by Lee Gregg
Sam could feel Cara’s anxiety start to rub off on her, so she scanned the crowd around her instead, trying to spot the seller. Minutes passed and the crowd thinned. No one approached.
“Cara!” Drew called out as he jogged over. “So?”
“He hasn’t shown up yet.”
Drew looked at his phone and scanned the park around him. “He’s late.”
“I got here at twelve forty-five, Drew.”
Drew craned his neck forward. “What’s that?” He walked behind the bench and picked up a plastic bag with a note attached. “Says, ‘For Cara, Gaiters free of charge. Had nothing to do with kidnapping.’”
“What’s going on? Did the seller just leave it here?” Penelope said as she ran up to join them. “Hi Auntie Ethel. Guys, this is my Great-Aunt Ethel,” she added, giving Sam a peck on the cheek.
“Hello dear. Hello, hello,” Sam said, nodding at Cara and Drew and receiving smiles in return. “I’d better get home, dear. Time for my nap.” Sam stood up slowly and noticed that Drew had been quick to offer his arm to her. “Thank you. My, you are a nice young man.”
Drew beamed and pulled his arm in tight against his chest. “Which way are you headed?” Sam pointed to the Ice Bridge. “Let’s get a drink at the Surge, guys. We can walk you part of the way, is that okay with you, Aunt Ethel?” Drew asked Sam. She patted his arm with her free hand and smiled.
“Okay, how did the seller know what we were doing?” Penelope asked, getting back to the discussion.
“He saw the photo of Mr. Gloves on the site and put two and two together?” Cara suggested.
“I don’t know about that. I didn’t write anything specific about the gloves or Ben’s symbol or anything,” Drew said.
“Still, maybe he recognized Mr. Gloves and realized that it was us behind this other purchase,” Cara said.
“No way. You’re not on the site at all Cara. No picture, no name, nothing. I didn’t list anyone on the site except for Sam, so how would he know that?”
“I don’t know, Drew. I just….” Cara gave up on her argument.
“No way. No possible way. He definitely wanted to sell these to you, but something spooked him between the time you called him and our meeting today. Ugh! We had him!”
“Well, there is one way,” Penelope said, hesitating. “Someone in our group tipped him off.”
Drew cocked his head abruptly to look at her. He opened his mouth to say something but changed his mind when his gaze fell on Sam. His face softened for a moment as he gently squeezed her hand on his arm. “This is our stop, Aunt Ethel,” he said sweetly, stopping in front of Glacier Surge. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay on your own from here? I could walk you home, if you’d like?”
“Oh, heavens no, dear. Thank you for asking. I’ll be fine,” Sam said with a smile. She continued walking along the Ice Bridge, but she could still hear Drew speaking. His voice had lost all its sweetness.
“So, if someone from our group ratted us out, who was it?” he asked, sounding edgy and frustrated. “And where is Sam?”
* * *
Sam’s head was spinning as she walked away. Could Drew, Cara or Penelope have tipped off Cara’s seller? And which one could it have been? It was impossible to point a finger at any of the three. No, she concluded, it just couldn’t be true.
But Cara’s seller had been their best lead in finding Ben’s kidnapper and Sam was not ready to give up on chasing him down. She got off the Ice Bridge, zigzagged through the streets and strolled into the parking lot of the Glacier Village Police Department.
“Hello young man,” she said to her dad, who was combing through the trunk of his car.
“Oh, hello ma’am,” Dan replied with a quick peek over his shoulder.
“I’m wondering if you could possibly help me with this gosh darn issue I’m having.”
“Yes ma’am, of course I can. Let me just finish up here and I’ll be with you in a sec.”
“Did you lose something, son? Perhaps you locked your keys in your car? Or could it possibly have been a water bottle?”
“I just—” Dan stood up, his brows drawing together in confusion as he inspected Sam.
Unable to hold it together any longer, she tittered. “Hi Dad. It’s me.”
