by Jennie Marts
“Hey, Zoey. It’s Mac.”
She loved the way her name sounded coming from his mouth. His voice was deep and filled with authority, but it seemed to hold a touch of tenderness when he spoke her name. Or at least, she imagined that it did. “Have you heard anything more? Any news on who the mystery guy is?”
“No, nothing new. But I’ve think I’ve done all I can down here for now. I’m headed back up to Pleasant Valley. I need to grab a shower, then I’ll head in to the station. I want to dig around a bit and see if I can find out anything about him.”
“Yeah, that sounds good.”
“What are you doing? Is Edna feeding you her famous cinnamon rolls?”
She laughed. “Yes, the Page Turners brought over lunch. And dessert, of course.”
“You must be tired after last night. Maybe you should try to get some rest this afternoon.”
She wasn’t quite ready to share their plan to sneak into Cavelli Commerce with the cop working on the case. “That’s a good idea. Yep. I will probably just take a little nap. Maybe watch some TV.”
“I’ll call you later to let you know if I find out anything. Don’t let that grandma of yours talk you into any harebrained schemes until then.”
“Nope. No, sir. No harebrained schemes going on around here.” She winced at the lie. “I should probably go. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Okay. And Zoey?”
There it was again. Her name dripping with the deep resonance of his voice. She could have melted into the phone. She swallowed, her voice soft as she replied, “Yes, Mac?”
“Be careful.”
“I will.”
He clicked off, leaving her standing in the empty hallway, leaning against the wall for support. How could a simple phone conversation make her weak in the knees?
She needed to pull it together.
She had a harebrained scheme to carry out.
Ten minutes later, she and the Page Turners pulled up in front of the Pleasant Valley Community Theatre. Piling out of Cassie’s minivan, the sidewalk looked deserted except for a scruffy-looking guy in his early twenties. He had a full beard and wore jeans and a faded Pokémon T-shirt. He also smelled faintly of marijuana.
Maggie held up her hand as he approached them. “Sorry buddy. None of us have any spare change.”
Cassie held up her purse. “I don’t give out money to the homeless, but I might have a granola bar in my bag if you’re hungry.”
“He’s not homeless,” Edna said. “This is Scooter. He’s my theatre connection.”
Scooter waved. “Hey, dudes.” He lifted his chin at Cassie’s purse. “So can I still get that granola bar?”
Cassie offered him a sheepish grin. “Sure.”
“I can see what you mean about him being a bit of a rule breaker,” Maggie said. She narrowed her eyes at Scooter. “Do you work at The Travel Inn?”
He nodded. “Yep, cover the desk for the night shift on the weekends.” Snapping his fingers, he pointed a finger at her. “Didn’t I see you there a while back with Luke Skywalker?”
Maggie dipped her chin and lowered her voice. “Obi-Wan Kenobi, actually.”
He pointed at her and let out a chuckle. “Lara Croft, right? Tomb Raider babe?”
Sunny laughed. “A little role-play action, Miss Maggie?”
“Cut it out. It was the night we all went undercover at Comic Con. Remember you and Jake were dressed as Batman and Catwoman?”
Sunny smiled, a sheepish grin that made her eyes twinkle. “Oh, I remember, all right.”
Cassie covered her ears. “La-la-la. I do not need to hear this.”
“I do,” Edna said. “Jake looked hot in that Batman suit.”
“Let’s just focus on the task at hand, shall we?” Maggie pointed at the Community Theatre doors. “Can you get us inside, Scooter?”
He held up a set of keys. “Dude.”
Evidently that meant ‘yes’ because they all traipsed after him into the building.
An hour and a half later they all traipsed back out and headed toward the minivan. Cassie was the only one who looked the same as when she walked in.
Maggie was dressed to the hilt in a figure-hugging dress that showed off every curve of her tall body. She wore dark panty hose with a black seam running down the back of her leg, ending in a pair of black stiletto heels. Well-endowed to begin with, the addition of a push-up bra had her breasts bursting over the front of her blouse.
Maggie would cause a distraction just by walking into the room.
