Point of Attraction

by Margaret Van Der Wolf

The whispers among the clientele were now loud murmurs. Georgie could see both Emmee and Brandy trying to explain to their clients while working on their hair, yet not wanting to miss what was going on.

  “When?” Jeffrey asked. “How much did they take?” When she didn’t answer, his voice rose. “Georgina?”

  “Jeffrey, please!” Once he stopped to take a breath, Georgie said, “Raggs was taken...”

  “Raggs? That old thing? Why would anyone take that?”

  “Jeffrey, be quiet!” Now she was embarrassed and pressed her hand to her forehead. It wasn’t often she lost control at work. Why did she have to lose it now, in front of Mason... Officer Montgomery?

  “Maybe I should go then...” Jeffrey offered.

  “No. Just be quiet a moment,” Georgie said, putting a hand to his arm in apology. A deep breath helped clear her head. “That old thing was mine,” she managed to say, her voice now calm. “And if I knew why someone would take her, I’d know who took her.”

  She finally looked up into Mason’s face and found his gray eyes on her. Their gray hue was more to the blue this morning. Perhaps it was the black uniform.

  “It happened last night,” she said, “after I left for my writing class.”

  “But I was here last night,” Jeffrey explained, “and Raggs was here, wasn’t she?”

  “And your name?” Mason asked.

  “I’m sure you know my name,” Jeffrey said through clenched teeth.

  Georgie was shocked not only at Jeffrey’s terse remark, but also at the blatant visual sweep he was giving Mason. All words died in her throat. All she could do was stare. This was a side of Jeffrey she couldn’t remember ever seeing.

  “If you please, for the record, sir,” Mason said. “I need your name?”

  “I’m Jeffrey Sanders, Mrs. Gainsworth’s accountant, client, and very close friend.”

  “And your address?”

  “What for?”

  “For my report,” Mason said, and the patience in his tone was worthy.

  Georgie just wanted the floor to open up so she could dive in. Oh, Sam, why aren’t you here to fix all this? Then thought, no. She leaned on Sam for twenty years. It was time to let him rest.

  “I need your address in case we need to talk to you,” Mason said, his face showing no emotion, but Georgie thought there was a hint of humor somewhere behind his set mouth. “You know, incase we need to verify the time,” he added.

  “My office is right here in The Center, four units over. Sanders Accounting. You can find me there any day of the week. My home address is in the phone book. I have to go open my office.”

  Jeffrey turned to her with a hand on her shoulder. “I didn’t take Raggs, Georgina. She must have still been here when I left, I’m sure.”

  Even knowing how he felt about her and certain he had not taken Raggs, Georgie still struggled with the urge to pull her shoulder clear of his touch. Georgie wanted to tell him she knew he hadn’t, but his remark about that old thing went deep. The door chime pinged and they all looked to the front of the shop. She wondered who had put it back up.

  Jeffrey left them and was walking out while another officer stood at the reception desk. The officer stared after Jeffrey now out the door, fixing his tie and looking back through the window.

  To Georgie, surprise was the word for the moment. “Wow,” she murmured. “Never thought Raggs would rate two police officers.”

  “That’s my partner, Officer Clark,” Mason said. “I asked her to interview your business neighbors who were open late last night to see if they had any problems or saw anything out of the ordinary.”

  “That’s your partner?” Georgie asked, saw Mason’s brow twitch, obviously taken back by her question, but before he could say anything more, Officer Clark, arrived with a wide smile and extended her hand.

  Georgie met the gesture. “Tonie, right?” she asked.

  “Yes, Ma’am, Tonie Clark. Told you you’d see me again,” Officer Clark said. “Only I didn’t think it would be this soon nor under these circumstances.”

  Mason cleared his throat, and Tonie let go of her hand, tilting her head at him with a subtle roll of her eyes. “Georgie, I mean Ms. Gainsworth, cut my hair last night.”

  “Really?” Mason asked.

  “Yes. Really,” Tonie said.

  “Then you were here too?” Mason asked.

  “Well, not that you’d ever notice, but I was here getting my hair cut. Then I left. Ms. Gainsworth was going out the door too.”

