Invisible Ellen (26 page)

W
hen Ellen arrived extra-early at work on Saturday, she went to her locker, put on her smock and then went straight to the storage closet to get a cart. She took all of the supplies off its lower rack and added several of the extra-large black trash bags to her supplies on top. Then she headed out onto the floor.

The store was still in full swing, but this close to closing, people were moving quickly around the aisles to finish their shopping and get home. As they had arranged, Ellen went to the far end of the paper goods aisle, where she spotted Temerity and Justice. They had a cart with two items in it: a pack of diapers and a paper shredder, neither of which would be of any use to them, nor would they be purchased. Ellen angled the cart to block a small triangle of space next to the shelves in one of the camera's blind spots and handed one of the trash bags to Justice.

“Commencing operation lawn bag,” Justice said with a smirk. “In you go.” He opened the bag and helped Temerity step into it like a sack-race contestant while she stooped down behind the cart, then guided her onto the bottom of it. She lay down on her side in a ball and held the giant bag loosely gathered over her head.

“Remember,” Justice quoted the labeling, “this bag is not a toy.”

“Be back in a minute,” Ellen whispered, and she wheeled the cart, much more unruly with its added weight, through to the back. She deposited Temerity in an oversized broom closet, where she had turned two buckets upside down for seats in anticipation. As she closed the door, Temerity said, “Hey, it's dark in here.” Ellen automatically started to reach for the light before she heard Temerity giggle. She shushed her and shut the door.

As the process was repeated with Justice, the announcement was made to bring all purchases up front, as the store was closing in five minutes.

After depositing him with his sister, Ellen hurried back to the floor and began to empty the trash bins near one of the sample stations so she could keep an eye on the two security guards sweeping the store. One of them unzipped the tent in the camping display near the registers, looked in and then moved on. The only customers left were now in the checkout lanes. As soon as the guards had completed their check, she returned to the closet.

“Okay,” she said, pulling the door shut behind her and switching on the light, causing Justice to squint and cover his eyes. “Let's go. I've picked spots for you. Temerity, you'll be in a tent display between the cash registers and the office, where you can hear what's going on. Justice, you can actually go on top of the roof of the front office. It's like a block built into the corner next to the front door. Did you see it?”

“Reconnaissance complete.”

“Whatever that means.” Temerity snorted.

“It means I checked it out,” he said with a sniff of his own.

“Did you learn that from your G.I. Joe doll?”

“Action figure,” Justice snapped automatically, “and I wouldn't talk if—”

Ellen cut them off. “There's a ladder built into the wall on the back side. You'll have to be quiet so no one hears you up there, but it's the perfect place for you to be. None of the cleaners or the security will bother to look up there, and it will give you a perfect view of everything going on. You've got your cell phone?”

He held it up. Temerity displayed hers as well. “Okay. I'm going to be cleaning the camping display, so I'll be close to you both. We all know what to do?”

“Yes,” Justice said, licking his lips nervously. “It's the ‘why' that still evades me.”

“Shut up,” his sister hissed in the tight air of the closet. “We're catching bad guys.”

“I know that,” he snapped, then puffed his cheeks out and made a raspberry sound as he released the breath. “Sorry, I get sarcastic when I'm about to break the law. What's the most important thing to remember?” he asked.

“Never back into a radiator when your pants are down?” Temerity suggested.

“Nobody gets involved, do you hear me? All we do is wait, and the second it looks like something is going to go down, we call the police.”

Ellen took a deep breath. She nodded.

The relocation process was repeated. Ellen wheeled the cart into the corner behind the office and after a quick check around, she whispered, “Okay, now!” Justice fought his way out of the bag and went up the metal rungs fastened into the wall. The second he disappeared over the ledge, she went back for Temerity.

This was more excitement and exercise than Ellen usually had in
a week, and she was relieved that, though she was breathing hard and perspiring, she was not finding it overly taxing. Once Temerity was loaded, she pushed the cart to the camping display, where foldable chairs, a portable barbecue complete with accessories, coolers, fishing gear and a tent were all set up around a fake fire. The tent had two entrances, one of them facing the registers. Ellen pulled the cart right up to the other side of the tent and unzipped the door enough for the slim girl to get through, then she pretended to be dusting the equipment while Temerity slid, snakelike, through the opening. Ellen rezipped it, parked the cart along the side of the tent and pulled out a rag to wipe down the chairs just as the older security guard locked the sliding glass doors behind the last customer, then took up his next position, standing outside the office door to watch while the cashiers began to count out their registers. The junior guard retreated to his post on the loading docks for the evening deliveries.

The Boss was distinctly sweaty, Ellen thought as she watched him pace around the front, trying to appear busy. He continually passed the glass doors at the front and scanned the parking lot outside, as though expecting someone, and he checked his watch obsessively. Ellen frowned. This guy was a joke. Even if she hadn't overheard him plotting, she would have known he was up to something. For that matter, she thought, even Temerity would be able to see he was up to something.

Several of the cashiers were securing their bundles of various bills with rubber bands and recording their totals. The Boss went into the office, using the magnetic security card lent to him by Billy the sports fan, and came out with the empty cash bag. It was a simple thing, heavy cream canvas with a zippered top. He started with the register nearest the office, taking the cash and recording the amount onto a clipboard, waiting for the clerk to sign off for the
amounts. The security guard stayed a few feet behind him, looking bored but competent.