“Sam, what are you doing?” He looked stunned.
“Dad, the funeral was awful. All of Ryder’s friends and family are here and they hate me. I just needed a way to get around town without all the attention.”
“What do you mean they hate you?”
“It doesn’t matter. Dad, you wanted me to talk to you about what I’m doing, right?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Well, I need you to find out who this number belongs to,” Sam said, holding out Cara’s note with the circled phone number.
“Sam, I didn’t make that deal with you so that you could access the police department’s resources.”
“This guy sold Ben’s stuff. Not just a pair of gloves but his fleece jacket and gaiters and who knows what else. There is no way anyone could have gotten so much of Ben’s stuff other than to have stolen it from him when they kidnapped him. Are you going to help me or do I need to do this all on my own?”
Sam was sure that she saw something different in the way her dad was looking at her. Was it because of her Ethel costume? Or was it because of something else? She watched his eyes narrow before the corners of his mouth twitched upwards ever so slightly into the faintest of smiles.
“Okay, Sam. I’ll help you with this number,” he said, taking the note. “But I need you to do something for me first.”
35
Sam hobbled into the police station thinking that she might do well to use a cane with her disguise should she ever need Ethel again in the future. She stood at the counter and pinged the bell several times without pause.
“Good afternoon, ma’am,” Carl said.
“Yes, hello dear. I’m terribly sorry to trouble you. Is there anyone here who would be kind enough to help a silly old girl with bad knees find her way back to her hotel?”
Carl surveyed the empty station. “Well ma’am, looks like that would be me. Just give me a minute to let my colleague know.”
“Oh, aren’t you just wonderful! Thank you, officer.”
As Carl dashed outside to speak to Dan, Sam stifled her urge to smile. He had barely looked at her. Just like everyone else she had spoken with as Ethel — Cara and Drew and even her dad — he hadn’t suspected a thing. This was her first real undercover assignment and she had him completely fooled. This was going to be awesome.
Carl returned a minute later, twirling a set of keys on one finger. “Ready?” he asked, motioning her to follow him. “Which hotel are you staying at?”
“Now, let me think for a moment. Oh, I can’t seem to recall the exact name. It was Glacier Village something,” Sam said, fully aware that there were three hotels whose names started with “Glacier Village.” She teetered out of the station slowly behind Carl, passing her dad, who was walking back inside.
“Ma’am,” Dan said with a nod.
“Hello, officer,” Sam replied. She flashed her dad a giddy grin but dropped it quickly when Carl glanced back at her. The serious look on Carl’s face gave her a jolt and she wondered if he had seen her playful smile. No sane person would give a police officer, or any complete stranger they’ve never seen before, a look of familiarity like the one she had just given her dad. Stupid, Sam thought to herself, she should know better than to break character.
Carl turned around quickly and gave Sam a stern look. He totally knows, she thought. What was she supposed to do now? She felt a tiny flicker of panic and her heartbeat ticked up a notch. This was not going to be awesome at all.
“Watch your step there,” Carl said, nodding to the ground and holding out his arm. He led her around the corner and opened the passenger side door of a shiny, black Maserati. “Here we are. You’re in luck, I brought my baby to work today.”
&
nbsp; Maybe he hadn’t noticed her mistake, she thought, seeing his proud glow and realizing that he seemed to be acting normally. Maybe, he was just worried about the uneven pavement back where he had offered his support. She let out a tiny sigh of relief and returned Carl’s smile. “Well now, I’ve never been in such a lovely car before. I certainly am very lucky.”
As Sam lowered herself into the car, she bumped her head on the door frame. She felt a tiny tug on her wig, then the sharp pinches of her hair being pulled. Before she could stop herself from sinking into the soft, plush seat, she heard the sound of the wig shifting against her hair and noticed silver curls moving into view above her left eye. The door closed behind her and even before she looked into the passenger side mirror, she knew what she would see. Her wig was conspicuously askew. She rushed to straighten it, but Carl was in the driver’s seat within seconds. She quickly turned her head to face the side window, hoping that Carl hadn’t noticed anything.
