How Now Purple Cow

by Marja McGraw

  Unfortunately, I caught my foot on the leg of the chair and went sailing.

  Fortunately, Chris was approaching us. He grabbed me with one hand and the mama cow with the other.

  I heard a gasp come from behind me. Judith was on her feet in a flash, reaching toward me.

  “Would you believe me if I told you I did that on purpose?” I asked.

  No one replied. No one laughed. Oh well… I hurried to the Reservation Desk and found the little flashlight in a drawer before hurrying back to the table. I sat down and held my hand out to Chris.

  “You know that could have been a disaster, don’t you?” He handed me the mama.

  I frowned and ignored him.

  Using the jeweler’s loupe and the flashlight, I studied the underside of the purple cow, udders and all. I could see the indistinct circular outline I’d noticed earlier.

  Chris pulled up another chair and I turned to him. “You know, Bogey Man, I have a feeling that at one time this outline wouldn’t have been noticeable. Is it possible that after all these years, time has made it… I don’t know, kind of sink in a little? The more I look at it, I have the feeling that if I knew what I was doing I could remove the bottom of the cow. What do you think?”

  “Anything is possible, but don’t try to remove it. Cool your heels and let James take the cow apart. The way he looked at it makes me think he can’t wait to get his hands on it. Although, if there’s something hidden inside, it should probably be left there until they catch up to this Grigori guy.”

  “You’re right, son.” We each turned to Chris, Sr. in surprise. He so seldom offered opinions. “That cow could chew her cud until the… Well, until the cows come home, and no one would ever think to look inside of her. She’s the perfect hiding place.”

  I smiled at him. “You’re absolutely right. Who’d ever think to look for a secret inside a purple ceramic cow? We never would have thought about it if the cows hadn’t been hidden.”

  Judith reached over and took the cow out of my hand, putting it back in the box. “So now what do we do?”

  My husband sat back in his chair and crossed his arms across his chest. “Now we wait for tomorrow morning.”

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Somehow Chris’s words seemed ominous. There was something in his tone. He made me feel like tomorrow could be the start of a new life.

  I almost thumped my forehead with the heel of my hand. New life? Not likely. It wasn’t like we’d become spies so we could live like our new friends used to live, and I use the term friends lightly.

  ~ * ~

  We had to meet everyone at seven, so Chris and I took Mikey and the dogs to the restaurant with us a little early. He’d spend the morning in my office working on a report for school. He was also in charge of the dogs which meant he had to feed them and make sure they had water. If I knew him, he’d play with them, too. Between his report and the dogs, he should stay busy.

  I told him we were having a business meeting and that he wasn’t to interrupt us unless it was an emergency. I didn’t tell him who’d be at the meeting, and he didn’t ask.

  I’d call the school around eight o’clock to tell them he wouldn’t be in because he was travelling out-of-state, and I said I’d follow up with a note. I hoped I had all the bases covered.

  Judith, Chris, Sr. and Constance arrived early. Chris and his father shoved some tables together and everyone took a seat.

  Carol and Coral showed up early, too, and joined their friends at the table.

  At seven o’clock on the dot there was a knock at the front door of the restaurant.

  I stood, but Chris made a motion to stay where I was.

  He went to the door and opened it slowly, checking to see who was there before opening it wide enough to admit our guests.

  Piper and James entered and took seats at the table.

  She studied the people’s faces. “I’m surprised Rick isn’t here. He’s – “

  “I’m right here.” The voice came from the cocktail lounge. Rick joined us, grinning. “I haven’t lost my touch.”

  “How did you get in here?” Chris sounded a little annoyed.

  “Trick of the trade. I’m still good at what I do. I’ve had this place staked out for about an hour and a half. I didn’t want any surprises, except for me, when you all got here.” He pulled out a chair and sat.

  James fingered his trusty cigar and pointed it at Rick before sticking it between his lips. “And did you see anything suspicious?”

