Otter Under Fire (17 page)

“So what is this place?”

“It’s a big playground,” Joel said with a grin. “With an exclusive membership, let’s go get your gear stashed and I’ll show you around.”

The bathroom was clean and efficient, toilets, sinks, showers and lockers. Otter put her things in the designated locker and went back out to meet Joel.

“Ok, now loop the lanyard though one of your belt loops and secure it and then put the key and the card in your pocket. Then it’s out of the way and secure.”

She did as he instructed.

“You dressed appropriately, that’s a good thing.” Otter looked down at her well-worn work boots, blue jeans and V-neck red stretchy t-shirt. She’d dressed for comfort and what she assumed would be scrambling around in a race-car like environment.

“You were pretty clear on where we were going, what did you think I would wear?”

“We’ve had people show up in short shorts and halter tops.”

“At the go kart place, you get in free if you dress like that.”

Joel snorted. “And how would you know that?”

“It’s on all the bathroom advertisements around town.” When he gave her a blank look, she explained, “A lot of small restaurants and bars have these signs in all their bathroom stalls and one of the advertisements is for the go kart places. True story,” she said as he shook his head.

They stepped out of the office area and into a large arena, lit by fluorescent lights all the way across. In a corral were some of the strangest vehicles Otter had ever seen. She wanted to get a closer look but Joel ushered her past them.

“You’ll get to look at those in a bit. This is our arena we can do the buggies, hand to hand, tractor pulls and gladiator combat, whatever we want here.”

“Do you get many gladiators?”

“We get our share.”

“That would be something to see.”

“It is. Over on the far side, there are gyms for working out, the men’s john and locker room, a flight simulator and some other types of war game rooms.”

“This is quite a place.”

“I’m not done yet. In the back, under the bridge there are the garages for the buggies’ mechanical issues. There is a machine shop and all the maintenance equipment, the computer geek room and a huge pool that’s accessible from both the men’s and the women’s locker rooms.”

“Nice.”

“Out back is a hangar and we have repair facilities for jets, old bombers and some helicopters.”

“This is so cool.”

“It’s a place where people can be themselves and do things they enjoy. The control office is up there,” He gestured up to a glass wall set up near the roof. “And they control the air strip and the grounds.”

“What is that?”

“You could call it security. Nobody comes on the grounds that aren’t supposed to.”

“Did you ever have to decline membership to someone or throw someone out?”

“Once in a while,” he said easily. “A couple of other things to remember, you will notice that there are no steps and all the door handles are levers that are easy to push up and down. We are completely accessible to people missing body parts. Absolute courtesy is expected.”

“Of course,”

“And everyone’s name tag and key card gives their rank, branch of service and ribbons, just as if they had their uniform on. Your tag says civilian guest—but you are a widow of a serviceman. People here know that you aren’t actually military, but you deserve respect. It helps that everyone here knows you don’t know military hierarchy so if you screw up, nobody shoots you.”

“Are they likely to?”

“Almost everyone here has weapons. Sometimes they bring them, sometimes they don’t, but they probably won’t shoot you.” He grinned, “I just wanted to see if I could get a rise out of you.”

“Nearly everyone I work with packs,” Otter said. “They don’t think I know it, and I can’t frisk them without probably cause, but I’m sure of it.”

“It doesn’t bother you?”

“If some crazy comes in guns blazing, he won’t be shooting long.”

“You’re that confident in your people?”

“About half of them are ex-military. Some of them are probably members here. Not worried a bit. The only one there expressly forbidden by Michael himself is Ron Defray because he can be such an idiot. He wears an empty holster as an act of defiance.”

“Sounds like a great guy.”

“Not even a little bit, very much like plutonium.”

“What does that mean?”

“Oh, shit, I forgot to tell you. I found a code in Clark’s list. I was going to call you last night, but it was late. I figured I would see you today and you could contact your merry men and maybe we could take a look at it. It’s a really interesting puzzle.”

“My what?” Joel said with a delighted laugh as he looked down at her.

Oops.

“Ah, I was just being a smart ass,” Otter said, “I tend to be one.”

“Gee, would that make me Robin Hood?”

“I would hope not. I don’t think stealing from the rich as all that noble.”

“You don’t?”

“No, I think that stopping thieves and evil deeds is noble. I think stealing from the rich and giving to the poor is just an excuse for bad manners.”

Joel laughed again. “I’m sure that Graham and Troy are in the building and I assure you we don’t steal from anyone. We’ll have a look at your decoded list after we take a run around the buggy course.”

The buggies were awesome. They had more horsepower than a go kart, the frame was a carbon-graphite material held together with the most innovative joints Otter had ever seen. The seat was like a gyroscope inside the frame, the driver’s weight would always keep the seat upright, no matter if the car flipped or cartwheeled.

The buggies were amazing, but the course was beyond belief. There were bridges, underground tunnels, caverns, mazes and many other obstacles and diversions. There was even a jump ramp that Otter had to try just once. It was with great reluctance several hours later that Otter followed Joel back into the warehouse to put the buggy away.

“That was a lot of fun,” she told Joel as he helped climbed out of her rigging.

“Glad you liked it,” he said, “I’ll have to bring you back again some time.” They stood face to face and the energy between them began to hum. Otter’s heart began to pound and her knees started to go weak. She looked up into his smoky gray eyes and he cupped his hand on the side of her face and bent toward her.

“Hey Joel!” Otter looked over and saw Graham coming toward them.

“Oh boy,” Otter said.