Edna still looked like an old lady. There was only so much that makeup could do, but Scooter had refined her makeup and outfitted her in a cream-colored Chanel dress with matching jacket and demure tan heels. He had filled her head with notes on her character—a rich heiress that was angry with her financial advisor and looking for a new place to house her millions.
Scooter had found her a cane and advised her to stoop forward as she walked and lean on the cane. Already in character, she moved with the haughty air of a woman accustomed to wealth. She stood to the side of the van, her nose slightly lifted as she waited for someone to open the door for her.
Sunny pulled at the door and offered her a hand into the van. Both Sunny and Zoey wore the tan scrubs that Cassie had brought. Sunny had found an old pair of tennis shoes, and Scooter had found a dark colored wig to cover her blond curly hair.
The biggest transformation was in Zoey. They had told Scooter enough that he knew they were going undercover into Zoey’s old firm to get something from her desk. He said he’d watched enough of the news to know that Zoey was a key witness, and he assured her that when he was through, not even her own mother would recognize her.
He’d covered her body with padding under the scrubs, making her appear heavier and her belly seem thicker. A short drab wig of mousy brown hair covered her head, and thick brown-rimmed glasses sat on her nose. Everything about her screamed boring and un-noticeable.
At Edna’s insistence, he even added a fierce red pimple in the crease of her nose. He’d applied a thin layer of foundation to give her an almost grayish pallor and a pair of Edna’s tan orthopedic shoes adorned her feet. She might look dowdy, but at least she had great arch support.
Scooter waved from the sidewalk. “Good luck, dudes.”
Cassie fired up the engine of the van and buckled her seat belt. “Who’s ready to go get their spy on?”
Edna was the only one who raised her hand.
Maggie adjusted her cleavage around the seat belt strap. “Who’s ready to just get this over with?” This time, she, Sunny, and Zoey all raised their hands.
On the drive to Denver, Sunny showed them all how to use the ear pieces. She told them that Jake hadn’t made it back yet from the doctor’s appointment so she hadn’t exactly asked to borrow the equipment. She said she hoped he wouldn’t be mad, but if he was, she’d have a fun time making it up to him later.
Sunny passed an earpiece to Zoey. “I could only find two, so I think each team should get one so we can keep in contact. Zoey, you can wear the one for our team.” She looked skeptically at Maggie and Edna who both held out their hand for the other one.
Edna grabbed it and fit it into her ear. “It makes sense that I would wear it. I’m old enough that it could just look like I’m wearing a hearing aid. Besides, everyone’s going to be staring at Maggie so we don’t want a suspicious-looking thingie sticking out of her ear.”
Maggie rolled her eyes. “You’re giving my boobs a lot of credit.”
Edna pointed at her cleavage. “Have you seen your boobs? Every man in that room will be staring. No one will even notice me.”
Yeah, right. Edna had never gone unnoticed in a room in her life.
Maggie shrugged. “Whatever. You can wear it. I know you just want to have it so you can pretend you’re an agent with CIA.”
Edna grinned. “How do you know that I’m not?”
They had concocted a basic plan of Edna and Maggie, posing as a we
althy heiress and her snobbish daughter, working the main area.
Edna had an idea of how to create a diversion, and she tapped the cane against the floor of the van. “I’ll just keep raising my voice louder, and as soon as I start knocking things off of desks with this cane, you two should be able to sneak in and search Teddy’s desk.”
Zoey’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh, Grandma, you wouldn’t.”
Edna scoffed. “You bet I would. Those weasels fired my granddaughter. I’m not worried about knocking around a few of their staplers or file folders.”
The pace of her heartbeat doubled, and Zoey’s palms broke out in a sweat. Her mind raced with the hundreds of things that could go wrong with this plan.
This was not her. She did things by the book—kept her life in tidy order. Unlike their laid-back theatre connection, she was not a rule breaker.
No—she was definitely a rule follower. And everything about this plan seemed to break the rules.
