by B A Trimmer
“I thought about that too. But honestly, I’d have to answer just as many questions with him as I would with the police. Plus, you know he’d want to go out and do something about it. I don’t think I want to be responsible for a lot of people getting hurt. I’ll tell him, but maybe not everything.”
“Still, it seems a little messed up that someone can do that to you and there’s nothing you can do about it. Lenny should give you hazard pay.”
“You’re singing my tune.”
~~~~
I scanned the parking lot at my apartment, looking for anyone who didn’t belong. When everything looked clear, I got out.
“I’ll have Grandma let me into my place. Then I’ll grab my spare set of keys and we can go.”
“Oh, I’ll go with you,” Sophie said as she grabbed her purse. “I haven’t talked with Grandma for a while. We can gossip about her wedding planner.”
We walked into my apartment house and took the elevator to the third floor. I was glad Sophie had decided to come along. I didn’t think anyone would come at me in the hallway to my apartment, but you never know.
When we walked up to Grandma’s door, we could hear an episode of The Big Bang Theory playing on her television. I knocked and the TV volume went down.
After about fifteen seconds, the peephole briefly went dark. We heard the sound of deadbolts being unlocked and chains being slid off latches as Grandma opened the door.
She looked us over and I could feel her eyes linger on me. Grandma shook her head slightly, as if she was somehow disappointed. She then turned to Sophie with a smile.
“Why, Sophie,” Grandma said in her always cheerful voice. “Isn’t this a nice surprise? Come on in. I wasn’t expecting to see you until the wedding.”
“Hi, Grandma,” Sophie said as she gave her a hug. “It’s good to see you again. I’m looking forward to the wedding. Especially after hearing all about your wedding planner and the wacky things that have been going on.”
“Isn’t it the craziest thing?” Grandma asked. “But I know Laura will have everything straightened out before the ceremony. Won’t you, dear?” She then looked at me with her sweet smile.
“I’m working on it,” I said. “Sophie can fill you in. Could I borrow your key to my place? I need to grab my spare set. I’ll be right back.”
“Why are you walking so funny tonight?” Grandma asked. “Did something happen again?”
“I took a couple of stun-gun hits to the stomach. It’s taking me a while to shake it off.”
“Really? Stun-guns? Was this on purpose?”
“No, it happened as part of an investigation I’m working on.”
Grandma shook her head. “I didn't think so, but I never know anymore. Young people do the craziest things nowadays. Well, do be careful, dear.”
“I’m trying,” I said.
“Um,” Sophie said. “While you’re at your place, you should probably change your clothes and comb out your hair. And if you think we might actually end up somewhere, later on, you may want to think about retouching your makeup.”
“I figured,” I said. “How bad is it?”
“You sort of have the crying-raccoon thing going on.”
I went over to my apartment and opened the door. I found my spare set of keys and tossed them into a shoulder bag I’d grabbed from the closet. I also dug through my drawer and pulled out my old twenty-five caliber pistol.
After Sophie’s comments, I was curious about how bad I looked. I went into the bathroom and glanced in the mirror.
What I saw sent a shock of panic through me. My hair was sticking out at all sorts of weird angles and there were feathers and bits of insulation from the ceiling still stuck in it.
Worst of all, Sophie had been right about my makeup. My eyeliner and mascara had smeared and had started to drip down my face. It was little wonder why it took Danica a few seconds to recognize me.
Fighting down the urge to hop in the shower and start again from scratch, I put on a new outfit, brushed out my hair, and quickly fixed my makeup. Within about fifteen minutes, I was back at Grandma’s.
Sophie and Grandma were sitting on the couch, drinking tea. Marlowe was on Sophie’s lap and seemed to be asleep.
“I was telling Grandma about the strip club,” Sophie said. “Do you know Grandma used to be an exotic dancer?”
“You were?” I asked. I know I probably sounded a little skeptical, but I couldn’t help it. The thought of Grandma Peckham dancing naked on a stage wasn’t registering.
“Oh yes,” Grandma said. “This was back when I was living in England and in college in Cambridge. I’d make pin money by dancing at a back-alley club called The Alligator. It was a notorious place back in the day.”
“What was it like?” I asked.
“It’s nothing like it is today, of course. We wore knickers, nylons, and a garter. We also wore pasties with long tassels on them.”
“So, nobody got completely naked?” I asked, hopefully. I really didn’t want the thought of a naked dancing Grandma to be in my mind.
“Land sakes alive, no. Back then, if anyone had actually taken off their clothes, they would have been arrested.”
“It sounds like a fun place to work,” Sophie said.
“I don’t like to brag,” Grandma said. “But I was rather famous at the club for being able to swing one of my tassels to the right and the other to the left. Watching those tassels spin around always drove the men wild with lust. They’d hoot and toss shillings on the stage, all night long.”
Chapter Eight
We got back into Sophie’s car and headed out to the Loop 101. I sighed, knowing what I had to do next. I gave Max a call.
“Hey,” I said when he answered. “Where’s my car?”
The line was silent for a full five seconds before Max spoke.
