by Rose Pressey
“There’s nothing wrong with my driving. People comment all the time about what a good driver I am.”
“Wishful thinking,” Dorothy said.
“I don’t know what to say to him.”
“Well, why did we come here if you’re just going to stand there and stare at him like a creepy stalker person?”
“Would you stop saying the word ‘stalker’?” I asked.
A red Ferrari was headed toward the covered area and I assumed that it belonged to someone else. That wasn’t the car he drove here in. The valet motioned to him as if indicating his ride was ready.
“You’re missing your chance,” Dorothy said.
She was right. I had to do something, so I mustered up all of my courage and headed over to the guy. At the same time he started walking toward the valet. A guy pulled my car up to the front. The object of my stakeout walked over to the Ferrari. Something caught his attention though. Who was he watching?
“I got your Focus right here,” he said, waving his arms wildly.
Everyone turned to look at me, including the man I was following. Instead of getting into the Ferrari, in a flash, the man ran over to my car, shoved the valet out of the way, and jumped behind the wheel. Before I could even think to make a move, he had taken off in my Focus. Yes, that was definitely Kenneth. Why would he do something like that? I mean, especially when he had such a beautiful automobile just waiting for him. He hadn’t arrived in that car. Now they acted like he had driven it here. Why would he want mine? Plus, I only had a small amount of gas left. He was definitely going to have to stop at the nearest gas station.
The valet looked at me and said, “He just took your car.”
“Yes, I realize that. Why did he do that?”
“I think he must be stealing it,” the valet said.
“Again, I have to ask, why would he do something like that?”
“Well, his car is right there. You should take it. His Ferrari is better than your car,” the valet said with a chuckle.
“That’s not such a bad idea,” Dorothy said.
She grabbed the keys from his hand and took off toward the Ferrari.
“Dorothy, what in the hell do you think you’re doing? Get back here.”
Dorothy raced over to the Ferrari. Again, I had no idea how she moved that fast. I really needed to look into those vitamins she was always talking about. She opened the car door, jumped in, and yelled at me to get in too.
I shook my head. “I can’t do that.”
“Get in or I’m leaving you here.” She revved the engine.
What were my options? I could call the police and tell them that my car had been stolen, or I could get in the car with Dorothy, which was stealing a car also. The guy had left it though. Did he want to do some kind of exchange? No, that didn’t make sense. Why would he want to exchange for my car? What was wrong with his car that he wanted mine? This made no sense. Why had he switched from the other car he had driven?
“Get in now,” Dorothy yelled.
She was making me nervous. As confusion whirled in my head, I ran over and jumped into the passenger side. It all happened so quickly it had left me in a bit of daze. I hadn’t even gotten the door closed when Dorothy pulled away from the valet station, squealing the tires as she made the turn. It was a good thing that we had the green light because I had a feeling Dorothy wouldn’t even stop for the red light. She just went sailing right through the green light with a look of madness on her face. Both hands clutched the steering wheel tightly.
Speaking of clutching tightly, I had my hand on the door so that I could brace myself for impact.
“Dorothy, have you lost your mind?” I asked. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“We have to get your car. He didn’t have permission to borrow it, so we’re using his to track him down. I have to hurry before we lose sight of him.”
Up ahead, I spotted my car. Perhaps Dorothy was right. We could catch him and find out what he was doing and get an answer about why he didn’t take his car. Was this really even his car?
“You’re driving like a maniac though,” I said. “Is it really necessary to drive like that?”
“I’m an excellent driver,” she said as she shoved the car into the next gear. “I’ve had many people compliment me on my driving skills.”
Now she was just mocking me. Regardless of her driving, being in the car was like eating a slice of delicious chocolate cake with double chocolate frosting. Complete heaven. Except for when Dorothy ground the gears. I bucked forward in my seat as if I was on a bronco. Dorothy weaved through traffic and neared my car, riding its bumper. He sped up and a red light turned for her. Unfortunately, she didn’t stop for the red light. She ran right through it.
“All right, that’s enough. This is dangerous and you’re breaking I don’t even know how many laws. You just need to pull over and we’ll call the police. They can handle my stolen car and we’ll return this one before they put us in jail.” I didn’t even want to look over at the speedometer to see how fast she was going.
“No need to pull over and call the police,” Dorothy said. “Because they’re already behind us.”
Panic surged through my body when I peeked in the side mirror. I spotted the unmarked car behind us and recognized the face behind the steering wheel. It wasn’t Jake this time, but his partner. Oh, great, the last person I wanted to see. The blue light twirled.
“Oh, I think she wants us to pull over,” Dorothy said.
“You think, Dorothy? Do you think that’s what the blue lights are for?” I said.
“Don’t get snippy with me, missy.”
“I have a right to get snippy with you. We’re in a stolen car, being followed by the police. Abby of all people.”
“It’s not stolen,” she said. “Borrowed. He borrowed yours, and we borrowed his.”
“Borrowed? He isn’t borrowing mine. He stole it.”
“Okay, he stole yours, and you borrowed his.”
“Will you pull over the car?” I yelled.
“I’m pulling over right now,” she said. “I have to go with the traffic.”
