Thanks she replied. Let me know when you hear from him and how soon he can get here… see you tomorrow.
Maggie toggled off her phone. Satisfied with the miniscule plan in place, she closed her eyes to sleep.
Bright sunshine greeted Maggie the next morning as she strode from her favorite coffee shop to her boutique. Charlie Rivers, tech extraordinaire, was en route from London and due to arrive in the early afternoon. Perhaps his expertise in all things high-tech would detect something their untrained eyes had missed.
For now, all they could do was sit and wait. Maggie pulled open the door to the shop with a sigh, propping it open. “Wait, wait, wait. Wait for the background checks on the guest list. Wait for Charlie to study the footage. Wait for something to break. I HATE waiting,” she fumed aloud as she flicked on the lights in the shop. She stomped over to the register and slammed her keys and coffee on the counter.
“Careful, you’ll break the counter,” Henry said as he leaned in the open doorway. In his customary t-shirt, cargo pants and his favorite hat, he was limned from behind in the morning sun. He looked like a figure out of an adventure movie.
“Don’t worry, it’s reinforced.”
“Ah, to compensate for the weight of the register?” Henry guessed.
“No, I cracked it once already during an argument with Leo. Slammed my phone down and put a big splintering crack right in the middle,” Maggie admitted.
“Oh, temper, temper, princess.”
Maggie smirked at him. “Those days are behind me,” she said with a wink. She leaned across the counter, brushing Henry’s lips lightly with hers.
“Yeah, because now you’ve got the world’s perfect man,” Henry said, stealing another kiss.
“That’s right,” Maggie said, staring into Henry’s eyes before a third kiss.
“Ugh!” Piper exclaimed, emerging from the doorway leading to the backroom. “Get a room.”
Maggie pulled back from Henry, rolling her eyes. “Oh, stop, it was one kiss.”
“Don’t you have a job or something to go to?” Piper queried Henry.
“Not at the moment,” Henry responded. “Which gives me all day to spend here with you girls in the shop.”
“Fabulous,” Piper said with an exasperated sigh. “If you’re going to hang out here all day, why don’t you at least fill in as my assistant?” Piper flung a rag toward Henry. “You can start by dusting the shelves over there.” She pointed to the far wall before disappearing into the storeroom.
Henry shot Maggie a confused glance. “Is she serious? Her assistant?”
“That’s what she’s been calling the new hire we’re searching for,” Maggie explained, pointing to the HELP WANTED sign in the window.
Henry glanced at the rag, tossing it from one hand to the other. “What should I do with this?”
Maggie shrugged. “Sounds like you better get dusting.”
Henry frowned at the rag but made his way across the room, rubbing the cloth across each shelf. Maggie slumped onto the stool behind the counter. “I can’t believe there’s no information yet from anyone. No hits on anyone on the guest list? And what time is Charlie arriving?”
“I’ll text Frank again, maybe there’s something new on the guest list,” Henry answered, setting the dustrag on the shelf and pulling his phone from his pocket. “Charlie should be here around one or two. He’s coming here to meet us before going to the museum.”
Maggie glanced at her watch. She flung her head back in frustration, impatience building. Henry witnessed her irritation. “Only a few more hours, princess.”
“Too many hours,” Maggie lamented. She stalked across the shop, snatching the discarded rag from the shelf and continuing the dusting.
“Whew,” Henry said. “Thanks. I needed a break!” He collapsed into a leather armchair nearby, wiping his brow in an overstated show of exhaustion.
“You’re getting soft,” Maggie said with a chuckle.
“Must be small-town life creeping up on me,” Henry mentioned as his phone chimed an alert.
“Well?” Maggie inquired. “Is that Frank?”
“Yeah, just as I suspected.”
“What?”
“No hits on the guest list.”
“Not one?”
“Nope. Maggie, if someone was about to rob a museum, they wouldn’t use their real name. So, I doubted we’d find anything of any consequence.”
“So, short of Charlie catching something, we’re stuck,” Maggie complained.
“Appears so,” Henry agreed.
With a sigh, Maggie returned to her duties. The hours crept by. She busied herself with anything she could find to distract her from the waiting.
