Maddie glanced down briefly at her sweat suit and hesitated. “Yeah, uh, that’s right. I was out jogging. And I saw this really weird thing, and I tried to call you about it, but I couldn’t get through.”
“Couldn’t get…” Faye paused. “Oh bother, my phone must be out of order again. The signal keeps fading in and out. I’ll have to get in touch with the phone company.
“What about your cell?” Maddie pressed.
“I’ve had to lock up the cell phones during Zachary’s stay to keep temptation out of reach. Sorry, I forgot to check my voice mails. I’ve become so distracted these days now that I have a house guest.” She put significant emphasis on the last two words.
“I don’t suppose you checked your email lately,” Maddie persisted.
“Not since yesterday evening.”
The operations director rolled her eyes.
Zachary had listened to this interchange in silence, but the suspicious look never left his face. “You sure do ask a lot of questions, lady.”
“It’s what I do. You’ll get used to it.”
“Well, I’ve got a few for you too,” the boy pressed. “Do you make it a habit to come over and harass little old ladies in the middle of the night?”
“Middle of the…” Maddie was speechless. Her face began to turn an unhealthy shade of red.
Faye tried to forestall an explosion. “Why don’t we go into the kitchen and I’ll make some coffee.”
“No time.” The operations director shook her head. She glanced briefly at Zach, apparently realizing the need to come up with a plausible explanation. “Look kid. You may not know it, but this nice old lady is the head of …”
Faye caught her breath, afraid that Maddie would divulge too much.
“The neighborhood watch,” Maddie completed the thought. “I saw something really strange when I was out—” She swallowed. “Jogging this morning. I can’t talk about it. Top secret stuff that might involve the police. Anyway, we need to call an emergency meeting of the watch, and your granny is the only one who has the authority to do that.”
Zach looked at his ancestor with surprise. “Huh, go figure. Who’d a thunk it? Harmless little old lady by day. Scourge of criminals by night. Gamma, you’re quite a character.”
“You have no idea,” Maddie murmured under her breath. She shifted her attention to Faye. “So anyway. We’d better get a move on. No time to waste.”
“How come you don’t have your meetings here?” Zach challenged.
Faye intercepted her associate’s response. “We have a special meeting place.”
“Like a bat cave?” Zach asked eagerly.
“My dear boy,” Faye laughed. “What an imagination! Next, you’ll picture me heading a secret organization to save the world or some such nonsense.” She turned back up the stairs. “I’d better get dressed. Maddie, please make yourself some coffee in the meantime. I’ll be with you shortly.” She paused as a new thought struck her. Turning around, she asked, “Zach, will you be alright alone? This could take a few hours to sort out.”
The boy snorted. “Gamma, I’m not retarded. I think I can manage by myself for a whole ninety minutes without falling down and drowning in the toilet or getting myself lost in the backyard.”
Faye smiled. “Of course. What was I thinking?”
Zach smiled back, but there was a glint of something in his eyes that Faye found troubling. Was it suspicion? Curiosity? Those were both impulses that led to a desire for answers. She hoped this wasn’t the day when she’d have to supply him with any.
Chapter 29 – Sting Operation
“Give me the phone!” a disembodied voice demanded.
“No, me! Let me tell it.”
The receiver dropped. There was the sound of a scuffle.
Maddie was seated behind the desk in her office while Faye sat in the visitor’s chair. They were both staring at the speaker on Maddie’s phone which emitted a series of scraping sounds.
Maddie drummed her long red fingernails impatiently for several seconds before deciding to take charge of the situation. “Hey!” she barked at the speaker box. “One of you pick up the damn receiver and say something useful right now!”
There was dead silence on the other end. After a few seconds, Griffin’s voice emerged. “Very sorry about that. I’m afraid we’re struggling with a low-tech environment on this end. Couldn’t manage a video telecon since we’re stranded in a dead zone on the mountain. I suppose we ought to count our blessings that there’s a land line, but only one of us can speak to you at a time.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Maddie replied coldly. “You woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me you had urgent information for me and Faye, but you wouldn’t tell me what.” She regarded her superior with exasperation for a few seconds. “When I tried to reach Faye, she was incommunicado which means I had to jump in a car and drive to her house. This didn’t put me in a very good mood, and that was before her great-great-whatever-grandson treated me to the third degree. That kid’s got a great future ahead of him as a Rush Street bouncer.”
“Faye had children?” The amazed voice was Cassie’s. Apparently, they were all listening in on the single earpiece on their end.
“Another time,” Maddie said curtly. “Now what’s the big to do and I’m warning you it better be big.”
“Oh, it is,” Griffin hastened to reassure her. “We’ve found it!”
Faye sat forward eagerly in her chair. “Do you mean to say you’ve actually found the first relic?”
“That we have.” Griffin couldn’t keep the elation out of his voice. “I wish you both could see it.”
“Yeah, it’s really cool with all the little squiggly hieroglyphs on the wings. And shiny too after all this time,” Cassie chimed in.
“Of course, we haven’t had time to decipher the symbols, but I suspect they are clues that will lead us to the
