by Elle Rush
“I know you can handle yourself but I worry,” Decker said.
“Don’t.”
“But I like worrying about you.” Evidently, that was the right argument to make.
“Fine,” she said with a huff.
“Great. I’ll see you tonight.”
Right after he made his report.
Nick Klassen looked surprisingly serious considering the positive nature of Decker’s news. “What do you mean, it wasn’t there?”
“E.L.V.I.S. wasn’t there. The shoe I found matched the one the doll was wearing in the photos you sent, but the unit itself was missing. You told me it was designed to do surveillance. Was it programmed when it left your facility?”
Decker hadn’t realized cameras embedded in laptops were sensitive enough to catch pupil dilation and skin tone changes until he saw Nick turn a ghostly shade of white, then green. “Why do you ask?”
Evasion wasn’t a good sign. “Mr. Klassen. Nick,” he said, trying to sound friendlier. “I get the feeling you aren’t being completely honest with me. I can’t help you if you hold things back. Was E.L.V.I.S. programmed when it arrived in Ottawa?”
Nick gulped. “Yes.”
Now they were getting somewhere. “To track a particular person?”
“No. It has standard programming to respond to a list of illegal behaviors. Violence and theft primarily. If E.L.V.I.S. recorded something that fell within its parameters, its default settings would have kicked in.”
“I’m going to need to know the doll’s responses if I have a hope of catching it now that we know it’s on the move,” Decker said.
“I’ll have to check with the I.T. department. In the meantime, keep looking. I think you’re right. E.L.V.I.S. will likely return to that spot. It’s too bad you didn’t slip a little tracker into his shoe. He’s programmed not to leave any trace of himself behind. Report back tomorrow with any progress you’ve made. I’ll have an answer for you about the rest.”
Decker happened to have a miniature GPS tracker. However, in this case, miniature was a relative term. It was still larger than the doll’s shoe. He’d have to think about his options.
Tomorrow.
Tonight was for dining and romancing. And dancing if Joy absolutely insisted.
When he picked her up, Decker hoped she would insist. The blue dress she’d worn to work was heart-stopping, but this one was even better. It was an iridescent rusty red with long sleeves and a neckline scooping low under her collarbone. He helped Joy into her coat, said good-bye to the cats—Pumpkin twice—and walked her to his truck.
Joy didn’t waste time ordering a salad. She went for the steak—rare, twice-baked potato with cheese, and the steamed broccoli, which she pushed out of the way with her fork. She also helped him split a bottle of red wine.
Decker was a big enough guy that two glasses of wine over three hours wouldn’t affect him. Joy was slighter. She laughed a little louder when she started her second glass, and her brown eyes shone a bit brighter. She told him about Pumpkin’s adventures since he’d arrived at the shelter. He told her about how his knee was too bad to pass the department’s physical for returning to work. Then they got into music and movies. The conversation never died.
“Dessert? Coffee?” the waiter interrupted.
Joy’s eyes went wide at the offer, but she pinched her lips together and shook her head.
“Give us a minute,” Decker ordered.
Once they were alone again, he nudged the dessert menu toward her. “They have some amazing desserts. The raspberry chocolate cheesecake is really good,” he teased, wiggling the card to draw her attention to it.
“I’m too stuffed to enjoy it right now. If you’d like to come back to my place for coffee, by the time it’s ready, I might have room. If you’re interested.” She looked at him over the top of her wine glass.
When the waiter returned to the table, their seats were already cold. Decker left him a huge tip, though.
Chapter Twelve
Joy
She should have baked another cake. She and Decker each had a piece with coffee, and then another with their refills an hour later. She’d sent the last piece home with him to have for breakfast.
She stared into the mirror as she brushed her teeth. She’d given away cake. That was a serious declaration on her part. She must like Decker more than she’d been willing to admit to herself. She retreated a mental step and tried to look at Decker from the outside.
Handsome, funny, polite. Super interesting job. Protective, but still respecting the fact she could take care of herself.
She needed to take a bigger step back.
She shouldn’t get too attached. They’d only had three dates; one was barely a coffee date, one had ended badly, and the other had been too perfect for words. She needed to slow down.
Joy wasn’t even certain she was going to be around for much longer. The employment agency had contacted her again. They informed her that the employer had been impressed with her first interview and would be in touch if they wanted to move forward.
She was tempted to blow it off. Part of that was fear; new things were scary. She wasn’t working in her dream job, but overall her life was going pretty well at the moment. Joy wasn’t sure she was willing to risk it all on an unknown, if they did eventually make her an offer.
On the other hand, she was already at ninety percent certainty about Decker. He was smart, handsome, funny, kind, and honest. The kittens also liked him; she trusted their judgment almost as much as her own. She had to figure out her priorities.
Sadly, he was giving her all the time she needed. When she’d asked him when they were going to see each other again, he’d frowned.
“I have to work. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be on a stakeout for the next few days, which flips me onto a night shift. It may take a while for me to find what I’m looking for,” Decker told her, his voice gentle.
“Okay.” She wanted a night to think things over, not a week-long break.