“If you keep staring at that watch, it’ll never move,” Henry warned her over lunch.
“Hot date?” Piper teased.
“Something like that,” Maggie mused, staring out the window.
Piper shifted her glance between Henry and Maggie. “We’re waiting to see an old friend,” Henry explained.
“Well, I’m off to continue organizing the storeroom,” Piper responded, tossing the remainder of her lunch into the trash.
Henry’s gaze followed Piper to the backroom. “Wow, organizing the entire storeroom herself? You’re a tough boss, princess.” He winked at Maggie.
“I didn’t ask her to do it. She decided to do that herself,” Maggie said. “The idea came to her when she had to get something from back there while we were ‘on vacation.’”
“We didn’t take a vacation,” Henry said in a questioning tone.
“I know. But Piper insists we took a lavish vacation. It doesn’t help that I was vague in my explanation of where we were during those three weeks.”
Henry nodded, giving Maggie a knowing glance and a half-smirk. “Well, I suppose it keeps her busy.”
“Yep,” Maggie agreed as the door’s bell tinkled, indicating a new customer entering the store.
Frank strode into the shop with another man trailing behind him. His disheveled blond hair and lanky form slogged through the door. He carried a backpack, his hands thrust in his pockets, earbuds shoved in both ears. Maggie recognized Charlie Rivers immediately.
A smile crossed her face. Perhaps now they would get somewhere on this investigation, she mused.
Henry stood, greeting the two men. Charlie pulled the earbuds from his ears, letting them dangle around his neck. He noted Maggie’s grin. “I knew you’d be happy to see me again, chicky,” he teased.
“For once, you are correct!” Maggie exclaimed.
“Heard you asked for me special!” He leaned over the counter and whispered, “Knew it would only be a matter of time before Mr. Macho got on your nerves and you came searching for me.”
Maggie offered a wry glance and a shake of her head. “You haven’t changed a bit, Charlie,” she said.
He smirked at her, wiggling his eyebrows up and down in his usual manner. “We need your help, mate,” Henry interjected.
“Yeah, Frank filled me in on the way over. Got nothing, huh?”
“Nothing, mate, nothing. Unless the guest list turned up something interesting?” Henry questioned Frank.
“Not a thing,” Frank admitted.
“Is that normal?” Maggie inquired.
“Yes,” Frank responded. “If someone is planning a heist like this, they aren’t going to hang a sign out that says ‘I’m a criminal with a record.’”
Maggie nodded, frustrated but not surprised by the answer.
“Never fear,” Charlie said. “Charlie to the rescue.”
“We’ll head to the museum now and let you examine that footage,” Frank said.
“Oh, just a minute, let me get Piper out here to tend the shop,” Maggie said. “Piper! PIPER!” Maggie called into the back room.
Charlie shoved his earbuds into his ears and wandered around the shop.
They waited a moment. Maggie drummed her fingers on the glass counter. She offered a nervous smile to Fran
k, who scrolled through the emails on his phone.
“Piper!” Maggie called again. “Come on! I need to get going!”
The door to the storeroom swung open. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, boss lady! I’m coming already!” Piper stepped into the main shop, colliding with Charlie, who rounded a bookcase at an inopportune moment. Piper stumbled backward, toppling onto her backside. Her pink earbuds slipped from her ears, one becoming tangled in her multi-colored hair.
“Ow! What the hell, dude?!” she exclaimed as she landed hard.
She searched the air above her for the cause of her fall. Charlie hovered over her. He pulled the earbuds from his ears, leaving them dangling around his neck again.
“Oh, ah…” he stuttered. “Sorry there, miss. I didn’t see you.”
Piper stared up at him. Maggie waited for the impending berating she assumed Piper would lash out with. Instead, Piper remained silent. The reaction puzzled Maggie. She wondered if Piper may be seriously hurt, though she didn’t see how.
Maggie was about to inquire when Piper spoke up. “Oh, no problem,” Piper said in a voice Maggie had never heard before.
“Here,” Charlie said, extending a hand, “let me help you up.”
