Death by Latte

by Linda Gerber

  Seth’s hand closed around my elbow and he leaned close. “What is it?”

  His touch released me from my trance, but still I didn’t move. “Watts,” I whispered.

  Seth didn’t move, either, but his fingers tightened their grip, digging into my skin. “Where?”

  I signaled with my eyes and Seth followed my gaze. At the same moment Watts raised his dull shark eyes and looked directly at us. His lips pulled back in what I swear was a snarl.

  Seth spun and dragged me with him. We raced back to the stairs, bounding down two at a time. He grabbed my hand when we reached the lower level and drew me past the warren of shops behind the stairwell. We rattled on each door we passed, checking to see if any was open. I didn’t expect any to be, so I was surprised when one metal door gave way. It led to what looked like a maintenance room, ladders, extension cords, and tools lining one wall and a control panel glowing with green and yellow lights on another. Seth herded me inside, closed the door behind us, and clicked the lock into place.

  Except for the lights on the panel, it was pitch-black in the room. I could barely make out the silhouette of Seth’s head as he leaned close to me. “Where did you park?” he whispered.

  “What?”

  “The car! Where is it?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know! I’m all turned around. We walked to it from the front of the Market this morning.”

  “Is it on a side street?”

  “No. It was in a lot. Underneath the freeway.”

  “Close to the Market?”

  “Yes. Just a couple blocks away. Down a steep hill. But I—”

  Seth pressed his fingers to my lips. “Shhh!”

  I heard it then, footsteps in the hallway outside. I groped for Seth’s hand in the darkness and clung on to him, holding my breath. The footsteps drew nearer, slowed, and then stopped outside the door. I tensed, every muscle in my body coiled tight, ready to run. If only I had somewhere to run to.

  The handle jiggled. The door rattled. I practically crushed Seth’s hand.

  And then the footsteps moved on. Still, I didn’t dare move. Not for several minutes.

  Finally, Seth whispered, “I think he’s gone.”

  I realized I still had a death grip on his hand, so I slackened my grasp. I admit I had hoped he would hold on to mine, but he didn’t. I swallowed my disappointment and let my hand fall to my side.

  “There are stairs at the other end of the hall,” I offered. “I saw them by the fish throwers’ stall. If we can make it down there, and then out to the front of the arcade, I can find—”

  “I think we can get to the parking lot from this level,” Seth cut in. “There’s a skywalk that leads straight there.”

  “Oh. How did you—”

  “Last time I was here, your mom parked under the freeway. She took us across a walkway to get there.”

  “Where is the walkway?”

  “I think it’s down to our right.”

  “But you’re not sure.”

  “Only one way to find out.” Slowly, carefully, he opened the door. He checked the hallway and motioned for me to follow him.

  Back out in the corridor, I felt exposed, a moving target. At any moment Watts could return. I didn’t want to be around when he did.

  A door at the end of the hall stood partway open, leading outside. We pushed through it and spilled out onto a wooden deck overlooking the street below and the sound beyond. From there, a covered walkway spanned from the Market to a bank of elevators across the street.

  “Bingo,” Seth said.

  We ran across the walkway and crowded into the elevator along with half a dozen closing-time shoppers loaded with parcels and oversize bags. My stomach churned as the doors slid shut and we rode downward. For all we knew, Watts could be waiting for us below.

  I was such a wreck by the time we reached the lower level that I had to bite my tongue to keep from crying out when the door slid open. Fortunately, there was no sign of Watts as we stepped out into the parking lot. Still, I didn’t believe we were home free. The shadows provided too many places to hide. He could be anywhere.

  “Where’s the car?” Seth asked.

  I pointed to the far end of the lot. “There. Near the street.”

  Cautiously, we wove past cars and trucks, vans and motorcycles. We had almost reached the spot where my mom and I had parked when she burst out from between two parked cars. “Aphra! Where have you—” Her eyes grew wide when she saw who was with me. “Seth?”

  “Hello, Mrs. Connolly.”

