Maggie Lee | Book 28 | The Hitwoman Pays A Debt

by Lynn, JB

  Everyone scattered to their cars and when I got into mine, I started it and then just sat there.

  “Where are we going?” God asked, scrambling up my bra strap to perch on my shoulder. I glanced at the paper bag that I’d thrown onto the passenger seat.

  “Somewhere quiet,” I told him, taking out the earpiece I’d been wearing and putting it in the cup holder.

  “Like that tomb isn’t quiet enough for you?” he huffed.

  “Okay,” I revised. “Let’s dine al fresca.”

  “You say that like there’s something for me to even dine on,” he grumbled.

  “Maybe you’ll be able to catch your own food,” I told him. “Or have you gotten so spoiled by me and Piss that you’re incapable of doing that?”

  He huffed angrily but made no comment. I drove us to the quietest place that I know that has outdoor seating, the cemetery. I drove toward Teresa’s grave on auto pilot.

  “This is kind of unusual,” God mused. I couldn’t tell if he was disapproving or just observing.

  “Well, I have plans for lunch tomorrow,” I told him.

  “Yes,” he said. “With Missy. Who, I’m pretty sure. Has. The genes. Of a cheerleader!”

  The way he mocked her speech pattern made me chuckle. “She certainly is enthusiastic about everything.”

  “She’s faking,” he declared. “Nobody is that cheery.”

  I stopped at my usual spot beneath an oak tree, grabbed the paper bag, and climbed out of the car. Thankfully, Gino had insisted that I keep a picnic blanket in my trunk “in case we ever need it”, he’d said when he’d given it to me. I retrieved it and picked my way through the headstones to sit beside Teresa.

  “Hey, sis,” I said, sitting down and opening the bag that Susan had carefully prepared. “Aunt Susan made me this.” I unwrapped a cream cheese and olive sandwich. “Well, look at that, do you think it’s just coincidence or did she remember my favorite kind?” I dug deeper in the bag and pulled out a plastic container filled with pickles and olives. “Definitely not a coincidence,” I told what I hoped was my sister’s spirit. “She loves me. She really loves me.”

  “If people demonstrate their love by providing food, you don’t love me,” God griped.

  “Yes, I do,” I told him. “We can stop at the pet store on the way home and I’ll get you a whole bag of live crickets.”

  “Like we have any chance of just making it home or to the pet store. You can’t drive anywhere without somebody pulling you over and asking something of you.”

  I nodded as I bit into the creamy and salty sandwich. He wasn’t wrong.

  While I sat there enjoying the sunlight and silence, I saw a flash of yellow and black out of the corner of my eye. I sat up straighter. “Hey, isn’t that Chilton’s van?”

  God, who had been on the ground, presumably hunting crickets, scrambled up my arm to jump on top of my shoulder, then grabbed onto my ear and pulled himself up to the top of my head using my hair like the strands were mountain climbing ropes. “I do believe it is.”

  I kept chewing on my sandwich, watching as Chilton climbed out of his van and began to stroll through the rows of headstones. Wherever he was going, he was not headed toward the gravesite of Griswald’s mentor. That was on the other side of the cemetery.

  “You need to get close to him,” God said as the man slowed down and paused in front of a granite marker.

  Sighing, I got to my feet. “And how do you suppose I do that? It’s not like this is the kind of area where I can sneak up on him, and I don’t have Piss to go check him out. You could do it.”

  “He’s not saying anything, and he’s not going to say anything to me,” the lizard countered. “You have to get close to him and you have to talk to him.”

  I swallowed hard, almost choking on my sandwich. “Talk to him about what?”

  “Be resourceful, Maggie,” he said. “I know you can do it!” he concluded in his best impression of Missy the cheerleader.

  I picked up the paper bag and crumbled it, sad that I had not yet had a chance to dine on my pickles and olives. The lizard had a point, though, this might be my one chance to make contact with Alan Chilton.

