Loni sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly while nodding. “You’re right. Let’s go.”
With her head tipped low so as not to catch anyone’s eye, Loni followed the growing line of traffic pushing their way through the automated glass front doors of the airport. Inside, Loni looked around. Thousands of people were coming and going. Huge monitors covered walls, signs hung from the ceiling with arrows pointing in all directions, and there were information desks, baggage drop-offs, and car rental kiosks.
Loni’s mouth hung open. “Where do I start?”
Ed pawed himself in the chest. “You start with me. It’s time to let the cat outta the bag,” he snickered. “I’ll sniff her out!”
“Are you kidding? That’s your plan? There are thousands of travelers in here! Like you’re really going to be able to sniff Hazel out of all these people?”
Ed rolled his eyes. “The woman smells like Bengay and Twinkies. It’s a pretty distinct combination. There’s no way I’m missing her.”
Loni looked around. There were far too many people for her to search through them on her own, and she couldn’t think of a single spell that would comb the crowd and find Hazel any faster. She sighed.
“Fine. We’ll give it a try.” Loni moved to a little alcove where traffic wasn’t as heavy, removed the tote from her shoulder, and lifted Ed out.
Immediately, he put his nose to the ground and began to sniff. Loni followed him around the ticketing terminal for ten minutes before finally he stopped and looked up at her regretfully. “I’m so sorry, Loni. Not even a whiff of Bengay!”
Loni felt a new wave of panic setting in. She buried her face in her hands. “This is terrible. What if the sex traffickers already snatched her up? Poor, poor Hazel! She probably never dreamed her body would be used as a sex object.”
Ed stifled a laugh. “No worries. I don’t think even Colonel Sanders wants a piece of those chicken legs.”
“Ed!” gasped Loni, bending over to pick him up. “Can you be serious? Hazel is missing and we have to find her before something horrible happens to her!”
He looked around the terminal. “So now what?”
Loni nibbled on her fingernails. She didn’t want to have to do it, but she was out of options. “Maybe I should call Gwynnie.”
Suddenly, Ed put a paw on Loni’s cheek, pushing her face to look at the front door. “Oh my gosh! Look, Lon, the ole raisin is over there!”
“Hazel!” breathed Loni, relief washing over her. She shoved Ed back into the tote and rushed towards the woman, who’d already gotten swallowed back up into the crowd. But now they had Ed’s nose on the case.
“That way,” he said, pointing towards the JetAir ticketing counter.
Loni followed his instructions until he found Hazel in line behind a family of three. “Hazel!”
Chapter 4
“Loni!” cried Hazel, her saggy eyes widening. “What in the world are you doing here? And what in the hell are you wearing?”
Loni patted her windblown wig and straightened the pink scarf across her face. “It’s my flying outfit.”
“You have a flying outfit?” She glanced down at Loni’s bag. “And why in the hell’d you bring your cat?!”
“Ed and I came to find you and take you home so the sex traffickers don’t get you.”
A grin covered Hazel’s weathered face. “Sex traffickers? Who in Hades would want to traffic me for sex? I mean, I know I’ve got a killer figure and all, but…”
Loni gestured towards Ed. “Ed told me all about it! There was a thing on the news.”
Hazel shrugged. “I don’t know anything about sex traffickers stealing old women, but that’s not going to stop me from going to that poker tournament.”
“You’re not serious, Hazel. You can’t go to Las Vegas! Gwynnie would pitch a fit!”
Hazel’s gaze hardened. She stabbed a thumb into her chest. “I’m the mother here, and she can’t boss me around!”
Loni pulled a small flip cell phone from her bag and began to dial. “Fine, then you won’t care if I call Gwyn and—”
Hazel reached out, grabbed the phone from Loni’s hands and snapped it shut. “Let’s not be hasty here,” she interjected.
Loni frowned at Hazel before stomping her foot down on the ground. “Hazel Prescott, we’re going home right now!”
“Yolanda Hodges, you and Mr. Ed are welcome to go home, but I’m going to Vegas, and you’re not stopping me.” Hazel’s voice rose as she enunciated her last four words.
