Iced Tea Page 15

  AJ and Jessie came out of the men’s room and gave us a subtle headshake. Teagan walked over to talk to Jessie, and left me alone with our quasi-informant, who whispered loudly, “Now that is one pretty girl. How do you know her?”

  “She’s my sister.”

  “No kidding? Your mother must have had a little something going on on the side.” She winked at me and walked away.

  I didn’t have time to be insulted. Or to trip her. Teagan was back with key in hand.

  “You know, I’m betting that this place is vacant a lot. He could probably have gotten in the lady’s room without much trouble.”

  “Teagan, this is stupid. Women use more TP then men do. If he hid anything in there, it’s long since gone. Let’s just admit that this was all a wild goose chase and go.”

  “We’re here, it doesn’t hurt to go look.”

  “Fine.”

  “Oh, I get it, you don’t want to go into a public restroom, all those germs.”

  “I’m not a germaphobe, germs don’t scare me at all, I just like my house, the place where I live, clean. I’m not a freak, and you guys are beginning to piss me off.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Can we just do this?”

  “Sure.”

  We walked into the lady’s room, which was actually very nice. There were two stalls, one for the physically challenged, one not. Teagan went into the first stall, played with the TP holder, nothing.

  I tried hard not to smirk.

  Smirking is not nice.

  It is also hazardous to your health when Teagan is in a mood, and she was working her way into one.

  She went into the second stall, fooled around with the holder, I thought I heard her closing it back up, when I heard a noise come out of my sister that was somewhere between pure, well, I’m not sure what the sound was, but I am now convinced that Teagan is a screamer. Eww.

  AJ and Jessie came flying in the room as Teagan came out of the stall with something in her hand.

  “Look what I found.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s a memory card.”

  “That has got to be Louis’s. Who else would stick a memory card in a TP holder.”

  “It wasn’t really in the holder, it was between the stall wall and the holder. I didn’t see it at first, but when Cara was smirking at me, I put my head down to take a breath, so that I could maintain my composure, and I saw something not quite right. I used a nail file and wedged it in there, and the thing fell out. There might be more of them. We need to take the TP holders off the wall.”

  “Or not. You know, this is where the bad guys always come in with guns and start shooting the place up. We need to put that thing back and call someone.”

  “Who do we call? We don’t know what’s on there. It could be anything from porn to solving the serial murders he was working on, to proof of alien abductions.”

  “Well, I know I’m not giving it to Officer Jerkface.”

  “What do you want to do?”

  “I think that we have to find the other ones, if there are any other ones, and then we have to figure out who we turn them over to, and we do that as soon as humanly possible.”

  Jessie said, “I’ve got tools in my car. I’m going to calmly run out and get them, AJ, stay here with the girls. Somebody pull out your phone and dial 911 and keep your finger over send. Just in case. I’ll be right back.”

  Teagan did as instructed.

  At some point, probably minutes, seemed like hours, Jessie came back with tools, we checked the TP holders and the paper towel holders and came up with a total of 8 memory cards. That is a whole lot of memory.

  We each took two, and headed back to the condo to lock up and leave.

  We met back at my apartment and came up with a plan.

  Well, the beginning of a plan.

  Each of us would get into our own car. We would each have two of the memory cards. We would take different routes. We would meet in Old Town at AJs photography studio, he has a huge safe for housing his equipment and we could stuff the memory cards in there.

  Unless someone knew we had the cards, and were personal friends with a talented safe cracker, the memory cards should be safe until we figure out what to do with them.

  The guys wanted to load the memory cards onto the computer and see what was on them.

  Teagan was adamant that we not do that, because, for the moment, we had plausible deniability. We might be in trouble for taking them out of that bathroom, but we couldn’t get in trouble for whatever was on them, because we didn’t know, and in this case, what we didn’t know, might keep us healthier.

  I’m not sure that it’s a legal defense, but, if not, we could use stupidity as a defense. I am well aware that ignorance is no defense, or at least it never used to be, but I think once the whole Twinkie defense got into the courts, stupidity might qualify.

  After we’d locked the memory cards in AJs safe, we went across the street to the diner, where I had fries and a Coke, my comfort food, AJ and Jessie had a slice of pie, and Teagan ate everything else in the place. Well, maybe not everything, but when she is stressed, Teagan eats, and Teagan was very stressed.

  After about an hour, we rolled Teagan toward the public parking lot, promised to meet for breakfast in the morning to figure out our next move.

  When AJ and I got home, there was a note on the door from my neighbor. WE NEED TO TALK.

  I made some noise by my front door, figuring that if he wanted to talk tonight, he’d hear us, and come out. He didn’t. AJ tucked me into the house and went out looking for his car. Didn’t find it. I racked my brain trying to remember if it was his bowling night, but couldn’t remember.

  Seems I’m getting more and more self-involved.

  I didn’t even remember to call my sister to see if she needs help painting. I’m becoming my worst nightmare. One of those women that get involved with a guy and forget everybody else.

  AJ saw the look on my face and asked if I was okay.

  I explained.