“No, it’s not. My timing is terrible. If I can find another way to get this job done, I will, but until then I’m stuck. It does have one perk, though.”
“What?” Joy couldn’t think of a single good thing about not being able to see him at all for an indefinite period.
“Your breakfasts will be at the same time as my dinners. I can be your alarm clock and wake you up every morning. How would you feel about a personal coffee delivery service?”
She smiled. If there was only one benefit to Decker’s new hours, it was a good one.
Chapter Thirteen
Decker
The cats gave him the idea. Decker was stuck on how to track E.L.V.I.S. since a normal GPS chip wouldn’t work. When he’d played with Pumpkin earlier, he’d felt the tiny microchip embedded in the cat’s scruff. It was slightly larger than a grain of rice, which was the perfect size to be glued onto a doll shoe. Tracking it would be more difficult, but it was a start.
Decker spent his morning hunting down a suitable substitute, and finally located one thanks to a friendly vet who owed him a favor. A trip to the hardware store took care of the glue. Then he crashed on his office sofa for an afternoon nap until it was time to head to Archer Plaza.
He specifically timed his visit to the mall for after Joy left for the day to avoid any awkwardness. Now his plan rested on whether or not E.L.V.I.S. was fond of his blue fuzzy shoes.
Decker knew where to look. Luckily, the shoe was where he had left it. He quickly attached the microchip, then replaced the shoe on the corner of the shelf. He’d just finished shifting the bags of kibble back onto the shelf when Joy’s boss came over.
“Can I help you find anything?”
Decker picked up a gold-tone pen from the floor, where he had placed it in case he got caught. “I came in to see if Joy was working, but apparently she’s not. Then I dropped my pen and it rolled under the dog food. I got it, thanks.”
Rob nodded. “You’re Joy’s friend,” he s
aid. It wasn’t a friendly observation. “We—my wife and I—are Joy’s friends too. She’s a wonderful person and a great employee.”
“I can’t judge her work skills, but I think she’s wonderful too. I’ve told her so,” Decker said. He didn’t appreciate being questioned about his intentions, but it spoke well for Joy that she had people who wanted to watch her back.
“Joy says you might be getting one of her cats. She wouldn’t let them go to just anybody,” Rob admitted.
“I’m getting a cat?” Decker repeated. What was going on this week with people thinking he wanted a feline sidekick? No self-respecting private detective had a cat—not in books, not in movies, and certainly not in real life. He hadn’t given Joy the slightest clue he was interested in adopting a pet.
“She said Pumpkin had adopted you. But don’t tell her I told you so.”
The orange kitten was cute but that didn’t mean Decker was going to take him home. “Don’t worry. I don’t intend to bring up any part of this conversation. I don’t want to give Joy any ideas.”
“I won’t mention it either,” Rob said with a laugh.
Decker slipped the pen into his jacket pocket, and patted the chip tracker that was already there. “Have a good night,” he said before he exited into the mall.
Decker doubled back after a couple stores, until he was beside Kitten Caboodle’s display window. He pulled the tracker from his pocket and turned it on, being careful not to jiggle the freshly soldered wires which were attached to a new motherboard. The upgraded technology was supposed to make the unit strong enough to read the microchip from a distance. He walked by the front door to make it work, proving his range was about sixty percent of what he’d hoped for. It was better than nothing.
He headed for the security office. One of Archer Plaza’s night watchmen was a friend of a friend, who’d been told Decker was a former cop doing research for a novel. Decker was allowed to accompany the guards on their rounds. It wasn’t the night he wanted to have. Not by a long shot.
“Getting settled in? Thermos of coffee? Binoculars? Box of donuts?” Joy texted him as the sound system announced shoppers had fifteen minutes before the mall closed. He laughed, if only because his hand had been in the box of donuts he’d brought for the guys when his phone went off.
“Check and check. Good day?” he sent back.
“Not bad. Crashing now. Late night last night ☺ ”
Decker made the rounds three times without incident. The fourth gave him pause. He stopped outside the accordion doors leading into Kitten Caboodle. One of the sections was missing a six-inch piece of clear plastic along the bottom. It wasn’t person-sized, but a doll could easily use it as a way into the store—or out of it. Decker pulled out his tracker. If the doll were inside, the unit would register the chip on the boot.
It didn’t. E.L.V.I.S. was on the move.
Ten minutes further into his security sweep, he knew E.L.V.I.S. hadn’t left the building. He didn’t even need the tracker to confirm it. The doll was safely ensconced behind Pure Bred’s glass security doors. Decker saw the surveillance unit marching up and down the rows inside, pausing every once in a while, then moving on.
If E.L.V.I.S. wasn’t still in the shop or café when it opened the next day, Decker would have to start over again in Kitten Caboodle. There were worse places to be.
Chapter Fourteen
Joy
Joy growled as she slipped her truck into reverse and made a second run at the narrow spot at the far end of the parking lot. She’d forgotten schools were closed for the day, which meant the mall would be the gathering place for every high school student in the capital area. In other words, it would be filled with annoying teenaged girls squealing “Oh my Goooood, they are soooo cuuuute! Can I pet them, pleeeeeeease?” as soon as they saw the animals in the playroom.
