1 Hot Scheming Mess (23 page)

Madison hurried down the restaurant aisle. She had a close call with a waiter carrying a large tray of lovely dinners.
The redhead at Choosy Chews.

She worked her way back to the kitchen. The memory of the sun hat returned to her.
The hospital. I was with Jason at the elevator.

The restaurant manager stepped up, saying, “Great job.” He was chuckling and offered to shake her hand. She smiled, shook his hand fast and fretful, saying she couldn’t have done it without his help and asked if there was a back door. She returned to the employee’s restroom and changed back into her little black dress, tearing off the wig, her dark silky hair spilling out. She stuffed everything into her tote bag, and grabbing her car keys, hurried out.

Her heart rate increased as she made her way toward the back door, smiling at some of the wait staff that passed by. She came up to the door and stopped.
What if she’s out there with Unibrow? What if they’re waiting at my car? I’m sure he’s pissed about that drill.
Then she remembered the fake handgun in her purse. She adjusted everything in her purse so that it would be easy to access if she reached in. She hoped pointing the prop would be a good enough threat. But she
really
hoped she wouldn’t need it at all.

She opened the door and looked around. No one in sight. As she trotted toward her car, the meaning of the articles, the references to KGB, and Grandpa’s comments about dangerous people came back to her mind. She regretted not paying more attention in school when they’d taught world history. Didn’t Russian spies used to be referred to as the KGB? If these really were old KGB agents, she knew she was hopelessly outclassed in the sneaking around department. She unlocked her car door without watching her own hands. Her eyes kept vigil on the parking lot, looking for any movement. Cars were pulling in, and what appeared to be normal people were climbing out and heading into the restaurant. A family with children were leaving the restaurant and getting back into their car, the parents fussing over seat belts. Madison ducked into her car and locked it. Her hands shook as she tried to stick the key into the ignition.
Calm down, idiot. The back door was a smart idea. Just drive away calmly, and try not to kill anyone.

She clicked her seat belt, and looked up into the rearview mirror. An old man with a salt and pepper unibrow was behind her car, rushing up to her side. She jumped, threw her car into gear and tried to go forward over the parking lot concrete brick in front of her car. The car felt like it was pausing, as the tires spun on the concrete brick, squealing out their protest, trying to find traction.

Unibrow stepped up to her driver’s side window and knocked, saying something she couldn’t hear. Her shaking hands grabbed the prop gun out of her purse and she raised it to the window so fast, it clicked hard against the glass.

She held a shaky but determined aim at him to show she meant business, and shouted, “Back off! I have a sexy gun!”

Whatever he was saying, he shut up hard when he saw that gun. He put his hands up and stepped backward. Madison noticed a bruise on the side of his head just as her tires caught traction. Her car leapt forward with a jerk, throwing Madison backward, causing her finger to pulse on the trigger. Huge relief hit her that it wasn’t a real gun, or she would have a hole in the roof of her car.

The back tires made a big thump-bump going over the concrete brick in succession. In her rearview mirror she saw the red headed woman run up to Unibrow. They seemed to be arguing, each with their hands in the air. She screeched out of the parking lot.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Knowing that she had left them on foot helped her to relax in the thought that they couldn’t be following her. She had torn down the street and hopped onto the freeway down by the stadium. She needed to get to Robot Moon Productions in Ballard, so she headed North into the U-District, got off the freeway at 45
th
, and headed west.

This was nuts. The thought that bad guys might hurt someone she loved gave her the heart of a lion. But the truth was she was a singing telegram, for crap sake, going up against cold war spies. Could this get any stupider? Where were the damn FBI guys from headquarters? They were supposed to be the rescuers, weren’t they? Is Grandpa at least on a flight heading home yet? Wait a minute. Would he be in more danger if he got back? Why did she have to figure everything out from scratch?