Loni looked around as the line inched forward. She had no idea how to stop Hazel. “How’d you get here anyway?”
“I took an Uber.”
“An Uber? What’s an Uber?”
“You know, like a taxi. But you can sit in the front seat.”
Ed groaned. “Well, that definitely beats flying on a broomstick.”
Loni curled her lip. “How’d you get one of those?”
Hazel held up her phone and pointed to the screen. “I have the app.”
“What’s an app?”
Hazel narrowed her eyes and wrinkled up her nose. “You really don’t get out much, do you?”
Loni shook her head.
The line moved forward as the family of three moved to the next available agent. “Listen, Loni. The only thing I’ve ever wanted to do in my entire life is to go to Las Vegas for the World Championship of Poker. Gwyn never leaves me alone for the weekend. And of all weekends she chose this one. It was meant to be. The next time Gwyn lets me out of her eyesight will be when I’m pushing up daisies from six feet under. Don’t you want to help an old woman out with her final wishes?”
Loni swallowed hard. “Final wishes?”
Hazel nodded as a ticketing agent waved her forward. “It’s now or never, Loni.”
Loni didn’t know what to say as Hazel approached the counter, but before she could say anything, Hazel unzipped her pillow and removed a wad of cash. Loni’s eyes widened to the size of half-dollars.
“Where’d you get all that cash?” she asked, looking down into the pillowcase to see more rubber banded piles of cash stashed inside.
Hazel shrugged. “I’ve been saving up for a rainy day. Looks pretty cloudy out there to me, don’t you think?” She chuckled.
“Does Gwyn know you have all that?”
Hazel poked a short, stubby finger into Loni’s chest. “No. What Gwynnie doesn’t know won’t hurt her, remember?”
Loni groaned. Her own words had come back to bite her in the rump. “Fine,” she sighed.
“Tickets?” asked the woman at the counter.
Hazel pushed the wad of cash across the counter to the woman. “Two tickets for your next flight to Las Vegas.”
“Two tickets…” said Loni, her brows knitted together.
“Well, aren’t you coming with me?”
Loni looked down at Ed, unsure of what to say next.
Grinning, Ed slid down into the tote.
Loni sighed. “Well, I can’t let her go to Las Vegas alone.”
“And I ain’t going back to Aspen Falls,” promised Hazel.
Loni let out a heavy sigh. “Ugh, then I guess we’re goin’ to Las Vegas.”
Ed shot a paw out of the bag. “Yesss!”
Chapter 5
Hazel clutched her purse and her pillow full of cash to her side as she, Loni, and Ed entered Harrah’s casino. Uniformed people rushed in every direction, security guards milled around the entrance, and guests dragged suitcases behind them as they came and went from the lobby. Bouncy music played overhead, while the clicking sound of poker chips being stacked and restacked and the ringing of slot machine bells filled the air around them.
Hazel’s heart felt buoyed by the lively atmosphere and the air of excitement. She squeezed Loni’s arm. “This is the big time, baby!”
Loni kept her head down while Hazel dragged her along the winding path through the casino and past a statue of a man in a white cowboy hat with a big-haired woman by
his side. “Do you know where we’re going?”
Hazel pointed to a sign with the end of her cane. “Of course I do! I’m following the signs!”
Suddenly, Loni tugged on Hazel’s arm, pulling her into a crouching position behind the busty blonde statue.
“What’s the big idea?!” demanded Hazel, slumped over in the shape of an upside-down L. “My body doesn’t bend like this on a normal day.”
“Shh!” Loni hissed, slapping a hand over the older woman’s mouth. She pointed to a group of women coming down a hallway. “It’s Gwynnie, Char, and Phil!”
Hazel’s heart jumped. They were all headed in the same direction. She pulled Loni’s hand off her mouth. “Gwynnie can’t see me! She’ll put me on the first flight back to Pennsylvania if she sees me!”
Loni peeked around the statue, watching the group of women go down the hallway. “Well, then, we can’t let her see you!”
“The poker tournament’s that way!” said Ed. “You really think she won’t notice her mother wandering around?”
Hazel’s heart fell. To have come all that way and be poker-blocked by Gwyn was a stunning disappointment.
