“You don’t wanta know,” said LuAnn firmly. She smiled at him, sucked in huge amounts of the sweet, chilly air, and gave Lisa a tender kiss on the cheek. She suddenly elbowed Charlie in the side, a mischievous grin on her face. “Last one to the hotel pays for dinner.” She took off like a blue streak, the trench coat billowing out like a parachute in her wake. Even as she left him in the dust, Charlie could hear her shrieks of joy flowing back to him. He grinned and then bolted after her.
Neither one would have been so happy had they seen the man who had followed them to the lottery drawing and was watching from across the street. Romanello had figured that tailing LuAnn might result in some interesting developments. But even he had to admit that his expectations had so far been exceeded.
Chapter thirteen
“You’re certain that’s where you want to go, LuAnn?”
LuAnn spoke earnestly into the phone. “Yes sir, Mr. Jackson. I’ve always wanted to go to Sweden. My momma’s people came from there, a long time ago. She always wanted to go there, but never had the chance. So I’d sort of be doing it for her. Is that much trouble?”
“Everything is trouble, LuAnn. It’s just a matter of degrees.”
“But you can get it done, can’t you? I mean I’d like to go to other places, but I’d really like to start in Sweden.”
Jackson said testily, “If I can arrange for someone like you to win one hundred million dollars, then I can certainly take care of travel plans.”
“I appreciate it. I really do.” LuAnn looked over at Charlie, who was holding Lisa and playing with her.
She smiled at him. “You look real good doing that.”
“What’s that?” Jackson asked.
“I’m sorry, I was talking to Charlie.”
“Put him on, we need to arrange for your visit to the lottery office so they can confirm the winning ticket. The sooner that’s accomplished, the sooner we can get on with the press conference and then you can be on your way.”
“The conditions you talked about—” LuAnn began.
Jackson interrupted, “I’m not ready to discuss that right now. Put Charlie on, I’m in a hurry.”
LuAnn swapped the phone for Lisa. She watched closely as Charlie spoke in low tones into the phone, his back to her. She saw him nod several times and then he hung up.
“Everything okay?” Her tone was anxious as she held a rambunctious Lisa.
He looked around the room for a moment before his eyes finally met hers. “Sure, everything’s A-okay. You have to go over to see the lottery people this afternoon. Enough time has passed.”
“Will you go with me?”
“I’ll go over in the cab with you, but I won’t go in the building. I’ll hang around outside until you come out.”
“What all do I have to do?”
“Just present the winning ticket. They’ll validate it and issue you an official receipt. There’ll be witnesses there and all. You’ll be confirmed every which way from Sunday. They go over the ticket with a high-tech laser to verify it’s authentic. They got special fiber threads in the tickets, some of them right under the row of numbers. Kind of like U.S. currency, to prevent counterfeiting. It’s impossible to duplicate, especially in a short time frame. They’ll call the outlet where you bought the ticket to confirm that lottery number was indeed purchased at that site. They’ll ask for background info on you. Where you’re from, kids, parents, that sort of thing. It takes a few hours. You don’t have to wait. They’ll get in touch when the process is complete. Then they’ll release a statement to the press that the winner has come forward, but they won’t release your name until the press conference. You know, keep the suspense building. That stuff really sells tickets for the next drawing. You don’t have to hang around for that either. The actual press conference will be the next day.”
“Do we come back here?”
“Actually, ‘Linda Freeman’ is checking out today. We’ll go to another hotel where you can check in as LuAnn Tyler, one of the richest people in the country. Fresh in town and ready to take on the world.”
“You ever been to one of these press conferences before?”
He nodded. “A few. They can be a little crazy. Especially when the winners bring family with them. Money can do strange things to people. But it doesn’t last too long. You get asked a bunch of questions and then off you go.” He paused and then added, “That’s nice what you’re doing, going to Sweden for your mom like that.”
LuAnn looked down as she played with Lisa’s feet. “I hope so. It’s sure gonna be different.”
“Well, sounds like you can use a little different.”
“I don’t know how long I’ll stay.”
“Stay as long as you want. Hell, you can stay forever if you want to.”
“I’m not sure I can do that. I don’t think I’d fit in.”
He gripped her shoulders and looked her in the face. “Listen, LuAnn, give yourself some credit. Okay, so you don’t have a bunch of fancy degrees, but you’re sharp, you take great care of your kid, and you got a good heart. In my book, that puts you ahead of about ninety-nine percent of the population.”
“I don’t know how good I’d be doing right now if you weren’t here helping me out.”
He shrugged. “Hey, like I said, it’s part of the job.” He let go of her shoulders and fished a cigarette out of his pack. “Why don’t we have some quick lunch and then you go claim your prize? What do you say, you ready to be filthy rich, lady?”
LuAnn took a deep breath before answering. “I’m ready.”
LuAnn emerged from the Lottery Commission building, walked down the street, and turned a corner, where she met Charlie at a prearranged spot. He had kept Lisa for her while she had gone in.
“She’s been watching everything going by. She’s a real alert kid,” he said.
“Won’t be long before I’m running every which way after her.”
“She was doing her best to get down and crawl off, swear to God.” Charlie smiled and put a very exuberant Lisa back in her carriage. “So how’d it go?”
“They were real friendly. Treated me real special. ‘You want coffee, Ms. Tyler?’ ‘You want a phone to make calls?’ One woman asked me if I wanted to hire her as my personal assistant.” She laughed.
“You better get used to that. You have the receipt?”
“Yep, in my purse.”
“What time’s the press conference?”
“Tomorrow at six o’clock, they said.” She eyed him. “What’s wrong?”
As they walked, Charlie had glanced surreptitiously over his shoulder a couple of times. He looked over at her. “I don’t know. When I was in prison and then doing the PI stuff I developed this kind of built-in radar that tells me when somebody’s paying a little too close attention to me. My alarm’s going off right now.”
LuAnn started to look around, but he cut her off. “Don’t do that. Just keep walking. We’re fine. I checked you in at another hotel. It’s another block down. Let’s get you and Lisa in okay and then I’ll snoop around a little. It’s probably nothing.”
LuAnn looked at the worry creases around his eyes and concluded his words did not match his feelings. She gripped the baby carriage tighter as they continued down the street.
Twenty yards behind and on the other side of the street, Anthony Romanello debated whether or not he had been spotted. The streets were filled with people at this hour, but something in the sudden rigidity of the people he was tracking had set off his own warning bell. He hunkered in his jacket and dropped back another ten yards, still keeping them well in sight. He kept a constant lookout for the closest taxi in case they decided to snare one. He had the advantage though, in that it would take some time to load the baby carriage and baby in. He would have plenty of opportunity to hail a cab in that time. But they continued on foot until they reached their destination. Romanello waited outside the hotel for a moment, looked up and down the street, and then went in.