  “I’ll tell him I lost my keys,” I said, dropping my car key three headstones down from Teresa’s gravesite.

  “Resourceful!” God cheered. “Give me an R! Give me an E! Give me an S—”

  “Give me a moment of silence,” I muttered under my breath as I began to walk toward the locksmith. “And please, hide yourself.”

  The lizard slid down my hair like it was a fireman’s pole, landed on my shoulder, and then dove into my bra. I moved with a sense of purpose toward the target.

  “Excuse me,” I called, trying to sound hesitant. At first, he didn’t respond, and I wasn’t sure if he hadn’t heard me or if he was ignoring me. “Excuse me?” I said a bit louder.

  He turned around and stared at me, as though I was a ghost coming to haunt him. An understandable thought, considering where we were.

  “I’m so sorry to disturb you,” I said. “But you haven’t happened to have seen a glittering heart keychain, have you?”

  He shook his head.

  “I was visiting my sister,” I told him. “And somehow I managed to drop my keys.”

  “I can help you look.” His offer sounded genuine.

  “Oh, no,” I said, raising my hands in silent protest. “I was just hoping you’d seen them. I’ll be able to find them.”

  “It’s no problem,” he said. “I’m done. My mother taught me to never leave a damsel in smiley faces in distress.”

  Caught off guard, I laughed out loud at his joke. Then, I looked around, slightly embarrassed that I’d guffawed in a cemetery.

  “I’m Alan,” he said, extending his hand.

  “I’m—”

  “Betty!” God yelled from my bra.

  Alan looked around, startled by the squeaking sound.

  “Betty,” I said, grabbing his hand and shaking it. “It’s nice to meet you, Alan. What brings you here?”

  20

  “My mom,” he said, gesturing to the large stone memorial he was standing in front of.

  I glanced down so that I could read her name and date of death. I made a mental note to tell Griswald about them. “I’m sorry for your loss,” I murmured automatically.

  “It was a long time ago,” he said. “I was just a little boy.” Then, as though he didn’t want to talk about it any more, he asked, “And what do you do that you wear smiley faces, Betty?”

  I chuckled. “I work in a dental office.”

  “You’re a dentist?”

  I shuddered. “Heavens no.”

  He grinned.

  “I just do secretarial type work,” I told him. “Nothing exciting.”

  “But it pays the bills?”

  “I guess so.”

  Together, we began to wander through the rows of graves. I let him believe that we were retracing my steps. “Do you come here often?” I asked, then I cringed, realizing how awful that sounded.

  He didn’t seem to notice, though. “Once a month or so,” he said.

  I nodded, realizing that that meant that he had not been at the burial of Griswald’s mentor by chance because his mother was here. He’d been there specifically for that.

  “What about you?” he asked.

  “I come sporadically,” I told him. I didn’t tell him that the last time I’d been here I’d been having a date, if you could call it that, with Gino. Instead, I said, “I’m helping to raise my sister’s daughter.”

  “That must be difficult,” he said. “My dad had a terrible time taking care of me after my mom was gone.”

  “Both her parents were killed at the same time,” I found myself confiding. “So she was really left with no one.”

  “She has you,” Alan pointed out.

  I nodded but didn’t say that she had an entire family of people looking out for her. It sounded like it had just been him and his father
and I didn’t want to pour any salt into that wound.

  “I’m a locksmith,” he told me. “If we don’t find your keys, I still might be able to help you out.”

  “Really?” I said.

  “Yes,” he said. “I specialize in getting into places that other people can’t.”

  “It must be interesting work,” I told him. I wondered if he could give me some pointers. It would be a handy skill to have in my line of work as a part-time criminal.

  “Not particularly.”

  “Then what do you do to fill the rest of your time?” I asked.

  He glanced over at me, and I suddenly realized he thought that I was asking him so many questions because I was attracted to him. Deciding I could play that up to my benefit, I smiled at him coquettishly. “If you don’t mind my asking.”