  He pointed out that I wasn’t being self-involved, I was trying to solve a problem that threatened my family, and that it wasn’t because he had walked into the picture, it was because I had this whole is it a murder, is it not a murder, dealing with whackos thing going on in my life.

  I felt better.

  After we danced in the kitchen, and had a cup of tea, and danced some more and went to bed and talked and snuggled and talked some more, I felt even better.

  In the morning, AJ was in a very good mood. I joined him.

  We rushed through our showers and getting presentable, and met Jessie and Teagan at the appointed time.

  “I know we said we weren’t going to talk about it until we met up this morning, but Jessie and I talked about it last night, and we think we should go to the chief of police.”

  AJ smiled. “What if Louis was investigating the whole police department. The chief is in charge of all of it. Wouldn’t it be better to call the FBI or the State Attorney General or somebody?”

  I huffed, “You guys, we don’t even know if those memory cards are Louis’s. If we call in the FBI, and they are something completely innocuous, we look like idiots.”

  Teagan leaned forward, “Better to look like a healthy idiot, then one of those girls in Louis’s journals, with her legs all akimbo.”

  “Good point, but Teagan, we don’t know that one has anything to do with the other.”

  Jessie piped in, “Cara, I don’t mean to stomp on your theory, but why would someone hide something innocuous in the bathroom stall of the condo clubhouse?”

  “Okay, maybe not completely innocuous.”

  Teagan rolled her eyes, “I’ll bet you guys just used the word innocuous more times than it has been used this century, but Jessie is right, if whatever is on those memory cards is harmless, then why hide them?”

  “Maybe it belongs to someone else in the complex. Maybe it’s just geezer porn.”

  Jessie grabb
ed a napkin, “Jesus Cara, not this early in the morning!”

  “Sorry. You have to admit, when you and Teagan were running around together back in your formative years, you would have considered what you are doing now as geezer porn.”

  I thought Teagan’s head would explode.

  “Hey, you’re the one that showed me the whole mirror thing.”

  Jessie looked confused and just suspicious enough not to even ask what we were talking about. He has years of experience with Teagan and her weird insights, some of which are better not discussed at a table, with mixed company, in public.

  “If it’s geezer porn, and can I just say, eww, why did Louis have the key hidden in his house?”

  “True. Geezer porn is a bad thing, but not worth hiding the key.”

  “And why would Officer Jerkface be after geezer porn.”

  “True.”

  “And if Officer Jerkface is after something, his supervisor must be in on it, because he came to Mom and Dad’s the night that Jerkface tried to run you over, and there didn’t seem to be any ramifications.”

  “True.”

  “So if a supervisor is in on it, we don’t know just how high this thing goes up the chain of command, and we can’t count on the cops to help us.”

  “What about your brother?”

  “Oh, hell no. We aren’t getting him in the middle of this. If there’s any way to keep the O’Flynn name out of it completely, we should do that. I’m going to have dinner with a guy tonight who knows the chief, and he used to be some kind of spy or something, and I’m gonna pray that he can help me figure out what to do next.”

  “I think that you should call the FBI right now. This is nothing to fool around with Cara. If we look like idiots, I’m okay with that, as long as you guys are safe.”

  “I can’t get my name in this. If it turns out to be geezer love, I am not going to put my brother in the position of being the brother of the sister that tried to bring down the whole police department with some photos of 100 year old pervs going for the money shot.”

  “Oh Lord Cara, did you really have to say that?”

  “Sorry.”

  “So, what’s the plan?”

  “I’m going to meet my neighbor tonight. If he can’t think of a better plan, then tomorrow morning, bright and early, I will go to the FBI, or the CIA, or whoever. I just want to give it one more shot before I put myself out there.”

  “Okay, but you aren’t going to the FBI alone. I’ll go with you.”

  AJ said he would go too, and after a moment of hesitation, Jessie volunteered as well, although it was obvious his heart wasn’t in it. I’m sure he’ll be explaining that to Teagan later.

  “No, Cara and I will go alone. There’s a much better chance that some big strapping FBI guy will want to save two girls.”

  “Teagan, I know you are all about the femme fatale thing, far be it from me to try to dissuade you, but chances are equally good that we will run into a female agent, or whatever they call them.”

  “That’s fine, then we can chat about all things glamour, or sensible shoes, or whatever. All I know is that you’re not going alone. Don’t even try, or I’m calling Mom.”

  “Don’t pull the Mom card.”

  “Don’t make me pull the Mom card.”

  AJ and Jessie looked so stunned at the exchange all we could do was laugh. We really do sound like idiots sometimes.

  AJ and Jessie did the guy thing, and argued over the check. Teagan did the Teagan thing, walked up to the server and paid before they could stop her, I left the tip, and off we went, each headed in a different direction.

  AJ went to take pictures of some gorgeous woman that would probably fall instantly in love with him and wish me dead.

  Teagan headed for her office to sort out the latest things her boss had promised that they couldn’t possibly deliver. She would charm the clients into wanting what they could deliver, and be thrilled with it.

  Jessie took off to do whatever it is that Jessie does. I keep meaning to ask Teagan what that is, but I never remember.

  I went home.

  I’m actually getting tired of not having a job. I like the freedom of not having a job, but I hate the boredom of it.