  “Nope.”

  Piper narrowed her eyes at her old friend. “You’re incorrigible. You could have given these poor people heart attacks.”

  Glancing around the table, I saw that everyone – every single person – was grinning. They were excited, not suffering from the sudden onset of fear.

  Chris and I stood at the head of the table, not smiling. Was the supper club vulnerable to thieves or was Rick just that good? There was no doubt in my mind that Chris would talk to him later to find out how he got in.

  “I’ll be right back.” I had a sudden urge to make sure Mikey and the dogs were okay. When I passed through the kitchen on my way back to the dining area, I picked up a saucer in case James wanted somewhere besides his pocket to put his stogie.

  I returned to the meeting and all the chatter stopped. They’d been waiting for me.

  “Let’s get started,” James said. “We met with Rick last night and came up with a plan.”

  The twins leaned forward.

  Rick glanced at Constance and winked.

  I rolled my eyes. Let’s stick to business, I thought.

  “I saw that.” Rick chuckled.

  I set the saucer in front of James.

  Piper echoed my thought. “Let’s stick to business, okay?”

  James pulled the stogie out of his mouth and set it on the table. Looking at the saucer, he picked it up again and moved it to the plate. “I spoke to my contact at the agency. We’re on our own. At this point there’s nothing he can do to help us. We’re supposed to be dead and that’s not going to change any time soon.”

  “Dead, dead, dead,” Piper said.

  Chris dropped his head and sighed. He looked back up and a question rolled off his tongue. “What do you want from us?”

  Before replying, James looked into the eyes of each person at the table. “We’re coming out of hiding. We need your help and your eyes.”

  Piper nodded.

  “We’d like at least one or two of you with each of us all the time. We’ll create something that’s newsworthy to get our pictures in the newspaper in the hopes Grigori will see us.”

  I started to raise my hand but dropped it when I remembered I was way past being a student in class. “Chris and I have a friend who’s a reporter. I can talk her into putting a story about you in the paper.” I tightened my lips, knowing I’d owe her a favor for this one. She’d have to do it without knowing the reason. I’d probably owe her a big one.

  Piper nodded again. “Good. We’ll start with your friend. We’re going to be on a tight timetable. Do you think you can talk her into rushing the story through?”

  “Yeah, but it’ll cost me.”

  “We’ll pay her,” Rick said.

  “No, I mean it’ll cost me a favor. I won’t enjoy owing this woman.”

  Rick leaned his elbows on the table. “Grigori will know me. That’s not an issue. He’ll recognize the scar he left on my face. James and Piper are another matter. We’ll need to include pictures with the story showing them when they were young.”

  “I thought there weren’t any photos.” Judith recalled their reluctance to have pictures taken.

  “Yeah, what about that?” Coral asked.

  “You’d never let Mother take pictures.” Carol sounded almost like she was accusing them of being unfriendly.

  Piper blinked rapidly a couple of times. “James and I have very few photos, but we do have a wedding picture. How about doing a story about a wedding anniversary?
”

  “You’re slipping, babe.” James patted her hand. “It’s going to have to be a bigger story than that to get any attention.”

  Piper poked his arm. “Slipping? In your dreams, ya big lug.”

  Rick sat back in his chair. “Let’s get this done so we can get started.”

  “Yes, let’s.” Chris still sounded annoyed.

  “Here’s the deal,” Rick said. “We’re going to get our faces out there for people to see, including Grigori. We’re going to teach you some basics about surveillance. While we’re going public, you’ll be on the sidelines watching and listening. We’ll use walkie talkies to keep in touch. If it looks like any one of us is in trouble, we’ll take the necessary action.”

  “And what’s the necessary action?” Chris folded his arms across his chest in a no nonsense motion. “So far you’ve told us bupkis. We need answers if you want our help.”

  “Yes, you do.” Rick seemed to look at Chris with a new respect. Maybe he’d thought my husband was an easy mark. He wasn’t.