“Thanks,” Piper responded, accepting it with a half-smile. Charlie pulled Piper to her feet, the two still clinging to each other’s hands even after she had regained her footing. Piper stared up at Charlie, a sweet expression on her face.
“Name’s Charlie, Charlie Rivers,” Charlie said, swaying her hand up and down to simulate a shake.
Piper’s smile broadened. “Piper Brooks, Assistant Manager,” Piper breathed.
“Nice to meet you Piper Brooks, Assistant Manager,” Charlie said with a grin. “In the future, I shall try to not knock you down, fair maiden.”
“In the future, I shall appreciate that, good sir,” Piper answered. Their fingers remained entwined for another moment before Piper, her cheeks pink and dewy, pulled her hand away and strode to the cashier’s counter.
Maggie’s brow furrowed at the exchange. She glanced at Piper; her jaw open with a questioning glance. Piper met her expression with an equally confused one. “What?” she whispered.
“Are we ready?” Frank questioned before Maggie could respond.
“Sure are, mate,” Henry said with a nod. He glanced at Maggie.
“Uh, y-yeah,” Maggie answered, recovering from her stupor. She retrieved her purse and, with one final puzzled glance at Piper, followed the men out of the shop’s front door.
Chapter 4
Maggie paced the floor of the museum’s small security office. Henry sat in a chair; his feet propped up on the desk as Charlie worked at the monitor in front of them.
After another few trips across the room, Maggie exclaimed, “Oh, come on! You’ve been at that for over an hour!”
“Patience, chicky, patience,” Charlie said, his eyes never moving from the screen. “Delicate work.”
Maggie sighed, setting her mouth in a line. She stared at Henry; her eyes narrowed. Henry held his arms up in surrender. “Don’t shoot those daggers at me, princess, I’m just the support staff.”
Maggie made another trek across the room before Charlie pushed back from the monitor. Maggie spun to face him. “Well?!” she demanded.
“Nothing,” Charlie responded.
Maggie scowled as Henry inquired, “What do you mean nothing?”
“I mean, there’s nothing, mate. Footage is clean, no tampering, no cameras shifted, nothing.”
“Nothing that you can see,” Maggie grumbled.
“No, nothing period, chicky. Tampering with footage is no easy business. I would have detected it.”
Maggie shot Charlie an incredulous glance. “What do you mean it’s not easy? You did it! Twice that I know of, in fact!”
“Yeah, but I’m an expert. And any expert they called in after I did it would have picked up on it. It’s not as clean as you’d think. There’d be artifacts left.”
Maggie dropped her head between her shoulder blades with a sigh. “So, we’re at another dead end.”
“Appears that way,” Henry noted, climbing to his feet.
“Now what?” Maggie whined.
“We look for another angle,” Henry informed her. “Don’t sweat it, princess. We’ll catch a break. For now, what do you say we get something to eat?”
“Good call, mate. I’ve been dying for some American pizza or something. A nice New York slice.”
Maggie pouted. This was not how she hoped her first case would begin. “Come on, princess,” Henry encouraged, “you’ll feel better after you eat.”
“All right, fine,” she acquiesced. She shot a glance at Charlie. “But you can’t get a New York slice here. This is Illinois. We eat deep dish here.”
Charlie shrugged. “Sounds good to me. Hey, do you think your Assistant Manager, Piper, would want some deep-dish pizza.”
The comment elicited a half-smile from Maggie. “Yeah, I bet she would,” Maggie responded, giving Henry a knowing glance.
They collected their belongings, making their way to the museum’s lobby. “Oh, just a sec, I want to use the ladies’ room,” Maggie said. She crossed past the docent’s kiosk and disappeared through the ladies’ room door.
This is where she had been when the lights went out and the theft occurred, Maggie reflected. She glanced around the starkly lit room for a moment before ducking into one of the stalls.
The ladies’ room door creaked on its hinges as it swung open. The din of the crowd outside floated in before tapering off as the door swung shut. Maggie glanced under the stall’s door, spotting a pair of flat, black Mary Jane-style shoes peeking out from a paisley maxi skirt.