  There was something in Mason’s tone, but Georgie couldn’t place a name to it. Was it interest? Surprise maybe? Wow, she thought. Maybe it was true what they say; that a partner in the line of dangerous duty like police work was almost as close, if not closer than, a spouse. A couple? Suddenly, Georgie didn’t want to talk to them anymore. Raggs was gone and she wanted her back. That was all. She wanted her Raggs back.

  “I wished I hadn’t gone to class,” Georgie said.

  “Did anyone else see anything out of the ordinary,” Mason asked Tonie.

  Tonie shook her head. The friendliness slipped away and Georgie saw the professional take over. Flipping through and reading the pages in her little notebook, Tonie said, “They saw nothing they don’t see every night. They did say they could adjust their clocks by Ms. Gainsworth’s comings and goings.” She pointed at Georgie. “Which is not a good idea, having a predictable schedule like that.”

  “Okay. That’s all for now,” Mason said to Tonie. “We’ll check out the whole area, up and down the street. I’ll go over some more details with Ms. Gainsworth and be out in a minute.”

  “Yes, sir.” Tonie removed her hat, ran her fingers through her hair and gave Georgie a thumbs-up. “Just what I wanted. Thanks. Hope we can find your property or that it shows up safe and sound.” She adjusted her hat back into place and went out.

  For the longest time, Georgie looked to the departing officer. When the quiet of the moment became a third presence, she looked up at Mason and nearly blushed at being caught staring. “I was just thinking.”

  “What?”

  “Just that it’s tragic enough when a police officer is taken down, but when it’s a woman?” She shook her head. “Yet I can’t deny her the right to do the job. I should write a book about it.”

  “If anyone can do it justice, it would be you.”

  “And you.” Georgie felt the eyes of those around them, and it was a struggle to keep from reacting to Mason’s steady gaze and that of others who might be taking note of all this.

  “So show me where Raggs normally sits and where the girls were when they think the theft might have taken place.” He leaned down and whispered. “And please, I reeeeally want to know why she’s worth thousands?”

  “Because I said so, and because I was being ignored until I mentioned the M word.”

  “The M word?”

  “Money,” she whispered, then raised her voice. “This way, Officer Montgomery. The girls were back here at the shampoo bowls, while Raggs normally sits up here.”

  As they walked to the front, Georgie held her hands out to the girls and customers. “Yes, I was robbed. No, it was not money. I wished they had taken the money. I would just charge you all more and get it back that way.”

  They laughed and someone even said, “No doubt.”

  “But they took Raggs,” Georgie said, and she heard a hushed gasp.

  “What? Someone took my girl?” a male voice said, and Georgie turned.

  And there he stood; Hawaiian shirt and cargo short pants. In autumn.

  “Nick! When did you...”

  “Flew in late yesterday.”

  “Nick if you took her...” But in truth, Georgie was hoping he’d laugh, say he was sorry, and hand over Raggs. But he did neither.

  “Oh, Georgie Girl,” he said, his arms wrapping around her, then slid a caring hand over her hair, which he knew she hated, and she swatted away the offending appendage.

  “Raggs is my girl,”
he added, with a finger beneath her chin, tipping it up so she could do nothing else but look into in his playful brown eyes. “But I wouldn’t kidnap her.”

  “And you would be?” Mason asked.

  “Me? Why, I’m the love of my Georgie Girl’s life. I’m... I’m...” he muttered while making a rolling motion with his hand, over acting the search for another word.

  A subtle laughter rumbled through the shop.

  “Nick, please,” Georgie begged.

  “Georgie Girl and I bonded when she gave me a bloody nose in kindergarten...”

  Georgie held up her hand and fought her way free of his arms. “Nick, not the kindergarten story, please.”

  “Okay. Delete that. The moment I saw that moving van drive up at the house next door, and saw this brown haired girl,” he said, giving her hair a quick tug, “with those hazel eyes, come out of the car behind the van? I knew it was trouble.”

  Georgie swatted off his hand and shrugged out of his hold to go behind her desk. She sat on its tall stool and dropped her head on her arms on the appointment book.

  “Georgina?” a soft voice came through Nick’s never ending tirade. “Are you ready for me?”

  Georgie’s head snapped up. She took a quick look at her book and jumped from the stool. “Mrs. Stewart! Oh jeez, I’m so sorry. Please, go on back. I’ll be right there. I just have to finish this here.”