  Her voice dropped to a low whisper. “How did you get here?” Her eyes slid right and then left. “What are you doing out in the open?”

  “Mom, I saw—”

  She shushed me and unlocked the car with a beep of her remote. “Not now. Get in!” Grabbing my shoulder, she practically shoved me into the backseat. Seth scrambled in after me.

  I started to reach up into the front seat to grab my backpack when she opened the driver’s door. “Aphra, stay where you are.” Her voice sounded unnaturally calm. She slid into her seat and stabbed the keys into the ignition. “Both of you stay low and quiet until I tell you otherwise, understand?”

  I dropped onto the seat and ducked down so that I couldn’t see out—or be seen through—the window. Seth crouched next to me, draping an arm over my back. At first I was touched by his protectiveness, but as soon as we got out on the road, I could see he was just being practical. Hunched over as we were, it was hard to keep our balance. Whenever we went around a corner, we had to brace ourselves to keep from tipping over. I didn’t really mind the turns, though, because when centripetal force pushed us together and I was pressed against him even for a moment, I felt safe.

  Mom drove for several miles before she spoke, her voice tight and sharp. “How could you be so predictable, Seth? We’ve been monitoring the chatter at the Agency since you left the island, and you know what they say? Watch the girl and you’ll find the boy. And you proved them right!” She shook her head, glaring at us through the rearview mirror. “I really thought you were smarter than this. The protocol exists to protect you.”

  “I understand. But . . . I didn’t have a choice. Aphra has something of mine.”

  “What could possibly be important enough to risk the lives of everyone in this operation?”

  His voice cracked. “A ring.”

  Mom strangled the steering wheel. “Explain.”

  “I . . . gave it to Aphra. My dad needs it.”

  Mom growled and yanked the car sharply to the left. I fell against Seth, but this time I didn’t find any comfort in the contact. The hum of the tires sounded different, like the road’s surface had changed. Sure enough, Mom slowed and the ride got bumpier. Finally, she swung the car in a wide arc, threw it into park, and killed the engine.

  Trees loomed overhead and the sharp smell of pine filled the air. It looked like we were in some kind of nature park, with cedar-chip trails that led off into the shadowed wood.

  Mom twisted around in her seat. “Aphra, where is Seth’s ring?”

  “It’s in my backpack.”

  She hefted the pack and threw it over the seat back. It landed with a thud beside me. “Give it to him. And then, Seth, you are going to tell me what this is all about.”

  I sat up and zipped open the outside pouch. I felt inside. My stomach dropped. The pouch was empty.

  Seth must have read the look on my face because he grabbed my backpack from me and shoved his hand inside the pouch. Finding it empty, he unzipped the bigger pouch and yanked out my toothbrush and toothpaste. My hairbrush dropped to the floor.

  I tried to pull the pack away from him. “It was in the top one. That’s the only place I ever put it.”

  He swatted away my hand and continued his search, dumping out my clothes and pawing through them.

  I grabbed a wayward bra and stuffed it back into the pack. “Stop it! I said it wasn’t there!”

  “It has to be.” He sifted t
hrough my things again. The desperation in his face scared me.

  “Seth, what’s going on?”

  But he didn’t answer. Instead, he wrenched open the door and bolted out of the car. I jumped out my side and raced after him. Mom ran after both of us.

  Seth stomped back and forth, fists clenched so hard that the veins stood out on his arms. He kicked the wooden park bench that sat at the mouth of one trail and spun to face me. His face was livid and his eyes blue ice. “How could you lose that ring?”

  I swallowed drily. I had never seen Seth angry before. It scared me. “I didn’t lose it,” I said weakly.

  “Then where is it?”

  “I don’t know! Like I told you, I put it in my backpack when I took a shower this morning. I always put it right back on, but Joe pushed me out of the bathroom and—” A cold realization swept over me. “Joe! He must have taken it from my backpack.”

  “Why would he do that?” Seth’s voice was approaching hysterical. “How would he even know it was there?”