Dorothy merged over, using her turn signal, and keeping her hands on the wheel, as if she was following the drivers’ manual. Where was that behavior a few seconds ago? My heart beat faster as I watched in the rearview mirror. Jake’s partner got out of the car and approached us. When she got to the window, she motioned for Dorothy to lower it.
“Why, hello. I didn’t expect to see you here,” Dorothy said with a smile.
I rolled my eyes.
“License and registration, please,” Abby said.
Oh, for Pete’s sake, she knew who we were. Why was she doing this?
“Someone stole my car.” I leaned down and looked her in the eyes.
She eyed the Ferrari. “It looks like you took someone else’s car too. Or is the private eye business going well for you?”
“We were trying to catch up with the person who took my car. He took it by mistake, so we’re going to give his back to him.”
“Don’t you have a Ford Focus? I’m pretty sure that they know the difference between a Ferrari and a Ford Focus.” She smirked.
I sighed. “Okay, the truth is I think that he had bad intentions by taking my car.”
Abby stared at me. “I’m going to need to see that license and registration, please.”
“You know we don’t have the registration for this,” I said.
“All right then, I’m going to need you to step out of the car and move to the back of the vehicle.”
“Oh, what? Now you’re going to arrest us? For what?”
“Step out of the car, please.” She used her most authoritative voice.
“Stop arguing with her,” Dorothy said.
“You got me into this mess,” I whispered.
I opened the car door and climbed out as I was told. I moved to the back of the vehicle. Now I was waiting for her to put the handcuffs on us.
Before any of that happened though, he sound of a bullet whizzing by made me drop to the pavement. Abby ran behind the car, bringing Dorothy with her.
“Stay down,” Abby screamed.
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Dorothy said. “Thank goodness I wore my good underwear. I wouldn’t want to die wearing the ones with holes in them.”
Abby pulled out her gun and I instinctively grabbed mine too. I probably wasn’t even supposed to do that, but it was instinct. Like I said, if somebody was shooting I had to defend us. Though I should have probably left that to the professionals. Hey, what was I saying? I was a professional now.
Several more shots rang out. We had no idea where they were coming from, but I had a feeling it was the black Ferrari that just drove by. The men were aiming right at the red Ferrari.
Yeah, that made sense. That was why Kenneth had taken my car. He had to have known someone was coming for him, but how? I had no idea, but he had put my life in danger. At least the shots had stopped. Abby got on her radio and called for backup, letting them know that we had been fired at.
It seemed like an eternity, but in reality, it was only about a minute until the other officers arrived. Thanks goodness we weren’t alone out there any longer. When I looked to the left I immediately saw Jake. He ran toward us, but Abby jumped up and met him before he reached me. I supposed she was explaining what had happened. There was no telling what she told him that we’d done. Probably that we had stolen the car on purpose. I hoped he didn’t believe that. He kept glancing over her shoulder, as if he wanted to talk to me. Other officers had arrived and were asking us questions now. Finally, Jake got away from Abby. I wasn’t expecting for Jake to take me in his arms and hug me as soon as he reached me. That took me by surprise, and I thought everyone else was shocked as well.
“Maggie, are you all right?”
My stomach flipped when he asked. He was making it extremely hard to hide my emotions. For a brief moment, I laid my head on his chest and it felt so good that my problems momentarily faded away. His smell was intoxicating. Then I had to bring myself back to reality. It was no time for romance or feelings like this right now.
“I’m okay,” I said, avoiding his stare.
Jake looked to Dorothy. “How about you, Dorothy? Are you okay?”
She brushed her hair out of her eyes. “I’m just peachy thanks to your partner.”
Dorothy reached out and grabbed Abby, embracing her in a huge hug. Abby’s eyes widened, as if she didn’t know what to do. I got the impression she wasn’t used to showing affection that way. Now that we had established everyone was okay physically, I knew Jake would want me to explain the situation. I would have preferred to talk to him privately, but it didn’t look like I was going to have that opportunity with Abby watching me. Dorothy was still trying to give Abby a mint.
Abby waved her arms. “I’m good, thank you.”
“You should just take it. She won’t stop until you do,” I said.
Abby reluctantly reached out and took the peppermint. She scowled when she noticed a bit of fuzz on it.
“That stuff just melts right off. You won’t even notice it after a while,” I said. “Trust me, I’ve gotten used to it.”
Abby gave a look of displeasure as she placed the mint in her mouth.
Jake once again focused his attention on me. “Maggie, can you explain exactly what happened?”
Summing up the event as much as possible, I explained the details to Jake.
“So let me get this straight. He took your car and you took his. Then you followed this person in order to get your car back.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“That pretty much sums it up.” Dorothy handed Jake a mint.
Jake took the candy and asked, “So why didn’t you just call the police instead of stealing a car?”
“Well, it was much better to drive the Ferrari,” Dorothy said. “Besides, obviously he wanted us to take it, right?”
Jake shook his head. “Yes, and look what happened when you did. You were almost killed.”
Dorothy wiggled her finger. “You do have a point. We were almost killed, but Abby saved my life.”
How many times was I going to have to hear about how Abby had saved Dorothy’s life?