  “Let me check on Mikey before we go any further. I don’t want him to hear any of this,” I said.

  “Your son is here?” Piper asked. “We should be more careful.”

  “I’m taking him to the airport in a while. He’d going to visit my parents because I don’t want him involved in this.”

  “Neither do we,” Judith said.

  I left the group and found Mikey busily doing his homework.

  “I want to finish this before I visit Grandma and Grandpa so I don’t have to do it when I get home.”

  “Good idea,” I said. “I’ll come get you when our meeting is over.”

  He nodded, but he’d already turned back to his report. Obviously, his trip was important to him and he didn’t want anything else on his mind. Yeah, that was my take on it.

  I returned to the group to find them discussing the article for the newspaper.

  “It’s got to be something that will grab people’s attention.” Coral scrunched her face up, trying to come up with a good idea.

  “How about…?” Carol didn’t finish her thought, but shook her head.

  “It’s too bad they can’t save each other’s lives,” Judith said.

  Chris snapped his fingers. “That’s it! I can see the headline now. ‘Senior Saves Seniors from Mugger.’ All we need is a picture. Pamela, go get the camera.”

  “Okay.” I headed for my office, hoping the camera was in my purse.

  It was.

  Returning to the dining room, I handed it to Chris. He was huddled with the three seniors while the rest of us watched.

  “This could work,” Piper said. “We’ve got to pose so that we don’t look posed.”

  “Not a problem. You three come with me. The rest of you stay here.”

  Chris headed for the front door with the three following him.

  “What are they up to?” Judith stood and watched them leave.

  “I wish I knew.” I hoped Chris knew what he was doing.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chris and the spies returned in about twenty minutes. It felt like an hour.

  “Where’d you go?” I realized I was tapping my foot and stopped when it caught my husband’s attention.

  “We had a great time.” Piper was grinning from ear to ear. “I haven’t done anything like that in a long time, and by ‘that’ I mean set a scene to catch someone.”

  “What did you do?” Coral stood with her hands on her hips. “We should have been included.”

  “She’s right for a change.” If you can condemn someone with a look, then that’s what Carol did. She didn’t like her sister getting it right.

  Constance sat quietly while everyone gathered around the foursome.

  Chris made a shooing motion with his hand. “Sit down and we’ll show you the picture in a minute. Pamela, I ended up taking the photo with my iPhone. I forwarded it to the office. Why don’t you print a copy so everyone can see what we did?”

  “Okay.” I couldn’t wait to see it. I knew I’d have to tell Sharon, the reporter, a whopper, and I needed to come up with a good story.

  Mikey had gone outside to play with the dogs so I didn’t have to worry about him seeing the results. I opened my email and found the picture, saved it to one of my programs and printed it.

  One look and I laughed. I couldn’t help myself.

  James sat on the ground in front of a coffee house with a look of pain on his face, facing the camera, or iPhone.

  Piper stood over James with an expression of fear on her face. Her purse was on the ground next to him.

  Rick partially faced the camera with the scarred side of his face showing. He was shaking his fist in the air and appeared angry.

  It was so real that I wondered if spies had to take acting classes.

  Taking the printed photo back to the dining room, I handed it to Chris. He took one look and a smug expression covered his face. He handed it to his mother and told her to pass it around.

  “Let me guess,” I said. “The scenario is that someone tried to mug Piper and James, and Rick saved them. Am I right?”

  “Pretty much, angel. We had James sit on the ground so his size wouldn’t be an issue, but Piper’s would. Rick wanted his scar to show and we turned him a little. Piper might not be so recognizable with her red hair, but James and Rick are. Grigori will take a closer look at her when he realizes he’s found his nemesis. Nemeses? I don’t know what the plural is. Anyway, there’s no way we can include the pictures of them when they were younger. It wouldn’t make sense.”

