Chapter Twenty-Five

Alex looked puzzled at my words.relieved, but puzzled as well. "Excuse me? Is she here with you? Where is she?" What was I supposed to say? "She's somewhere safe." I explained. "And the only way she'll come back to you is if I convince her to, or if you come up with some brilliant explanation she'll find believable enough to think about, and forget to wonder how you found her." "Good enough." "So what is it you want me to do?" He began to walk down a white hallway leading out of the entrance hall. I followed, still confused, but I emptied the Calico problem out of my head; I had other things to worry about. We ended up in the kitchen.a very large and.very white kitchen. "Over here." Alex directed my attention to a door leading off of the kitchen. "This is a service door. It is used by the maid and the maid only. She has the one key that will open this door. I can get it from her easily; she doesn't lock the door when she leaves since she knows I always check to be sure it's taken care of. She won't need the key for anything else until she returns, but by then she could have misplaced it, lost it, who knows?" He continued. "Anyway, I will leave the key for you over the door frame; there's a slight ledge there to hold and pretty much conceal it. You will close the door quietly behind you and wait next to it. At five, I'll call from my monthly golf game and when Nicole comes in to answer the phone, you take care of the job." "How? I haven't exactly killed anyone before." "You could always bring a gun. Then it'll look like you broke in to burglarize the place, she caught you, and you shot her when she tried to stop you. Happens all the time." I tried to laugh, but found my voice gone. "Not in my world, but I'll take your word on that." Alex half-heartedly smirked, before remembering something. "One thing, you can't forget. Before leaving, take a fork, screwdriver, or somethin' and jimmy the lock, so it doesn't look like you had a key. Okay?" Taking a deep breath in, I swallowed and agreed. "Great." Next thing I knew, I was out of there with ten grand in my pocket. Then it was back to Bismarck for me.