Free Moon Underfoot by Bobby Cole Page B

Coon Dog Cemetery near Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It’s about halfway, and it’s extremely isolated.”
    “I always wanted to see that place.”
    “It’ll bring a tear to your eye, my li’l half brother. Now get your shit together. Go home, shower, and for God’s sake, put on some clean clothes,” Moon Pie ordered. “We’re gonna make a delivery tonight.”

CHAPTER 21

    T HE ANTIQUE GANG assembled in the library of the Henry Clay Retirement Community. It was dark outside, unseasonably cold, and misting rain. Most of the residents were already in their rooms for the night, so the group had the area to themselves. Two Pizza Inn boxes sat in front of them. Everyone grazed at their leisure, happy that Walter now fed them at every meeting.
    Walter sat nervously bouncing his right leg as he made notes on a legal pad. He was visibly anxious. Kroger’s home-office security team had interviewed him earlier in the day. They were pushing hard for answers. The team had reviewed every frame of the surveillance tape and had a lot of questions for him. It had been an intense meeting. They had homed in on him faster than he expected, but it was obvious they didn’t have enough facts to have him arrested. Walter knew it wasn’t over. They had made that obvious.
    Bailey had been invited to join the group after her grandmother Lucille’s casual mention of the foundation as a response to Bailey’s comment to her about the safe full of cash at the Gold Mine. Knowing two of the three pairs of numbers was the tipping point for Walter’s acceptance.
    Bailey excitedly explained to the group, “My boss will be out of town in two days, and that might make the robbery safer.”
    Walter and company listened intently, and their eyes darted nervously as they considered what she was saying.
    “He’s always armed to the teeth, and even on the two times a year when he goes to church with his momma, he carries two pistols. Nobody else in the store will be armed, though,” she finished, as if that should be the deciding factor.
    “Easter and Mother’s Day?” Bernard asked, already knowing.
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Bailey, we aren’t going to bust in there and stick the place up like a bank robbery,” Walter explained.
    Bailey looked puzzled, but the other members of the group looked relieved.
    “Somebody could get hurt, and frankly I doubt that our hearts could take the stress.”
    “I just assumed…that’s the way—”
    “No. We’re going to break in after-hours and steal the contents of the safe,” Walter explained, cutting her off. The gang members smiled. Burglary sat better with them than armed robbery.
    “But the place has an alarm system that Moon Pie arms every night,” Bailey said, concerned.
    “We’ll need to know specifics about it, but when I looked around a few days ago, I didn’t see any motion sensors in the main room.”
    “The windows and doors are wired for sure. I’ve heard the alarm go off by accident; it’s really loud. He sets it sometimes when we’re counting money. He’s paranoid.”
    “He couldn’t move around if it had motion detectors, unless he has a high-tech system that can be set to different modes and zones.”
    “It looks pretty basic to me, but I don’t really know,” Bailey said.
    “I think I have a solution for the alarm, but we still gotta get in the safe. I’ve been researching it. It takes a six-digit security code. If you don’t get it in three or four tries, it shuts down for, like, thirty minutes,” Walter explained as he placed on the table the printed camera-phone pictures of Moon Pie’s office, alarm keypad, and safe. “Bailey took these. They’ve been extremely helpful.”
    Bailey smiled. It had been a long time since anyone other than her grandmother had praised her, and everyone could sense her appreciation.
    Walter said, “Okay, gang—here’s my idea.”
    Everyone inched a bit closer as their heart rates escalated. They all felt so incredibly alive. The