“You don’t know where your car is?”
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you about it later. But right now, I need to find my car. I heard it was up north of Wickenburg, somewhere out in the desert.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll find out and give you a call.”
“You still have the tracker on my car, don’t you? Can’t you just look it up?”
“It’s not like it’s an app on my phone. But it should only take a few minutes.”
True to his word, Max called back five minutes later. “Your car is in a big dirt parking lot on the side of Highway 93, about fifty miles north of Wickenburg.”
I had a feeling I knew where he was talking about. “Does this big parking lot have a name?” I asked.
“Not really. All it says is Nothing.”
“Nothing? It figures.”
“You know the location?”
“Yes,” I said with a laugh. “Nothing is where my car broke down when Susan Monroe and I were driving to the Black Castle Casino. It’s where that jerk Jonathan LaRose picked us up.”
“Do you think there could be a connection?” he asked, sounding concerned. “I could have somebody meet you there.”
“No, I think it’s only a weird coincidence. But I’ll call you when we get my car.”
“Any idea when you’ll get there?”
“It’ll take us almost two hours from here.”
I looked over at Sophie, whose eyebrows were creased with concentration, a slight smile on her lips. I then glanced down at the speedometer, which was pushing eighty. “Um, or maybe more like an hour and a half.”
~~~~
During the long drive, the sun slowly went down. There were enough clouds on the horizon for us to be treated to a gorgeous Arizona desert sunset. It sort of helped make up for some of the crappy events of the day.
Sophie drove out to Wickenburg and only slowed enough to not get a ticket as we went through the town. We then entered the deep desert, and she again opened up the Volkswagen.
Sophie tuned her satellite radio to the Bon Jovi channel and started singing along to the tunes. We quickly sped through the fifty mi
les of cactus and Joshua trees and finally made it to our destination.
Nothing, Arizona consists of a huge dirt lot and a single yellow cinderblock building. The structure must have been a gas station or a convenience store at one time, but it was now only a broken and empty shell with graffiti sprayed all over it. A faded sign on a tall pole announced the name of the town.
We drove around to the edge of the lot, where several abandoned cars were more or less lined up. The windows were bashed out of most of them. My car sat between two old sedans that I vaguely remembered being here the last time I’d been to Nothing, a month and a half earlier.
“You know,” Sophie said. “It’s probably a good thing you’re still driving your old piece of shit car. If you had your new one, someone would have stolen it by now. But one look at your disaster of a car and people will assume it’s been sitting here for a couple of months already.”
“Shut up,” I grumbled. “I’m already having a hard enough day without your brilliant observations.”
Sophie pulled a flashlight from her glove compartment. I switched it on, and we used it as we got out and walked around my car. Fortunately, it hadn’t been here long enough for anyone to damage it further.
I used my spare set of keys to open the vehicle and quickly confirmed the interior was empty. Walking around to the trunk, I saw the faded red bungee cord that holds the lid down had already been unfastened. Leery of what I might find, I slowly opened it up.
With a sigh of relief, I found my purse. The bad guys had simply tossed it in the trunk without trying to hide it. I opened it and was surprised to see my wallet, keys, phone, and even my pistol were still in the bag.
“Did they leave anything in your wallet?” Sophie asked.
“Um, about ten dollars,” I said as I leafed through a five and a handful of singles. “But I only had thirty or forty to start with. I suppose I should be grateful they were staging this as a kidnapping and not a robbery.”
“See,” Sophie said with her cheerful smile. “Things will only get better from here.”
“Thanks for driving me up here,” I told her as we got ready to leave.
“Just remember this when I ask you to do some monster favor for me sometime down the road.”
I started up my car and confirmed I had enough gas to make it back to Wickenburg. I gave Sophie a thumbs-up and we both took off.
As we sped back through the desert, I looked at the clock. Since it was only nine-fifteen, I knew Max would still be in his daily wrap-up meeting.
I voice texted to let him know I had my car and was heading back. I also asked him to call me when he had a chance.
~~~~
The lights of Wickenburg were coming into view when the theme to The Love Boat started playing on my phone.
“I’m glad you got your car back,” Max said when I answered. “Of course, I’m rather curious how it ended up in the middle of the desert.”
“I’m looking into the husband of a client for Lenny. The guy’s a doctor over at Scottsdale General. It started out with the usual naked pictures for the divorce. But I’m learning he’s only part of a larger operation somebody is running on several of the doctors and administrators at the hospital.”
“What kind of operation?”
“Sex and possible blackmail. But I don’t know if it’s anything more than that.”
“I take it the people running the operation found out you were spying on them?”
“Yes, and they weren’t very pleased about it.”
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. A little twitchy, but I’ll be alright.”
“Do you need my help with anything?”
“Maybe. I have a weird question. Do you know anything about Scottsdale General Hospital?”
“Like what? Are these the people behind the blackmail?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but it seems possible. Several members of the executive staff seem to be caught up in a sex ring that makes no sense unless there’s blackmail involved.”
