Toni shook her head. “Oh my God,” she said. “You are so full of shit. They were two idiots so stoned they could barely stand up.”
“Ignore that,” I said to Richard. “Just as my clever hiding place was about to be compromised, just at that darkest of moments, what do I hear?”
“Ding-dong?” Toni said.
“Exactly. Ding-friggin-dong. Salvation. Salvation in the form of a stunning, dark-haired maiden who shows up and saves the day.”
“Oh, puh-leeze,” she said. “He sent me a text message that said ‘HELP!’ in all caps with an exclamation point.”
Richard laughed. “From the closet he did that?”
Toni nodded.
“To be fair, that’s not all the message said.”
“Oh, that’s true,” she said. “It said ‘HELP! Need diversion.’”
“See? That’s right,” I said. “‘Need diversion.’ I was thinking tactically. I didn’t want to have to go to guns with these stoners. Not when a simple little distraction was all that was needed.”
“So, naturally, you called Toni.”
“Duh,” I said. “Do you know a better distraction?” I smiled at Toni. She stuck her tongue out at me.
“Point made,” he said.
“Damn straight,” I said. “Quick thinking in the line of fire, if you ask me.”
I heard the bell ring on the office front door. A minute later, Kenny walked into my office. “Kelli’s here to see you,” he said to Toni.
“Okay,” she said. “Would you do me a favor and bring her on back to the conference room? Please? We’ll be right out.” Kenny left.
“So what happens now?” Richard said after Kenny went to get Kelli.
“We still don’t know where Isabel is,” I said. “The police won’t step in now and raid the NSSBs to find her.”
“Not with the evidence you have so far,” Richard said. “They’re worried about this pesky little document-it’s called-it’s called-oh yeah! It’s called the constitution. Among other things, it deals with the concept of unreasonable search and seizure-that sort of thing.”
“Yeah, well, anyway, they’re not doing anything. I get the impression that we’d practically need to get a photo of Isabel holding a current newspaper or something like that in order for the police to go in and rescue her. That’s if we could even locate her.”
“Which leaves us precisely where?” Richard said.
“Compared to ten days ago?” I asked. “A little smarter. Maybe with a little more evidence than we had when we took this case. But, I’m afraid, probably no closer to finding Isabel.”
“Any idea how much longer you’re going to keep looking?”
“That’s a real good question,” I said. “I talked with Ferguson and Sons this morning. They’re ready for us to get started.”
“So?”
I squirmed in my chair. “I hate to say it, but we need to start pulling in some money. We’re supposed to start the Ferguson job next Monday. I think we’re pretty quickly getting to the point where we’re going to have to drop this case and hope that the police can find Isabel. I can’t afford to pay everyone if I’m not bringing in any revenue.”
He nodded. “You don’t need to explain it to me,” he said. “I sat in your chair for twenty-five years. I know all about payroll and overhead.”
“It sucks, too,” I said. “We’re close-I can feel it. But we just don’t have quite enough information yet. We lack the key to get the police all fired up.”
“The smoking gun,” Toni said.
Richard nodded again. “It can be hard to come by,” he said.
“Too bad we can’t get someone from the inside to talk to us,” Toni said. “Shed a little light. We probably learned more from talking to Paola than from anything else.”
“For sure,” I said. “But at least as of earlier in the week, she wasn’t willing to say more than what she’s already told us.”
“I know,” Toni said. “Maybe we should ask Nancy if there’s been any improvement.”
“Wait a second! I got it!” I said. “You can go undercover for us. You saw today-those guys practically swooned over you. You can get us all the information we need.”
Toni looked at me, saw that I was joking, and then smiled. Her hands were folded in front of her. She slowly extended her middle finger.
I smiled, but I couldn’t resist yanking her chain a bit more. “C’mon,” I said. “Just to gather information. I wouldn’t want you actually going on any dates or anything like that. I’m not a pervert, after all.”
“I don’t know about that,” Toni said. “Besides-I’m a little too old for these guys, anyway.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so,” I said. “The two clowns today sure didn’t think so.”
She smiled. “That’s sweet. But it’s bullshit. I’d stand right out.”
“Well, that’s for damn sure,” I said. “Just kidding, anyway. Besides, I’m the old one here-did you forget?”
She smiled. “That’s true. You’re almost over the hill.”
“I know,” I said. “But anyway, I guess I’ll have to think about our next actions some more tonight, and we’ll pick it back up at our staff meeting in the morning.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Richard said. “I’m going to take off early tonight. Maria and I have a dinner date.” Richard and Maria have been married nearly fifty years. In this way-as in many others-he is my hero. He started to leave, and we followed him out. We entered the conference room to talk to Kelli, but it was empty.
“Hey, Kenny!” I called out. “Where’s Kelli?”
“She’s in the conference room,” he yelled back.
“I don’t see her,” I said to Toni.
“Me neither,” she said.
Kenny walked into the room. “She’s right-” He stopped when he saw the empty room. “Well, she was right here, only a few minutes ago. I brought her back here, just like you said.”
“Maybe she got tired of waiting,” I said.
“What? After three minutes?” Toni asked.
“More like five,” Kenny said.
“Okay, five then,” Toni said.
“She left.” We turned and saw Doc walking up the hallway. “She walked out a minute ago,” he said to Toni. “She asked me to tell you she’d call you later.”
I shrugged. “There you go,” I said. “At least one mystery is solved.”
Chapter 19
Thursday morning means intervals-full-speed sprints up the side of a hill followed by slow jogs back down for recovery. In theory, the recovery time gives your heart rate a little time to fall back. The thing is, you repeat the intervals over and over and each time, your heart rate recovers a little less. By the last one, you’re dragging. Intervals are supposed to be good for you-to strengthen and increase your aerobic capacity by pushing the envelope. All I can say is that if you do them right-you’re going to feel it. This morning, I definitely felt it. I made it into the office at 7:45 a.m. for our staff meeting, and my quads were still throbbing.
I put my stuff down in my office, checked voicemails and e-mails, and then walked into the conference room at eight o’clock on the dot. Everyone was already there, waiting. Promptness is a virtue that we like to emphasize.
“Good morning, folks,” I said.
