shopping bag. I shouldn’t be more than an hour or so. You can bring each other up to date while I’m gone.”
“How wonderful! I so love slinky dresses. Just put it on your expense account, dear,” Annie said generously.
“I’m not into slinky, Annie, and thank you for the offer, but I really just need the shopping bag. See ya. But if the dress comes with the deal, who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth.”
Jittery small talk followed before Yoko excused herself to take her groceries inside. Everyone looked down at their watches. Yoko was back in less than ten minutes carrying a tray with a teapot, cups, and a plate of honey-rice cakes. The women all started to babble at once as they tried to figure out where and what Maggie was up to other than buying a dress she didn’t want.
In the cab she was fortunate to hail almost in front of Harry’s dojo, Maggie leaned back in the seat to scan the latest text from Ted, who said he would arrive Stateside no later than 8:00 P.M. She scrolled till she found the previous message, the message that had her in this cab at this precise moment. And to think she was going to get a slinky dress out of the deal, compliments of the Post. She had no idea where or when she would have an occasion to wear said slinky dress. And at this precise moment, she couldn’t care less.
Maggie closed her eyes as she tried to figure out where all of this was going. She was almost giddy with the thought that in less than ten hours, give or take a few, she would be talking to Ted and Espinosa. She just wasn’t sure if that would be before or after a round of lovemaking. Right now, though, lovemaking was coming in second to the weirdness that was going on in all their lives.
She was back in the game. She could feel it in every bone in her body. She knew in her gut that the others felt the same way. Yoko had come alive inside the fish market the moment she’d voiced her suspicions about what was going on. By the time they reached the alley of the dojo, her eyes were sparkling like diamonds.
The only thing throwing her off at the moment was Yoko’s question, which she couldn’t answer. “Maggie, do you think it’s possible something happened to Hank Jellicoe?” Considering his profession, all that the man was involved in, Yoko’s question did bear thinking about. And it was a question that she, as a reporter, should have asked herself early on. With all Jellicoe’s personal security, his savvy, his knowledge, he wouldn’t have been dumb enough to allow himself to be compromised in any way. Then there was his engagement to the president, which was either on or off.
Maggie sighed as the cab slid to the curb. She paid the driver and barreled out. As she stuffed her wallet back into her bag, she also managed to scan the area where the cab had stopped. There were cars everywhere. There were people everywhere. She tried to focus and remember exactly what she was seeing before she headed inside to the escalator that would take her up to Neiman Marcus.
On the ride up the escalator, Maggie did her best to act nonchalant as she looked around as if she didn’t have a thing on her mind except shopping. The minute she stepped off the escalator, she headed straight for what she called the Designer Duds Department, where she went through the racks at the speed of light until a matronly woman came up to her with several dresses on her arm.
“I was just about to put these out. They just came in. This one,” she said, holding up a slithery black number that Maggie knew had her name on it. Ted would go wild if he ever saw her in anything like that, she thought. She murmured something as the woman led her to a dressing room, where Maggie fiddled and diddled around just long enough for it to appear that she’d tried on the dress and admired herself in it.
Back outside at the cashier’s station, the woman made a production of asking if she wanted a garment bag or a shopping bag. Maggie opted for the shopping bag since the dress was so soft and crushable. “Just wrap it in tissue paper.” She whipped out her credit card, watched it being scanned, and gulped at the amount the dress cost.
Five minutes later, she was tripping her way back toward the escalator, carrying her gaily colored shopping bag, which seemed suspiciously heavy. She wondered if anyone would notice. She fixed a happy-go-lucky smile on her face as she swung the bag back and forth like she didn’t have a care in the world. She just knew she had outfoxed all those unseen eyes that were watching her.
Thirty-five minutes later, Maggie was back at the dojo and sitting at the picnic table with the others. “What we have here, ladies and gentleman, are burn phones. We each get one. I guess Ted knows someone who got these, had them programmed, and they are untraceable. So he says. Now, let’s test them out by calling Bert, Kathryn, Nikki, and Jack and see what, if anything, comes out of the calls. While you all do that, I am going to call Lizzie on mine and ask her to find a reason to go to the White House. I want the skinny on that damn engagement. Who better to worm it out of the president than Lizzie?”
“Good thinking, dear. I think once we know what that particular situation is, we might be able to figure things out, or at least get a lead on which direction we should go,” Myra said. Maggie did not fail to see the glint in Myra’s eyes. Myra was her old self, and Annie…Annie was about to go up in smoke any moment with all the excitement going on around her.
Life was suddenly taking a turn upward. Yessireee.
Chapter 6
“I don’t know about you, Myra, but I think this table looks particularly festive,” Annie said as she placed gardenia-scented candles around the table. “But you know what I think is best?” Not waiting for a reply, she continued, “Little Lady and her pups getting underfoot and wanting us to play with them. It’s like this old farmhouse has come alive again. A family, Myra. I can’t wait for the gang to get here. I did so hope Lizzie would be able to make it, but she said Little Jack has an upper respiratory infection. Baby comes first, so we will just have to settle for the video conference after dinner.”
Myra’s eyes started to mist as she bent down to pick up one of the pups, which was clawing at her shoe. “There is nothing sweeter in this whole wide world than a new baby and a new pup. Absolutely nothing.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Annie said as she, too, picked up a pup to cuddle. “We’re going to have to name these little guys pretty soon. We can’t keep calling them One, Two, Three, and Four. Don’t say A, B, C, and D.”
Myra laughed. “Maybe our guests will have some ideas for names. I’m so excited that they’re all coming for dinner. It’s almost like old times, isn’t it, Annie?”
“Almost. It’s been three days since we came back from town. There is still no word from the others. Joseph called to say that Alexis was on her way home with Grady last night, so she’ll be here for dinner. Did you notice I set the extra place?”
“Annie, I was there. I heard the conversation on the speakerphone. It’s all so wonderful. I hope Little Lady and Grady get along together.”
“I’m sure they will, and I do think I hear a car. In fact, I think Little Lady hears it, too. The hair on the scruff of her neck is on end. I’m so glad you got this dog, Myra. I just love this hustle and bustle and the fact that we’re all going to be together again. Well, five of our crew are missing, six if you count Stu Franklin, seven if we count Fish, which I am not inclined to do, but for the most part, we’re all here. I’m excited, aren’t you, Myra?”
“I am, more than you will ever know.”
Within minutes it was like old times as all of Charles’s chicks bounded into the kitchen. On cue, they ooohed and aaahed over the delicious aromas wafting about. They hugged Charles, smooched him on the cheek, then they all settled down