The big sign on the warehouse of Robot Moon Productions greeted her as she pulled in, her tires grinding little gravel pebbles around. The robot with his pants pulled down, exposing his shiny metal butt, used to lift Madison’s spirits with a smile or a giggle whenever she saw it. But right now the gloom over her head was coloring everything. She needed to figure out the rest of what was happening before either Grandpa or her mother, or someone else she loved, got hurt.
That’s right.
She sighed.
I love my mother.
She always had known she did. She had never denied it. She just hadn’t let herself say it or even think about it. Funny how something that she had tried to keep dormant, tried to keep asleep, could come roaring back under the right conditions. She may not get along with her mother, but she’d be damned if she let anyone hurt her.

She parked the car, pulled the key from the ignition, and the rest of her movements came to an abrupt halt. Her earlier thought about who her mother would have in her life to talk to upon hearing the news of having likely been an abandoned baby, made a full circle of logic. It would have to be Madison. This is what Ray meant when he said that Ann may not give Grandpa a fair chance to explain, but that Madison could help her.

Grandpa could tell Ann of course. But how could her mom say how she really felt about it in front of him? She would be thinking that if he and Grandma had come forward, maybe she would have been reunited with her mother.

Perfect Ann. She would also want to say all the right things to him about what a great father he was, and so on. Things that were true, but still not what Ann probably needed to face. She would need to face her anger at being abandoned. She would wonder why they didn’t want her. She would wonder what her life would have been like if they had kept her. She would be disappointed in her parents, wondering why Grandpa and Grandma chose to do it illegally.

I’m no shrink. I’m not prepared for any of this. What am I going to say to her?

For that matter, Madison had to admit to her own uncomfortable feelings toward her grandfather now. He and Grandma had kept someone else’s baby. How could they live with themselves knowing that they hadn’t turned the baby in and let the authorities at least try to put the baby with extended relatives of the mother? And how did they get their hands on a fake birth certificate? Ann, the FBI agent, would have a field day with that one.

She got out of the car and went inside the warehouse. Target was not at her desk. “Hello?” Madison called out. “Target?”

Madison could hear some hammering going on down at the other end of the giant barn. Target’s voice called out, “Just a minute. Be right with you.” Madison headed over in the direction of the voice. Target was working on a broken table, hammering some extra support braces underneath it. “Hey, Target.”

“Hey,” Target said, looking back at Madison in her little black dress. “Dressing up is getting to be a habit with you. You’re starting to class up the joint. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I thought I’d come pick up that envelope. The one that I left in the old Victorian grandfather clock yesterday.”

Target looked up at her and said, “Your boyfriend already came and got it. And let me tell you, he is one hot aebleskiver!”

“What?!”

“Aebleskiver. It’s this awesome Danish pastry that my grandmother used to make for—”

“What do you mean you gave it to my boyfriend? Who was he?”

“Xander Boyd. He said he was the one you were reserving it for.”

“ExBoy?” she exclaimed. Madison stared at her, trying to comprehend what had happened. Target started to stare back, then said, “Uh… I take it he’s not your boyfriend, then?”

“Not exactly. No,” said Madison.

Target shook her head. “This is terrible. Oh, my gosh. You mean to tell me that you’re not getting a piece of that? That guy is so hot that—”

“Target! He took it? Really?”

“Well, yeah. When you put the envelope in the clock, you said, ‘as soon as he gets here he’ll take it off your hands.’ Then Xander said you were holding that prop for him.”

“He’s not the one I was referring to. And I don’t know how he even knew about that paperwork.”

“Well actually…” Target pushed her bangs back off of her forehead. “Now that I think about it, he never said anything about the paperwork. It was the tag hanging off of the clock that grabbed him.”

Madison held her head as it dawned on her. “Last night I told him my life was a mess,” she groaned. “Hot and scheming.” She grimaced and pounded her fists off the top of her head a few times.

Target added, “It was this morning. He was looking for more props for the zombie convention tomorrow. He said that was the main piece he had come to collect, and that he was your boyfriend.”

“Oh, really.” Madison kept nodding her head. “I’m going to kill him.”

“Well, yeah, you should,” said Target. “If he’s going to go making claims like that and isn’t putting out, I mean that’s just not right.”