“Maggie always seems to get me in some sort of dangerous situation,” Dorothy said.
Oh, now she was going to make it my fault? And that Abby had saved her. Just wait. I was taking back that big bag of mints I’d bought for her. I glared at Dorothy. She gave me a wide-eyed innocent look.
“So do you think you can find my car?” I asked.
“Well, maybe, but it’s no guarantee,” Jake said.
“And there’s no guarantee what condition it’ll be in when we do find it,” Abby added. “We’ll be on the lookout for it though.”
Another officer came over and talked to Jake and Abby. They kept glancing back at Dorothy and me. After a few seconds, they came over.
“Do you have any idea whose car that is?” Jake asked.
I shook my head. “Kenneth?”
“No,” Jake said.
“Well, if I knew I would’ve just called the person and asked for my car back,” I said.
“That is a drug dealer’s car,” Jake said. “I don’t know why Kenneth had it.”
“Oh, that doesn’t sound good,” Dorothy said.
“It’s not good,” Jake said. “He abandoned this car because someone was coming after him. He knew they would be shooting.”
“So in other words, they thought I was him in the car,” I said.
“Most likely, yes. We’re going to impound the car and hopefully find them. We’ve been looking for the owner for a long time anyway.”
“Well, you’ll find one of them in a Ford Focus,” Dorothy said.
“Okay, I suppose we are about wrapped up here,” Abby said.
“How the heck are we going to get back to the office?” Dorothy asked. “We don’t have any wheels.”
Dorothy didn’t need any wheels. Not after the way that she had driven that car. I’d known I shouldn’t let her get in the Ferrari. Though it hadn’t seemed at the time as if I had a choice. She was so stubborn. Way worse than me.
“I can give you a ride back to the office,” Jake said.
Abby frowned. I noticed the expression even though she had tried to hide it. She definitely wasn’t happy with Jake’s offer, but she had no say in what Jake did.
“That would be lovely. Thank you, Jake,” Dorothy said.
Dorothy marched toward his car and got in the backseat. I slid in the front seat. Jake got behind the wheel.
After we took off, I said, “I’m sorry about all of this. I really am. I’m just trying to do my job.”
“Does your job involve you getting in trouble all the time?” Jake cast a glance at me.
“Well, obviously it does,” I said.
“Yeah, Jake, she’s just trying to do a job,” Dorothy said from the backseat.
“Honestly, if I had known it was a drug dealer’s car I wouldn’t have taken it. Well, Dorothy maybe would have, and I suppose I had to keep her out of trouble.”
“You two seem to get each other in trouble a lot,” Jake said.
“But you have to admit I’m pretty good at solving crimes.”
He didn’t look over at me, but I knew he was smiling just a little bit. We pulled into the parking lot for my office and got out of the car. Jake walked us up to the door. Dorothy went on inside and I stood next to Jake at the door. He studied my face for a moment and I got that same feeling in my stomach again. I couldn’t help but think about his lips and that delicious kiss. Not to mention the way that he’d held me. The feel of his arms around me and my head on his chest.
“Look, Maggie, I’m sorry your car was stolen. If I was being harsh on you it’s because I was worried about what might happen.”
“No, I completely understand,” I said. “It’s just bad that I don’t h
ave a way to get around now. I guess I’ll have to rent a car.”
“Well, I hope we’ll find your car. I’ll give you a call, okay?”
“All right,” I said. “Thank you.”
He leaned down and kissed me. I almost fell to my knees. Yes, it was that perfect. I practically floated inside my office and got behind my desk.
“Maggie, what’s wrong?” Dorothy asked. “Why do you have that smile on your face?”
“What smile? I don’t have a smile on my face.”
Dorothy pulled out a mirror from her purse and showed me my reflection.
“Okay, so I have a smile on my face.”
“It’s Jake,” Dorothy said.
I remained silent. I didn’t want to admit it, but yes, it was Jake.
A short time later a knock came at the door. I hurried over to open it, even though I’d left the door unlocked. Jake was standing in front of me with a big grin on his face.
“I didn’t expect to see you so soon,” I said.
He motioned to the parking lot. “I brought you something to drive.”
“I don’t see anything,” I said.
“Right there.” He pointed.
“The scooter?” I asked.
“Yeah, it’s a bike.”
“Looks like a scooter to me. Don’t I need a special license to drive one?”
“Not if it’s less that fifty cc… that’s cubic centimeters. That’s volume of cylinders in the engine,” Jake said.
“Right. How fast does it go?”
“Thirty-five to forty miles per hour.”
And I thought he wanted me to be safe. “I’ll get run over going that slow.”
His brow furrowed. “Do you normally drive fast?”
“Me?” I scoffed. “Nope. Slowly, well, not to slow. Just the right amount of speed.”
Dorothy came out from the office. “Oh, cool, a scooter.”
“It’s a bike,” Jake corrected.
He could call it whatever he wanted, but it was a scooter.
Dorothy headed toward it.
I ran over and blocked her. “Oh, no, the Ferrari was enough. There’s no way you’re getting on this thing.”
Dorothy glared at me and then turned around. She stomped back to the office without saying a word.
