"Maybe I should do that now," Olivia said.
Gideon was thrilled his cell phone chose that moment to ring. It didn't matter who it actually was, he was about to be told of a big emergency at the office, something that would require his immediate presence. "You could do that," he told Olivia, then tugged his phone off his belt and flipped it open. "Hello?"
Walter's gravelly voice spoke in his ear, sounding eager. "We've got a lead on that Hollister fellow." Out of charity, Gideon had assigned Walter a role in the physical search for Anja. The Agency's sentry had been both guilt-ridden and heartbroken when she'd disappeared on his watch.
"What's that?" Gideon asked, choosing his words with care.
"Hollister booked passage on a plane out of Miami, heading for Antigua," Walter told Gideon.
"Understood," said Gideon. "I'll be in the office in twenty minutes."
"Oh, I don't know if there's any reason for you to rush in — "
But Gideon didn't wait to hear Walter's protest, closing the phone and turning to Olivia. She, meanwhile, had her land line off the hook, and was apparently dialing the police. She was dialing them at midnight about a person who'd been missing for two weeks.
"You're leaving?" she asked, and put a hand over the receiver.
"Emergency," Gideon said. He closed the button of his suit jacket with one hand, while checking the location of the flash drive with the other. He walked up to Olivia and dropped a kiss on her upturned lips. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Emergency," she repeated, now frowning in confusion. "What kind of an emergency do you have in sales at midnight?"
Fortunately, before Gideon had to think up an answer, her attention was drawn to the phone held against her ear. "Hello, is this the police? I'd like to report a missing person. At least, I think she's missing."
Oh, she was missing, all right, Gideon thought to himself as he hurried down the stairs. But with any luck she wouldn't be missing much longer.
Mr. Sebastian Archibald Hollister, III, might prove to be something of a tracking hound dog, himself.
~~~
Olivia was on the telephone in the kitchen on Wednesday evening, trying to get through to Gideon when the front doorbell rang. "It's about time," she muttered, and hung up the phone. It would serve Gideon right if he was at the door now. He'd left abruptly last night, called briefly to regret he couldn't return, and had been incommunicado ever since.
It would serve him right if he now landed himself in the middle of a big hen party, the Girls' Night In.
With her long skirt swishing, Olivia strode to the front door and swung it open.
Shana stood on the other side. She grinned sheepishly. "Thought I'd better play it formal this time." Her gaze swept past Olivia curiously. "Didn't want to interrupt anything, uh, unscheduled. And I wasn't even positive we were still on tonight, considering."
"You aren't interrupting anything," Olivia assured her, though she couldn't prevent a pang of irritation that there wasn't, actually, anything to interrupt. Why hadn't Gideon returned any of her calls all day long? It didn't help that the police had been reluctant to get involved in Anja's disappearance. Once Olivia had admitted Anja was out of town, they'd wondered what the big deal was. Friends, even relatives, didn't check in while they were travelling.
Olivia hoped to goodness Gideon hadn't misplaced the flash drive. She was more determined than ever to see what was on it. Had Anja left some sort of message?
Meanwhile, Olivia stepped back from the door, inviting Shana in. "And why wouldn't we be on?" Olivia asked her.
"Well..." Shana came through the door while scratching the corner of her mouth. "You have to admit we've all acquired some...preoccupations over the last week or so."
Olivia snorted and closed the door behind Shana. "Nonsense. Girls' Night In is Girls' Night In, whether or not we happen to have men in our lives."
"Well...I thought so, too," Shana claimed. She glanced around the living room. "Though I see Brittany isn't here yet." She stuck her tongue in her cheek. "Must be giving the, uh, 'babysitter' some last minute instructions."
"The house painter babysits, too?" Olivia's eyebrows lifted high.
"Well, I don't think he is tonight," Shana admitted. "But he does."
"As well as, um — Wow." Olivia's eyebrows were still lifted. "The two of them must be even closer than I thought."
Shana chuckled. "His name is Peter, Peter Grenadine, and according to Brittany, he's a very nice man."
"Pff. He must be something special, anyway, to have got through to Brittany."
