Trading Places

by Fern Michaels

  “I lied to you, Lizzie.”

  Lizzie felt her shoulders sag. Here it comes, she thought. Aggie said not to trust anyone. What do I do? I trust a reporter. She felt like kicking herself.

  “About what, Nathan.”

  “I lied to you when I said I thought I was falling in love with you.”

  Lizzie felt like her insides were crumbling. “Don’t give it another thought. Stress…time…”

  Nathan acted like he hadn’t heard her. “I’m not falling in love with you. I’m already in love with you. You don’t have to say anything or profess undying love. I just wanted you to know.”

  Tears rolled down Lizzie’s cheeks. She moved closer, took his hands in hers. “I love you, too,” she whispered. He squeezed her hands. She squeezed back. For all the good it’s going to do either one of us.

  It was Nathan who gently pushed her away. “It’s getting late, Lizzie, we have to check Tom’s car and still pick up yours. Maybe all your answers are in the garage. At least, let’s hope so.”

  Thirty minutes later, Nathan looked at Lizzie in dismay. “Maybe that guy Zack was putting you on. There’s nothing in this car but food wrappers, smelly tennis shoes, and dirty towels. There’s nothing here. I looked underneath the car, under the fenders, under the hood, and there’s nothing. Maybe it was the bullets he was referring to. There are enough of them embedded in this car to melt down for a doorstop. I even ripped off the felt on the ceiling. I did find thirty-seven cents under the seats, but that’s it. There’s nothing, Lizzie. Maybe he was trying to set you up or something.”

  Lizzie sighed. “Maybe we should rip the seats apart.”

  “To what end, Lizzie. They’re just the way they came from the factory. I looked under them. I wanted to find something, too, but there’s nothing to find. Come on, we have to get your car unless you don’t want to do it.”

  “No, no. Zack was giving me a heads up. Wait a minute. Wait just a damn minute. Maybe they were going to plant something in the cars. That would be the setup. You’re right, there’s nothing to find because they haven’t put it, whatever it is, in the cars yet. Come on, let’s go.”

  Zack locked up, and they both climbed into the Beemer. “Jeez, I hope we don’t run into that cop again.”

  At fifteen minutes past three, Nathan parked the Beemer on the opposite side of the street. Lizzie looked across at her sister’s house. It was dark as pitch. “Show me where the bug is on the door and rip it off.”

  Like thieves in the night, Lizzie and Nathan crossed the street and ran up the driveway. Lizzie opened the car door. Nathan bent down, searched for the bug, and ripped it away from the bottom of the door. He pulled back his arm and tossed it across the lawn. They watched it land in a bed of daisies two doors away.

  In less than ten minutes, they were back on the road and headed for Artie Bennigan’s house for the second time in one night.

  They used up another fifteen minutes opening the garage doors, pulling out the Intrepid, and driving Aggie’s car into the garage. Nathan parked the Intrepid, the front end facing the street so the rear license plate couldn’t be seen.

  It was a few minutes before four when Nathan closed the door of Lizzie’s car. “There’s nothing in your car either. Let’s get out of here. If we’re lucky, we might get an hour or so of sleep.”

  Disgusted with the entire evening’s events, Lizzie crawled into the Beemer. “Tell me again why we’re leaving your vehicle here and taking this car that belongs to your friend.”

  “Lizzie, right this second, I don’t remember. I’m sure it will come to me. I never get bad ideas. Whatever it was, you agreed. Can we just leave now?”

  “Okay.” Lizzie leaned back and was instantly asleep. Nathan had to wake her when he parked in his underground parking space.

  In the chrome-and-glass condo, Lizzie headed straight for the couch. “Wake me up at six-thirty, Nathan.”

  At ten minutes past six, the squad room was rife with anger and testosterone. “What the hell do you mean both cars are gone?” Dutch Davis demanded.

  “They’re gone. As in they aren’t there,” a detective with flaming red hair said out of the corner of his mouth. “Neighbors reported a break-in at the Madsens’ house during the night. The house wasn’t broken into, just the garage, and the car is gone. There is no car at Jade’s house. And, before you go ballistic, we checked Hawk’s garage, and it isn’t there either. Neither is his car.”

  “She’s one step ahead of us,” Joe Sonders said. He smacked his balled-up fist on a tabletop. “Now what?”

  “Now what? Now what?” Dutch hissed. “I need to think. Can I just sit here and think for a minute. Is Aggie on duty today?”

  “I looked at the schedule. She was on, then she was off. How the hell am I supposed to know. The space next to her name is blank.” Joe banged the table again. He looked around. All he could see was fear on his fellow officers’ faces. The same kind of fear he was feeling. “You better think quick, Dutch. The way I look at it, we have less than a day. You might also want to consider the fact that the chief is on high alert when you’re doing all your thinking.”

  The room fell silent when the watch commander entered the room.

  No one listened to a thing he said.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chief of Detectives Erwin Shay knew something big was going on the minute he walked down the hall to his office. He could smell the secrecy. Whatever it was, it had been going on since Aggie Jade reported back to work.