Loni surveyed another group of people coming their way. “I have an idea. Follow me.” She pulled Hazel back into an upright position.
“Oh, just slow your roll, Loni! My body can’t uncurl as fast as yours can.” Hazel put a hand to her back and arched it backwards in a stretch before letting Loni tug her forward to follow the group. “Where are we going? The poker tournament was back that way.”
Loni pointed discreetly at a woman in a figure-hugging grey skirt suit. She had a short black bob and a full set of bangs. “See that woman? The one in the heels dragging that suitcase?”
Hazel adjusted her glasses and peered through the group. “Yeah?”
“I know a thing or two about disguises, and there’s no way that’s her real hair. I’d put money on it. That’s a wig.”
Hazel curled her lip. “Okay?”
“Where there’s one wig, there’s bound to be two,” said Loni, pointing at the woman’s bag. “You need a disguise. We need to get our hands on that bag.”
Hazel lowered her brows. “You want to steal that woman’s bag.”
Loni nodded. “We’ll return her suitcase to the lobby once we’ve borrowed a wig. She won’t even miss it.”
Hazel nodded and closed her eyes solemnly for a moment. Then her eyes flashed open. “She’s gotta pee.”
Loni looked at Hazel curiously. “What?”
Hazel pointed at the woman in the wig. “Not what. Who! Her! The woman in the wig! She’s gotta pee.”
“And you know this because…?” said Ed.
Hazel tapped a finger to her temple. “I read her mind. She’s gotta go bad. She’s looking for the next bathroom she can find. We better hurry. We can grab the suitcase in there.”
They followed the large group until they saw the woman in the wig veer off from the crowd, pulling her suitcase into a bathroom. Loni and Hazel followed her in. The women and her large suitcase went straight for the handicapped stall, but found it locked. She backed up and tried to pull her suitcase into one of the smaller stalls, but found it wouldn’t fit. She glanced around, took one look at Hazel and Loni and then left her suitcase in front of her stall while she went inside and shut the door.
“Now’s our chance,” whispered Loni. She gave Hazel a little shove. “Hurry!”
Hazel bit her lips between her dentures, handed Loni her purse and her pillow, and hobbled over to the woman’s suitcase. She looked around one last time to make sure no one was looking and then grabbed the handle and with her heart pounding in her ears, hightailed it out of the bathroom. She could hear the woman’s heels clicking on the tile as she hollered, “Hey!”
But by then, it was too late. Hazel and Loni were out of there. Using their shortness to their advantage, they disappeared with the suitcase into the crowd.
When they were safely on the other side of the casino, Loni peered around an empty slot machine, breathing heavily. “Whew! I think we lost her!”
Hazel put a hand to her heart. “What a rush! This kind of excitement is enough to put this old woman right into an early grave!”
Loni grimaced. “See? This is why Gwynnie didn’t want you to leave the house.” She unzipped Hazel’s pillowcase and pulled out the bag of medications Gwyn had given her that morning. Spilling out two pink pills, she grabbed a half empty bottle of beer from the side of the slot machine and handed both to Hazel. “Here, take this.”
Ed made a fake vomiting noise and covered his mouth with a paw. “Oh, gross. I think I just vomited in my mouth a little.”
Hazel scrunched up her nose and took the pills, swallowing them without the beer. “That’s disgusting, even for you, Loni.”
They heard a jingling sound and looked up to see a janitor wheeling a squeaky mop bucket behind him. He unlocked a door not far from them and pulled in the mop bucket. Seconds later, he reemerged, speaking into the walkie-talkie on his shoulder. “Yeah, boss, I’ll be right there.”
The man didn’t even notice as Loni shot a blast of energy at the door to keep it from closing behind him.
Loni rushed towards the open door. “Hurry!”
Hazel hobbled after her, her heart beating wildly in her chest. “What are we doing in here?”
Ed looked around uncomfortably. “Loni, you better hurry. Someone could come in any second, and I’d prefer not to have to figure out how to bail you two out of jail.”
