Municipal Blondes
23
Flight Time
THAT BASTARD’S FOLLOWING ME. That’s the only possible explanation. So, who does he work for really? He wasn’t meeting with the Committee but Jon recognized him as a wanna-be. Is Jordan having me tailed? He could give a girl a heads up.
Headed east
When I got off the plane in Mexico City, looking small as my five-nine can go, the first person I spotted was Ray Hawkins. He was standing behind a pillar in the airport scanning the people getting off the plane. I fell in step with a nice Mexican man and pretended to be talking to him, keeping him between Ray and me.
When I was shopping for flights, I looked for other local airports. Merida was the nearest and it looked like a three-hour drive from Chetumal. Or maybe there was another flight from Chetumal. Whatever, he was in the Mexico City airport watching for me.
Okay, so with luck he was watching for the redhead Riley Finn he met in San Pedro. I don’t think he recognized me but who is he, anyway?
I’m flying first class to Croatia, cost be damned. I sat in the first class passenger lounge watching out the window for any sign he was near. I didn’t see him anywhere but I’ll feel a lot better when I get on the plane to Paris. I bought a SIM at Duty Free and called Cinnamon who was more than happy to hear from me.
“Sugar, where are you?” she exclaimed when I got through.
“Mexico City,” I answered. “What’s up?”
“When do I get to go jet-setting like you?” she asked. “Or with you?”
“I’m sure you’ll get a chance,” I said. “Anything new happening?”
“The office is about cleaned up. Do you want me to keep any of the furniture? I’ve put everything small enough to fit in a box aside for you to look at but there is the torn-up sofa, chairs, and desk.”
“This might sound crazy but I’d like you to hire someone to put them in storage for me. I want to be sure nothing is hidden in anything.”
“Whatever you say, boss. When are you coming home? I miss you.”
“It will be a few days yet. I’m going to visit Angel.”
“That lucky bitch!”
“Cinnamon! I’ve put her in danger and I need to go warn her,” I said.
“Well, Angel always got whatever she wanted,” Cinnamon pouted. “You’d get the same reaction from any of the girls.”
“Honey,” I said soothingly, “when you were cleaning up the mess, did you find the TV remote by any chance?” I’d had the uncomfortable idea gnawing at the back of my mind for several days that if they’d taken the remote, I didn’t know how to get into the vault. I’d been able to reset the servers remotely but I didn’t want imagine trying to get into it without that little device.
“Funny. Yeah. Couldn’t believe they took the TV without it. I don’t think men know how to operate a TV if it doesn’t have a remote.”
“Just goes to show you. It could be a clue, so make sure it’s in the box.”
“Will do. By the way, that nice Jordan Grant came by.”
“Did he now? And what did Mr. Grant want.” I’m sure the satellite carrying our call frosted over.
“I think he wants to ask me out on a date,” Cinnamon said. “He’s handsome.”
“He’s way too old for you, Cinnamon!” I said a little too vehemently. What was I thinking?”
“Jealous?” she teased.
“No! I’m not interested in Mr. Grant. And I won’t date a client. Now why did he come around?”
“He said he was worried about you. Frankly, I’d say you should be worried about him.”
“Why?”
“He was on crutches.”
“What happened?” I was alarmed. Jordan always seemed so indestructible. I still remembered him shooting Oksamma when a second later, Oksamma would have shot me or Dag or both.
“Apparently, he was rushing somewhere early Friday morning over on the Eastside where all the power was out. He went through an intersection where there was no light and someone plowed into him from the side. He’s got a broken leg but said he was all right otherwise. He said if he hadn’t broken his leg, he’d have gone to Belize after you himself.”
“Wait a minute. How did he know I was in Belize? Cinnamon?”
“Don’t ask me. I never said a word. I didn’t confirm your whereabouts either. I just said when you called in, you didn’t say where you were. I played dumb blonde. I think he liked it.”
“Oh, come on,” I said. “Jordan likes strong women with intelligence.”
“Like you, you mean,” Cinnamon said. “Don’t worry, Sugar. I learned my lessons in the Condo well. I’m smart enough to know when to be clever. That’s enough. Besides, I didn’t do anything. But if he asks me out, I might just say yes.”
“All right. Here’s an opportunity for you to talk to him again. Sometime after six-thirty tonight call him. In fact, make it after seven. Tell him you heard from me and I’m on my way to Croatia to visit angel. She’s in danger from the bad guys—or the bad girl. Most of the guys are old and slow and squeamish. All except the one who would have drowned me in the high seas. I’ll let him know when I get there.” I wanted Jordan as backup but I didn’t want to be followed without knowing who’s there.
“You got it. Anything else?”
“Yes. Call Teri and make sure she got home safely, please. She can tell you all about our big adventure in Belize.”