  He looked at his watch and felt pleased with himself that he was within a minute of his normal arrival. Six-thirty. He wasn’t due in till seven, but he liked to be at his desk when the shift switched over in case one of his men from the night shift wanted to talk. It worked for him even though his wife grumbled and complained about having to get up at five o’clock to fix him breakfast. A special breakfast because among other medical problems, his diabetes was going haywire. She worried about him. He worried about himself, too, but he never let her know it.

  He was more than worried now. He looked across the squad room at Sadie Wilkinson, who he secretly thought was older than God. She was already at her desk, because, as she put it, how did it look for her boss to be in and her still snoozing.

  Sadie knew everything that went on and then some. She was mother, sister, aunt, confessor, and keeper of all kinds of secrets she never divulged. She was honest, loyal, and trustworthy. She was also personal friends with the commissioner’s and mayor’s wives. When you wanted to know the skinny on anything involving the department, all you had to do was ask Sadie. Asking didn’t mean you’d get an answer. Sadie was also discreet.

  Sadie always wore a smile, no matter what time of the day it was. She wasn’t smiling this morning, and she also wasn’t meeting the chief’s penetrating gaze. Her thin lips were pursed tightly.

  Erwin Shay’s eyes narrowed. Whatever he was smelling was getting stronger. “In my office, Sadie. Now! Don’t even think about telling me you’re busy.” He was barking at her. Later, he knew, he would have to apologize.

  “Hold your horses, Erwin. I have to put my shoes on.” Sadie wore platform shoes that were killers on her feet. She wore them so she could add height to her four-foot-eight frame. The minute she reached her desk, she kicked them off and put on her slippers. When she took her break or went to lunch or even made a trip down the hall, she put the platforms back on.

  Sadie Wilkinson was a little bit of a woman. Chief Shay often said she was no bigger than a postage stamp. She weighed in at something close to eighty-eight pounds if she ate breakfast. If not, she weighed eighty-six pounds. Her hair was pearly white and tied in a knot at the top of her head. For added height, of course. Her face was weathered and lined, a road map of life. Her only concession to makeup was cherry red lipstick that bled into the wrinkles, and cherry red nail polish. She wore a strap watch fastened above her elbow because if she wore it on her wrist, even in the last hole, it would slide off her arm.

 
; No one really knew Sadie’s age because, among other things, she knew how to tap into the files, and constantly changed her birth date. The best guess was she was somewhere around seventy-five, give or take a few years, something she would never deny or confirm. All she would say was she was with the department from the day she graduated high school. She refused to divulge the name of the high school, and no amount of prodding could get it out of her. It was a mind-your-own-business kind of thing.

  Today, Sadie wore a leopard print blouse with black slacks and a fanny pack around her waist. She constantly had to hitch it up because she had no hips to speak of, and it slid around. It was for her valuables.

  “Today, Sadie!” Erwin barked again.

  “I told you to hold your horses, Erwin. I’m coming,” she barked back. “Furthermore, I am not hard of hearing.”

  “Close the door!”

  Sadie obliged the chief.

  “Sit!” he ordered.

  “Sit! Sit! Sit! I’m not a dog, Erwin. What? All right, I’m sitting.” She perched on the edge of the hard wooden chair, her feet a long way from the floor. Her legs looked like skinny sticks with the bulky platforms at the ends.

  Shay fixed her with a stare. “Watch my lips, Sadie. I want to know what’s going on around here. Don’t tell me you don’t know. You know everything. You know more than I know, and I’m the chief of detectives. I’m not proud of that either. You are not moving out of that chair until you spill your guts. So, start spilling.”

  They were like two old warhorses, sniffing, snorting, and pawing the ground as each took the other’s measure.

  The red lips moved. “You give me too much credit, Erwin.”

  One of the chief’s stubby fingers pointed at her chest. “Listen up, Sadie. Either you tell me what’s going on, or I give this to the commissioner.” He reached into his top drawer and pulled out an old yearbook. “See this, Sadie. It’s your high school yearbook, and guess what. It has your age in it. You are ten years past retirement age. I’m personally going to plan your retirement party tomorrow night. Did you hear me, Sadie? Tomorrow night! The flip side to retirement is, I fire you on the spot. What’s it gonna be, Sadie?”

  “That’s blackmail!” Sadie blustered. “Blackmail is against the law.”

  “So, sue me! I want it all, Sadie, every last tidbit.”

  The red lips moved again. “I want a lawyer.”

  “For what?” Shay bellowed.

  Sadie reared back and turned her hearing aid down. It screeched, the sound like fingernails on a blackboard. Shay groaned.

  “You’re threatening me. Coercion. You don’t even have a case to charge me with anything. If you do, will you Mirandize me?”

  “I’ll go you one better, Sadie. I’ll call in IAD. I think you’re withholding evidence or knowledge on Tom Madsen’s murder. They’ll chew you up and spit you out. How’s that grab you, Sadie?”

  The red lips puckered up. Sadie turned her hearing aid back up to the high position. It screeched again.

