"We'll do what we can," Mitch said in a voice that was a warning growl telling the man to stay away from Sammy.
"Why don't you two set your phones right on that table there," Mr. West told them.
Rico and Mitch did it and the guy picked up their phones and pocketed them.
That's when Rico noticed that Mitch had a scraper in the back pocket of his jeans. It had a sharp edge, but Mitch would have to get in close to use it. Right now it wouldn't do him much good against a guy with a gun.
While Rico was breaking out in a cold sweat and trying to figure out how they could get out of this, Mr. West told them what he was after, "What I'm looking for is a silver egg with 'nest egg' written on it. It belongs to me. It's just my own property, you see. I'm just retrieving it. So where might I find it?"
Now Rico knew why he was looking for silver at the yard sale. He was trying to get his hands on the egg. Was he the one who broke into the house too? Rico tried to think back to the last time he had seen the nest egg while the man prattled on about it.
"The egg is rightfully mine, and it doesn't have any great value or nothing. It's just a keepsake." The more he said how it belonged to him and all that other crap, the less Rico believed him. "But I do want it back real bad," the guy said and glanced toward Sammy.
As he did that, Mitch tensed but held himself back. Though he never pointed the gun directly at Sammy, the threat was clear. Mitch knew just as well as Rico did that their best course of action was to let the guy have what he wanted.
At the moment, Rico couldn't tell him where the egg was. He hadn't seen it in a while. He wondered if Mitch knew. Since Mitch stayed silent, Rico guessed that he probably didn't.
Finally Mitch did speak up. "We'll help you find the egg and then you'll leave, right?"
"I got no reason to stick around. I would be long gone if I had it. But I couldn't drop in before now. Deputies were driving by this place day and night and that made me feel real unwelcome. Now they're all too busy with that festival, so I invited myself in. So where is it?"
Mitch didn't turn around as he said, "Sammy, honey, where is the nest egg?"
"Is the mean man gonna take the nest egg?" she asked.
"It's his, so we're going to give it to him," Rico told her.
"But you gave me the nest egg, Rico," she said.
"I know, but..." Rico started to say, but Mr. West cut him off.
"She's real cute, isn't she," he said with a nasty edge to his voice.
"We'll get you the egg and then you'll leave," Mitch said, his voice low and dangerous, warning the man not to pay too much attention to Sammy.
Mr. West still spoke to her though. "The egg was just a little something Harry was keeping safe for me. Present from an old sweetheart. He never got a chance to tell me about this place, but I found it. And I'll find that egg too. I will."
As he said that, Rico realized that he meant Harry Dunbar and then he remembered that he was shot during a robbery. Rico couldn't help but wonder if this guy might have killed him. It was too much to hope that his death was just a coincidence, just a random break-in gone wrong.
Maybe that's why Mr. West didn't show up here before now. He didn't know about the house because he couldn't openly search for information about the man he killed or he might draw suspicion.
If Harry Dunbar's death was this guy's handiwork, they weren't dealing with a guy who just liked to wave a gun around. They were dealing with a murderer. If he committed one murder, he might be that much more willing to kill again.
Rico felt like ice water was trickling down his spine. This was so bad.
"Tell me where it is, honey," Mitch told Sammy evenly, not wanting to scare her even more.
Sammy pursed her lips like she didn't want to say, but then she told him, "It's in the nest."
"Where's this nest," Mr. West cut in to ask. He was really eager to get that egg.
"With Natalie and Veronica's toys," Sammy said.
That didn't mean anything to the guy, but Mitch and Rico knew that she meant the cat toy basket in the kitchen.
Before he told him that, Mitch wanted to be sure they would be rid of him. "Once you have it, you'll be gone."
"I got no reason to linger as long as I get what I came for," Mr. West said. He had an eager, hungry expression as if he was feeling how close he was to getting what he was after.