Cassie drove into the parking garage of Cavelli Commerce. She pulled into a spot close to the elevator and put the van in park. She waved a hand in front of her, fanning her face. “All right girls, I’ll wait here. I’m close to the elevator in case we need to do a quick getaway. And I’ll leave the car—and the air conditioner—running since this dang garage is so stuffy.”
Quick getaway? Zoey hoped to get in and out without even being noticed. She imagined them running from the building toward the van, wigs askew, as gunmen raced after them, weapons drawn.
Except most of the men that worked at Cavelli Commerce wore business suits and many hadn’t run after anything in a long time. Except maybe a cab.
She took a deep breath. They were going to be fine. This was a financial corporation with a bunch of employees who were mostly bored with their jobs and watched the clock until their next break or until they could go home for the night.
Nothing was going to happen. She just needed to stay calm.
She looked around the van at the Page Turners. Cassie still wore her sunglasses and nervously scoped out the rest of the parking garage. Sunny had the front visor down and was adjusting her wig. Maggie’s high-heeled foot jiggled with impatience, and Edna’s shoulders bounced in time with the music playing in the van.
Born to Be Wild was on the radio, and Edna belted out the lyrics with gusto.
Her grandmother was enjoying this way too much.
Zoey adjusted her earpiece and reached for the door handle. “All right, let’s do this thing.”
The four rode up the elevator in silence. Zoey and Edna had checked the microphones, and they could easily hear each other. Sunny had assured her that she could talk normally, and the mike would pick up her voice, but Zoey kept tilting her head to talk as if she could get her mouth closer to her ear.
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. This was it. Ready or not.
Sunny and Zoey hung back as Edna and Maggie swept through the glass doors of Cavelli Commerce.
A receptionist sat at a large front desk, but Edna strode purposely by her and into the main room where the majority of the financial advisors sat at their desks. Well, maybe not strode, but hobbled forward with her cane, her expensive handbag swinging from her arm.
From their vantage point, Zoey and Sunny could see every head in the room swivel toward Maggie, men and women alike. All she had to do was walk into the room. She didn’t even have to open her mouth. Just had to stand there and look bored and aloof.
And as a lawyer used to sitting in court, Maggie was excellent at that.
Through the earpiece, Zoey could hear her grandmother’s voice.
Edna’s tone was bold with authority and conceit. “Who’s in charge of this place? My name’s Imogene Buckingham, and I’ve got more money in my piggy bank than most of you pencil-pushers make in a year.”
Imogene Buckingham? Like the palace? Where in the world had Edna come up with that name? Maybe they should have discussed their aliases when they were concocting this plan.
Two men in business suits approached Edna, both holding out their hands in greeting, false smiles plastered on their greedy faces as they each clearly hoped for the commission on a rich old lady’s investments.
But Edna was having nothing to do with them. “I don’t want to talk to you wankers.” Wankers??? She really was channeling Queen Elizabeth. “Neither of you look like you even have your suits tailored. I want to talk to someone who is really in charge.” She banged her cane against the side of a desk, making the man sitting there jump. He’d been ogling Maggie and obviously hadn’t been prepared for his desk to be assaulted.
But Zoey was more concerned with her grandmother’s last statement. What did she mean by wanting to talk to someone who was in charge? Was Edna trying to get in to talk with Sal?
Suddenly this felt way more dangerous.
Sunny tugged at her sleeve and motioned to the window where they could see Edna’s cane take out an unsuspecting tape dispenser that went sailing off a desk. “That’s our cue. Let’s go.”
The receptionist had her back to the door, seemingly too engrossed in the scene Edna was making to pay any attention to two drab cleaning ladies.
Cassie had supplied them each with a bucket filled with dusters, paper towels, and Windex. They slipped down on the hall on their soft-soled shoes, the thick carpet absorbing any sound. Zoey had told Sunny earlier that the accountant’s offices were down the hall and to the right.
The firm employed three accountants and their cubicles sat side-by-side, running the length of the room.
Zoey motioned for Sunny to follow her, and they slipped through the door and into Teddy’s cubicle. Her heart was racing, and she grabbed the duster from her bucket and started dusting Teddy’s monitor.
“What are you doing?” Sunny whispered.