  Shay watched as she literally shriveled in front of his eyes. She started to cry, something he thought she was incapable of doing. He was out of his depth, and he knew it.

  “Maybe it is time for me to leave here. I always thought I’d, you know, keel over at my desk.” She rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand. “Erwin, you think I know everything. I don’t. People say things in passing. I remember those things. Sometimes I put one thing together with another thing, and come up with what I think is going on. That doesn’t mean it’s right, or that something is going to happen. It’s my version of events. If you want to sic Internal Affairs on me, go ahead. They deal in facts and not rumors.” Sadie straightened her shoulders, and said, “If I leave, this place will fall apart, and we both know it. You don’t even know where they keep the pencils, Erwin.”

  She was right, and Shay knew it. Sadie Wilkinson was the glue that kept the department together. How it had happened, he didn’t know. If she left, he wondered who would put up the Christmas tree and all the decorations.

  Shay reached into his desk drawer and brought out a box of tissues. He handed them to the little woman. She sniffed, and waved them away.

  “Sadie, I’m worried about Aggie Jade. Not just worried. I’m really worried.”

  “I’m worried about her, too, Erwin. She’s one of your best.” Sadie looked down at the floor. “They’re trying to figure a way to get her. I don’t know who they are, Erwin. It could be the whole department or it could be just a few. Like I said, I hear things. Believe it or not, I was going to talk to Aggie today. I have this creepy feeling something bad is going to happen.”

  Shay leaned back into the depths of his swivel chair. “Join the club, Sadie. The reason I let her come back was I thought she would be safe on site. At home, she’s fair game. I’m losing sleep over this, Sadie. When I don’t get enough sleep, I get real cranky. Ask my wife.”

  Sadie sighed. “What do you want me to do, Erwin?”

  “Get me something I can sink my teeth into. I need something to go on. Aggie’s playing it real close to her vest. I know she decked Dutch even though they both denied it. She had a run-in with him and Sonders at Zack’s party. She looked like a million bucks, didn’t she, Sadie?”

  “Yes, she did, Erwin. It made me want a dress like that. Every man in that bar was ogling her. Didn’t think Aggie had it in her to wear something like that. She’s different these days.”

  “I noticed that myself. I guess a near-death experience will do that to a person. I don’t want anything happening to her, Sadie.”

  “I hear you, Chief. There’s a meeting going on in the squad room,” Sadie blurted. “I think it’s about Aggie.”

  “You think!” Shay boomed.

  “If you hadn’t made me come in here, I might have found out more. Do not shout at me again, Erwin. I want that yearbook, too. Hand it over.”

  “No way. It’s safe with me. Do I have to remind you that I am your superior?”

  “God forbid.”

  Chief Shay grinned as Sadie clomped her way out of his office and down the hall in her platform shoes. He loved Sadie Wilkinson, he really did.

  Lizzie marched down the hall, the smell of burned coffee teasing her nostrils. She flinched when she saw the chief’s door opening.

  “Good morning, Chief,” Lizzie said.

  “You’re early today, Detective Jade.”

  Lizzie didn’t want to tell him she hadn’t been to bed yet. “Yeah, I had to take a cab. Car’s in the shop. By the way, it was a nice party, Chief. I hope Zack and Millie enjoy their retirement. It was a really good turnout.”

  “Yes, it was. By the way, Holly Azure transferred back to the department. She’s taking Zack’s place.”

  Lizzie’s mind raced. “That’s nice. Gotta sign in, Chief.”

  Shay’s mind raced, too. “What’s wrong with your car, Aggie?”

  “Don’t know. Stalls out all the time. Could be all the rain we’ve been having. I might even trade it in. Depends what the problem is and how much they want to fix it.”

  “Car trouble, Aggie,” Detective Jorgenson said, coming up behind her. “I saw you getting out of a cab a little while ago.”

  Aggie nodded as she wrote her name on the sign in board.

  “What’s the problem. I’m pretty good with cars. I might be able to save you some money.”

  Aggie threw her hands in the air. “Where were you when I needed you, Jorgenson? You’re too late. It’s already in the shop.”

  “Where? I can go get it and work on it?”

  “No, it’s okay. A friend recommended a good garage.”

  “You gotta watch those guys. Half of them run chop shops, as you well know. They take great delight in screwing up a cop’s car. Tell me where the shop is, and I’ll pick it up on my lunch hour.”

  “Gee, I can’t remember the name of the place. It’s out there by the mall somewhere. Thanks for the offer, though. Next time, I’ll be sure to call you first.
I’m going, Chief. See ya, Jorgenson.”

  Chief Shay narrowed his eyes as he watched the vice cop’s expression change from helpful to angry. His stomach started to grind in frustration. It was a sad state of affairs when the only person you could trust was a seventy-five-year-old woman. He wished, the way he’d wished a lot lately, that he’d gone into the plumbing business.

  At eleven-fifteen, Aggie picked up the ringing phone. “Detective Jade, property room.”

  “Aggie, it’s Mrs. Madsen. How are you, dear?”