  “I enjoy axe throwing. I belong to a club.”

  “Now that sounds fun,” I said, even though, to me, it sounded incredibly dangerous.

  “It can be,” he said, warming to the subject. “Would you like to try it sometime?”

  “She’s getting herself picked up in the cemetery,” God groaned from my chest. He kept his squeaking to a minimum and Alan didn’t appear to notice the noise he’d made.

  I beamed at him. “That would be great.”

  “Great,” he said. “Let me get your phone number.”

  While he pulled out his phone, and I gave him my number, I glanced at my watch and realized I had to get back to the Dello office. As much as I wanted to help Griswald with his inquiry, Ms. Whitehat was counting on me to do her bidding.

  “Oh,” I exclaimed. “There they are.” I pointed at the sparkling keychain that was directly behind Alan. “Lucky we stopped here,” I said with a big grin.

  “Very lucky,” he agreed. Bending over, he scooped up my keys and dropped them into my outstretched hand.

  “That was very resourceful,” God said as I climbed into my vehicle. “But you’d better make sure your name isn’t part of your voicemail message.”

  I winced, realizing he was right. I quickly recorded my voicemail message, leaving out my name.

  “Better,” God approved.

  “I think Griswald will be pleased. Now, I can actually give him Chilton’s name and tell him who his mother was. Not too shabby for a lunchtime break.”

  I hurried back to the dentist’s office, but I was still late, arriving at 1:08.

  “Don’t forget to put your earpiece in when you get back to the office,” God reminded me as I jumped out of the car. In a rush, I fumbled to put it in, and then hurried toward the building.

  I burst in through the front door and found Dello talking to Missy.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said breathlessly. “I didn’t mean to be late. I dropped my keys and then I had to find them and—”

  Rod held up a hand to silence me. “It’s perfectly fine, Betty. I’m glad you found your keys.”

  I sighed with relief, grateful for his understanding. “I’ll try not to let it happen again.”

  He glanced down at my keychain and said, “I would imagine that it’s hard to misplace something like that.”

  I grinned awkwardly, looking down at the heart. “I have impressive skills in that area.”

  “Luckily, it’s your billing skills I’m interested in,” Dello said with a forgiving smile.

  I was no closer to figuring out where the safe was or how to open it, but at least I hadn’t gotten myself fired. That had to count for something.

  21

  While Dr. Dello accepted my returning to work late with understanding, Lynette, the dental technician, huffed by muttering under her breath about “special treatment”. Marge gave me a steely stare that made me think that crossing her would be a very bad idea. I mumbled another apology. She shrugged and strode off toward her office. “I better get back to work,” I told Dello with a weak smile.

  “First days are always a challenge,” he said. “You’re doing fine, Betty.”

  I hurried back into my little room, closed the door, and plugged in the drive that Zeke had given me. I watched as the little green light on it blinked. Sinking down into my chair, I let out a heavy sigh. I really wasn’t cut out for this. I sat there, watching the screen as different images flickered by on it of spreadsheets and forms. I had no idea what Ms. Whitehat was up to, but somebody on the other end of this thing seemed to be working hard. I had to wonder if they were doing my work, or if they were getting some sort of nefarious information off the server. When there was a knock at my door, I turned off the monitor and yanked the drive out of the computer, pocketing it in my scrubs before I opened the door.

  Missy grinned at me. “Do you drink coffee?”

  I nodded.

  “I just made a pot,” she said. “Come have some.”

  I hesitated. I didn’t want the others to think that I wasn’t doing my work.

  “It’s okay,” she told me. “Lynette is in with Dr. Dello and Marge went out to the bank.”

  I followed her down to the little room that was designated for coffee breaks. There was a coffee maker, a sink, and a single chair, as though only one person at a time was allowed to take a respite from the workday. Missy poured me a cup of coffee into an old, chipped mug and offered me a container of powdered creamer. “Not exactly gourmet,” she said.

