“It was still pretty dark. He couldn’t have seen him very well.”
“Well enough to tell a horse from an ostrich, I’ll bet.”
“Nick, we have to take chances in this business, you know that.”
“Are you always this lucky?”
She snorted. “I once served prison time for stealing a roulette wheel, as you well know.”
“Okay, what do you do now? Phone Renny Owlish?”
“Exactly. We have a bird in the hand.”
“Or at least in the van.”
Sandra parked the van at the rear of the motel lot and detached it from her car. Nick brought out some water and snacks for the big bird, who didn’t seem to mind his captivity all that much. Later he joined Sandra in her room and returned the trailer key to her. She called Owlish on her cell phone with the good news. “I have the product, Mr. Owlish. I’m ready to deliver it for the balance of the money.”
Nick could hear the raspy response. “Where are you? At the motel?”
“Of course. Are you coming here?”
“It may not be safe. I’ll call you back in a few hours, when I’m in the vicinity.”
“Fine.” She gave him her cell-phone number. “I’ll be hearing from you.”
“What now?” Nick asked.
“We’ve got the bird. All we have to do is turn it over to Owlish and collect our money.”
“But why is he so valuable? Have you thought about that?”
“I’m just a thief, Nick. You’re the one who sometimes plays detective.”
“It has to be drugs or diamonds.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ostriches will eat anything, and since they have no teeth, small stones often remain in their stomachs to grind foodstuffs. An adult ostrich can carry a couple of pounds of pebbles in its stomach for this purpose.”
“You’ve been surfing the Internet again.”
“That’s what it’s for.”
“So if it’s drugs or diamonds, how did they get into the ostriches’ lair in the first place? Do you think they just fell from the sky?”
“Exactly! Planes fly over Bainbridge Acres all the time. These were dropped in some sort of small containers to be picked up on the ground. Only the pilot missed the target area and the stuff landed among the ostriches.”
Sandra wasn’t convinced. “Even if our ostrich swallowed some of it, why would that keep the others away from him?”
“Oscar has a definite odor about him. Walt Bainbridge has allergies and couldn’t smell it, but I certainly could and so could you. The containers for the drugs or diamonds or whatever were strongly scented so they could be located after being dropped from the plane. The scent was repulsive to the other ostriches and they steered clear of Oscar.”
“Nick, can you imagine grown men sniffing around the ground for these things?”
“No, but I can imagine dogs.”
She’d walked to the window to peer out at the car, and suddenly she cried out, “Nick! There’s someone at the horse trailer!”
He was at the window in a flash, staring out at a red-haired man wearing a heavy leather coat. “Do you know him?”
“I never saw him before.”
“I did. I played cards with him last night. His name is Henry Wilson. Come on!”
They reached the horse trailer as Wilson was struggling to pick the lock on the back door and the ostrich was giving out his familiar hissing sound. But he wasn’t the only intruder. Nick saw Charlie Rainbow’s SUV pulling into the parking lot and heading for them. “Get away from that trailer,” Rainbow told them, brandishing the six-shooter he’d used earlier.
Wilson turned, expressing annoyance at the interruption. “Put that gun away, you fool!” he told Rainbow. “It’s broad daylight! Do you want the police on our necks?”
“I want that bird,” Rainbow said, “and I mean to have him.”
“Wait a minute,” Nick urged. “Before we all get arrested, let’s go to my room and talk this over.”
Sandra started to protest but he gave her a light jab in the ribs to urge her agreement. The four of them trooped up to Nick’s room with Rainbow still keeping a hand on his gun. Nick sat them down and began talking. “I think you’ll all agree that what we have here is a very valuable bird. I believe a flight by a private plane from Mexico purposely dropped several small containers holding a valuable substance, something you couldn’t risk being found by Customs if you brought it across by car. They were meant to land on your property, Rainbow, but they fell into your neighbor’s ostrich farm by mistake. We know ostriches will eat virtually anything, even small stones, and this one the Bainbridges named Oscar ate your valuable cargo. The pellets were strongly scented so they could be located by your dogs after they hit the ground. You mentioned at the poker game that you had German shepherds, which are often considered better than bloodhounds at picking up a scent. But the dogs merely led you to the ostrich farm, where Bainbridge heard them barking last week. After studying them and noting the ostracized one, you were sure it was the tracking scent that was keeping the others away. You contacted Renny Owlish and Owlish hired Sandra to steal the ostrich.”
“What’s Wilson’s part in all this?” Sandra asked.
Nick smiled. “Owlish booked your hotel room so he knew where you’d be staying. He arrived here earlier and took a room under his real name, just to keep an eye on things.”
“You mean Henry Wilson and Renny Owlish are the same person?”
“That’s right,” Nick told her, keeping an eye on Wilson.
“You knew that because of the bird in Owlish’s name,” she said.
“No, I knew it because Renny Owlish is an anagram for Henry Wilson.”
“Oh.”
“Let’s cut the talk,” Rainbow said. “The chips are mine and I intend to recover them from that bird’s stomach.”
“Diamond chips?” Sandra asked. “Is that what this is all about?”
Henry Wilson sighed. “Computer chips, the most powerful yet developed in Japan, stolen and smuggled into Mexico on their way to the highest bidder in Silicon Valley. Worth far more than diamond chips these days. They’re packed into small metal capsules, twelve to a capsule. Six capsules were dropped. That ostrich has seventy-two computer chips in its stomach.”
Sandra took over then. “The deal was one hundred grand to steal that ostrich, and I did it, with Nick’s help. I want the balance of my money. Then you can have the bird.”
“You’ve got a third of it. That’s all you’re getting,” Wilson said. “You may have the ostrich but we’ve got you.”
“Hand over the key to the horse trailer,” Rainbow ordered. The six-shooter was back in his hand. “I can’t miss at this range.”
“You get the key when I get my money,” Sandra told them.
Wilson slapped her across the face and Nick grabbed him around the neck, yanking him backward. But Rainbow moved in with his gun and pointed it inches from her head. “One move and she dies,” he shouted. “Give us the key!”
“You’d better do it,” Nick told her. “They mean business.”
“Nick—”
“Do it.”
She slipped the key from the pocket of her jeans and handed it over. “Shall we tie them up?” Rainbow asked.
“No need,” Wilson decided. “She’s got a bum leg and he’s past his prime. They can’t hurt us.” He took a packet of hundred-dollar bills from his pocket and tossed it on the bed. “Here’s another ten thousand. Consider yourselves paid in full.”
They left Nick and Sandra and headed for the horse trailer in the far corner of the lot. Rainbow brought his car around and hooked it up to the trailer. They didn’t want to risk anyone seeing the ostrich in the busy motel lot, so they drove several miles out of town before they found a deserted side road where they could unlock the rear door and view their prize.