Walkers (Book 2): The Rescue Read Free Page B

to look through the array of paperwork in the briefcase.  A map "suggested" a route to the facility as well as times to drive each day and places to rest.  It included a departure time and arrival time.  Oh yea, let me see, looks like around $50,000 in cash.  I shook my head as I read the information, dividing it into two piles...relevant and not.  The money went into the not relevant pile.
         Mandy wandered in, picked up the envelope, shook it and out came a photo SD card.  It sat on the table like a giant, black widow spider, ok a small one, but scary just the same.  Lacy turned at the sound of it hitting the table, then put her hand on my shoulder as we stared at it.  "Well, hell."   I tried to put it in my camera the wrong way at first then with fumbling fingers I managed to snap it into place.  I started looking at the photos of  Uncle Bill with his glasses perched on his nose as he stood before a microscope, at his desk behind a stack of papers, with his arm around a colleague, eating dinner...wait.  I went back to the picture of his arm around a colleague and studied it a moment.
         "Lacy do you know how to put this picture on a computer and blow it up?"  I asked handing her the camera.
         "Sure, follow me."
         After several moments of fiddling with the computer, the picture was enlarged on the 22" monitor.  There he stood again.  There was something about it I couldn't put my finger on.  I've never seen his arm around anyone, including George, why is he doing it now?
         "Why is he putting his arm around that person?  He doesn't even look like he's enjoying it."  She leaned forward and squinted her eyes, then stepped back and squinted her eyes.  I wondered if that helped so I tried it and got dizzy.  I shook myself like a dog, walked back a few more steps and bumped into the chair so I sat down.
         "What are you two doing?"  asked Mason as he blocked the door from several people who were frowning at us.  Lacy and I jumped like we'd been shot.
         "Good heavens, do you have to sneak up on a person like that.   You'd think you weren't taught good manners."
         "My manners are just fine and I wasn't sneaking.  You just don't pay attention to what's around you most of the time."
         "You were sneaking and I pay plenty of attention...when it's deserved that is."
         "Are you sure they're not married?"  Ken asked Flynn, who was grinning.
         "Oh, for heavens sake, Ken, we are not married."
         "Then you need to quit acting like it."  he said going to the sink to wash his hands.
         Mason and I looked at each other with our mouths gaping open.
         We don't act that way, do we? he asked.
         Absolutely not, I don't know where he got that idea.   I said, "Lacy and I have discovered something we don't understand.  Ken, did you ever see Northern Uncle Bill put his arm around anyone let alone have his picture taken that way?"
         "Never, he said it was a sign of weakness."  When everyone turned to him he hurriedly said, "that's what HE said.  He always said he didn't have time for the niceties of life and his work was the most important thing to him.  Family was just a nuisance, something to interrupt him."
         "He said to read Georges letter, do you have it?"
         "Damn I nearly forgot."  He said digging in his pockets. Finally he came up with a small disc. "You can't be serious.  She put it on a disc?"  I said, taking the disc and putting it in the computer.  Lacy did her thing and George appeared.  A short, pixie look alike,  her blond hair was cut boxy square all round her heart shaped face.  A turned up nose and small pout y lips made her adorable, and most men noticed, she however, didn't.  Her most repeated phrase was 'I don't know what all the fuss is about'.  She was wearing a white lab coat, and her reading glasses hung by a string round her neck.  Her eyes kept