"Agreed."
The front door bell rang again. Shana looked at Olivia and raised one brow.
"If it's Gideon then he can just take himself back to the ranch house," declared Olivia. "That's what he gets for not returning my phone calls."
But it wasn't Gideon on the other side of the door. It was Brittany, dressed in her ubiquitous jeans but topped with an off-the-shoulder, clingy, and definitely new-looking blouse. "Hi," she told Olivia, and stuck her hands in her back pockets. "I came to the front door because I wasn't sure if we were meeting or not."
Olivia turned toward Shana, who laughed. "We're meeting," she called, from the living room, where she was seating herself on the lounger.
"Oh, good." Brittany stepped over the threshold. "'Cause it's my turn tonight and I've got a good one." She rubbed together the hands she'd removed from her back pockets. "Anja make it back?"
"No," said Olivia, "though there's been a fairly...interesting development on that front."
"Really?" Shana asked.
"Did she call?" Brittany wanted to know.
"She didn't call," Olivia admitted, "but last night Gideon and I — well, I suppose you could say we found something of hers."
"Really?" Brittany sank onto the sofa. "What do you mean?"
"Well, you might remember that horrible plant she gave me two weeks ago, the Mother-in-Law Tongue?" Olivia took the armchair across from the lounger. "It happened to fall from my windowsill in the middle of — well, it happened to fall." Olivia told herself there was no earthly reason to blush. "With half the dirt scattered all over my rug, we were able to see that inside the pot was one of those miniature computer hard drives."
"A flash drive," Shana supplied, and gazed intently at Olivia. "What was on it?"
"I don't know." Olivia heard the frustration she'd been experiencing all day leak into her tone. "I haven't had a chance to look at it yet."
Brittany frowned deeply. "I imagine it was some of her super-secret research, and she was using the plant to hide it."
"In a house other than her own." Shana nodded at the wisdom of such an action.
"I never even thought of that." Olivia wished more than ever she had the damn thing in her possession. Gideon probably wouldn't understand Anja's high-tech drug research, but it wasn't right he had access to it without Anja's knowledge.
"I think we should take a look at it right now," Shana advised . "Especially since we haven't heard from Anja in so long. Where is it?"
So Olivia had to confess. "I don't have it."
"You don't have it." Shana blinked a few times. "Why not?"
"Gideon said he'd pull it up on one of the computers at his office, but then he had to leave on some emergency, and he didn't think of giving the flash drive back first. And I haven't been able to get a return call from him all day."
"Huh," said Shana. "So Gideon has it."
There was a moment of silence while everyone appeared to digest this.
"Well, I'm sure he'll get in touch with you, one way or another, at some point," Brittany remarked.
"And then we'll have a chance to look at what's on the flash drive," added Shana.
"But when?" Olivia threw up her hands. "He ran off last night on this emergency, and it doesn't seem to be over yet."
"He'll be back as soon as he possibly can," Shana assured Olivia smugly.
"That flash drive has been sitting in the plant for tw
o weeks," Brittany added. "I doubt it's anything urgent. Although..." She started to frown. "It is kind of funny."
"What's funny?" Olivia asked.
"I mean, it's something of a coincidence." Brittany scratched her eyebrow. "Anja gave you that plant, even knowing that without a full-time gardener you'd kill everything in your backyard."
Olivia wrinkled her nose. "True."
"The funny thing is Anja gave me something, too, something she knew I'd never use." Brittany huffed a laugh. "I'd forgotten all about it, but it practically fell out of my medicine cabinet the other night when we had to — well, anyway. It was a vial of perfume. And Anja knows perfectly well I don't use perfume."
"Just like I don't keep houseplants." Olivia blinked and stared at Brittany.
Shana frowned.
"Good Lord," Olivia gasped. "You don't suppose — "
"It wasn't really perfume at all," Shana finished, in the same, awed tone, meanwhile uncrossing her legs. "Dear God, do you think Anja actually gave Brittany a sample of the drug?"
Brittany's face went white.
"Where is it now?" Olivia asked.
"I — I don't know. I mean, Peter took it." Brittany's eyes widened. "Gee, I'd better let him know it could be dangerous."