“She got to go with you? Deb-bie…” Cinnamon broke off quickly. “Oops. Sorry Sugar. You can spank me for that when you get home.” I swear she giggled.
Time to board.
Zagreb
At ten p.m. I was wide awake in a Zagreb hotel. There was nothing about it that made it different from any other hotel I’d ever seen. Except the ten-hour time change made my poor body think it was noon and time to get to work.
I called to check in with Cinnamon. She was glad to hear from me and her temperament was less volatile, though no less flirty.
“Hey, Sugar! It’s nice you called little old me again,” she said when she answered the phone.
“Hey yourself, Cinnamon. It’s good to hear the voice of home a little more often,” I answered. I did like talking to her.
“Aw. I’m home,” she sighed. “I like that. So, come home.”
“As soon as I can get this settled. I just don’t want to think Angel could be in danger because of me. Stupid disguises.”
“Did she kiss you, too?”
“No,” I chuckled. “I told her I was gay.”
“Would you make up your mind, girl? Straight girl, gay guy, straight girl in drag pretending to be a gay guy. Just finish and come home.”
“I’ll do that. Did you call Jordan?”
“Yes. He swore in my presence! Right there on the phone. I thought he had better breeding than that. You really made him mad.”
“At least he knows approximately where I am. I’ll text him with an exact location when I find it,” I said. Now that I was back in my own body, so to speak, I wasn’t nearly as cautious about letting Jordan know where I was.
“He said he’s sending someone after you as backup.”
“Who?”
“He just said you’d recognize him when you see him.”
“Great. Now who could that be?”
“I don’t know but he said he had to make calls and hung up on me. Should I call him back?”
“Don’t sound so hopeful,” I answered. “I’ll text him.”
“Did you really fall in a pool when you tried to escape the party?”
“I was pushed into the pool. By that Amazon warrior Brenda had watching over me. The bitch.”
“That dress! Teri told me it must have cost a fortune.”
“Too bad. The dress was the least of my worries. I left it on the boat where they took me.” I hesitated before I went on. “Look, Cinnamon. You know a lot of these guys, er… professionally. What do you think of Geoff Gilliam?”
“Mr. All-Talk-And-No-Action?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“All the girls know he talks macho and is ultra-rude talking about sex but when it comes down to it, not one girl reports having been touched by him. The girls figure he’s a closeted gay guy so we do our best to keep his reputation up. It’s a good thing he didn’t meet you in your Mr. J disguise. He’d have liked that.” She laughed and I had to join in. But that news just didn’t jive with what I’d experienced. I felt certain I’d have been dumped at sea if I hadn’t escaped.
“Did Teri say anything about him? Is he into hurting people?”
“Like I said, all talk and no action. Nobody has ever been hurt by him that we know. Of course, all the girls have their own limits and we don’t go around talking about the guys. It’s part of the code. But if any of them forced a girl to something she didn’t want, we’d all shut him down.”
“Okay. I’ll take you at your word but the guy really scares me.”
“So, where are you now? What can I do to help?”
“This is really dumb but I just remembered it. Did you find my car keys in the office?”
“Car keys? Other than the ones you gave me? There was a set on the floor in the front office come to think of it.”
“Good. I couldn’t remember where I dropped them. My car is in the Pike Place Garage. Could you go over and bail it out? I’ve got a parking spot at my apartment.” I gave her the directions and told her I’d wire money to her account if she’d give me the details. She just laughed.
“Sugar, I’ll turn in my expense report when you get home. Anybody who drives a ’94 Dodge probably has less money than I do. I’m not hurting as long as you come back.” I didn’t do anything to dissuade her of her opinion. I’d discovered Dag made sure I had enough to do my job.
“Oh, one more thing,” Cinnamon said. “Mr. Andersen came by this morning. He said he had the final papers for you to sign and something about expecting your thesis by the first. Ring a bell?” My thesis. Damn! I couldn’t remember doing any work on it at all since Dag died. Somehow it just hadn’t seemed important. Of course, the readers would want it at least a week before my jury the second week of January. I needed to wrap up this little adventure I was on and get home and to work. Life had to go on whether I was a detective or not. The other reasons Lars might have had to come to the office were things I didn’t want to think about.
“So, did you want to date Lars, too?” I asked. “I’m pretty sure he’s single.”
“We all have standards, Sugar,” she answered. “I’ll leave Lars to you while I handle Jordan.
“You’re an evil woman,” I said. She agreed and hung up.
By midnight I’d soaked in the tub and felt like I might be able to get some sleep. I need to drive about five hours. Here’s hoping I make it. I need more warm clothes. According to the GPS, I have to drive through some mountains in order to get to Split, about 250 miles from Zagreb.
’Night!
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