by C L Bauer
The first sight was of John’s body laying between the door and the sidewalk. The glass door was almost closed except for his two legs wedging it open. She stayed on her hands and knees as she saw two agents with guns drawn, opening the door farther. The police were close behind.
Their flashlights illuminated her face and blinded her momentarily until they came to her side.
The next few minutes were a blur as they raised her up and sat her down on the chair. Their voices sounded like the Charlie Brown cartoon characters on the old television specials. There was a buzzing in her ears and she couldn’t focus. She kept telling them what had happened… John had saved her life. They didn’t need to know anything else.
When she saw John try to raise his head, she moved to his side, holding his hand at first, then placing pressure on his wound.
“You’re going to be fine,” she had lied. It seemed like hours before paramedics pushed her to the side and began working on John. He had slowly raised his right hand to wave at her as they took him away.
She told everyone who would listen that John had saved her life. Lily remembered his kind face, his soothing voice telling her she was going to be fine. She really doubted that. She continued her story when she noticed that no one was working on the other body in the street. Finally, someone covered it with a sheet. She watched them move in slow motion and barely noticed the stretcher to the left of her.
Lily slowly slid down the wall of the building and sat down on the sidewalk, her knees up and pulled into her body. Her head laid on top of them. A female agent had come over and wiped off her bloody hands. Finally, finally Dev had come.
Lily blinked a couple of times. She was fixated by the spot on the sidewalk. A life came down to a spot, an abnormal shading of an irregular form in the concrete. She’d once heard you weren’t really dead and forgotten until no one said your name ever again. John, John, John… she’d repeat every time she walked through her shop’s door now. Being at the shop would never be the same again; coming to work every day through that door would never be normal again.
She had to wake up out of this dream. Lily took a deep breath in and then looked around the boulevard. Everything was still there and life was going on. But there were two dark sedans parked illegally on the street in front of the shop. Lily looked in through her “autumn leaves” themed front window to see agents inside her domain. Taking a deep breath, she entered and fixed her gaze on Dev but Agent Fullerton came up to her first.
“Lily, we really appreciate you coming in today. We know you’ve been through a lot for several months and we can’t do our job without your cooperation, so we thank you so much.” He pulled her own chair out for her and sat across from her, at her consultation table. She laid her once soggy folder, bag and purse on her table. Dev joined them to stand in front of her.
Tom Fullerton motioned for her to sit across from him. The other men in the room seemed to be going over every inch of her shop and she knew what they were looking for…what they were still looking for.
Nervously, she fingered her keys still in her hand. “I really like what you guys did with my place,” she joked as she nervously looked around. The shop was a wreck with broken items on shelves, papers in disarray and open cooler doors with wilting flowers. She looked up to Dev and stared into his eyes. He looked tired and finished, finished as when you are done talking to someone and you just want to say goodbye.
Fullerton smiled and opened a notebook in front of her.
“Lily, here’s some of our facts.” He began to list dates, times, places, speculations. She was sick to her stomach. She was angry when she remembered they’d been watching her inside her own shop the entire time of this mess.
She’d never thought of the cameras after Agent Pierce had installed them. But she had either forgotten or never been told about the some of the microphones. They could hear them the entire time! She was angrier, if that was possible, when she realized they’d known about John for a very long time. Apparently, there was also another one or two accomplices. Oh my God. She wanted to knock the smugness off Agent Pierce’s face. It was smugness she was seeing, wasn’t it? Maybe she should have brought her attorney.
Wait a minute. She continued to listen to Tom Fullerton. He was doing what she did almost on a daily basis…making a list, going down that list, accomplishing jobs, and getting the work done. She breathed in and out slowly, listening more intently, not looking at Agent Pierce.
“Which leads us back to…where are those kilos of heroin? They aren’t at the wholesaler and from the notes John gave us they were in the box that was shipped to you with the dead hydrangeas, with the packets of preservatives which were drugs too. Where did those freezer bags or blocks as you call them, go?”
Wait, John had given them notes? Her temporary confusion would have to be answered later. She must’ve looked like a deer in the headlights of an eighteen wheeler. This was going to hurt.
“I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
“Did your assistant handle them? Did she do anything with them?”
“Abby didn’t do anything with them,” Lily yelled out. They weren’t going to hang this on Abby. “I just don’t know. We probably put them in the freezer and used them.”
Fullerton shook his head. “Then they should have been collected in the first burglary.”
“Oh, yah, the ham sandwich escapade.” She drummed her fingers on the table to distract herself, buying some time to have her memory check in with some miraculous piece of information.
“This is getting us nowhere,” Tom lamented as he looked up at Dev. “Until we find those kilos…”
He let that threat hang on the air. It was no skin off his nose, only her’s, literally perhaps. Would the Cartel send a second wave? She wasn’t quite sure how the South American group took care of florists but she saw in the rain Saturday night what they did to others who crossed their paths. She didn’t even have a gun for protection.
