by E B Corbin
They fell silent as Norman came back in the room. He had the necessary contact information on a sheet of legal paper, which he handed to Sam without a word.
She looked it over. “I’ll need to talk to your housekeeper too. And give me Helen’s contact number, as well as your court-appointed attorney.”
“Helen is here in the office every day. You can reach her anytime between nine and five-thirty.” Despite his reluctance, the realtor snatched the paper from Sam and circled his desk. He looked up the info on an old Rolodex with frayed edges, then wrote the phone numbers down. “Do you really need to speak to all these people? My attorney is overworked and underpaid. She hardly has time to be bothered by you.
“And I don’t see how Mrs. Maguire would be any help. She left at three before any of the others showed up. You can always find her at our house during the week.” His voice trailed off as he spoke more to himself than Sam or Henry. “Although, I suppose we won’t need her much longer for just Stacy and me.”
Sam indicated the paper on his desk. “That is a good start. Why don’t you add your cell phone number so we can contact you whenever we find out anything of interest? Stacy’s too. We will need to talk to her about that day.”
“I’d prefer you leave my daughter out of it. I don’t want to upset her any more than she already is.”
“We’ll try to go as easy on her as possible, but I can’t promise we won’t have a few questions for her.”
Norman frowned. “Maybe this is a mistake. We should let the police handle it.”
“Are you satisfied with their findings so far? They have you slotted into a nice round peg. I doubt they’ll look any further.” Sam’s desire to help this man took on an importance she did not understand. She felt an obligation to him that she had never expected. The reality of returning the funds her father ripped off turned out to be so different from what she had imagined.
Norman’s hair stood on end as he rubbed his hands through it. “I’m so confused. I’ve never been arrested before. And to think that the police believe I could harm Mary Margaret . . . it’s disconcerting, to say the least.”
Sam stood, grabbed the legal sheet from his desk, folded it then stuck it in her pocket. She wanted out of there before he changed his mind. “We’ll get started today and call you as soon as we have any news.”
Henry followed her out of the office, leaving a bewildered Norman Bledsoe biting the hangnails on his left hand.
When they reached the car, Henry slid into the driver’s seat but made no attempt to start the engine. “So what do we do now? Do you really think we can help him?”
“All we can do is try. We’ll talk to everyone on this list.” Sam pulled the list out and straightened it on her knees. She studied the names. “Probably we should start with his attorney first. Let’s see what evidence they have against Norman and take it from there.”
Sam plugged the attorney’s number into her phone and was directed straight to voice mail. She left a message asking if they could talk as soon as possible.
“Now what?” Henry asked.
Sam was already dialing another number. She held up a finger to silence Henry. “Hello, I’m trying to get in touch with one of your employees—a nurse named Nora who used to work with Mary Margaret Bledsoe.”
Henry couldn’t hear the reply but Sam began to nod her head. “I understand. I will be more than happy to go through your agency when I’m ready to hire someone. This is just a courtesy call.”
Sam’s head bobbed from left to right while the person on the line gave a long reply. “Well, can you at least take my number and ask her to call me? It’s important I talk to her today, if possible.”
After an indistinguishable mumble on the other end, Sam said, “I appreciate it.” She recited her phone number, hit the disconnect icon, and turned her head to gaze out the side window. “That’s two down. I kind of hate to talk to anyone else on the list until we’ve had a chance to find out what the attorney knows. Seems to me, she’d be our best chance at learning what the police have on Norman.”
Henry started the car. “We can find a place for lunch and take it up again this afternoon. Maybe the attorney will call you back by the time we’ve finished eating.”
“Maybe.” Sam began to feel lost, out of her element, ill-equipped for the task she’d taken on. She needed to clear her head. “You have someplace in mind?”
“Let’s drive till something strikes our fancy.”
Passing by several fast food joints, they found a small diner in a strip mall, not unlike the one that housed Bledsoe Realty. The restaurant had short stools lining a counter on one side and a few tables crowded into every other available space. Photos of the Portland Japanese Garden lined the walls, incongruous with the rest of the decor.
A few tables remained free in the back corner and Henry guided Sam to one furthest away from its neighbors. Their server handed them plastic coated menus and asked for their drink orders. Sam settled on iced tea, Henry coffee. When she brought their drinks, Sam ordered a Cobb salad while Henry took the daily special, a Rueben on homemade rye bread.
An uncomfortable silence filled the air as they waited for their lunch. Henry studied the garden photos while Sam copied the names and numbers from the legal pad Norman had given her to her phone.
Their waitress noticed Henry inspecting the wall photos when she brought their meal. “Did you know our Japanese garden is the most authentic one outside of Japan?”
“No, I didn’t. It looks beautiful.”
“You’ve never been?” The waitress sounded amazed.
“We’re new to the area. I’ll put it on my list of things to see, though.”
“Where’re you from?”
“Maryland and New York.”
The server shook her head. “Oh, Easterners. Well, I’m sure you’d enjoy the Gardens once you see them in person. These pictures don’t capture the true beauty and tranquility of the place.” She stepped away as another table hailed her. “Enjoy your meal.”