She’d had a terrible morning. She’d set her alarm an hour earlier than normal, planning on a call from Decker for a breakfast date. It never came. She ended up wolfing down a pair of frozen waffles before she raced out the door.
“Come on, my preciouses. Into the store with you,” she told the four yowling kittens in the carrier as she hefted it out of her passenger seat. The wind bit through her coat like it wasn’t there, announcing fall was finally over. She’d be surprised if there wasn’t snow on the ground by the end of the day. A particularly vicious gust caught her, and the carrier flew sideways. Four little thumps hit the plastic wall, and the feline howling increased. “Sorry, babies. It’s a little rough out here.”
She smiled for the first time that day when she got inside. “I’d swear it was you but I locked up last night,” was Rob’s greeting.
“Huh?” Joy winced at her inelegant response. She was too busy concentrating on removing the stubborn kittens and transferring them to their play space.
“The toys. In the aisle. It happened again. Now I know why you were annoyed. It took forever to get them cleaned up.”
“Why are you here early?” she asked.
“It’s a school holiday. We’re going to have a crazy day.”
The morning wasn’t bad, but things picked up at lunch. It started with a trickle. A trio of teens politely inquired where the pet toy aisle was. Then a woman in a suit. Then a high school couple who walked in with their hands literally in each other’s back pockets.
The businesswoman made it to the counter first. She set down a Funster sock monkey, a package of balls with bells in them, and a coupon authorizing her to one free Funster toy under twenty dollars. A coupon issued by Kitten Caboodle that Joy had never seen before. “I’m sorry but this voucher isn’t valid,” Joy told her customer.
“Of course, it is.”
Joy scanned the barcode and showed the woman the resulting “unreadable” code.
“This is ridiculous. It’s false advertising. I don’t want the balls then, either.”
Joy tossed both items on the shelf behind the register and turned around to find the teens already at the counter. “We want these,” they chorused, putting down three identical mice in different-colored dresses.
She’d barely picked up the first when Joy was hit by a tsunami of noise. A mob of kids stretching as far as she could see tried to force its way into the store. “What on earth? Rob!”
“It’s okay. You don’t need to ring them up,” the middle girl said. She handed over three coupons and the girls grabbed their toys and headed for the front door.
“Wait a minute. These coupons are fake. If you leave, that’s theft!” Joy shouted at their backs.
They glanced over their shoulders, saw she was stuck behind the counter by the sudden influx of customers, and began pushing their way to the exit.
“Rob, stop those girls! They’re stealing!” Joy yelled. Then she raised her voice even louder. “Attention everybody in Kitten Caboodle. The coupons for free Funsters are not real. They are fakes. Anybody trying to leave with a toy they did not pay for will be charged with shoplifting.” Joy was never more grateful they’d programmed mall security into speed dial on the store’s phone. She was calling for them while she made her announcement.
She heard Rob yelling from the door, but it still took several minutes to regain control of the store. Joy collected every coupon she spotted and ended up with over fifty. The first few handfuls were grudgingly given. After repeating herself so often she lost track, customers started coming up to the till and throwing them on the counter. Joy asked one young man the question she’d been dying to ask. “Where did you get this?”
He shrugged, his flannel shirt fluttering in the exaggerated movement. “Some guy was handing them out in the food court. Why’d he do that if they aren’t real?”
“I have no idea,” Joy replied. She hadn’t done much more than glance at them, but with this latest revelation, she took another look. They appeared professional: they had the store logo, the deal in big print, a bunch of small, smudged type at the bottom, and a bar code in the corner. If it had been for any
other store, she’d have assumed it was legitimate as well.
“Joy?”
She didn’t look up. “What, Rob?” Couldn’t he see she was still swamped?
“Not Rob.”
Wait. She recognized the voice. Tension drained from her shoulders like somebody pulled the plug when she saw Decker stride down the aisle. The grumbling customers surrounding her till may not have recognized him, but they responded to his air of authority. Joy collected the last of the fake coupons easily as the free toy seekers filed out of the store.
“What’s going on in here?” Decker asked.
She wordlessly handed him a coupon and began collecting the abandoned toys she’d tossed beside the cash register. “What is this?” he asked.
“Apparently, some guy was in the food court handing them out. We managed to shut down the first wave, but I don’t know how many Funsters have already walked out the door. We’ll have to put up a sign, I guess, warning people.” Her interest in signage waned when her new situation finally hit her. “What are you doing here?” Joy told herself she wasn’t as pleased as she sounded; he had stood her up for breakfast without a word.
“I missed you this morning.”
That was sweet. But he could have called. “I was around,” she said as she snagged the last Funster.
“I should have called.”
Joy held out a plush goldfish. “Help me put these things away before I check on the kitties. It got pretty hectic in here,” she told him.
Joy jammed toy after toy back on the ransacked shelf. She and Rob needed to do a full inventory later to see how many had walked out the door. Decker handed her the stuffed fish but held on to the tail when she tried to pull it away. “I’ll call next time,” he said.