  Mom’s voice was quiet. “He was searching her bag.”

  “He what?”

  She bristled. “It was his job. Whenever we processed people, he would go through their things. We had to be certain where their loyalties lay.”

  I stared at her. Great. My own mom didn’t trust me.

  “Don’t give me that look, Aphra. I didn’t authorize him to go through your bag.”

  “Authorize?” I asked. “Was he your subordinate, then?”

  She rubbed a hand over her face. Suddenly she looked very tired. “He was my partner.”

  It sounded so plaintive, the way that she said that, and I wasn’t sure if it was because Joe was gone, or because she suspected Stuart was right and Joe had been contacting the Agency behind her back.

  “Did Joe say anything about the ring when he called you?” I asked.

  “Not specifically. He did say there was something I needed to see and I had to meet him right away. But then . . .”

  Seth sat heavily on the bench. “Someone got to him first.”

  “Suppose you tell me what’s so important about this ring,” Mom said. “Then maybe we can figure out why Joe would have wanted to take it.”

  Seth rolled his lips inward. “I can’t.”

  “Seth, it’s me! I’ve been with your family for years. If there’s something wrong, I need to know about it.”

  He just glared at her. “You split us up. I didn’t even know my dad wouldn’t be meeting us until Mom and I got to Sydney.”

  She sighed. “We needed to make you harder to track. Splitting you up was the best option we had.”

  “Well, it didn’t work. They found him.”

  Mom’s mouth went slack. “When?”

  “Couple of days ago. They want the ring, Natalie. If I don’t get it for them within five days . . .”

  The ground felt like it was tilting sideways. Last time I had seen Seth, we’d come face-to-face with an assassin who had been sent to silence Seth’s family. Her black eyes and wicked smile still haunted my dreams. I could hardly breathe, remembering how she had tried to kill Seth and me. But the authorities had taken her into custody. Had she escaped? “Who has your dad, Seth?”

  He didn’t even look up. “I don’t know. The Mole wants him dead. The CIA thinks he’s a liability.”

  Mom’s face tightened. From what she had told me, I knew what she must be thinking: the CIA didn’t think he was a liability; the Mole’s minions within the CIA thought he was a liability. Either way, something about the scenario the way Seth explained it didn’t make sense.

  “You said they’re holding him,” I said to Seth, “but if they want him dead, why didn’t they just kill him when they found him?”

  His head whipped up and I could have hit myself for causing the panic and grief I saw in his eyes.

  “I . . . I’m sorry. That didn’t come out right.” I sat beside him and tried to take his hand, but he moved it away. I bit my lip and looked up to my mom for help.

  “What Aphra was trying to ask—rather indelicately—was why the change in tactics? What makes them so interested in this ring that they would create a hostage situation to get it?”

  A shadow passed over Seth’s face. It was subtle, but it was there. He took a breath like he was going to say something and then he clamped his mouth shut. “I . . . I don’t know why they want it,” he said finally. “Dad never told me it was special. Not like that, anyway. I thought it was just an old class ring or something. I would never have given it away if I’d known . . .”

  I felt like the biggest scum that had ever walked the earth. How could I lose the one thing Seth had entrusted me with? “Mom, think. Where could Joe have put it if he took it?”

  She shook her head helplessly. “I wish I knew. Stuart’s been monitoring the Agency daily and nothing has been said about a ring. None of this makes sense.”

  I agreed. “It doesn’t make sense. If they—whoever they are—knew where Seth and his mom were, why wouldn’t they just go after them? If Mr. Mulo told them Seth had the ring—”

  “He never told them that I had it,” Seth cut in. “They think my mom—”

  “Whatever. My point is, if they knew where you were, why wouldn’t they just come get it?”

  “They didn’t necessarily know where we were, even with the phone call. My mom and dad had international cell phones so they could keep in touch, and they never stayed on long enough for tracking.”

  Mom frowned. “Cell phones were not part of the plan.”

