“So you have the letter with you.”
“Inside the envelope, inside a paper bag, inside my pouch. I haven’t touched it with my fingers.”
“The desk clerk’s prints will be on the envelope.”
“We’re covered on that. I asked him to give me a piece of paper to write a note on. I had him pick a sheet from the middle of a pile of typewriter paper, so the only prints on it will be his and mine. I even got him to hold it with both hands. I’ll give that to Slick too.”
“Sometimes I’m amazed at your cleverness. What time was the envelope delivered?”
“About five. The desk clerk was away from the desk and didn’t see who brought it.”
“Drake, Grace’s alarm clock went off at quarter to five. I pretended to be asleep, but I watched her out of one eye. She threw on some clothes and went out of the room. She returned a few minutes after five and got back into bed.”
“If she was under orders, they probably came from Fred.”
“She got a phone call about 8:30 last night. She didn’t say who it was, and I didn’t ask, but she set her alarm after the call.”
“I take it you didn’t talk to Fred about your new sleeping arrangements.”
“No. If it was Fred on the phone, he didn’t know I was there.”
“Just out of idle curiosity, did you sleep in the same bed?”
“Yes, since there was only one. Before you get any prurient thoughts, it was a big bed, and girls can sleep together easier than lads. Hey, now that the mist is lifting, I can see the Queen Mary. You stole it from us.”
Drake saw the great ship, too. It was impressive, even at a distance. “As I recall, you didn’t want it anymore.”
“What an excuse. Since Casey is meeting us at the bridge, we have to figure out what we’re going to tell him.”
“I don’t think we can tell him anything right now. He’d want the letter, and I’m giving that to Slick. I don’t want him to know about Slick and Blade. We can’t trust anyone related to the race. If worst comes to worst, we’ll get Blade to help protect your mother.”
“Cold comfort. However, I think we have to grill Grace. If we scare her enough, she might not tell anybody we talked to her.”
“She may be the weak spot that helps us penetrate the impregnable fortress. We have to take the chance of what she might do.”
The runners all arrived at the Vincent Thomas Bridge together. The rules stated that times were only recorded to the minute, not the second, and that runners finishing a segment in a group without gaps would receive the same time. Although Drake was glad that he and Melody had not lost any time to Tom and Jerry so far today, it wasn’t enough.
The Cat and Mouse duo, as they were called, were smart runners. Their strategy was not to lead but to stay in the lead pack, so that nobody could gain time on them. They were wise to the occasional team that tried to break away from the pack at an unsustainable pace and didn’t try to go with them. Those teams tired and were later caught by the other runners.
As advertised, the bridge was closed to vehicle traffic at 10, and the runners were started on their run over it. Several photographers took pictures. Since it was Sunday, a number of other runners and walkers who had read about the closure joined them. The Running California group was given a head start of several minutes so they didn’t have to run in a crowd.
As Drake and Melody ran up the ramp, Casey appeared beside them in his running clothes. “Mind if I run with you?”
“Happy to have you along,” Melody said, “but I must warn you that we’re going a wee bit faster than we were the last time you saw us.”
“I think I can keep up with you for the length of the bridge. Then I have to go to a meeting. For some reason I’m drawn to running over bridges, especially bridges that aren’t usually open to foot traffic.”
“How did you manage to get permission to have it closed?” Drake asked.
Casey smiled. “I don’t know if you’ve been reading the papers, but Running California is generating a lot of great publicity for the state. I was able to convince the powers that be that letting us run over the bridge would be good for the local economy, including the shipyards-both Long Beach and Los Angeles.”
Drake shook his head. “It’s a shame they didn’t provide a pedestrian walkway when they built the bridge. I said the same thing about Coronado.”
“If I were in charge, they would have.” Casey was puffing with the uphill climb to the top of the arch. “Say, you are running faster.” He took a look at Drake. “I can’t believe how well you’re doing. No limp, and your face looks almost like the picture of you I saw when we were recruiting. I remember thinking I want this handsome guy to be part of Running California. I figured the photographers would love you.”
Melody frowned. “Don’t compliment him. He’s conceited enough already.”
Casey laughed. “I assume that you two have no more doubts about staying in the race.”
“As long as Tom and Jerry remain in good health, we have about as much chance of winning as I, a non- citizen, have of being elected president.”
Casey looked around to see where the other runners were. He spoke in a low voice. “That’s why I’m paying you.”
That triggered something in Drake’s brain. “Why do you care so much whether we stay in the race? If I continue to improve, we’ll probably move up a few places because of problems like Aki’s having, but Melody’s right about our chances of winning.”
“First, because you’re the only woman in the race.” He nodded at Melody. “We talked to several other women we thought could stick it out, but they weren’t able to commit the time. Second,” indicating Drake, “because you’re a war hero.”
“That’s bullshit. I’m no more a hero than hundreds of other guys. Why didn’t you pick somebody younger who fought in Vietnam?”
“Vietnam’s not a popular war. You’re the one we wanted.”
“One more thing. Putting Melody and me together is too much of a coincidence. How did you know we knew each other?”
Casey smiled. “Do you know who’s on our Board of Directors?”
Generals and admirals who had access to top secret information.
CHAPTER 13
“This road is daft with its patches and rollercoaster ups and downs. It looks as bad as some of our country lanes in the backward areas of England.”
“This is a slide area. A lot of houses were destroyed here a few years ago. The slide is ongoing. They have to keep rebuilding the road. You can see that the sewer pipes are aboveground.”
They were running on Palos Verdes Drive South with the dry brown hill of the Palos Verdes Peninsula on the right and a cliff heading down to the water on the left. A few lonely houses remained on the nearby hillside, some held in place with jacks. They ran past the slide into an area called Abalone Cove. A black Porsche was parked in a turnout ahead. A man was leaning against the car, staring out to sea.
He looked familiar to Drake. “Is that who I think it is?”
“It’s our old friend, Slick. What shall we do, run past him and then stop?”
“Sounds good, although I hate to waste the time when we’re doing so well.”
“We’ll make it short.”
They were still with the pack of runners and didn’t want their rendezvous to be noticed. Casey had long since left them. They ran fifty yards past the turnout where Melody spoke for the benefit of the other runners.