  Piper laughed. “We had quite an audience while we posed and took the picture. No one could figure out what we were doing. I told them it was a joke and bowed.”

  I took the photo from Constance. “I need to spend time in my office thinking up a story for the newspaper. I want this to go on the front page, and I’m not sure if Sharon can arrange that or not. But first, I’ve got to take Mikey to the airport. I’ll scoot him out the back way so he doesn’t see any of you.”

  Chris followed me back to the office. “I’ll miss you, Ace. You behave and don’t give your grandparents ulcers.”

  “What are those?” Mikey studied his fingernails, not sure what to make of Chris’s comment.

  “Never mind, son. Just be a good boy. Don’t talk about our cases too much, but… Nah, you talk about them all you want to. They’ll love hearing your versions of the stories.”

  I smiled. “Your dad and I figure you’re going to be one of two things when you grow up.”

  “What?”

  “Either a private investigator or an author. You have an eagle eye and a penchant for telling good stories. Now let’s get going.”

  “What’s a penchant?”

  “Never mind.”

  Chris walked out to the car with us and waved when we drove away. His face was a picture of both stress and relief. Stress that our son would be gone for a while, and relief that he wouldn’t be around when we found the assassin. At least, that was what I believed.

  When we found the assassin? Good grief! What were we thinking?

  My son and I reached the airport and I stayed with him as long as I was allowed. He was quiet, a trait I didn’t often see in him.

  “Are you nervous about flying?” I asked.

  “No, I just have a lot of my mind.”

  “Like what?”

  “Just stuff.”

  I leaned back and studied him, curious about what might be on his mind.

  He seemed to understand and he changed the subject. “I can’t wait to see Grandma and Grandpa. They sure are different from Dad’s mom and dad. We have fun, but in different ways.”

  He kept up the chatter until just before we had to part. He stood and picked up his suitcase after giving me a hug.

  “Mom? I think it’s probably a good thing you’re sending me to Virginia.” He looked up and into my eyes. “I shouldn’t be here if there’s spy stuff going on.”

&
nbsp; “Mikey! What do you know about what’s going on?”

  “A lot. I listen when you don’t know I’m listening. I heard you and Constance, and you and Dad talking. Ya can’t get much past ol’ Ace.”

  I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and my heart pounded. “Oh, Mikey. We never should have gotten involved in all of this. Please don’t worry about us while you’re gone. Your dad and I will take care of each other. I’ll call you every single day, I promise.”

  “I want you to tell me all the details, Mom.”

  “So you can share them with your grandparents?”

  He grinned. “Maybe.”

  “Call me the minute you arrive at your grandparents’ house.”

  He nodded and left after one last hug.

  On the drive home I found myself thinking alternately about both Mikey and the story I’d have to give Sharon Stone, my connection at the newspaper.

  I arrived at home and set my purse on the table while I read a note from Chris. He’d taken the dogs to work with him, and he’d tell me more about his morning with the gang of crazies, as he called them, when I arrived at the restaurant.

  It was time to approach Sharon so I made a cup of tea, took a deep breath and picked up the telephone receiver, punching in the number for the newspaper offices.

  I tried to tell myself that she owed me, instead of the reverse, because we’d always given her the inside information on our cases. Yeah, that was it.

  She answered her extension with, “Sharon Stone here. What can I do for ya?”

  Sweet sugar dripped from my words. “Sharon, this is Pamela Cross. Have you got a minute?”

  “For you? Always. What’s up?”

  “I need to work a deal with you. I’d like a story about two seniors being mugged to go on the front page of the paper. I’ve got a picture to go with the story. It – “

  “What’s in it for me?” she interrupted. “There’s no doubt in my mind about you wanting something because there’s a story behind it.”

  “At this point I don’t know if there’ll be a story or not. Just this once you’re going to have to trust me. I’d tell you more, but I can’t.” I remembered the line Piper had used. “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.” I chuckled nervously.