He flipped open his cell phone. I was envious. Mine was smashed on the floor of the hotel room, and I hated deciding on a new one, there are so many. Maybe I’d get an IPhone this time.
“Where are you? Why are you going there? No, turn around. You can’t take Opal to New York no matter what she says she wants to do. You take her home, you hear? I know she’s your boss, but she has funny ideas these days. It’s her medication.”
He closed the phone and laid it on the table. “Can you believe Opal wants to see the Statue of Liberty?”
“She doesn’t get east that often. I can’t blame her.”
Breakfast arrived and more coffee. We wolfed down every last morsel. I smiled as I laid down my fork. I wanted to burp in delight like the ancient Romans did after a meal to express their pleasure but I restrained myself.
“Let’s go,” said Jake. “Maybe the traffic jam is over by now. Hudson probably has an All Points Bulletin out on us.”
Outside the fog was clearing to reveal another cloudy, overcast morning. We walked along the side street toward the traffic jam. I heard footsteps and a man with a black goatee and shaved head fell in beside us. He wore a sweat suit and looked like he might have been running.
“Another lousy morning,” he said.
I nodded. “Out for a run?” I said, making polite conversation.
“No, I dress this way all the time. More comfortable. I hate suits. My name is Ratko.”
There was no mistaking that name.
“Let’s go,” I said to Jake and tried to pull him away.
Ratko grabbed my arm. “Hey, what’s the hurry, Fiona? You and your friend, Jake, here have some talking to do.”
Jake took a good look at Ratko. “Do we know you?”
“I do business with your buddy, Cody. But he reneged on the bargain, and I’m here to collect.”
A dark green Cadillac Escalade SUV pulled in front of us and stopped. Ratko opened the door. “Get in. We’re taking a little ride.”
“What if we say we don’t want to take a ride?” Jake said. “We got other commitments.”
Ratko pulled out a tiny silver gun and pointed it at us from the fold of his jacket. “This little guy says you do want to. Now get in.”
“Maybe we should talk this over.”
“I need action, not talking. You’re going to take us to the rest of the rifles. Then we’ll talk about whether you get to live.”
He tightened his grip on my arm and shoved me in the back seat.
“Move over,” he said. “You, Jake, get in beside her.”
Great, I thought. If he gets in the front seat, then maybe we could fling ourselves from the car when it got underway. But then I saw the two guys in the seat behind. They sported unfriendly faces.
Ratko slammed the door and got in front. The driver slid away from the curb and into the line of traffic. Ratko turned to look at us. “Tell us where to go because we are going to get those rifles.”
Jake said, matter-of-fact, “They’re in the back shed at Albert’s house.”
A meteor from outer space could not have hit with the force of that pronouncement. I nearly lost my grip on reality, not that I ever had much of one. I shoved my face into Jake’s. “What are you talking about?”
His eyes locked mine with a boa constrictor grip. “I’m saying that I know where the rifles are at Albert’s. That’s what I’m saying.”
I stayed eyeball to eyeball with him. Was he telling me to play along or was he telling me the truth this time? But that had been my problem all along, ever since I saw Albert Lodge stretched out on the floor of his library. I didn’t know who was telling the truth.
Ratko said, “That’s what I like, a man who knows how to cooperate. See Joey, I told you we’d get somewhere with the guy. The girl’s a bimbo, but the guy I can like.” He grinned at me and turned around to face the traffic.
Bimbo? He referred to me as a bimbo?
Joey turned onto a side road and through a series of impressive side street short cuts made his way to McLean. The Cadillac smelled new and was shiny inside. A GPS screen on the dashboard showed where we were going and spoke directions in its metallic voice from time to time. Like it was a normal day, Joey and Ratko talked about football, which teams they liked and who was going to win tonight’s game.
I closed my eyes. Jake’s fingers touched mine. I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry or smack him. I hoped his gentle touch meant that he knew what he was doing. I wondered where Hudson and Mike were. Could they possibly have known that Ratko himself was afoot? I looked around to see if I could see the gray Suburban that we should never have left. Maybe they had seen us get in the Cadillac Escalade and were following. Not in sight. This whole affair had been what I should have done. How was I to know? I was a miserable failure as a detective. Jake’s fingers closed over mine, and I looked at him. One of the guys in the back leaned forward and stuck a gun between our heads.
“Better you should watch the scenery,” he said.
Those were pretty clear instructions. I wondered what was going to happen when we got to Albert’s mansion. I wondered if there was a guard on the place and what would happen then. I wondered where Cody was and if Opal was going to New York or Oregon. And how did Jake know where the guns were hidden?
At the entrance to Albert’s place there was no guard, and we swung through the gate. The front door was covered with police crime scene tape.
“Go to the back of the house where the garages are,” said Jake.
He spoke with a confidence that impressed me. I was sitting on knife points. Behind the house there was a line of outbuildings, well maintained, not touched by the fire. The house itself sported a charred hole in the roof that some fast thinking contractor had put a bright blue tarp over. The manicured bushes and lawn in front were trampled and broken. The back of the house looked undisturbed.
Ratko put his hand on Joey the driver’s arm. “Hold up. Something’s not right here. Too quiet. This is too enclosed. Someone could ambush us.”
Joey stopped the car and waited, engine running. Ratko turned to Jake. “You and the boys get out. You show them where the rifles are. The girl stays with us. Anything goes wrong, she’s dead. Understand?”
Jake nodded once slowly. He looked at me, and our eyes held for an extra moment. I didn’t know if that was goodbye or trust me. I was trying my best to come up with a plan of escape, feeling like a pawn, wanting to be the queen. Jake got out and the two men in the seat behind us got out with him. Ratko moved in beside me.
“Now, girlie. You behave real nice and nothing will happen to you. But if your man there doesn’t come up with the rifles, we got serious trouble.”
Jake and the two men walked to the far end of the lot. Half hidden in the shadows of a stand of tall pines was a low building. A shutter hung loose, and the roof sagged. The scrub around it had not been trimmed. Why had I never thought to come out here to sleuth? Why had Jake never told me about this place? If Hudson had hidden the guns, and Jake knew where the guns were, then Jake and Hudson were in cahoots. Why hadn’t I figured this out before?
Jake opened the door of the shed and ducked in. It hadn’t been locked. One of the men followed him in. The other stood outside, watching with a drawn gun. Jake and the man came out of the shed. The man looked in our direction and nodded his head.
Ratko said, “Joey, call the office and have them get the truck on the road. Looks like we’ve found the rest of the shipment.”
I said, “Aren’t you taking an awful chance picking up rifles in broad daylight?”
Ratko gave me a stupid-broad look. “Not in a furniture delivery truck.”
Clever. Could I help I was a bimbo?