of Little Jack, which wasn’t all that hard to do even though they, too, were watching the doorway out of the corners of their eyes.
Seventeen minutes later, Maggie’s fourth Slamming Sally arrived just as Myra and Annie finished speculating about Little Jack’s bright blue eyes. The room darkened momentarily as a pudgy woman with three rolls of belly fat, wearing a tank top and carrying two shopping bags, huffed and puffed her way to a table near the far end of the bar. The three women smiled as one.
“Tissue paper in the shopping bags. She’s just a watcher. She won’t interact at all, unlike those two at the bar.”
“How do you know this?” Myra asked in a jittery-sounding voice. “What in the world is in those drinks you’re guzzling?”
“I’m a reporter. I have instincts. I’ve seen it all, Myra. It’s what I used to do and what I miss most in my life. I’ve seen this same stakeout scenario, in one form or another, at least a hundred times. We’re three for three. They don’t know if we’re going to split up or not. Whatever, they have us covered. Outside in the lobby, there are three more just like them. You can count on it. Here’s something else you can count on. None of them belong to any of the famous alphabet-soup groups here in the District and Virginia. All of them are on Global’s payroll. But to answer your question as to the contents of my drink, it’s a mixture of passion fruit, pear nectar, acai berry, mango, and orange juice. Guaranteed to give you strength, energy, and stamina. Not a drop of liquor.”
“How long are we going to sit here, Maggie?” Annie asked.
“We aren’t. We’re leaving as soon as I get the check. “This is the plan. I’m sure by now one of Global Securities’ agents hacked into the hotel’s computer, and they know exactly what rooms we’re in. So, why disappoint them? We’ll take the elevator, they’ll watch from the lobby to see what floor we get off on. You with me so far?” Both Myra and Annie nodded. “Okay, then we take the stairs to the other room I got for us, which is three floors down. Talk about silly stuff as we leave and while we wait for the elevator.”
Maggie signed the check, added a generous tip. Together, the three women left the Blue Duck Tavern without so much as a glance at any of the other patrons. Maggie stopped just long enough to pick up an envelope from the concierge before rejoining the women at the elevator.
“This whole thing is starting to make me nervous,” Myra said.
“Maybe you should go back to Charlie and the farm, Myra. Obviously, you aren’t cut out for this kind of work. I swear, I do think you’ve taken the shine right off your pearls with all that fingering you’ve been doing.”
“You need to stop worrying about my pearls, Ms. de Silva. Oh, and you aren’t nervous? All I said was, this is making me nervous. If you had a brain, you would be nervous, too, Annie. None of this is computing, and you damn well know it, and no, I do not want to go back to the farm and Charlie, and you better not ever call him that to his face. The only person he lets call him Charlie is Hank Jellicoe. Oh, God! No matter what we do or say, that man is involved in some way.”
The elevator swished open. The three women stepped in, along with two lanky teenage girls, who got off on the seventh floor. The elevator continued upward and stopped on the seventeenth floor, where they got off. They walked down to the nearest EXIT sign, and walked down three flights to the fourteenth floor. Minutes later they were in a two-bedroom corner suite complete with sitting room, with a view that Annie proclaimed to be crappy. In response to which Myra told her to suck it up and be quiet.
“This is the governor’s suite, but I don’t know of which state. What all that means, I have no idea. The fridge is stocked with alcohol and soft drinks and snacks. State-of-the-art TV, Internet, and wireless. All the comforts of home for the governor and his posse or, if it is South Carolina or New York, his mistress or high-priced escort. Or perhaps his wife and kiddies,” Maggie said with a bite in her tone.
“What do we do now?” Myra asked.
“You guys watch TV while I continue to text Ted. You can order room service if you want. You didn’t eat any of the picnic food. And, Annie, you might want to call that dealership to pick up your car. Or, better, have your banker do it. No sense giving our location away by calling from here.”
Annie was so outraged that someone had dared to put a GPS tracker on her car she was speechless.
“Get over it, Annie. We have more pressing problems right now,” Myra said.
“What was your first clue, Myra?” Annie snapped.
Chapter 5
Harry Wong stared down at the pot of steeping tea. He poured it into a fragile cup with no handles just as he heard a knock on the door at the back of the dojo. He frowned at the sound as he tried to decide whether he should go to the door or not. He couldn’t remember if the door was locked. Yoko had left a half hour earlier to do some grocery shopping. Did she lock the door? He simply didn’t know, so he set his cup of tea down on the small counter and walked toward the back door. His jaw dropped when he opened the door to see Maggie, Annie, and Myra smiling at him.
All three women rushed him, hugging him, to his dismay. Annie planted a kiss on his cheek, and gurgled, “Oh, Harry, it is soooo good to see you. I’ve never been here before, and neither has Myra. I hope we aren’t interrupting anything.”
Harry grinned. It was nice to see some of his favorite people again after such a long time. His brow furrowed when he saw Maggie put her finger to her lips and motion for Harry to join them outside. He complied because he didn’t know what else to do.
The women drew him down the narrow alley, all babbling at the same time. He did his best to make sense out of what they were saying but knew he was missing half of it. What he didn’t miss was the worry and fear in the women’s eyes. What the hell is going on, he wondered. “Whoa, slow down, ladies. One at a time. Should we wait for Yoko to get back from the market so we can both hear what you have to say instead of making you repeat whatever it is you are about to tell me?”
“Seems to me I remember a small picnic table around back. Can we go there?” Maggie asked. “How much longer do you think Yoko will be?”
“I’m surprised that she isn’t back by now. She just walked over to the Asian market with her string bag. She buys just for the day. You know, fresh fruits and vegetables. Unless she went to the fish market, which is only two doors away. Even so, she should be back momentarily.” Harry pointed to the left of the driveway and said, “It’s two blocks away.”
Harry bit down on his lip when Maggie said, “I’ll walk in that direction to meet her and fill her in while Myra and Annie fill you in.”
“What the hell is going on?” Harry asked as he led the way around to the back of the dojo.
“To be honest, Harry, we don’t know. Maggie seems to think everything is bugged, and there was definitely a GPS on the car I was test-driving. And someone has us under surveillance. We saw that with our own eyes. Ted and Joseph quit Global and are on their way back from Rome as we speak. They’re taking on their old positions at the paper,” Annie said.
“We’re so sorry we missed your wedding, Harry. We so wanted to be there, but no one knew…it was such a bad time for…oh, I don’t know,” Myra dithered as she fingered her pearls.
Harry figured it was time to say something, but he didn’t know what to say other than to repeat