“Where did he take it? Did he tell you?”

“He loaded it onto a small truck. He was heading straight to the hotel. He has a room and everything. Guy has money, you know. Probably going to throw a big zombie party or something.”

“No, I didn’t know.”

“Oh, yeah. His whole family is old money.”

“What hotel is it?” said Madison.

“Hilton,” said Target. “Hope they’re ready for the mess because every costume store in the area has had a run on fake blood in their makeup departments. Those zombie fans love to pour it on.”

“If he doesn’t give me that paperwork, his blood won’t be fake.”

*****

The Seattle Library was flooded with diffused light. She was too early and sat playing with her car keys. A few people looked her way at the sound of her keys jangling together so she put them away. Everyone looked so smart. Her mother would fit right in here. It was odd knowing that her mother was just two blocks away in the FBI building, probably working in her office.

She looked around the room, searching for red hair or old men. How long would she have to live like this? The woman that had been following her was scary enough, but Unibrow McBruise-Head terrified her. She liked him better when he was Mr. Duct Tape because he couldn’t hurt anyone. In addition to being a threat to her grandfather, he might be wanting a little payback for hitting him with the drill. If she were smart she would find a good place to hide till the damn cavalry did their job. Why wouldn’t the DC guys at least call her? For that matter, why didn’t Grandpa?

She thumped the table leg with her foot, and found a good rhythm. This was a first. Madison had never met with Jerry before. In her childhood, he was the very image of an important adult. At first he was Mommy’s nice friend, then Madison came to understand that he was what other adults referred to as a white collar worker, whereas her grandfather was blue collar. Jerry was always dressed in suits and ties and had an air of class, albeit in a law enforcement sort of way. Most people had a tendency to speak in either harsh terms or hushed excitement when referring to the police or FBI agents. But Jerry’s occasional presence in her childhood home usually meant the grownups were going to have to talk about boring things. Things like how smart and exceptional her mother was. As time went by and Madison’s relationship with Ann became more strained, Jerry’s conversation became harder to take. But oddly, her grandparents never complained about his conversation after he left. No, they would complain about how nosey he was. And Grandpa would instruct her about what not to say when Jerry was around.

Sitting here in the huge, light-filled room of the Seattle Library, she wondered what on earth Jerry had been referring to when he said he was worried about Ann and that he wanted to help her before he left his post as the SAC. As the Special Agent in Charge, he was the head of the entire Seattle Field Division of the FBI.
So help her already. I have enough worries about how to help my mother cope with the hard news she’ll be getting without getting involved in her job performance issues.

She saw Jerry approaching with his amiable smile. Oddly, Aaron Reed was not too far behind him and took up a post about halfway across the large room. His expression when he looked at Madison was nothing like the warmth and friendliness of yesterday. It was not unfriendly, exactly, but there was a sober quality to his face, maybe a touch sad. But his eyes were all business. He looked away and seemed to be standing guard.

“Madison, my dear.” Madison stood up, and Jerry took both her hands into his, holding them in a princely way. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with me. Agent Reed will make sure no one overhears our conversation.”

Madison tried to smile back. “You’re welcome. But,” she looked over at Aaron, “what’s the big deal?”

Jerry seated them both down at a table. He took Madison’s hands again from across the table, looking down. A few seconds went by. Madison slowly pulled her hands away and folded her arms. “Jerry, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”

“There’s no easy way to put this. I believe your mother is being compromised. In an effort to protect the people she loves, she is, well… I know she is a quality person, a quality agent but…” he paused, “I believe she is confused about her loyalties, and I want to help her before it gets out.”

Madison blinked and repeated after him, “Her loyalties.” She waited for further explanation, then said, “I don’t get it.” She looked back at Aaron, but he avoided her eyes. She started, “My mother has always been perfect. What do you mean ‘confused about her loyalties’?”

Jerry pulled out a cell phone and punched some buttons. He set it down on the tabletop between them and turned it to face Madison. It showed a picture of Ann with Unibrow on a crowded street.