about all your other facilities.”

“Your job is to keep her from worrying.”

“Until she makes another one of her four A.M. inspection tours.” His tone was distinctly sour. “I’d rather take care of Maggie. When are you coming to get her out of my hair?”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can, but I assure you that Rudzak isn’t going to start without me. No word from him?”

“Just the missing blueprints. That’s a pretty decisive statement. Give Margaret my best.” He hung up.

Logan slipped the phone in his pocket and headed for intensive care. It was no surprise that Sarah was giving Galen a hard time. She wouldn’t care how much she liked someone if it got in the way of her job and, in this case, her job was to keep Dodsworth from becoming a disaster area.