Dev came closer, blocking Fullerton from her view. He crouched down in front of her. “Lily, use that remarkable memory of yours and tell me where those two blocks are.”
Dev grasped her hands in his, their eyes locked in concentration. This would’ve been romantic if not for the importance of the situation and a half dozen other agents in the room.
“Think back to that delivery. You left the packets on the dead hydrangeas. There were two ice blocks in the box, right?”
She nodded slowly, her eyes shifting to the left trying to see that day again. The ice blocks were in good shape and…
“I put them in the freezer.”
Dev’s head fell down in exasperation. “But they weren’t there when John stole from the freezer. Could you have thrown them out? Did you use them for a delivery?”
“I used them that weekend. I had the boxes at home in the garage…” She looked at him in panic, removing her hands from his.
“Oh my God,” she gasped as she threw her own hands up to her mouth. “They weren’t in the freezer that night…they were in my garage and I brought them back to the shop after the break-in.”
Dev knew she remembered. He just hoped they could retrieve them. He didn’t know how much more of this interrogation of sorts he could handle. He’d rather interrogate the Taliban than Lily. If she prayed out loud one more time he might send her to her maker!
“Lily? Where are they?”
Her face had turned white and she began to cry. “We used them that weekend on a wedding. It was hot, remember?”
She was looking at Dev as though he was the key to this whole cockeyed caper. All the agents seemed to nod in unison. They were getting somewhere now but the electricity in the room proved to be somewhere in between slow excitement and having your teeth pulled.
Dev was trying to understand her thought process. “It was hot. You used them on a wedding. Which wedding?”
“That wedding!” she yelled. “Oh no. I bet they were in the bottom of those boxes!”
“Lily, I’m tired of this,” he said impatiently. Enough already. He head a team of agents surrounding him who wanted the information now. It was time, way past time to end this case.
“Which wedding? I need name and location. Now.”
The last word was said as though he was commanding, demanding something from his troops. He was impatient and she knew that she needed to get it out. She looked around the room and saw the myriad of faces, men breathing as one and waiting for her to spill the information. She would be ruined. Absolutely, this was the end of her career. Pack the shop up, sell everything, put the house up for sale and just hope her sister would understand when she ended up on her doorstep in Fredericksburg.
“The wedding was the one in the country club area…with Gretchen. I left the empty boxes with her.”
Dev understood completely.
“I’ll take Lily and Fullerton with me. I want two of you to follow but hold back when we get there. Lily and I’ll go to the door. No need to make a big deal out of this.”
He pulled her up to stand in front of him and grabbed her purse. “You did great, Lily, now let’s get this over with.”
He was softer now, he was Dev now, not Agent Pierce.
“But what if they’ve thrown them away?”
He was already pulling her along behind him and out the door to one of the cars.
“If they have, then they have and we can announce to the press that some of the Cartel’s shipment was permanently lost. We can announce the death of a hit man, a burglary, the end of this case and just say that some of the Cartel’s shipment was destroyed or lie and say we found them. That should end it. If we put the story out all over, they’ll look like fools and back away.”
She heard him. She was putting together all the puzzle pieces. Months ago, they could’ve lied and said they had found the drugs. Months ago, they could’ve ended it and maybe John would still be alive. They had purposefully set out to find some Cartel connection here in the city and they had used her to do it. She had been bait from the very beginning.
It sounded like cut and run for the DEA and the FBI but she would be left behind to lose her business, her life, what little she had. Would it be over for her? Easy for him to say but so much harder for her to exist with all that publicity…the wrong kind of publicity. Of course, she’d be out of danger. Wouldn’t she? Did the Cartel watch the news and read the newspaper? And John was still dead.
Once inside the car, Dev drove and conversed with Agent Fullerton. She sat in the backseat watching the houses go by. These were some of her favorite neighborhoods. She’d miss them. These were the streets that she drove on Christmas night when she was all alone. Possibly she would be considered a voyeur but she so enjoyed the open curtains framing tableaus of families seated around festive dining tables and Christmas trees serving as decorations for the end of another memorable holiday. She’d drive around street after street until she hit the parkway and ended up at the Plaza, the mother of all lighting spectacles. Surprisingly, it was never busy on Christmas night. You could drive freely, watching the diners scurrying to their evening reservations.
And why was it that the lights looked so much brighter on Christmas night? Was it some sort of magic deposited as a gift from Kris Kringle to Kansas City? It was magic but now this was reality.
It didn’t take long to arrive at the long familiar driveway where just a few months ago such happiness had lived. Dev parked and opened the door for her. She noticed Fullerton followed closely behind. She glanced back to see the other two agents parked on the street in front.
“Now, I’ll introduce myself and Tom and of course they’ll know you, then we’ll…”
“No,” Lily interrupted. “No, I’m going to talk to them. You two stay right here.”
She was back in control. If they were going to take away her Christmas, her life, her work and her reputation then she would finish it her way.