  “I don’t care,” I told her, taking it gratefully. “As long as there’s some caffeine in it, I’m good.”

  She chuckled. “I’ll drink to that.”

  “Is it just the four of you?” I asked, blowing across the steaming brew.

  “Since I’ve been here,” she said. “I know there used to be a couple of other people, but they were gone before I ever started.”

  “Seems like a lot of space for one dentist,” I said, unsure of what else to talk about.

  She nodded. “Dr. Dello used to have two partners,” she confided. She leaned closer and whispered, “I heard things didn’t end well with them.”

  My mind started racing, wondering exactly what Dello was up to and why Whitehat wanted me here, but all I said was, “How so?”

  She shrugged. “Before my time.”

  “How long have you been here?”

  “Three months.” She plopped into the sole chair.

  “Do you like it?”

  She shrugged. “Does anybody really like their job?”

  I nodded. “One of my aunts loves her job.” I did have to say that about Aunt Loretta. She loved working in The Corset. She loved dealing with the crazy customers and the strange inventory. I’d also be willing to guess that Jack Stern liked his job. He was too naturally curious not to.

  “What about you?” Missy asked. “Are you liking it?”

  I shrugged. “It’s my first day. I don’t think I’m in a position to judge.”

  “That’s because it’s not after three yet,” she said with a chuckle.

  “What does that mean?”

  “That’s when things get interesting,” she said. “The screaming, the crying, the negotiations.”

  I stared at her, feeling horrified. What happened in this place after three o’clock?

  “That’s when the kids get here,” she confided. “During the day, you’re lulled into a false sense of calm as Dr. Dello deals with adult patients, but the moment the kids start coming in, it’s bedlam.”

  “I can imagine,” I said.

  She shook her head. “No, I don’t really think you can. Wait and see. That’s why I had to have my coffee now.” She raised her cup for emphasis.

  Seeing an opportunity, I tried to sound casual as I asked, “It must be crazy with all the little kids running around. How do we keep everything safe?”

  “I see what you did there,” God whispered, so that only I could hear. “Good job.”

  Missy shrugged. “Marge practically barricades her office door, and I try not to step out from behind the desk, no matter how badly I have to pee.”

  I chuckled at her admission.

&n
bsp; “You don’t understand how scary the screaming little monsters can be,” she said, shaking her head, an expression of both horror and disgust on her face.

  “But there must be medications that the doctor needs,” I said, trying to lead her to the answer that I was looking for.

  She squinted at me suspiciously. “If you came to this place to score, you’re not going to get much,” she told me.

  I shook my head. “I was just thinking about the safety of the kids,” I told her quickly, not wanting her to think I was some addict, and to raise her suspicions.

  “The meds are in a locked room,” she assured me.

  “In a safe?” I asked.

  She cocked her head to the side and observed me, and I knew I’d asked too many questions.

  “The last place I worked in, the doctor kept everything in a safe,” I said quickly, trying to cover my gaffe. “It used to drive the dental technician nuts, that when she needed to just get a dose of Novocain, she had to go into his office and punch in the combination. Everything took forever.” I rolled my eyes for emphasis.

  “No,” she said, sipping her coffee. “The meds aren’t locked up that way. Though there is a safe in Doctor Dello’s office,” she murmured. “I don’t think it’s used, though. I heard him complaining once that he couldn’t open it.”

  I tried to look nonchalant at her revelation, but I was feeling pretty proud of myself. I’d discovered the location of the safe. Now, if I could get the combination, I’d make Whitehat happy and be able to get out of my windowless room.

  22

  Missy had not been exaggerating about the screams. Even in my closed off little room, I could hear the wails of children as they faced their torturer. It went on like that for two hours. I made a mental note to bring ear plugs the next day, even if it meant that I had to take out the earpiece that Zeke had provided. My nerves were shot by the time there was a soft knock on my door.

  “You’ve got to be out of here in the next three minutes,” Missy called. “Run for your life!”