Stone Investigations (Stone Series Book 4) by Bob Blanton (ereader that reads to you .TXT) 📕

that I shouldavoid him on the way out.”

“Whatever.  So it’s this Jerome Graham that everyone thinksis behind the heist.”

“Sounds like it.  Now we’ll have to see if we can find thestatue through him.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Sunday night, Jerome’s father returned home.  Matthew washoping Jerome would say something or do something to prepare for his father’sreturn that would give a clue as to where the mascot statue was so he tuned in.

“Jerome, what the hell have you been doing all week?!” Mr.Graham yelled when he entered the house.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing is right.  You didn’t even empty the shredder bin.”

“Sorry, Dad.”

“Yeah, I can tell how sorry you are.  What have you beendoing, drinking beer and watching football I’ll bet?”  Mr. Graham opened therefrigerator and grabbed a beer while making note of how many beers were in it.

He walked into his office with the beer and the stack ofpapers he had with him.  Matthew continued to watch Jerome thinking he should dosomething to clean up, but he just continued to watch the Sunday night game.

Matthew was just about to give up and call it a night whenMr. Graham came storming out of his office.  He was holding a clipping from thenewspaper.

“What the hell is this?!”

“What?”

“This!” Mr. Graham yelled, shoving the newspaper clipping athis son.

“It’s nothing, someone just stole the Pacific Coast Academymascot.”

“And you’re going to tell me you weren’t behind it?”

“No . . .”

“Don’t lie to me!”

“Nobody knows it was me.”

“Except for the friends you got to help.”

“Yeah, but they’re not going to rat me out.”

Mr. Graham’s fist flashed out as he punched his son on thejaw, knocking him to the floor.

“I told you to cut this kind of crap out last year.  I havesensitive business deals in the works and I don’t need the police nosing aroundscaring off my partners and clients.”

“Sorry, Dad.  Nobody’s going to find out.  The police don’thave a clue.”

“And where is the statue?”

“Hidden.”

“You destroy that thing.  I don’t want one a single piece ofit to be found and traced back to you.  Do you hear me?!”

“Sure, sure.  I’ll take care of it tomorrow night.”

“You’d better!  If you can’t follow the rules around here,then pack your bags.  Maybe you should find your mother and go live with her.”

Matthew shook his head as he closed his portal.  He feltsorry for Jerome, well almost.  What kind of father punched his son?  And whatwas he going to do to get their statue back before Jerome destroyed it?

◆ ◆ ◆

“Emily, we’ve got a problem.”

“What do you mean?”

“Jerome’s going to destroy the mascot.”

“Why?”

“It’s kind of weird.  His dad found out about it and gotreally mad, he even punched him.  Then he told him to destroy the statue so itcouldn’t be traced back to him.  Something about not wanting the police nosingaround and spooking his clients.”

“When is he going to do it?”

“Tomorrow night.”

“Do you know where it is?”

“No.”

“Crap.”

“I know.  The only thing I can think of is to follow him.”

“How will that help?  He’ll destroy the statue, or do youplan on stopping him?”

“I could stop him but it would be better to get to the statueand hide it or something before he gets there.”

“But you don’t know where it is.”

“But if I follow him, maybe I can figure it out before hegets there.”

“Then what?”

“I move it.”

“All the way back to PCA?”

“I guess that would be a problem.  We need a truck.”

“Hey, I can borrow our gardener’s truck”

“We’ll need to be up in Fallbrook by four.”

“Are you sure it’s in Fallbrook?”

“No, but I bet that’s where Jerome will start out, he’s got schooljust like us.”

“Okay, I’ll figure out how to get a truck we can use by 3:00when school lets out, you keep track of Jerome.”

“Got it.”

Chapter 9Repossession

Right after school, Emily drove Matthew over to her housewhere they exchanged her Porsche for the gardener’s pickup.  It was an olderDodge Ram.  Matthew looked in the back, making sure there would be enough roomfor the statue.

“Nice truck,” Matthew said.

“Yeah, he’s got a nice business.  He takes care of severalproperties out here.  So, where’s Jerome?”

“He’s heading home right now.”

“Do you think he’s going to wait until dark?”

“Probably.  It depends on where the statue is.  I’m sure hedoesn’t want to be caught.”

“I guess not.  His father really punched him?”

“Yeah.  Knocked him to the floor.  He was really pissed. Told him that if he couldn’t follow the rules, he should pack his bags.”

“That’s harsh.”

“Yeah.  He seemed like a real jerk.”

“I guess.  Anyway, while we’re driving, what’s going on withour other friend?”

“You mean Dante?”

“Of course.”

“I haven’t figure out what he does with the money.  Hecollects on the weekends.  But when I searched his apartment on Saturday andSunday night, all I found is about five thousand on Saturday and ten or so onSunday.  On Monday, he takes it to work with him and puts part of it in hisbank account and the rest in a safety deposit box.  He must have at least twoto three hundred thousand in the box.”

“Wow, that’s a lot of money.  So where does the rest of it go? You know he’s bringing in well over a hundred thousand a week, sixteen dealers withthirty to forty clients paying seven hundred every two weeks.”

“Yeah, that’s between 168K and 224K per week.”

“So where’s the money?  Were you able to figure out how muchthe dealers were giving him?”

“Not exactly, but the envelopes were over half an inch thick,so if they were all hundreds, that’s around twelve K.”

“Here we are, what should we do?” Emily asked as they drovepast the “Welcome to Fallbrook” sign.

“Find a diner where we can hang out, Jerome is at home rightnow.”

“When does the sun set?”

“Six-thirty.”

“If he’s waiting for that, it means we have two hours.”

“We should have dinner.  After that we can go out toward hisplace; we don’t know which way he’ll be heading once he’s on the move.”

“The Fallbrook Café, an imaginative name.  Let’s eat here.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Matthew poked Emily.  “Jerome just got a sledgehammer out ofthe garage.”  He and Emily were half a mile down the road from his house backedinto a lane that led to an empty house that was