When the Boss reached the farthest register, the young checker was not ready yet. He apologized when the Boss clucked and shook his head, snapping at him to get a move on and glancing nervously to the door every time a car's headlights flashed past it in the dark parking lot.

Moving around the back of the tent, Ellen reviewed everyone's positions. Only the Boss, the slow checker, and the security guard were still milling around the front. The rest of the daytime employees had gone by now, disappearing to the locker room to collect their things and claim what was left of their Saturday night. Two cleaners were working down the first aisle near the pharmacy. Ellen recognized Rosa and Irena, but they were a good distance away. From where she stood, Ellen could barely make out the shape of Justice's head and shoulders where he was lying almost flat on the roof of the office, watching the Boss. It was reassuring to know he was there, cell phone in one hand at the ready.

It was quiet, everything was happening as it normally did, and Ellen was just beginning to wonder if the Boss had lost his nerve after all, when she saw it.

Through the front window, headlights were coming straight toward the doors. This in itself was not unusual, but in the darkness outside, Ellen could see that the lights were moving too fast and getting faster. She could hear the gunning of the car's engine as it grew close, neither turning nor slowing as it reached the end of the parking aisle. The lights glared brighter and hotter through the glass, and the car whipped into and through the cross lane that ran directly in front of the store. There was a grating scrape of metal on cement as the car's wheels bounced up over the curb. The security guard and
the clerk spun in unison toward the alarming sound, then instinctively shielded their faces with their arms as the car smashed right through the glass doors, dragging the metal frame for a few feet before the frame won, restraining the revving car. The car's single-wheel drive was still spinning the front left wheel, but the puny, bald tire was unable to grab enough traction to pull the car free from the metal net. A thin woman was slumped over the steering wheel.

Recovering from the initial shock, Ellen checked to see what was happening. Justice was already on the phone. He lowered it and gave her a quick thumbs-up. Then he crawled right to the edge of the office roof and crouched, watching what was happening below.

The Boss had started yelling, “Somebody help that woman!” He spun on the young clerk standing next to him with his mouth gaping open. “Call an ambulance! Is there a doctor anywhere?”

The clerk ran for the office. The security guard started cautiously toward the car because the engine was still emitting a furious whine and the spinning tire was producing a dark, acrid smoke. The metal strips holding the car in place could give at any second, releasing it straight into the registers.

The minute the guard's attention was distracted, the Boss stepped quickly over to the camping display and, opening a large cooler, he dropped in the cash bag and pulled out another, identical one, then moved quickly back to the fray, clutching the fake bag in his hand.

Meanwhile, people had begun to gather as though from nowhere. A few dozen customers had still been unloading their heavily laden carts into their cars, but most of them left their purchases to goggle at the accident. The employees still in the store had hurried back toward the front to see what the commotion was.

“Is there a doctor anywhere?” the Boss called out again. “This woman is injured!”

A man stepped forward from the group outside and made his way cautiously through the smashed doors. He was in dress slacks and a jacket, but his thick motorcycle boots crunched on the fractured glass.

Georgi.
Ellen felt her throat clench and glanced up to Justice. He looked over at her and she pointed and mouthed,
That's him
. Not understanding, Justice made a hopeless face, turning his hands up like he was holding an empty tray.

“I'm a doctor,” Georgi said. “Get back, I'll help her.” His Russian accent was thick enough that Ellen saw Justice register understanding. He dialed his phone again, and she saw him whispering furiously, passing on the information to the police.

Georgi opened the car door and looked in. “Her foot is jammed against the gas pedal,” he called out loudly, almost theatrically. He leaned down and, in a second, the engine stopped revving. Then he pretended to take the woman's pulse. As he put his fingers on her neck, the head jerked back and Ellen saw it was Loretta, her eyes open but rolling in their sockets to expose the whites, drool running in a thin line from one corner of her mouth.

Ellen shuddered. She did not have a second of doubt that even a drug addict like Loretta would not have done this of her own accord. But she didn't have the luxury to think that through right now. The guard had backed up next to the Boss to give the “doctor” room, and the Boss thrust the fake cash bag at him. “Put this in the safe!” he ordered. “I'll see if I can help them.” He gave the guard a shove and the man ran the few yards to the office door, opened it with his card and disappeared inside.

Ellen came around the tent and stood next to the cooler with the real cash bag in it, right in front of the tent. “They crashed a car through the front door,” she whispered to Temerity.

“You seriously needed to tell me that? Nobody's
that
blind,” Temerity hissed back.

“And he dropped the cash bag in the cooler right here.” Ellen thumped it with her heel so that Temerity could hear its location.

“I'll keep an eye on it,” Temerity said and sniggered.

The guard returned from the office and went to keep the employees who had come running and were standing gawking at the wreckage from getting too close. There was a good crowd of people outside by now, and a cluster of maybe twenty around the car inside.

Among them, Ellen saw Irena. She was staring at Georgi with fear and loathing, both so extreme she wondered that the two emotions didn't cancel each other out.

“She's only unconscious,” Georgi announced, straightening up. “Looks like a drug overdose.” He shook his head as though it were all too sad for words, then he spotted Irena. His mouth went to a thin, mean line and one eyebrow raised just enough to send a message. He went on with his no-doubt-rehearsed speech. “She must have had a seizure and pushed the accelerator. She needs an ambulance. No one try to move her, she's had trauma to her chest. I'm going to get my bag out of my car.” Ellen knew what that meant. He was leaving, and they would never find him. She felt a rising vexation, an anxious heat in her chest. Somehow she had to stop him.