What a hideous choice of footwear, Maggie reflected. The ill-fashioned feet approached Maggie’s stall, and the door shook as the woman attempted to push into the stall.
“Occupied!” Maggie called out, shaking her head at the person. Of all the stalls to pick, she brooded! Five empty stalls surrounded them! Was this woman kidding, Maggie fumed?
Maggie held in a sigh as the feet shuffled away but did not enter another stall. Instead, they approached the sink and Maggie heard the water run. With a roll of her eyes, she grabbed her purse from the hook and unlocked the stall door.
She exited the stall, glancing in the direction of the bathroom’s other occupant. The woman bent over the sink, her brunette hair obscuring most of her face. The water tap shut off, and the women stood. She wore large black sunglasses, which hid most of her face. She turned away from Maggie, crossing the distance between the sink and the stalls, and entered the stall Maggie just exited.
Maggie shook her head as she washed her hands. Strange, she reflected, as she pulled a paper towel from the dispenser and dried her hands. The other occupant had not dried her hands after washing them, Maggie contemplated. And she had been insistent on getting into one specific stall.
The oddities triggered Maggie’s radar. Something felt off. Maggie stared at the stall door. As a shop owner, she encountered shoplifters before. Similarities between this situation and a shoplifter ricocheted through her mind. On instinct, Maggie took a step toward the stall.
She lowered her eyes toward the floor, glancing under the stall door. The woman stood facing the toilet rather than facing the door. Maggie’s brow crinkled; her suspicions further confirmed.
“Excuse me, miss?” Maggie voiced. “Are you all right?” Maggie kept her gaze trained on the feet on the opposite side of the stall. It appeared the woman stiffened at Maggie’s voice.
Maggie inched closer to the door. “Miss?” Maggie inquired again.
The door swung open. A racing figure blindsided Maggie, knocking into her as she sprinted from the stall and toward the ladies’ room door. Startled, Maggie lost her balance, tumbling onto her backside. She sprawled across the floor, the contents of her purse spilling as it toppled with her.
Various items clattered across the tiles as Maggie struggled to recover.
“Hey!” she shouted. “Hey! Stop!”
Maggie scrambled to her feet as the woman darted through the restroom door. With her purse still wrapped around her forearm, devoid of its contents, Maggie rushed to follow her. She flung the slowly closing restroom door open, scanning the lobby outside. Across the room, she spotted the woman’s lumbering form.
“Hey!” Maggie yelled. “Hey, stop that woman!”
Maggie raced after her. Henry spotted the commotion, diving in front of the fleeing form. The woman skirted by him. He reached out, grabbing hold of her sleeve. The woman shook him off, ripping her coat sleeve from his grasp as she spun away from him.
A guard near the door attempted to block her escape, but the woman barreled into him, knocking him to the floor. She pushed through the revolving door as Maggie reached Henry. Breathless, Maggie puffed with exertion after her unsuccessful sprint. In a desperate attempt to catch the woman, she continued through the revolving door. She scanned the parking lot in search of the fleeing female.
Maggie hurried down the front steps, stepping into the parking lot flanking the building. She spun in circles, searching. As she circled, the sound of squealing tires reached her ears. She twisted toward the noise, finding a car racing toward her. Maggie’s eyes grew wide as the car barreled in her direction. Its engine roared as the car lurched forward, increasing its speed.
“Maggie!” Henry shouted as he tackled her to the ground, knocking her out of the speeding car’s path.
“Oof,” Maggie exclaimed as she hit the ground, tangled with Henry. The air pushed out of her lungs as she landed hard.
“Are you all right, princess?” Henry asked, his breath ragged from the effort. “Maggie?!” he questioned again when she didn’t answer immediately.
“Yeah,” Maggie answered when she recovered her breath.
Henry breathed a sigh of relief, climbing off Maggie and pulling her to standing. “You sure you’re all right?”
“Well…” Maggie paused.
“Yeah, what is it? Where does it hurt?”
“Nowhere. I just wanted to say you still have the power to knock me off my feet.” She giggled and winked at him.
Secret of the Ankhs: A Maggie Edwards Adventure (Maggie Edwards Adventures Book 2) Page 5