Sam finished copying the names, tucked her phone into her purse, then looked at Henry with a tiny smile. “Somehow I never pictured you strolling through gardens, Japanese or otherwise.”
“I have many talents and interests you don’t know about.” He took a bite of his sandwich. It looked delicious. Again Sam wished she had ordered something other than a salad.
She poured the wine vinaigrette over the plate and speared a chunk of hard-boiled egg. “Listen, I know you don’t agree with me on investigating this thing, and I’m going to give you the choice to hang around and help me or take a tour of the city. Since we don’t need to pose as a married couple anymore, we don’t have to be inseparable.”
“I’m still your bodyguard,” Henry mumbled through a mouthful of corned beef.
“And, after speaking to Julian, I’m sure there will come a time when I need you. I just don’t think I’m in any danger at present. My father doesn’t know where I am. Has no reason to send someone to Portland looking for me.”
“Don’t be so sure of that,” Henry said. “Those guys yesterday could have been sent by him.”
“I doubt that. They were just morons looking for trouble.”
“Even so, I don’t like it. I’m sticking by your side.”
Sam smiled. “Well, thank you. I appreciate your commitment.”
Henry finished the last bite of his sandwich and wiped his mouth. “We can go talk to the priest or the housekeeper.”
“I don’t think either of them will be much help, let me try the attorney again. If I bug her enough, she might just decide it would be easier to talk to us.”
Sam paid the bill then followed Henry out to the parking lot. A light buzzing had started in Henry’s head while they were eating and it grew louder when they stepped outside. He scanned the area while Sam phoned Nancy Warner, the court-appointed attorney. Her call went straight to voice mail once more. She began to leave another message when Henry stepped close, took her arm
and whispered in her ear. “Don’t look now, but I think our friends in the black van are sitting across the street.”
Sam’s immediate instinct was to look but Henry wrapped her in his arms and pulled her straight ahead. As he tucked her into the passenger seat, he stood a bit off to the side so she could glance over his shoulder.
“What makes you think it’s the same van? I’m sure there’s hundreds of black vans in the area.”
“Yeah, but they don’t all have White Power stickers on the rear bumper.”
It impressed her that Henry had picked up on such a small detail during their encounter yesterday. Never having been in the field with the FBI, she had a lot to learn. Training at Quantico didn’t make up for experience in real-life situations. “Maybe it’s just a coincidence.”
“Please.” Henry turned down his mouth.
“Okay, you could be right. But why on earth are they interested in us?”
“Could be because you have a price on your head.” Henry gave her no time to answer before he slammed her door shut.
When he settled into the driver’s seat, Sam turned to him and said, “Well, you’ll just have to lose them.”
“Easier said than done when there’s a stoplight on every corner.”
“Do you want me to drive?”
“You think you could do better than me?”
“I’m almost certain. When I was in high school, I had a jealous boyfriend who used to follow me around when I took my mother’s car to go out and didn’t invite him along. I lost him every time.”
“This is a little more serious than a jealous boyfriend.”
“But the premise is the same. C’mon, switch places with me.” She punched him lightly in the arm. “They’ll never expect me to be able to lose them.”
Henry sighed and opened his door. “I hope you don’t make me regret this.”
“You should be hoping I don’t get us killed.” She circled the car in a flash. When he hesitated, started to get back in the driver’s seat, she laughed and pushed him out of the way. “I’m only kidding. I’m a great driver.”
She backed carefully out of the parking space and drove slowly to the exit. Henry had begun to think he made a big mistake, when she floored the little car and pulled out across traffic so the van was facing in the wrong direction to follow them.
Henry sucked in a breath as horns honked and brakes squealed. “Dammit, Sam, you’re going to get us killed!”
She laughed as she changed lanes and cut into a narrow alley lined with dumpsters without slowing down. Henry grabbed the dashboard but kept silent. She threaded her way between the dumpsters and walls of buildings lining the lane like Luke Skywalker in the Death Star.
Henry hunched his shoulders as if that would make the car smaller. The mirror on his door grazed a dumpster before Sam swung the wheel to the left and popped out on the next block. She swerved to the right, then immediately turned right again into another alley.
“What the hell are you doing?” The buzzing in his head tapered to a low hum. “You lost them, you can slow down now.”
“They were coming down that block.” Sam glanced in the rearview mirror. “I hope they didn’t spot us turn in here.”
“It’s so damn narrow, they’ll never fit. Hell, we barely fit!”
“And that’s the idea.” Sam never took her foot off the gas as they bounced out of the alley onto the street where they started. Brakes screeched and horns honked when she crossed over to go in the opposite direction. As they approached the yellow light on the corner, she floored the accelerator, pushing the little car to its limit. They whipped through the intersection, cutting off a FedEx truck making a right turn from the cross street.
The tires squealed as they veered into the right hand lane, narrowly clearing a vehicle traveling at a sedate pace. Without signaling, she whirled into an underground parking garage, threw on the brakes with an inch to spare from the control arm barring entrance. She grabbed the ticket that spewed out and started forward as soon as the arm rose past the hood.