  As Mrs. Stewart went by Nick, she stopped and, though she was shorter, looked up at him eye to eye. “Nicholas Underwood, you are still a little... what is it you call him, Georgina? Oh yes. You are still a little shit.”

  “Yes, Ma’am. I am.”

  “I don’t know how Georgina has put up with you all these years.”

  “Nor do I, Mrs. Stewart.”

  As the retired schoolteacher spoke, her hands worked the handle of her walking stick, giving the impression she was considering using it as a club. “Now, tell the Officer what he wants to know so Georgina can get on with my perm, and let me tell you... if my perm comes out bad, not even Georgina will save you.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  Before Mrs. Stewart started to the back of the shop, she turned to Mason. “And you make certain you earn your pay and find Raggs. Georgina’s lost enough in her life.”

  “That I will do,” Mason answered with the tip of his finger to the brim of his hat.

  Georgie swallowed back the rising emotion, and cleared her throat. She’d forgotten it was Mrs. Stewart who sent for the pattern of Raggedy Ann for her mother, and it was Mrs. Stewart who shopped for the dress material and just the right color of yarn for Raggs’ hair.

  “Raggs sat here,” Georgie told Mason.

  As she watched, Mason stood at the door, looked to the back of the shop, then slowly moved in. He’s gauging just how far the thief had to enter to reach Raggs, Georgie thought.

  “As you can see,” Georgie said. “It’s almost a total blind spot from the shampoo bar. That’s why our money drawer is locked when we’re all back there. We each have a key.”

  When the chime pinged, it didn’t take much to read the change in Mason’s face and she explained where they had found the chime. Nick too lost his impish humor, and though he tried to hide it, his eyes met Mason’s, but neither said a word.

  “The girls and I thought the same thing,” Georgie said, letting them know their secret was hardly that. “Whoever it was must have been watching and waiting for the right moment. I just don’t understand, why? No money taken. Just Raggs?”

  Neither man said anything while Mason wrote in his notebook, then looked at Nick.

  “Mr. Underwood, when I run you through the system, will we find anything we shouldn’t? It’s best you tell me now before I make my report.”

  “Actually, you’ll find my name nowhere,” Nick started out before Georgie could stop him. He ran his fingers through his shaggy blond hair, gave her a glance, then looked to Mason. “I don’t exist, you know.”

  “What?” Mason let his sight slid to Georgie. When she shook her head, waved a hand, and closed her eyes that she’d heard this far too many times before, he turned his attention back to Nick.

  “I think my parents were, you know, one of THE spooks.” Nick said.

  Mason drew in a deep noisy breath. “THE spooks.”

  Nick leaned toward him as though to share a great secret. “You know,” he whispered, deep furrows forming between his brows. “Black SUVs? C I A spooks.” Nick stressed each of the letters in the acronym for Mason to pick up on it. “Protective custody and all that?” He spread his hands to wipe away the murmur, “The never-were.” “Stop. You need to stop,” Georgie told Nick. “Can you please be serious here. Can you?” She gave Mason in a silent please be patient with him plea. “Let me know if you need me to sign anything. I have to go start my perm.” She walked past Nick with only a hopeless stare through narrowed eyes.

  “What?” Nick asked with that perfected innocence. “It’s true. Georgie Girl, you know it’s true.”

  Georgie waved a dismissing hand.

  Chapter seven

  “Will you please stop?” Georgie begged Emmee, at the end of the day.

  “Are you telling me Officer Montgomery wasn’t someone you’d want to wake up next to? Or... better yet...”

  “Emmee, I’m warning you. Stop this... this... whatever this is you’re trying to do.”

  “Getting you a guy and all the bennies that come with it is what I’m trying to do here, Boss Lady.”

  Georgie threw a damp towel at Emmee, but the stylist easily caught it before it hit her face and tossed it in the salon washer. “Let’s get this place ready to go in the morning,” she told Emmee, then bit her lower lip, knowing she’d have hell to pay when Emmee and Brandy found out Officer Montgomery was in her writing class and had already been to her house. “I, for one, am tired and ready to go home.”