“Steady,” Joel said and winked at her. He turned to Graham.

“What’s up?”

“Hey, Otter,” Graham said.

“Hey back at you.” Otter said weakly and held on to a buggy frame for support.

“Troy’s got us a table upstairs,” Graham said. “He’s waiting for us.”

“A table?” Otter asked and looked at Joel.

“We have a mess hall upstairs. They have mainly sandwiches and some salads. It’s all pretty basic stuff.” Joel said.

“Ah, ok, just give me a minute to go get the list,” She said, still feeling a little unsteady.

“We’ll meet you upstairs in about ten.” Joel said to Graham.

“Okey Dokey,” Graham said and headed toward the ramp.

“Now to finish what we started.” Joel said pulling her toward him.

“Is that allowed here?”

“It is when nobody is looking.” He kissed her soundly. She responded and it felt so good, like waves on the beach good, like a good stretch after a refreshing nap good. Like if she didn’t stop soon, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from ripping off his clothes good. Joel really knew how to kiss.

She pulled away and smiled up at him. “We’d better not keep the merry men waiting.

He grinned down at her. It occurred to him he was grinning and laughing a lot more lately. “Certainly, we don’t want them to become suspicious, do we?”

“Definitely not.”

“So this Clark guy embedded a code into the list?” Troy asked as he looked at his copy.

“It looks like it.” Otter answered. “He assigned an element to everyone at the shop, except hydrogen which is a name he has in code I think. I spent some time unscrambling everyone’s names and sifting through all the extra crap. Although I can’t be certain, it looks like he assigned the elements to each person as a personal statement. He has his wife assigned to gold.”

“And you to zirconium. He must think you’re important.” Graham said.

“He wanted me to figure out this puzzle if he couldn’t finish it. I don’t think he thought he’d be murdered, I think he thought he would die of his cancer.”

“He has someone named Chuck Nolan assigned to lead.” Joel said.

“I think it’s because he thought he was dead weight.” Otter said.

“Or that he was a shield.” Graham said. “A lot of deadly things can’t get through lead. Or the end of the radiation, many radioactive elements work their way back to lead.”

“He took Nolan’s knife from him. Do you think he took it for protection instead of just punishment?”

“You said almost everyone there has a gun, what about Clark?” Joel asked.

“I know he could shoot,” Otter said thoughtfully, “I know that Greg didn’t find a gun in his office when he cleaned it out.”

“Maybe the person he was worried about knew he had a gun but wouldn’t expect a knife.” Troy said.

“Possible,” Otter said. “Very possible.”

“And this Ron Defray guy is plutonium. He really didn’t like the guy, did he?”

“Not a bit.” Otter said. “He’s a rather unpleasant person. So was Clark when you got down to it, but he was way smarter than I gave him credit for.”

“There’s another anagram of your boss’s name next to einsteinium, number 99.” Troy said.

“Maybe because he’s so intelligent,” Otter said, “Clark thought very highly of him.”

“I’ll be right back.” Graham said and he raced out of the room.

“What’s up with him?” Otter asked.

The other two shrugged.

“He thought of something,” Troy said. “We’ll find out in a few minutes.”

They went through more of the names and talked about meanings, Graham came back about 15 minutes later. He had several packages of colored 3x5 index cards and some Sharpies.

“OK, if there was ever a reason to make a deck of cards, this would be it.” He announced.

“I thought the same thing,” Otter said.

“Blue for Noble gasses,” he said.

“The people not involved.” Troy nodded.

“Green for metals,” Graham continued.

“The majority of the people at the shop,” Otter said.

“Pink for non-metals,” and Graham continued to assign colors and the four of them wrote out cards to correspond to each element in the chart.

“The two hydrogens are the same guy,” Joel said. “Do you know him Otter?”

“Never heard of him, he could have been there and gone before me.”

“That wouldn’t make sense,” Troy said. “This seems to be contemporary.”

“A lot of these look like made up names to start with so that at first glance you would think there were a lot of people involved.”

“I like good old ‘John Smith’ myself,” Graham said with a grin. “That’s such an American name.”

“I blew it off to be honest,” Otter said. “I thought he had so many people involved that it was overwhelming.”

“He put out a lot of protective coloring. He didn’t want someone to casually figure out what he was doing.”

“Look at the last name,” Otter said, “number 119, tratorium. We all know that’s not a real element.”

“Well shit guys, look at the name next to it,” Troy said.

“I don’t know who this is,” Otter said. “I have no idea why he would be on this list. I don’t think we’ve ever had anyone with that name at the shop.”

“Jameson Pennell,” Joel said softly. “Could it be?”

Otter looked up at the three men and they were glancing at each other in silent communication.

“OK, you guys, what is going on?”

“Are we going to tell her?” Graham asked Joel.

“Are we?” Troy asked Joel.

Funny that they both looked to Joel, she had been right; he was the coordinator for their little troupe.

Joel signed a deep sigh and looked at Otter. “We’re usually more stoic than this, you’ve screwed us up.”

“Well, who is he?”

“
She’
s been missing for some years now.” Joel said. “But she is a murderer and an actress.”

“Jameson Pennell is the name of a woman?”

“Charlotte Roberta Jameson Pennell most likely,” Joel said

“Is she a famous actress?” Otter asked.

“Not really. She’s done character parts here and there, mainly in little theater productions. She likes to be in those kinds of places.”

“Who did she kill?”

“Her boyfriend in high school, her parents some other people along the way.”