“Yup, paid cash too. Just walked into the dealership, pointed and drove out with it,” he said, starting the ignition and scrambling to lower the volume on the stereo, which was blasting “Bad Boys” by Inner Circle. “Not bad for a guy who didn’t have a single cent to his name growing up in the system.”
“You should be very proud of yourself. You must be a very clever young man to have come from nothing and become so successful,” Sam said with her face still turned to the window. She peered into the mirror again and as the car reversed out of the shaded parking spot, light poured into the cabin, giving her a better view of her reflection. She saw her own eyes widen in alarm just as she heard the chorus “Whatcha gonna do, Whatcha gonna do.” Her wig looked terrible.
“You know what? I am proud of myself. People said I was useless. That I’d grow up behind bars. Well, I’m the one locking people up now. They’d better not holiday up here, if you know what I mean.”
Sam raised her right arm to lean on the door, pretending to rest her chin on the back of her hand. “Well, I have absolutely no respect for anyone who calls another human being ‘useless.’ Wouldn’t even waste my breath on them, to be perfectly honest. They’re just wrong. And you are a true gentleman.”
“Thank you! I appreciate that. So, let’s see, there are a few hotels that have Glacier Village in their names. Glacier Village Inn, Glacier Village Hotel and Spa and one more. Oh yeah, Glacier Village Resort. Do you know which one you’re staying at?” Carl asked, gently steering the car through a turn.
“Well, now, I seem to remember that the concierge was a lovely boy with brown hair. Does that help?” Sam stared into the mirror, assessing what she had to do to fix her wig. It had been twisted over to the right and needed to be adjusted by tugging it lower by her left ear. She wondered how she would be able to fix it without Carl noticing.
He chuckled. “Tell you what, we’ll just pop by all three until we find the right hotel. How does that sound?”
“You are an absolute angel,” Sam said, her voice light and happy, despite not feeling light or happy at all. How was she going to pull this off? She regretted the terms of the deal she had negotiated with her dad. She should have asked for at least three phone number lookups. This was not only not awesome, it was much more difficult than she had originally thought it would be.
Sam tilted her head to the left, peeking at Carl out of the corner of her eye. As casually as she could, she moved her hand from her chin over to the left side of her wig and gave it a little tug. It didn’t move.
“Look at this detail here, it’s like art. This is the finest leather you can find,” Carl said. “My wife hates this car for some ridiculous reason.”
Panic shot through Sam. He wanted her to look in his direction, but if she turned to face him, there was no way he wouldn’t see that she was a fraud. She felt a wave of cold sweat ripple over her skin. Her head still tilted to the left, she cocked her head further down, pressing her ear to her shoulder. She then bent forward at the waist, ensuring that the only part of her head that Carl would see was the crown.
“Well now, this is very fine leather indeed. I don’t see how anyone couldn’t appreciate this,” she said. She tried peeking at him over the top of her glasses as she dutifully tapped her seat, but all she could see was his hand on the gear shift.
She had an incredible urge to see if her response satisfied him, and although she knew she shouldn’t, she turned slightly for a quick glimpse. In that fraction of a second, she saw a strange look cross his face and it sent her heart racing. Had he noticed her wig? Was there something else giving her away? She twisted back towards the side window, her wig amplifying the sound of her heartbeat pounding in her ears.
“Yeah, you’re telling me. And she’s the one who spends all day writing a makeup blog under a fake name that two people read. But, you know what? It doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, she loves me and I love her and that’s all that counts.”
“You are not only clever but very wise for your age, young man.” Sam yanked harder on her wig, moving it a few millimeters back to the left. She looked in the passenger side mirror and cursed under her breath. It looked the same. She could feel tiny droplets of sweat forming on her temples.
“Thank you very much! I like to think so. Is this your hotel?” Carl pulled into the parking lot of the Glacier Village Inn.