“I’m cleaning. It’s what I do when I get nervous.” Or stressed. Or depressed. It was her fallback habit. And Teddy’s desk could definitely use the cleaning. It was littered with fast-food wrappers and dozens of sticky notes. Faded brown coffee stains formed rings that were dotted across his desk calendar. Doodles of three-dimensional boxes marched down the side of the calendar and assorted pens were scattered across its surface.
The only neat thing was the perfect row of Star Wars Lego action figures that were affixed to the top of his computer monitor.
Sunny pulled out her bottle of glass cleaner and wandered down the row of cubicles. “It looks like we’re the only ones in here.”
“Mary must be on one of her breaks. In the afternoon, she usually takes a couple of smoke breaks and a couple of bathroom breaks followed by a couple of snack breaks. I’d guess we have about five or ten more minutes before she wanders back in.”
“Which cubicle was yours?”
Zoey pointed absently at the next cubby over.
“Geez, they really tidied it up for the next person coming in. It’s spotless over here.”
Zoey poked her head around the wall of the cubicle and looked at her old workspace. “No. That’s just the way I left it.”
She didn’t know why she felt like she had to clean it after they had fired her. Well, she didn’t really clean it. Just wiped down the surfaces with an antibacterial cloth and cleaned out the drawers. She pointed at a pink stapler shaped like a high heeled shoe. “Hey, grab that stapler. I bought that with my own money.”
The stapler had been a gag. Something she’d bought to show that she did have a sense of humor and wasn’t just a stuffy old OCD accountant.
She snatched the stapler off the desk and handed it to Zoey who dropped it into her front pocket.
Sunny moved back in to Teddy’s cubicle and pulled open the top desk drawer. “Geez, this guy is a mess.”
“Yeah, but he was—is—a big lovable goofy mess.” She prayed he was still okay. She pointed at the cabinet above the desk. “Check that cabinet. Look for anything that could possibly be a flash drive. They make them to look like all sorts of things now, and Teddy especially lov
ed the ones that looked like little toys.”
She searched the drawers while Sunny looked through the cabinet. Everything was jumbled together, and it took everything in her not to stop and organize at least the loose paper clips and rubber bands.
Their search netted four flash drives, two matching silver ones, a black one, and a neon green one in the shape of a frog.
Zoey dropped all four into her front pocket then caught a whiff of cigarette smoke. “Oh shizzle. Mary’s on her way back in.” She turned her back to her ex co-worker and focused on dusting while Sunny stepped in front of her.
Mary walked in to the office holding a diet soda and a Snickers bar.
Zoey held her breath as she heard Mary walk by Teddy’s desk on the way to her own. Her breath caught as she heard her footsteps stop.
“Hey, don’t you guys normally clean at night?” Mary asked.
Zoey dipped her head and mumbled, “Donde esta?”
Sunny nudged her with her elbow. “This guy’s desk always takes a little longer. And we heard he called in sick today, so we thought we’d get a little head start.”
This answer seemed to make sense to Mary because she nodded her head in agreement. “Yeah, Teddy’s a bit of a slob. But he’s a good guy. I heard he didn’t show up today and didn’t call. Which is totally not like him. I’ve worked with the guy for three years, and he’s never called in sick. Even when he was sick. The jerk came in this winter with strep throat and shared it with half the office. Where did you hear he called in sick?”
Zoey felt Sunny’s shoulders shrug. “Um, I’m not sure. Maybe I just assumed that. We just do what we’re told.”
Zoey scrubbed the desk with a paper towel trying to shrink into herself. “No ablo englais.”
“We didn’t know you’d be here. We don’t want to bother you.” Sunny grabbed Zoey’s arm and pulled her from the office. “We’ll come back later.”
They hurried down the hall, their buckets knocking against their knees.
“We got what we needed.” Zoey spoke toward the earpiece. “We’re headed to the van.” She’d been so focused on their task, she hadn’t been paying much attention to Edna’s voice in her ear. It had crackled and seemed to cut in and out like it was getting bad reception when they had moved down the hall, so she had turned down the volume a little.