“You used me as bait. You have been telling me what to do and now it’s time for me to do what I need to do. It’s my business after all that is at stake. Me, not you. You go back to DC, you go back to your office,” she said pointing at the two men, “but I’m here. Me. These are my clients, my friends.”
She emphasized every single syllable, every word and looked directly into Devlin Pierce’s eyes. Enough. They had been greedy government agents; now the mission would be on her terms.
Fullerton and Dev stepped back as she went up to the door. The two men looked at each other, understanding she had a lot on the line, and she had taken even more over the last few months.
Dev had already realized she wasn’t any ordinary human being but now she was really proving her worth.
Gratefully, her former bride’s mother opened the door and immediately smiled as she saw Lily. She hugged her and looked past to see the two dark suited gentlemen accompanying her former wedding florist.
“Irene, we need to talk about the wedding flowers we had for your daughter’s wedding. These gentlemen here,” Lily motioned to them, “are from the FBI and the DEA. We need to know what you did with the boxes after I left that day. May we come in and talk?”
Shocked was not the accurate word for Irene’s demeanor but she motioned them in. Once they were all seated Lily explained the entire situation, how she had used ice blocks to keep the flowers cool during transport and had left the boxes in the garage for Gretchen, along with the now infamous blocks.
“Did you throw them all out or did someone use them after Gretchen? You would have seen them. They look like the ones you use in your cooler for picnics, camping.” Lily thinly smiled at Dev. He smiled back knowingly. There was no way that Irene, nor any of her family had ever used a cooler, especially not for camping. On second thought she might have forced her husband to “Shakespeare in the Park” and had the maid or the cook pack them something in a cooler.
“I know exactly what happened to those boxes,” she proudly announced. “This will solve everything.”
Three faces smiled back at her.
“Gretchen said she could use them for an event she was doing the next week. I believe she took all the boxes and if those blocks were in there then Gretchen has them. There, so that’s where they went. Wonderful, isn’t it?”
Three faces frowned, and of the three, two were showing great discomfort. “Gretchen took them?” Lily had to be sure she had heard that correctly. “Gretchen?”
“Yes, Lily.”
The silence was sickening. It really was all over now. Lily could start shredding the business cards as soon as she returned to the store. She had that bride last year who sold real estate and thought her house was cute. She needed to find her number tonight. Updating the resume would be second on her list. She began to make lists in her head again. Dev’s voice interrupted the fourth item.
“Thanks so much. We will be in touch if we need anything else. You’ve been so helpful.” Agent Fullerton was handing her his card and thanking her for her assistance.
Dev almost pushed her out of the house and into the car. Fullerton was on his cell phone calling the other sedan’s occupants.
“Lily, check your phone for Gretchen’s contact info and call her, please.” He was all business. She acted before she could react.
Gretchen was answering within a minute.
“Yes, Lily, what do you need?”
“Tell her we are coming to her right now, dropping in,” Dev prompted.
She knew what to do. “Gretchen, where are you right now? Oh, your apartment across from the Intercontinental? I need to see you right now. It’s about a really big client and I need your help desperately, immediately. I just don’t know if I’ll be able to handle it and I know you’ll steer me in the right direction. Number 829. Great, I’ll be there in just a few minutes.” Lily thought she was going to vomit but needed to add one more piece of bait. “I’m leaving the client off the parkway so about ten minutes? Great, thanks so much, you are such a love.”
She hung up with a bad t
aste in her mouth, not just the little lies but the taste of subservience run amuck. Looking up to the front seat, Dev was watching her in the rear view mirror. They were stopped at a traffic light. She couldn’t place a word of description on what she was seeing from him. There was a softness, perhaps pride in her and in what she had just accomplished? Maybe it was just pity for some little shop girl who got herself in a big mess. A lot of people enjoyed a good train wreck.
He was driving down the parkway and turning the corner into the Plaza area. Only a few more blocks and they’d be at Gretchen’s. Great, just great, Lily kept repeating in her mind. Number four on her list was to begin packing and maybe sell all the china. Number five, explain to Abby that they were going to have to close after the news stations got wind of all this. By the time she had reached number fifteen, perhaps her longest list to date in her head, they were in front of the high rise apartment and Dev was opening the door once again.
“I’m not telling you anything on this one.” He patted her on the back. “You’ve got this.”
“You know what’s going to be the absolute worst part of this?” She paused as she took a deep breath. “She’s going to know we were never dating and that it was all a ruse. I hate that.”
She was looking down at the pavement as the three of them walked into the lobby. Fullerton showed his badge to the doorman who punched the button for them and opened the secure doors.
Silence was the norm one more time between the three of them until Dev whispered down in her ear.
“I’m saying this only once, Lily. I hate that it was a ruse too.”
She still didn’t raise her head. She wiped her left eye and patted her cheek dry. He seemed to know she needed that right there and then. It was kind of him. She appreciated the pitying. Even though they weren’t alone it seemed as though Fullerton didn’t hear what had been meant for only her ears.
