Utopian Day by C.L. Wells Page B

Silas
instructed.
    The alleyway led to a small open park where five
other streets dispersed.
    “ This is perfect,” Silas said out
loud.
    “ What do you mean?” Marty
replied.
    “ This is the perfect place to lose
a tail,” Silas replied. “Anyone following them would need to wait
to come down the alleyway or else they would be recognized. Once
they make it here, though, they have five choices to take them
where they really want to go. By the time anyone following them
makes it to the park, they are long gone.” Silas excitedly turned
to Marty. “O.k., here is what I want you to do. They will probably
use this same route every day. You stay here in the park on that
bench over there, facing the alleyway. Once they come out, make
sure you see which street they take next, but don’t make it
obvious. If this is going to work, they can’t know someone is onto
them. I’m going back to the bank and follow them from there as far
as the alley. I’ll call you when they leave the bank.”
     
     
    Back at the bank a short while later, Silas saw J.T.
Thornbacker and Nick Bartonovich get out of the car with their
escorts at 9:30 a.m. sharp. Nick was carrying a briefcase. The way
the two guards looked around, surveying the area, he would have bet
money they were former military. Silas drove slowly past the front
of the bank and was just able to see J.T. Thornbacker sit down on
one of the couches beside the central desk before he drove out of
range. He turned the van around and positioned it so he could see
their car clearly and follow them when they left.
    They were inside the bank for about fifteen minutes
before they came back out, got in the car, and drove away. Silas
thought it was odd that Mr. Thornbacker got in the back, while Nick
sat in the front. “They must not like each other very much,” Silas
thought to himself.
    He called Marty to let him know they were on their
way and followed them to the alleyway where Marty had lost them. He
kept his foot off of the accelerator after breaking as the car
carrying J.T. Thornbacker slowed to make the turn down the
alleyway. He wanted to coast past the alleyway slowly, without
needing to break and possibly draw attention to the van. As the
alleyway was almost out of his peripheral vision, he thought he saw
their tail lights go on. He quickly pulled over to the curb and got
out of the van, walking back in the direction of the alley. He
stopped and pretended to be window shopping in front of an old
antique store directly across from the alleyway. He tried to be
nonchalant as he studied the alleyway’s reflection in the store’s
large plate glass window.
    The car had indeed stopped. They were close enough
that he could tell that one of the passengers in the back was
putting something on the head of the man next to him. Then they
proceeded down the alleyway. A minute later, his phone rang.
    “ I see where dey go, Mr.
Silas.”
    “ Yeah, o.k., I’m coming to pick
you up.”
    As he drove down the alleyway, he stopped right
where the other car had stopped, got out of the van, and looked
around. There was nothing there. He processed what he had just
seen, trying to make sense out of it. In a few moments, it came to
him. “J.T. Thornbacker was kidnapped,” he said out loud. He smiled
as he jumped back in the van and drove down the alley to pick up
Marty.
    “ Did you see anything unusual
about one of the men in the back of the car?” he asked Marty, once
he was back inside the van.
    “ Yes, I did. One of dem had a
black cloth over his eyes.”
    “ Yes!” Silas exclaimed. “This is
good.”
    “ Why is dis good?” asked
Marty.
    “ J.T. was kidnapped!” Silas
exclaimed, proclaiming his earlier revelation as if he had just won
the pot at a poker game. “Why else would they blindfold him? Ole’
Nick Bartonovich kidnapped J.T. Thornbacker and is using him to get
the money out of the bank. That explains why he sent me down here
to get the bank documents, the blindfold, the