Henry Wood: Time and Again: (29 page)

“You had Patrick killed?”

“No, it was pretend. In fact, Patrick is fine. They kept him in another room after that and the Greek man and he started talking about art and fencing art. It turns out they knew some of the same people. Patrick is traveling back to Greece with the ‘Eye’ and its protectors. He even sent some men around to collect Patrick’s stuff from his apartment.”

“I’m glad.” She filled her glass up and continued listening

“After the Patrick ‘killing’, I wanted her to stew for a while. We set up the meeting for ten o’clock in the meat packing district, because it would be quiet by then. I knew this would seem reasonable to Hans and Arthur and they went for it. What I didn’t know is they would try to double cross me. They planned to rob the Greek guys, after they had the ‘Eye’. What they didn’t know is that three of the guys they called to help, were my buddies. Remember the three guys I told you about at the wake? The one’s who worked for Father Patrick?”

“Yes, they had leather coats, thought they were tough, until you roughed them up.” She said with a twinkle in her eye.

“Those are the guys. They called me as soon as they got their marching orders. So I called the Greek man and explained what was going on. He had been making sure Katarina didn’t get any good sleep, so she was going to be tired and less likely to see my bluff. I still wanted to wait until after ten to confront her. I had to take a gamble. I told my Greek friend that I was ready to give him the ‘Eye’ now, if he would only bring a couple of guys, and keep it quiet. He agreed. The room where it was hidden wasn’t used by anyone. We couldn’t really smash down the wall, which had been my original plan, so we had to find the trigger to open the room. I have to give the magician credit, it was well hidden. It took an hour, but we found it. He and his men quietly loaded it into their truck. Nobody seemed to notice or care that a big box was being moved, as it was pretty busy on the loading dock. “

“Where did they take it?”

“I don’t know and didn’t ask. After it was in the truck, he shook my hand, and gave me this.” Henry pulled out a ring with an insignia on it. “I’m an honorary ‘Thorstian’.”

Luna looked at the ring, grinned, and handed it back to Henry. “I won’t tell anyone.”

“He kept his end of the bargain. He showed up to the meeting, followed in the car, and went through everything we had set up. The difference was, they didn’t need to mess around with getting the ‘Eye’, so they went out the back and slipped into the night. They didn’t need the truck anymore, so they left it on the loading dock, so as not to tip off Arthur and Hans.”

“So how did you get all the cops to show up so quickly? Mike said it was an impressive arrest.”

“Between the time we found the ‘Eye’ and the ten o’clock meeting, I brought the chief up to speed. Mike and I went to his office and I told him the entire plan. He had about a dozen men in the building, before we even got there. He even got two cops who spoke Greek, to replace the guys watching Katarina. Of course, they knew that my young friends were on our side, so as to avoid any problems. There was a fourth guy, who took off, before everything got crazy. I don’t know who he was. Sorry, I got off track. So basically it all came down to the calls. I dialed the chief and put on a show. I didn’t think she was going to crack, but we got her to rat out Arthur as the killer. Once she fingered him, they gave the signal and Arthur and Hans put their double cross into play. I wish I could have seen their face when they snuck into the building to find themselves surround by New York’s finest.”

“How do you know that Arthur really did it? She could have been lying.”

“I have to give credit to Mickey. In his notes he mentioned that Arthur smoked a rare brand of Turkish cigarette. He was smoking them while we were waiting for the Greek men to arrive, so we could drive them to the hiding place. They were the same cigarettes which had piled up at the scene. I had him, but I needed to hear it from Katarina.”

Henry took a long drink of his beer. He didn’t say if he needed it to make a stronger case for the DA, or just for his own piece of mind. Luna didn’t ask. There were other strings which hadn’t been tied up, like who killed the two guys who brought it over, or who shot Randy, but Henry didn’t care. He had found the truth.

Henry and Luna sat and held hands. Nothing else needed to be said.

***

Dear Reader,

Thanks so much for giving
Henry Wood: Time & Again
a read. I hope you enjoyed getting to know Henry and his friends.

This is the second of the
Henry Wood Detective
series. Book one,
Henry Wood Detective Agency
and book three,
Henry Wood: Perception
, are both available from Amazon.

If you’d like to know when book four,
Henry Wood: Edge of Understanding
, is released, I’d invite you to sign up for my mailing list (Hint, it’s coming in early April 2014). Don’t worry, though, I won’t sell your names or send too many notices to your inbox. I reserve it for announcements regarding my new novel releases.

Http://extremelyaverage.com/newsletter/

There is one question which I’m asked all the time…why is there a closet to the future in your novels?

On Jan 2, 2010, I wrote my first blog post about my foibles in learning woodworking. It was well received and so I wrote another post the following day.

When Jan 30th rolled around I hadn’t missed a single day. On that day I hadn’t been able do any woodworking, but I didn’t want to break my streak, so I decided to write the first chapter of a noir mystery.

Naturally, I named my protagonist Henry Wood and of course he loved woodworking. I mean, I did write a woodworking blog, so those were nods to my readers. The only thing I had done relating to woodworking that day was to buy a Bosche router.

I had mentioned that I was considering the router purchase so I included the time travel closet as a way to get my router from 2010 back to 1955. When I wrote the first chapter (actually chapter two in
Henry Wood Detective Agency
) I didn’t imagine I’d ever write any more of the story.

My woodworking friends wanted to know what happened next, so every time I needed a post, I’d add a bit more to the story. I ended up accidentally writing four Henry Wood Novels and I’m currently working on the fifth.

So that’s the story of how a time travel closet ended up in my detective stories.

Sincerely,

Brian D. Meeks

***

This is a work of fiction. The characters, events, and story contained within, are created within the fertile imagination of the author. Any resemblance to persons, whether living or dead, or any events, are purely coincidental. Except for the cat, Buttons. The author had a cat very much like Buttons. Buttons was awesome.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means electronic, mechanical, printing, photocopying, recording, chiseling in stone, or otherwise, without the written permission from the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. For information regarding permission contact the publisher.

Copyright© 2013 by Brian D. Meeks All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-9851046-3-4

***

About the Author

The author can be found at his blog, http://ExtremelyAverage.com or on Twitter @ExtremelyAvg. His bio on Twitter sums him up well. “I love being a novelist, am obsessed with my blog, college football, and occasionally random acts of napping. I also Mock! Will follow cats & guinea pigs.”

***

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