  I was home for about ten minutes when the phone rang.

  “Hi beautiful, do you have plans for today?”

  “Not really. What’s up?”

  “I got to work and the woman that was supposed to assist here today isn’t going to be able to make it. Jovana has used her for a long time, but she seems to be skipping out on us a lot lately. We probably need to hire someone else, but it’s a loyalty thing for Jovana, and she wants to give her a little more time to get back in the swing of things. Would you be willing to help out?”

  “I can do that. I don’t know anything about photography, but I follow direction well.”

  “Perfect. See you in a little bit.”

  “Am I supposed to be all dressed up like a professional person?”

  “The perv side of me wants to say yes, but really, you need to be comfortable, you never know what you’ll be doing. Besides, you always look great.”

  “I love it when you lie to me like that.”

  I hung up while he chuckled.

  I ran into my closet, to the section of ‘Teagan forced me’ clothes, put on a pair of dark rinse skinny jeans, a long olive green spaghetti strap tank, a boyfriend blazer thing, with three-quarter length sleeves, and heels that are high enough that my legs are going to kill me tomorrow, but not so high that I am likely to fall and break my neck. Some hoop earrings, a necklace that my sister Sinead gave me for my birthday, a red clutch purse, and I was out the door.

  It kind of shook my confidence that I couldn’t drive in my heels, but I figured, that it was better to drive safely than look chic doing it, so I took off my right shoe, put it on the seat beside me, and drove the side streets to Old Town.

  I pulled into the public parking lot, took the little ticket thingy and shoved it in my visor, which you’re never supposed to do, because if someone steals your car, they have the ticket to get out of the parking lot, but the people that build cars put a special little thingy there to hold the ticket, so I use it. Chances of my car getting stolen, slim. Chances of me losing the parking ticket and having to pay for 24 hours of parking, pretty good.

  I pulled into a spot about four cars down from AJs spot, opened the door, put my feet down and stepped in something really disgusting with my bare foot. I don’t know what it was, and I don’t want to know.

  When dressing, I figured my heels were high enough to be interesting, but not high enough to kill me, but I didn’t plan on hopping to the back of my car to get something out of the trunk to wipe something really disgusting off the bottom of my foot.

  I am proud to state that I hopped from the driver’s door, to the back of the car, without damage to myself or to my car. I opened the trunk with the key; thank God I had the keys in my hand and didn’t have to hop back up to the front to pop the thingy. I carry all kinds of interesting stuff in my car, and one of the things I use the most is baby wipes.

  I pulled a bunch out of the little travel container, wiped the revolting yuck off the bottom of my foot. Flung my foot around for a minute to let it dry, hopped back to the front of the car, put my shoe on, grabbed my purse, made sure I still had my keys in my hand, closed the door, and the trunk, locked everything up, and ran for the photography studio.

  AJ was in the actual studio section, trying to figure out how he was going to set up an image he was taking later that day.

  I always thought that photographers just pointed a camera toward something, clicked the button, and were done. Turns out there's a bit more to it than that.

  The really famous photographers have assistants to do everything but click the button. AJ isn’t there, yet. He has to do everything himself. Market his work, do the work, document the work, do all the office stuff. It’s a shame, because he really does the click part well. Ma
ybe some day.

  He smiled at me. “Wow, you look great.”

  “Thanks.”

  “That is your definition of comfortable?”

  “At home, no. Here, yes.”

  “I know what you’re comfortable in at home, I love it, but here, you might need to run up and down the stairs, or climb a ladder, or whatever. You are going to kill yourself in those heels.”

  “You’re just jealous because I’m taller than you are.”

  “You are not.”

  “I’m close.”

  “Close only counts in horseshoes. Gee, my grandma would be proud. She says that all the time. You ready to get started?”

  “I am. What would you like me to do?”

  “Well, there are a bunch of things that have to be done. You can decide what works for you. Jovana is at the bar. She rented out one of the conference areas today. There’s some company in town that wants all kinds of shots. They want some of employees. They want some of their products. They want some for brochures. It’s a good opportunity for her, and she might need a go-fer.”

  “Okay. That would be fun. Anything I can do for you?”

  “Right now, I just need to figure out what I’m gonna do for a group shot coming in this afternoon. Why don’t you run down to the bar, see if Jovana needs help, she always keeps her phone turned off when she’s working, if she needs you, stay there, if she doesn’t, come back here and help me.”

  “Done.” I turned on my heel and headed out the door. I was about half way to the bar, when it became very clear that sky-high heels and I don’t get along. Crap. It’s going to be a long day.

  I walked in the bar and was immediately greeted by Jovana’s husband.

  “AJ sent me to see if I can help Jovana.”

  “Go back outside, go in the ballroom entrance. Stay downstairs. Go back toward the elevator, make a left, follow the voices.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Cara, Jovana is a very different person when she’s working. Don’t let her put you off.”

  “Thanks. I’m sure it won’t be a problem.”

  I followed the directions I was given and followed the voices down the hall. Jovana was a study in concentration. She was wearing all black. She didn’t waste a single movement. I waited silently until she turned.