Sam looked up from the mirror and pretended to study the area carefully. “No, this doesn’t look familiar.”
“Okay, let’s move on then. Oh, you know what? Let’s make a little stop along the way. Would you mind?”
“Of course not! I’ve got all the time in the world. You take as long as you need. I am very much enjoying this. It’s not every day that I get the chance to sit in such a fancy car with a handsome and engaging young man.” She wondered if Carl would mind if she had her face glued to the passenger window for the entire ride. She wished that she had negotiated a few licence plate lookups from her dad, in addition to the phone numbers, considering that she was keeping Carl out much longer than anticipated.
Carl chortled in response. He cruised down winding streets, showing off the car’s acceleration and smooth handling while he explained the technical details of his prized possession. Finally, he pulled up to the large gates of the highest property on Black Mountain. “This is the Black estate. The owners of Black Mountain live here. They are amazing people and very good friends of mine. Isn’t that mansion incredible?”
“It’s gorgeous!” The sharp turns and sudden accelerations had prevented Sam from straightening her wig and she looked at her reflection in dismay. It had gotten worse. A drop of sweat rolled down from her temple and she wiped it away quickly, hoping Carl hadn’t noticed.
“Just wait right here, I’ll be right back.” He got out of the car and rang the buzzer on the gate.
Feeling safe now that Carl’s back was turned, Sam quickly straightened her wig using both hands to adjust it properly. She then wiped the sweat from her temples with the backs of her hands. Checking her image in the mirror, she let out a sigh of relief. Ethel looked presentable again. The rest of the mission should go much more smoothly now, she thought.
From her seat, Sam watched a large man walk down the driveway that snaked down from the house. Carl and the man spoke for a few minutes before the man handed Carl an envelope. The man then noticed her presence and she suspected that he must have said something that upset Carl because Carl started waving his hands and shaking his head. The man gave her one last look before he retreated to the house.
When Carl got back into the car, he started the engine without saying a word.
“The view is absolutely beautiful from up here,” Sam said, smiling confidently as she looked directly at Carl.
He mumbled something incoherent and revved the engine. His mood had obviously soured.
An awkward silence filled the car and Sam made no further attempt at conversation. Carl cranked the volume on his stereo and sped down the mountain. He narrowly missed hitting a few people as he
manipulated his car around pedestrian traffic at the second and third hotels. Finally, at the third hotel, she thanked him and got out of the car. He huffed in response and his car tires screeched as he peeled away.
As Sam watched Carl drive off, she took out her phone and texted her dad, “Done.”
* * *
Dan was on his hands and knees when he heard the beep of his phone. He read Sam’s message and cursed under his breath. Time had passed much more quickly than he had hoped and he had not yet accomplished his mission.
He groaned after bumping his head under the Chief’s desk. He had spent most of his time looking through the clutter on the surface. Piles of boxes, bags, files and miscellaneous items were stacked high on top. He had even spotted a red bow tie underneath a few old cell phones, something he had most definitely never seen the Chief wear.
Dan checked the time and crawled around the desk chair to one of the back corners of the room. Stacks of boxes littered the floor, many of them open. Could the bug have fallen into one of them, he wondered? He peered into each open box, but it was impossible to see past the contents to the bottom. So he plunged one arm in, groping around and hoping he would get lucky. He got a paper cut instead.
Dan pushed the boxes aside and scanned the surrounding floor. He found nothing except some old french fries, two plastic forks and a few crumpled tissues. Careful to leave no evidence of his trespass, he moved the boxes to their original spots. Dan looked at his watch again and cursed. Carl could be back at any moment.
He crawled on the floor, making his way to the other corner behind the desk. Just as he moved a heavy set of boxes, he spotted the device next to a bit of white powder. He heaved a sigh of relief. The possibility that the Chief had discovered the bug had been slim but stressful. Now he knew that the box of donuts must have simply fallen off the Chief’s desk.