“Scottsdale General has a somewhat shaky reputation,” Max said. “They seem to keep hiring people who get caught stealing narcotics. Unfortunately, before they’re caught, the drugs they steal eventually make it out to the street. The leaks from the hospital seem to be sizeable. Tony’s often said it’s one of the reasons we’ve never been able to properly get into the business.”
“You’d think after the first time someone stole drugs, they’d monitor the people they hired a little more closely.”
“You’d think. Maybe it’s hard to get good people to work in a hospital pharmacy.”
“Um, would you mind if I come over to your place tonight?”
“Really? This is the first time you’ve asked to come to my house. Is something going on?”
“Well, I might still have some people looking for me and I’d rather not stay up all night listening for noises.”
“Are you sure you don’t want some help with this? Gabriella told me she’s feeling a little fidgety. Nothing’s happened over here since she got the chance to shoot Major Malakov in the face. You know, she’d probably think it would be fun to have something new to look into.”
“No, I only need somewhere to stay for tonight.”
“I have an idea,” he said. “Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. We can go over to your place tomorrow morning, pick up some things for the rest of the weekend, and then go back to my place. That is, if you’d like to spend the weekend with me.”
“I haven’t been thinking a lot about Christmas, but that sounds perfect.”
~~~~
I got to Max’s a few minutes after eleven. When he opened the door, I gave him a hug and walked straight to his bathroom. Within a few seconds, my clothes were lying in a pile on the floor.
I took a hot shower to wash my hair and remove the grime that had accumulated after being stunned twice and then crawling through a nasty ceiling. I would have stayed in the shower longer, but I was so tired I could hardly stand.
When I got out, I towel dried my hair and wrapped one of Max’s thick bath sheets around me. I then walked into the bedroom and collapsed on the bed.
I was enjoying the softness of his sheets and would have quickly fallen asleep, but I heard Max talking to me. He was standing next to the bed, and I knew he was looking down at me.
“What?” I asked as I opened one eye and looked up at him.
“Did you want to take the wet towel off before you pass out?”
At this point, I really didn’t care one way or another. But I nodded my head and Max helped pull off the towel. He then crawled into bed next to me and I vaguely remember putting my head on his shoulder before falling asleep.
~~~~
When I woke up the following day, it took me a second to realize where I was and how I’d gotten there. The big bed was empty and the house was quiet in a way my apartment never was.
I went to Max’s closet and looked around for something to wear. I finally found a red silk kimono. I put it on and went searching for coffee.
I found Max busy in the kitchen. He was sorting out ingredients for breakfast and I could smell he’d already made a pot of one of his french roasts.
“Good morning,” he said as he gave me a long hug. He then stepped back and eyed me up and down. “You look good in silk. Feeling better today?”
“Much better,” I said as I poured out a mug, ignoring his comments about how I looked in the thin, clingy silk. “Sorry, I fell asleep on you last night. Yesterday was a long day.”
“I could tell. I’m glad you made it over here while you were still awake.”
“Where’s Beatrice?”
“She’s off for the weekend,” Max said as he started whipping eggs to make an omelet. “She’s spending Christmas with her sister down in Tucson.”
“So, we’re all alone?”
“All weekend. Think you can handle that?”
“I’ll manage,” I said with a huge smile. “When do you wan
t to head over to my place? That is, unless I’ll be running around here naked all weekend.”
“It’s a thought, but I have us scheduled to be over there at ten. I’ll have someone do a security sweep before we get there.”
Max and I sat on his couch, drinking coffee and eating breakfast. The view out of the picture window, watching the city slowly waking up, was lovely.
I remembered what Sophie had told me about her search for Gabriella. This seemed as good of a time as any to bring it up.
“Um, I think I once told you we have a source within the government where we could find out a lot of information on someone?”
“I remember. You said it was how you got the intel on Carlos Valentino.”
“Well, we tried to get information on the guy who’s hunting Gabriella, Viktor Pyotrovich Glazkov.”
“I take it your source didn’t have anything on him?”
“Not a thing. All we got was that he was a retired industrialist in the Crimean region of Ukraine.”
“That’s not right. If it’s a real intelligence source, they’d have to have more than that…” Max mused. His voice trailed off as he seemed to think about it. “Okay, I think I might know what the problem is.”
“What?”
“I don’t think our government knows his actual name. When I was active in the region, all I had was a codename. They only referred to him as the Snow Ghost.”
“So, how do you know all about him?”
“From Gabriella. The Snow Ghost wasn’t a major threat to our side, but he was decimating hers. That’s why she was taking them out. I didn’t learn the whole story until much later. I doubt that our government ever put together that Viktor Glazkov and the Snow Ghost are the same person.”
“Really? I’ll see if Sophie can come up with anything on the Snow Ghost when she returns to the office on Monday.
~~~~
We pulled into the parking lot for my apartment and I saw a black SUV in the corner. As we parked, the door to the vehicle opened and Carson got out.
“Good morning,” he said as he walked over to us.
“Did you find anything?” Max asked.
“No, I did a couple of perimeter sweeps and checked out the interior. I didn’t see anyone who looks like they don’t belong here.”