"Peter took it?" Olivia asked.
Shana's brows curled. "I thought he was straight."
"He is." Brittany shot Shana a glare. "But he said since I wasn't going to use it, one of his foster mothers would."
"Foster mothers?" Olivia asked, then gave her head a brisk shake. "Never mind. So Peter took it."
Brittany frowned at her. "Yeah."
There was a short, thoughtful pause.
Then Brittany turned to Shana. "Say, did Anja give you anything?"
"Me?" Shana automatically began shaking her head, then stopped. "Wait..." One of her hands lifted. "There was something. I would have forgotten it completely, if it hadn't come up right before that whole thing with the dog. Dash was in the kitchen trying to find a recipe. He was holding this handwritten thing Anja had given me, oh, a while back, and insisting on making it..." Shana's voice trailed off as a frown drew her brows down.
"Anja knows you don't cook," Brittany said.
"You're right." Shana looked up. "And when I think about it — Jesus. I don't think that was a recipe at all."
"What do you mean?" Olivia asked.
"I mean, I remember clearly what that recipe looked like. I thought Anja's pen must have been malfunctioning when she'd written it out. Some letters were all thick and blotchy. But I'll bet that was no malfunction. I'll bet — it was a code."
"Hells bells," Brittany muttered.
"Where's the recipe now?" Olivia thought to ask, since neither she nor Brittany still had the things Anja had given them.
"It must be in my kitchen." Shana was already rising from her chair. "I'll just pop over and get it."
Olivia was standing, too.
"We'll go with you," Brittany said.
Two minutes later all three of them stood in Shana's kitchen, gazing at the short wall of built-in shelving.
"I'm sorry," Brittany said. "But I don't see a single cookbook on these shelves."
"Furniture design, interior decoration...a copy of the Kama Sutra?" Olivia blinked, attempting to fathom the function of such a book in such a place, and then shook her head, giving up. "But not a single cookbook."
"It was here just yesterday," Shana complained. "And I'd stuck Anja's handwritten paper in it."
"Before," Brittany pointed out. "You'd stuck it in there before the whole mess with the dog. It probably fell on the floor when Dash did his hero thing. Chances are it got thrown out."
"Okay, the recipe maybe." Shana was glaring at her shelves. "But what about my cookbook? Where is that?"
"Does it matter?" Brittany asked. "It's not as if you're going to use it."
"Yes, it matters," Shana snapped, shooting her a glare. "Because I know it was here yesterday. I looked in it, wondering if there was anything simple enough to make for Dash."
Brittany was agog. "You were going to cook for Dash?"
"That's serious," agreed Olivia in a mutter.
"I thought about it." Shana scowled. "But I didn't. We had pastries from a bakery. The point is: where is that book now?"
"Somewhere else in your house?" Brittany suggested.
"But I know I put it back on the shelf. I'm compulsive about putting things away."
"I can believe that," Olivia murmured, looking around the spotless kitchen. If only she could keep her own house looking so neat. The only thing out of place was Anja's designer scarf, sitting folded on the countertop.
"All right," Brittany said, in a detective-like tone. She leaned one elbow on the countertop. "You had the cookbook for sure yesterday...and the only person other than yourself who had access to it was Dash, who came over yesterday."
"Oh, for heaven's sake." Shana looked torn between frustration and laughter. "You're saying Dash stole my cookbook?"
Brittany lifted both hands. "Maybe he isn't straight, either."
"For heaven's sake, real men cook — and he didn't steal my cookbook!"
"Ladies!" Olivia said. Thoughts and facts were spinning wildly in her brain. "Something is going on here." She set a hand to her forehead to try to make sense of the chaos within. "I feel like if we only think hard enough — There's some kind of a pattern."
Brittany huffed. "You know, she's right. There is a pattern. Anja gave each of us something."
"And none of us has it anymore," Shana added, darkly.
"No, none of us has the things she gave us any more," Olivia said. She was still trying to work it out when a chill fell over her. She lowered the hand from her forehead. "None of us has these things any more, and why not?"