Loni cackled lightly as she laid the bag down and unzipped it. “Oh, Ed. You know they’d never take me alive!” She threw back the top of the suitcase. “But, you’re right. Let’s just see if she’s got another wig and get the heck outta Dodge!”
When the bag opened, Hazel was shocked to see that Loni had called it. Several wigs of all hair colors and styles lay inside. Plus there were other items of disguise. Fake glasses, fake teeth, costume jewelry, different styles of clothing. Hazel sucked in her breath as something in particular caught her eye. She tugged on a red-and-yellow WCOP lanyard inside the bag and pulled out a laminated badge.
“What’s that?” asked Loni.
Hazel adjusted her glasses to read the name tag more carefully. “It’s a World Championship of Poker identification! That woman was going to play in the tournament!”
Loni winced. “Ooh, and now we’ve got her badge. So I guess she will be missing her suitcase after all!”
Ed put a paw to his forehead. “Yeah, that’s gonna hurt.”
Hazel shook her head as she tugged the lanyard over her short grey hair. “Too bad, so sad. Only, she won’t be missing a thing! I’m taking her place!”
“What? Hazel! You can’t!”
Hazel pulled a manila envelope marked WCOP from the bag next. She opened it and slid out a folded booklet. “Look. It’s her WCOP schedule!” Inside, she discovered that some time slots were highlighted. She read the lines and then looked down at the thin watch on her wrist. “It’s almost time to play!”
Loni stared at the bag. “Haze. Check this out!” She pulled out a passport and handed it to her.
Hazel opened it to find a picture of the woman that had gone into the bathroom, except the woman in the photograph had blond hair. “Her name’s Lisa Grey.”
Loni pointed at the lanyard. “What’s the name on your badge?”
It took a moment for Hazel’s eyes to focus on the name. “Olga Sokolov.”
“There are tons of passports in here.” Loni opened up one passport after the other. “Elena Mascovitch. Simone Bisset. Kelly Murphy.” She showed Hazel the last passport, with a picture of the woman wearing a red wig and green contact lenses.
Hazel’s eyes widened as Loni pulled the last passport out and saw what was buried beneath them. She gasped as she pulled out a Ziploc baggie full of what appeared to be diamonds. “Loni! Do you think these are real?!”
“Let me see those!” said Ed.
Hazel held them up to
his face.
“I was a jeweler in a previous life,” he said knowingly. “Open the bag?”
Hazel opened the bag wide and Ed peered inside. Finally satisfied, he looked up and nodded. “I’d put money on it. Those are real.”
“Fake passports? A baggie full of diamonds? A suitcase full of disguises? Haze, what do we do?” asked Loni, wide-eyed.
Hazel grabbed the brunette wig that matched Olga’s name badge and tugged it on over her hair. “I don’t know. What I do know is, I’m finally getting the opportunity to play a world championship game of poker. If we don’t get going, I’ll miss it!”
Loni pointed at the bag. “But what do we do with all this?”
“Bring it with!”
Chapter 6
Hordes of people spilled from the rooms hosting the championship poker games. Hazel Prescott, wearing a brown wig and a fake gold tooth over her dentures, made a beeline through the crowd, cracking ankles with the end of her cane and drawing sharp looks. Loni, carrying Ed and following closely on Hazel’s heels, dragged the mysterious woman’s suitcase behind her, keeping a close watch for any signs of trouble.
Suddenly, Hazel caught sight of something and froze.
Loni crashed into her backside. “What in the…”
Hazel swatted at her. “Shh! It’s Gwynnie!” All three sets of eyes flickered up towards a group of women headed right for them.
Wasting no time, Loni surged ahead of Hazel into the crowd. Reaching back, she grabbed the older woman by the hand and dragged her into the championship room.
“Badge, please?” asked a woman seated at the check-in table.
Hazel held up the badge hanging around her neck and flashed the woman a smile. The light shone off her gold tooth.
The woman read the badge and then gave Hazel a split-second glance. “Olga Sokolov.” She ran a finger down her list. “You’re over there. Table 14B.”
Hazel gave a backwards head bob. “Can she come with me?”
The woman lifted an eyebrow towards Loni in her ridiculous genie costume. “Are you a player?”
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