  “You can’t deny he looked mighty fine in that uniform,” Emmee went on, totally into her playful taunting. “And that gun.” Emmee formed a perfect 0 with her lips and rolled her eyes. When she got in this mood, those eyes resembled amber glass in the sun. “Oh, my.” She fanned her face, and this time, Georgie hit her target with another throw of a damp towel.

  “Don’t damage the make-up,” Emmee laughed.

  “I like Nick,” Brandy said, with a pout, arms crossed beneath her small breasts as she leaned on the doorless threshold of the supply room watching them.

  “You would,” Emmee said, spreading detergent over the towels in the washer and closing the lid. “Towels set and ready to go in the morning.”

  “Doesn’t Nick have the cutest legs?” Brandy asked, not really expecting an answer. Again, Emmee rolled her eyes, but said nothing.

  “All right,” Georgie said, before they started their usual banter. “Get your things and head for the front door. I’ll get the lights. Make sure the main cord on your curling iron outlet strip is unplugged. I already unplugged the TV.”

  “You are such a worrywart,” Emmee said. “Won’t leave the washer on so the towels are ready to dry in the morning. Safety features on all the outlets, but we have to unplug them.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Just unplug them, okay?.” Georgie put on her coat, knitted scarf and cap as she waited for the girls to get to the front. The safety light gave her clear vision to make her way through the shop. After locking and giving the door a tug, they dodged their way through the still busy parking lot to their vehicles. With the Cup Java Espresso House and Total Attire Center, a clothier, both open till 10:00; The Land & Sea Restaurant, open till 2:00am; Pacific Banking and their ATM; the Here For The Buyer all night grocery store, there was always traffic in the parking lot.

  The evening wind swatted at Georgie and her two stylists. Brandy’s hair billowed into medusa-like swirls, and Georgie pulled up her coat collar to snug-up her neck scarf to keep out the chill.

  “Look at how dark it is,” Brandy said. “It’s not even waiting for the end of daylight saving time.”


  “It is after seven,” Georgie said. “I’m going to move my car closer to The Buyer and get some groceries.”

  “Oh, oh,” Emmee said, her voice light and overly playful, then smiled to sing-song, “Someone has a boyfriend.”

  The biting cold wind made Georgie blink as she looked to where Emmee pointed. Tucked beneath the Subaru windshield wiper was a single red rose. While her first thought leaped to Mason, she didn’t think it was something he would do, nor was there reason for him to do it. Jeffrey in apology? Hmm. Could be. Nick humbly throwing himself face down spread-eagle in apology? A tingle tugged at the corners of her mouth. Oh, yeah, she could see that, wanted to see it, and half-laughed. “Has to be Nick.”

  “That’s so romantic,” Brandy said. “I told you I liked him.”

  “The man’s a lunatic,” Emmee told Brandy.

  “You’re too harsh on him.” Even in the dark, Georgie could see Brandy’s lip push out in a pout as she took out her car keys. “He’s just so... so... Nick.”

  Georgie actually heard a deep sigh come from the young girl. Nope. She did not want to be that young again, and bit her lip to keep from smiling.

  “Oh, spare me, puuulease,” Emmee said, also unlocking her car door.

  “Everyone should have a Nick in their life,” Georgie said, and smelled the rose before pressing her keys and beeping-open her car locks. “I just wish it had been him that took Raggs. He would have brought her back by now.”

  “They’ll find her, Boss Lady.”

  They all turned as the dark car bearing a circle of letters that read, Instant Reply Security, drove by slowly. “Where were they when we needed them?” Emmee asked, not expecting an answer, “And I hate those tinted windows. Can’t see a damn thing.” She audibly shuddered. “Gives me the creeps”

  “I think that’s the idea. Good night, guys. See you in the morning.” Georgie tossed the rose onto the passenger seat and slid in.

  “Night, Boss,” both girls said, the closing doors sealing the goodbyes.

  ~~0~~

  By the time Georgie bought her groceries and drove up her driveway into her yard, it was almost nine o’clock, and there was a motorcycle leaning at the corner of her garage where it met the chain link fence. She knew no one with a motorcycle, and looked around for Daisy. It took a moment before the Schnauzer came around the house barking and bounding. Though Daisy wasn’t growling, Georgie reached behind the seat for her bat just the same. Holding it firm and low, she opened her car door and got out of the car.