Brittany frowned at Olivia. Shana appeared confused. But the expressions of both women transformed as the idea that had already occurred to Olivia came slowly, but surely, to each of them.
"It could be a coincidence," Brittany said, weakly hopeful.
"A coincidence?" Shana snorted. Comprehension was turning her face dark. "Say it, Brittany. Who's now got the things Anja originally gave to us?"
Brittany looked at Olivia, though, not at Shana. She swallowed. "We don't know for a fact that Dash took the cookbook."
"Oh, puh-leeze," Shana said. "You were the one who pointed out he must have."
Olivia pressed her lips together. She still couldn't fit all the pieces together, or make sense of half of this, but the chill falling over her grew colder and colder. "Where else could that book be?"
Brittany raised her hands helplessly.
"When you think about it," Olivia went on, "which I'm only just now starting to do, there are way too many coincidences. For example — " She raised her eyebrows and gave them an unhappy smile. "For example, what day did you first met Peter, Brittany?"
Eyes wide, Brittany swallowed again. "It was Friday, the Friday before last, that is."
Olivia turned to Shana. "And you? When did you meet Dash?"
Shana's lips pressed into a thin line. "It was Friday, the same Friday."
A short, unhappy laugh escaped Olivia. "That same Friday is when Gideon, after six steadfast months of silence, decided to knock on my door."
Shana hissed out a breath. "And that same Friday was two days after we last saw Anja, who told us she didn't trust her employer."
A deep, disturbed silence fell upon the three women as they gazed at each other in Shana's kitchen. Olivia, meanwhile, felt the chill settle over her so deeply she was afraid she was turning into ice. Gideon had knocked on her door for a reason other than reconciling. That hadn't been his true motivation at all. Every kiss, every declaration of love — oh, God.
Brittany began shaking her head. "No," she said. "No. I simply can't believe it. Come on. We're seeing ghosts. What do a house painter, a security guard, and a — a computer software salesman have to do with pharmaceuticals?"
"Nothing," Shana repli
ed, her smile thin. "If any of these men are really what they say they are."
The chill now was a punch in Olivia's gut. She'd known Gideon had been hiding something, but she hadn't guessed it was anything so...huge. It seemed outrageous, but all the pieces fit together. Gideon must not even have told her the truth about who he was.
"Oh, Shana. Come on," Brittany said, but her protest sounded weak.
"Come on, nothing," Shana retorted. "They've all three of them lied to us. They wanted a chance to get at the things they somehow knew Anja had given us."
Olivia swallowed. "Anja said she didn't trust her employer. She spoke of being more careful and scheming..."
"Apparently, she knew what she was talking about," Shana said, with a snort.
"Are you saying Gideon, or the other guys, are her employers?" Brittany asked.
"That's exactly what I'm saying," Shana declared.
"But Gideon couldn't be her employer, or work for them." Brittany was holding on to the bitter end. "He's a computer software salesman."
"Or so he told Olivia," Shana pointed out, snapping. "How is it, exactly, that Anja just happened to move in right across the backyard from Gideon's estranged wife? He must be her bad employer."
Olivia closed her eyes. Gideon had moved Anja into that house? She felt like an idiot. He'd been lying to her from the very beginning.
"Okay, okay." Brittany held up her hands. "I will admit that something fishy is going on, something that probably involves all three of them, Peter, Dash, and Gideon. However — " She paused and gave both Shana and Olivia warning looks. "However, I've spent enough time in Peter's company to feel sure that, though he may be a big, fat liar, he is not an evil being." Her voice deepened. "He did find Sean for me when he was lost." She pointed at Shana. "And Dash did kill a mad dog who was about to attack you."
Shana scowled. "That's right, he had a gun, and damn well knew how to use it!"
Brittany just raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, okay!" Shana conceded. "He used it to save my butt."
Both women turned to look at Olivia. She pressed her lips flat. "Gideon? Well, he's obviously perfectly capable of lying through his teeth..." And she was capable of being a gullible fool. "But...I do have to balk at believing him involved in anything truly evil."
Indiscreet Ladies of Green Ivy Way Page 17