“Dammit!” Henry yelled. “You’re a maniac!”
She looked at him with a smile. “But I lost them.”
“For now,” he grunted, although he still had a low ringing in his head.
Most of the levels were full as they circled each floor, but Sam wound around until they reached the roof. She pulled into an empty space near the top of the exit ramp. “Call Uber to pick us up out front. We need to ditch this red toy car. It sticks out like a tomato in a sack of bananas.”
While Henry fiddled with the app on his phone, Sam popped the hood and pulled a wire loose.
Henry circled the car. “What are you doing?”
“We need a new car. I’ll call Hertz and tell them this miniature vehicle won’t start. It’ll save us from returning it. In the meantime, we’ll find another car rental place and get a more, uh, discreet vehicle.”
“Good plan,” Henry said. “Let’s take the stairs in case those goons saw us pull in here. We don’t need to step out of the elevator into their arms.”
Their footsteps echoed throughout the concrete shaft, as they pounded down the stairs. At each landing Henry felt the buzz grow louder. He slowly opened the door to a small lobby with four machines that slid out receipts for the cost of parking. A man in a suit fed dollars into the blue box nearest the door without noticing them.
Sam headed for the outside door. Henry dawdled behind, alert for any threats. The ringing in his head grew louder with each step.
Just as Sam reached the door, Henry grabbed her arm and shoved her to the side.
“What the hell?” Sam shook off his hand glaring at him.
The man at the payment machine glanced in their direction, then started for the elevator, his phone gripped in his hand, his fingers poised to dial a number. Henry hoped it wasn’t 911.
He spoke loud enough to be overheard. “I forgot something in the car.”
With his hand at her elbow, he led Sam through the stairwell door. The buzzing in his head continued unabated. He glanced out a small rectangular window centered at eye level in the metal door. “The van’s out there.”
“How do you know? You were behind me.”
“I had a feeling.”
“Are you psychic or something?”
“Or something,” he almost mumbled. His mind scrambled for a reasonable explanation. “I’m trained to be observant.”
Sam shot him a skeptical look that he ignored. “Stay here while I check if our Uber has arrived.”
“I’m not staying here. I’m coming with you.”
“Dammit, Sam, this is what you hired me to do.”
“I’m not some bungling panda. I’ve had training too.”
Henry bit back a retort about female pandas preferring sleep to sex, but realized it was inappropriate. Sam was his boss, and although she was an attractive woman, she wasn’t his type. He preferred statuesque, sultry brunettes—and he didn’t know why that thought entered his mind at this time. He shook his head to clear it. “Fine. But stay behind me.”
Sam followed close at his heels as they approached the glass door to the sidewalk. With the buzzing piercing his brain, Henry glanced out before he pushed her out of sight once more. “The van’s coming round the corner.”
“Did they see us?”
“I hope not.”
Chapter Ten
As the black van continued down the street without stopping, the buzzing in his head diminished. When Henry spotted the Uber idling at the curb, he waved to Sam. “Our ride’s here. Let’s go.”
They scrambled into the backseat and instructed the driver to drop them at the nearest car rental place.
Fifteen minutes later, they pulled up to a building with a black-and-green “Enterprise Rent-A-Car” sign. The Uber driver dropped them at the entrance without a word or a smile—not the most congenial ride but it did the trick—they’d lost the van.
Once inside, they wangled a silver Toyota Sequoia
from the chick at the desk. Henry used his charm to obtain one with tinted side windows, a plus Sam never thought to request. She had to give him credit, he knew what he was doing.
To keep Sam under the radar in case Jules tried to track them, Henry gave them his driver’s license, his personal credit card and signed the contract. His brain remained free of any extraneous sounds, so his tension eased but he remained alert.
He stretched his legs before he adjusted the seat and pulled out of the lot. “This is more like it.”
“I wonder if we should buy a car.” The spontaneous thought popped into Sam’s head.
Henry gave her a sidelong look. “For a week or two, it would be kind of a waste, don’t you think?”
“We could keep it. Drive to wherever we go next instead of flying.” She didn’t want to admit to him that soaring thousands of miles above the earth in a big metal tube made her uncomfortable. The more she thought about it, the more she liked the idea. “What with security and everything, it might be more convenient.”
Ever practical, Henry looked both ways before pulling into the stream of traffic. “We wouldn’t be able to ditch it and get another one if necessary.”
“We could always trade it in and get a new one. But I don’t think that’ll happen very often. This van thing is just a fluke.”
Henry turned his head to look at her. “Is that what you think?”
“I don’t know. I can’t believe some hit man found me already.”
Henry wanted to disagree even though he knew it would do no good. He clenched the steering wheel and remained silent.
“Something like this sticks out less than that little red thing we had.”
On that, he could agree. “It’s up to you. I’ll go along with whatever you decide.”
He saw no need to argue over a vehicle. He’d save any differences of opinion for something more important.
Sam put it out of her mind for the present as her phone sounded with the blues riff she’d programmed as her ringtone.