  “I guess they made it part of the plan.”

  “Are you sure they really have your dad?” I asked. “What if they’re using this ring thing just to flush you out?”

  Seth looked to the ground. His voice dropped to barely a whisper. “They . . . cut off his finger while they were on the phone. My mom heard him scream.”

  My stomach heaved and darkness crowded around the corners of my vision. I thought I was going to lose it right there, but I had to be strong . . . for Seth. At least that’s what I told myself.

  “I need the ring,” Seth said firmly, “to keep my dad alive.”

  “Mom?” My throat was so tight I could hardly force out the words. “Where is Joe’s body? What if he had the ring with him?”

  “He didn’t. I managed to gather all his personal effects before the paramedics arrived.” Her voice grew even more distant. “It’s protocol. There was no ring.”

  “Where could he have put it?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “If he didn’t have it with him this morning, it must still be at the apartment.”

  Seth jumped to his feet. “Then what are we doing here? We have to go find it!”

  None of us spoke as we drove back to the apartment building. There was nothing to say. We had to find the ring. Beyond that . . . I didn’t want to think about it.

  The first thing I noticed when we pulled into the garage was Stuart, wiping down the handles of the van. He must have driven it home earlier from the Market parking lot. I assumed he was wiping it clean of fingerprints. His or Joe’s, I didn’t know.

  He rushed the car when he saw it was us. “Nat! Where have you been? I was about ready to clear out. I thought you might have—” His words died when his gaze slid to the backseat and he saw Seth. “Mulo?”

  Seth dipped his head in greeting.

  For the first time since I’d met him, Stuart seemed to be at a loss for words. He just stood there, staring at Seth. “When . . . ? How . . . ?”

  Mom climbed from the car and filled Stuart in as much as she could. He listened silently, though I could see the agitation building as his face grew redder and the little muscle at the corner of his jaw tightened and twitched.

  He removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. “So Aphra had this ring all along,” he finally said when Mom was through.

  I nodded. “Until this morning.”

  “We need to look for it,” Seth put in.

  “
Here? Now?” Stuart was incredulous. “We don’t have time. We should already be gone as it is. As soon as the police identify Joe—”

  “Joe has no identity,” Mom cut in flatly. “He never existed.”

  “Right.” Stuart crossed his arms. “Tell that to the people who saw him expire this morning. Tell it to the paramedics who—”

  “Who will not know who he is.”

  “Our cover is blown, Natalie. People at the Market have seen you and Joe together for months. How long do you think it will be before they start asking questions?”

  “We’ll be quick,” she said.

  Stuart folded his arms and muttered, “This is not wise.” Still, he followed us inside.

  In a cluster, we clamored up the stairs and burst into the apartment. Mom led the way to Joe’s small room. Right away I could tell it wouldn’t be a simple search. Unlike Stuart, neatness was obviously not Joe’s thing. A blanket lay in a puddle next to his bed. The pillow had fallen back against the wall. Papers littered the floor and clothes were scattered everywhere—on the bed, on the floor, draped over the lone chair, and tumbling out of an army duffel.

  Among the four of us, we scoured every inch of that room. Twice. Seth even checked all the floorboards to make sure there were no hidey-holes anywhere. No luck.

  “We’ll search the entire apartment if we have to,” Mom assured him. “If Joe took that ring, it has to be around somewhere.”

  I chewed the inside of my cheek, wondering why my mom would say such a thing. My gut told me she was wrong, and I had to believe she knew it, too. Joe left that morning shortly after he came out of the bathroom. That didn’t really give him much time to hide anything in the apartment. And just because Mom didn’t find the ring when she went through his “personal effects” at the coffee shop didn’t mean he hadn’t taken it with him. He could have hidden it anywhere along the way. Plus, he’d been gone for a good long while before he called to tell Mom where he would be. She had to wonder what he’d been doing all that time. On the other hand, none of this changed anything. Of course we had to look. Before we cleared out, we had to be certain the ring had not been left in the apartment.