“Okay, then.” Dee thought the plan through in her head. “We hang out here until we see Jonas leave.”
“What if he doesn’t?”
“From my experience in Studio City, where everyone and their mother is a real estate agent, they’re always on the move. Once he heads out, we wait a beat, then follow him in my car. Keeping out of his eyeline will be a little tricky on these empty country roads, but luckily I drove, and a white Honda Civic is practically the state car of California. We won’t stand out.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Jeff said. “If a far-fetched one.”
Having agreed on a course of action, they sat back to wait out Jonas. An hour and a bathroom break later, he exited Goldsgone Realty, as predicted by Dee. He got into a black hybrid BMW SUV parked in front of the building and drove off. Dee and Jeff waited a few seconds, then raced to her car, jumped in, and took off after him.
Dee was careful to maintain distance from Jonas, occasionally allowing a car to drive between them. The real estate agent first stopped at a charming Victorian cottage with ornate gingerbread trim painted in an array of colors. He walked up the steps to the front door and rang the bell. An elderly woman answered the door. She lit up at the sight of Jonas and the two shared a hug. They conferred for a moment; then she went back inside. He stopped at the large FOR SALE post hammered into the front lawn and filled the empty plastic box with a batch of one sheets about the property, which he pulled from his briefcase.
The agent’s next few stops repeated the same pattern.
“I’ve learned a couple of things from our spying efforts,” Jeff said after a few hours had passed. “One, this guy has to be the most successful agent in town, because he’s got a lotta listings and every client has been happy to see him. And two, Chow Call Chowder isn’t filling. I could eat one of the oxen that brought the settlers to Goldsgone right now.”
“I’m hungry too,” Dee confessed. “Let’s go for another hour, and then we can give up.”
They resumed following Jonas. He reached an intersection and turned left. Dee forgot her hunger and gripped the steering wheel. “He’s heading to West Camp. This is it.”
She hung back, but maintained an eye on the black BMW as they traversed the ten-mile route to the county seat. Jonas passed through the town’s charming historic district and made a right turn onto a side road. Dee parked a few houses away. She and Jeff watched as he parked in front of an old stone cottage, where another happy customer waved from the front porch.
Dee and Jeff both let out a groan. “You were right,” she said, disheartened. “This was a total waste of time.”
“Not really,” Jeff said. “We know that if we have to sell the Golden, we should hire Jonas as our agent.”
“Let’s go home. We can finish off Serena’s charcuterie board for dinner.”
She started the car and made a U-turn, then a right onto Main Street. “We’re behind him again,” Jeff said.
“Yay,” Dee responded, her tone dry. “Maybe we’ll get to follow him to his dentist.”
They drove through the historic district, then passed through an un-scenic edge of town, which was populated by a variety of auto repair shops and others offering necessities like plumbing and HVAC services.
“We passed him,” Jeff said. “Make a U-turn and pull into the driveway in front of the junkyard.”
“Why?”
“Because Jones is parked across the street. In front of what looks like a big old warehouse.”
Dee instantly did as instructed, maneuvering onto a patch of gravel that allowed her car to be at least partially obstructed by a giant pile of old tires. She and Jeff got out of the car, closing the doors as quietly as possible. They scurried across the street, taking cover behind a rusted hulk of a pickup truck fronting an abandoned gas station.
A faded sign above the front entrance of the enormous brick building Jonas had parked in front of read WEST CAMP STORAGE AND WAREHOUSE. Elated, Dee poked Jeff in the side. “This is it! I know it is. It’s the only warehouse in West Camp. We found it!”
“Ouch, and yes. Shh. He’s getting out of his car.”
The real estate agent walked to the back of his SUV, which opened as if by magic. He removed a large rectangle wrapped in a blanket and struggled to carry the awkward object to the warehouse. The trunk door slowly closed as he disappeared into the building.
A few minutes later, he reappeared sans object. He got into the SUV. The car’s light stayed on briefly, allowing Dee and Jeff to see the real estate agent press a button on his computer screen and then appear to be talking to someone. The car light cut out. Seconds later, Jonas powered up and drove off.
As soon as the agent rounded a curve and was out of sight, Dee and Jeff ran to the warehouse. The front door was sealed with a lock box, so they searched the building for another entrance. They found a heavy metal back door, also locked.
“If we can’t get inside, we need to at least look inside,” Dee said.
“How? There are only a few windows and they’re too high up for either of us to see into.”
Dee thought for a moment. “Do you think you can hoist me onto your shoulders?”
“Ooh, boy.” Jeff gave his head a worried scratch. “I can try.”
He crouched down below a high, narrow window, leaning both hands against the building’s brick wall for support. Dee flung one leg over his shoulder, then another. Jeff slowly rose until Dee was able to grip the windowsill, pulling herself up to relieve her friend from some of her weight.
“What do you see?” Jeff asked, grunting from the strain of supporting her.
She peered inside the warehouse. A vast space lay before her. A cement floor. Brick walls. In a far corner, she saw several flat bundles like the one Jonas had brought into the space with him stacked on top of each other. That was it. “Nothing. Except for whatever Jonas carried in, and a few more like it, it’s empty.”
“What about Michael’s stuff? Whatever it was from his family’s house that Shawn helped him move?”
“Wherever they moved it to, it wasn’t here. Or if it was, it’s gone. You can put me down.”
Jeff lowered Dee and she climbed off him. He winced and rubbed his shoulders. “I don’t get what’s going on”
“I don’t either.”
They walked back to the front of the building. Dee stopped to pick up a small item lying by the door. She held it up to Jeff. “A For Sale sign. I guess this is another one of Jonas’s properties. A pocket listing, like I said, which would explain why it’s not on the company website.”
The two glumly slunk across the street to Dee’s car.
“So much for sleuthing.” Jeff pointed to his stomach. “Me hungry.”
